Oddbean new post about | logout
 I want to believe there is a way to end poverty for everyone in some stroke of humanity, Some great show of compassion that the world unites around, And somehow we defeat the protected class. 

The more I take this idea and see it in my everyday life through the lense of Bitcoin, The more I realize the wealth and inequality gap is filled by, And only crossed by access to bitcoin, And knowledge about the network. 

Most people come to bitcoin not because of some inherent intelligence they are born with,  Not some genius moment of inspiration, Not by their own intellect. People come to bitcoin begging and pleading for their suffering to end, In some desperate search for meaning when they have realized everything they have tried has chewed them up and spit them out. When every vector of upward social mobility has rejected them and they have nothing left. 

Taylor Swift is not buying bitcoin, Taylor Swift is happy in her delusion, And the protected class is happy to keep her there. The people who have the means to fulfill their desire will continue to prove indifferent to the people who need help most, And Bitcoiners can only change the world, Use case by use case. Bitcoin trains you to enter the world of global financial resources with an independent mindset, Where you only need a computer and a pass phrase to access your money once every ten minutes and after six confirmations. 

Bitcoin proves the way to change the world is to change yourself. But that is insular to the people who never had the chance to develop wasteful habits with inflationary currencies. People who can not understand currency devaluation can not understand the need for personal sovereignty. Some people do still live quite happily on the resources provided to them by nature.