If you wanted to learn about Bitcoin from the guy who has read more about it than anybody else, you know, well, you've come to the right place. This is a guys take episode. Nick Carter's article a a most peaceful Revolution that we covered a day or two ago really put into words a lot of things that Like I knew like some of the things that like dealt really fundamental. It's one of those things where when you hear it said in a certain way, you're like Ah, that's what was you know hanging on the end of my tongue that I couldn't quite get out and this the article was just full of so many of those little moments for me. But like it really sets a really important question is what exactly makes Bitcoin a revolution and he goes through such a powerful. Position of of why it is and it is this is not just a technological Revolution. It is to some degree a it's a technological invention, but it is a technology that enables a political and social Revolution and that's what we are going to talk about today. This is the crypto economy with guy Swan. Welcome back to the show. I'm going to call this a guys take episode even though it's technically the commentary of Of a most peaceful Revolution, but I'm going to be going off the rails here quite a bit. I think so, it's just in I will be responding to a lot and we'll be letting Nick Carter lead us through this discussion, but there's so much I want to hit here that I just think is incredibly important and just a really fascinating concept to explore. So that's what we're going to do. So when we say Bitcoin is a revolution and it's a political and social one when it is a Clearly technological it's clearly a piece of technology. What is what is Nick mean by this? What is what does that mean? So I think the first place to look is just the history of Bitcoin like the 20 years leading up it will really the 40 or 50 years arguably. If you go back to if you take kind of the origins that the iterative capital thesis does which is a four-hour piece of absolute magic if you have not listened to that one yet. Yet or read that one. Definitely definitely go back. I'll make sure to put in the show notes the link to the iterative capital thesis. It's such a great thing and it's just all about what's driving the cryptocurrency phenomenon and it really starts with the the absolute underbelly of the very beginnings of the open source movement and the dichotomy between the sort of corporate structure and the engineering like let's solve this the problem as quickly as possible. Like incentive and how those diverged during the proliferation of these new systems and sorts of organization throughout our society and that essentially we are moving into a post corporate world and the open source and all of these major dwelt really the cyberspace environment and the idea of the internet is an extension of that. We are becoming more and and more decentralized and less centered around a specific hierarchical structure and figuring out how to organize better using those means using those sorts of interactions between people is just it just absolutely fascinating concept and such a good piece really foundational to this whole concept. But you go back and you look at this history this started with the cypherpunks and like if you go back there's the cypherpunk manifesto. In fact, we did that we covered that on episode 163 or quick read 163 on an absolute brilliant one ends. And then you've got the crypto are crypto and orcas Manifesto who is by Timothy May the veritable cypherpunk Godfather decipher. Punks Manifesto was done by Eric Hughes. Yes are cues. Um, but I got a quote from the manifesto the the cypherpunk manifesto is says quote. We cannot expect governments corporations or other large faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence. It is to their advantage to speak of us and we should expect that they will speak to try to prevent their speeches to fight against the realities of information information. Does not just want to be free it longs to be free and he's he's setting up this dichotomy that this is an ant this is a extra governmental extra corporate Independence that we are trying to set up and that's actually where we got the term cypherpunks write code on and that was a Manifesto about we are going to get back our privacy and our independence in exchanging information and exchanging even exchanging value. She alludes to but the crypto Anarchist Manifesto another cypherpunk Timothy May basically extended the same idea. And this was written back in 1988. I can't remember when the cypherpunk manifesto was written. But if you listen to the episode, I know I go through it, but this is from the crypto Anarchist Manifesto in night. Again, 1988 quote just as the technology of printing altered and reduced the power of medieval guilds and Social Power structure, so too will cryptologic methods fundamentally alter the nature of Corporations and of government interference in economic transactions and even talks about how like you'll be able to write have contracts and exchange with people who you do not know. You don't know their name. You don't know how trustworthy they are trustworthy they are because you'll be able to trust the contract. There's so much. Prescience in kind of the systems that will arise from this technology and here all they really have to go from is public/private key cryptography. They just extrapolate that okay, we're going to create transaction system. We're going to create a value exchange and Trust system that is external to the state and to corporate structure. We are not going to have to rely on third parties that this is just inevitable 40 years ago. Great. Well now 30 years ago 31 years ago. That's crazy. That's this this this Foundation has been laying for a long time. And these are the people who worked day and night to expand this technology and figure out how to build all of the pieces all of the forefathers that led to bitcoin. This is where it comes from. It was always about creating a non like a flat independent non-state. It was about the separation of money and state the separation of money and I mean information and state it was about freeing people in the siphon in cyberspace in this new realm building technologies that freed people from the restrictions of the system. That are run by other people. There are permissioned that are surveilled and that are dependent on the trust of some other institution not involved in the transaction that is always what this has been about and it is a deeply political and social Revolution. The technology is simply the tool that facilitates it. Actually haven't done the crypto in Turkish Manifesto on the show. I thought I had but I had not so I might actually do that one pretty soon. I'm going to put that in my lineup. So I'll keep an ear out for that one. It's really short. You can read it in two minutes. So I'll link to it in the show notes as well. But the very core of what makes a nation state like we have to really get at what a nation state is like what do we mean when we say the separation of money and state? Well the state the foundation on which it derives every other authority that it has is a moral exception to ignore property rights and supposedly in the name of keeping everybody safe and and securing property rights, which we won't go into the ridiculous contradiction there, but that is essentially what it is. Everything else is just an extension of that single power. It is the power to confiscate resources. It is the moral exception to confiscate resources and that it happens typically through taxation inflation deficits fractional Reserve banking whatever system that is they have their many systems involved in this Exact same processor in this exact same end. But that is what if they all amount to. It's the it's the confiscation of resources from the people who have earned and produced it the value that they have produced into the world without having to ask or receive consent of any kind in doing so the state is the final Arbiter on hitting that this is important. They are the final they have the last say on who owns what and that lasts a is backed up that final arbitration is backed up by military and violent action, whether it's for the police caught by the police the prison system or the military that is always the end result of any incomplete dispute. It ends at violence. All the rest of it is just window dressing on what is used to create the final Arbiter of the the final end. Violence is the Beating Heart of the state institution that they are the ones who can force your neighbor to do something. Whereas you and none of your other neighbors have that Authority and most people refuse to admit that this is true, but it's not really even ignored. It's actually glorified. It's just mostly thought of as acceptable like it just it's part of our we grow up in this system. Well, that's the norm and of course. That's how it work. How would you do it? If you weren't just forcing people to all invest in the same thing or I'm confiscating resources from obviously all the people who don't know how to spend. It just becomes this like things like well, yeah, that's us that's just out that things are um, and not only is it glorified. There's like incredible pride in being willing to go to the absolute most absolute intends to maintain the facade watch that Rudy Giuliani video man, like, Watch that thing that I retweeted it'll creep you out. It's really it's really a crazy like fundamental position it they start from and I was there I got like it's not as if I was immune to it, like obviously that's how I grew up. It took it took years and years and years of study and arguing with myself and feeling extremely uncomfortable about ideas that I was entertaining that that was in fact a Lee immoral and incorrect way to think about the world Fascinating piece actually, let me drop another suggestion for a read here. Anatomy of the state by rothbard is a crazy piece. That is probably going to blow your mind. If you're just getting into these ideas and they're probably a little bit little bit out there. So definitely go check that one out. I will be adding that into the show Notes, too. But the fundamental nature of Bitcoin, so that's the fundamental nature of the state is that it is the final Arbiter on property rights and there is no challenging it to challenge. It is essentially to commit suicide or it is to position yourself in the system in such a way. It is to alter your position in it so that you can now morally be murdered. If you if you if you refuse to the end it is that you will be killed if if you don't pay the bill that they then send you when you refuse to pay for, you know, I don't want to pay for a bomb in Iraq if I refuse to do it and they caught me and realize that that's what I was doing. Well, they would send me a bill for twice the amount that I supposedly owed and then they would send police to enforce it or they were try to confiscated from my bank account. If I refuse then and made it hard for them to access the money will then they would send police and they would try to confiscate. Kate it from me. They would put a drag me into a court and declare that I was I was to be shamed and publicly ridiculed and my life was over and they were going to put me in a cage and if I refuse to go into a cage if I resist those police doing that and torturing me and putting putting me in a cement box for the rest of my life. Well, then I will be beaten if I continue to fight back. I will be shot like that is the end result of my not wanting to pay for a bomb that kills people in Iraq. I am I'm forfeiting my life within the rules of the system the supposed morals inside of the structure are whether or not I am following the authority not whether or not I have done something that we can establish is immoral or infringing upon someone else's rights. Yet within Bitcoin Bitcoin is the final Arbiter regardless completely independently of the state or any corporate intermediary and that's without allowing. Any any exception for the state rule. There is no exception in Bitcoin. Everyone is totally totally on the same playing field. There is no single point of permissiveness. There is no single point of control. It is 100% Independent and external to the state's property rights system. They are no longer. That is the first technology that has ever truly challenged the state the state's position as the final Arbiter of property rights and it does so with the security of cryptography, which the state has no tool to fight against no real tool no fundamental. I can break it tool. Whereas in a social hierarchy structure violence is the The tool that breaks the the endgame of like me like my personal defense as the final Arbiter of property rights is that will they will just over overwhelm me with their violence, you know, when I have just one person with a gun like I just have my own a defense of my property or something. Well, they will just get 50 people with guns and overwhelm me they cannot do that with my cryptographic defense. They do have some tools. The balance of power is vastly different between my ability to defend my life and Liberty just in a physical sense versus the the power of being able to cryptographically secure that ownership or that value. But this isn't like like Bitcoin isn't a trimming at the leaves of the state or like getting all those extra two long branches. It truly attacks the roots of what makes the system possible it Alters the fundamental rules. Now that doesn't mean taxation becomes impossible because taxation is enforced or excused because the state is a form of religion essentially it is That Priestly exception that some do not have to follow the same rules as others that there is a that is there is an authoritative structure and it is fundamentally about inequality being institutionalized that this this special group of persons have some divine right to violate the basic moral principles of don't hurt people and don't take their stuff in order to cheat to achieve some utilitarian outcome. Even if it's something as arbitrary Terry is you know the totally inconsequential Banning of plastic straws so that we're using paper straws in our big plastic cups in a city with millions of plastic heroin sewer syringes being handed out and littering the ground. It doesn't matter how arbitrary it is or even if that utilitarian purpose totally fails. The state is still the only one in the position to actually do something to violate that basic moral principle now, Status in myself I'm back when I would hear these arguments will bristle like crazy about that statement that it is a religion, and I'm so sorry if I've made someone uncomfortable, but it's true. You do a story told by police is trusted by default a stories told by a citizen who has been beaten senseless by that officer better have a full high-definition video proving it or it won't even be considered and even with perfect video the overwhelming majority will Just excuse the extreme violence because all they were scared or confused but no one can explain why police are somehow different people. I mean, I have a number of friends who either have been police officers in the past or are still are and you know, what they're not a damn bit different than any of my other friends except arguably and one could say that maybe this was a natural tendency or this was actually a consequence of them becoming officers. I would argue that they would probably a little bit more air. And kind of just puffy if I'm being honest like I don't doubt most of them really like being cops because it probably makes him feel incredibly powerful and I don't care who you are. It feels good to be the most powerful person in the room. That is another part of human nature. It is not something is for the same reason. It feels good to be the most powerful person in the room. It feels bad to be the weakest and most subservient person in the room. So both of of them are derivatives of the exact same nature. So you're if you're arguing that people don't feel good when they're powerful you're arguing that people don't feel bad when they're powerless, which I think is so obviously not true that it's there's no argument there. And so this will that that level of power that Authority those positions of moral exclusiveness will go to everyone's head in some way. I mean the highest demographic of people who physically abuse their spouses are police officers make like that's just a statement of fact and the excuse that they have some day. I've literally heard people be like, well, they have a dangerous job. That's bullshit because construction work is still the most dangerous job in the country. You are more likely to be injured or killed than being a police officer and no one would ever excuse a construction worker going home and beating his wife senseless. Just because They're all their job is stressful again is about a moral exception of some presumed Priestley level of authority that they have that people external to that position do not have and that goes all that's just police that goes all the way up. I mean which one of your friends has the right to take money from your bank account so that they can invest your money into the retirement plan. They think you should have There's a whole that is a whole concept of government is that they are going to use our resources for the policy the health care policy. We should have for the retirement plan. We should have or the whatever anything anything that is that is the foundation of everything that the government does is a utilitarian argument that the morality of what they do is less important than its supposed utilitarian result of their violation of that morality. It's it didn't that it Exception is 100% for political Masters and no one else and the difference is not small like the the Divergence between those two rights is not like some minor difference. It's not like one group can do it and the other group just has to refrain a normal person doing the exact same thing that the government is demands gratitude for. is the a normal person doing it is considered an absolute criminal is immediately derided as the worst sort of humanity is publicly shamed killed or left to rot and tortured in a cement box for the rest of their lives the closer they get to achieving the level of theft and non consented control over other people as the state the closer they get to doing as much control and damage as the state the more the normal person is derided and the more blessed and gratitude the state deserves for the exact same act and you know, the state goes off and kills hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East supports and enforces sanction starving millions of people in Yemen and Iran numerous other countries. We got 40 or 50 years to work from mean Vietnam the sanctions on Iraq that supposedly resulted in the The estimated result in the deaths of 250,000 children 250,000 children and Madeleine Albright says we think the price is worth it Bitcoin is a complete rejection of the entire structure with Bitcoin as a final Arbiter for value and ownership. Everything that is taken to the Bitcoin Court to the network is entirely extrajudicial and has not the slightest clue or concern about what the political structure requires of the or what the political structure demands is the actual owner. Nick Carter mentioned it in his piece about Jesus great piece on Independent property rights and what really breaking into the core of what Bitcoin is competing with and that is the structure. That's that's what Bitcoin is competing with it is the final Arbiter of property rights within the system and any system or extension of it built on top of it that refers to bitcoin as the settlement and Court for the the final ownership of coins it is it is not your keys. Not your coins. If they are your keys. They are yours regardless of the president of Congress of parliament of authoritarian regime A B C or D is all irrelevant. There's there's no borders. It doesn't have a clue that you sent it to Venezuela, even though Venezuela has Capital controls the same keys are the same in Venezuela as they In the US as they are in Canada every jurisdiction. Can you can unlock it in any jurisdiction that just has a connection to the internet whether it be by Satellite by radio by Broadband etcetera Etc. It does not matter the the Bitcoin system is ubiquitous and in consensus across all of them. And that's what this is about. That's what makes it a revolution. Say it's not even a small Revolution. It is a profound shift in the Dynamics of power to protect individual sovereignty and individual the rights of individual value ownership and exchange at a fundamental level. It is first and foremost a political revolution. All right, so I haven't really talked much about the article. I've referenced a couple things but this is basically my faults from the first paragraph of this thing. So let's go ahead and hit our sponsor. We're already pretty deep into this and I will go back and will continue through this article because there's so much more just amazing stuff to cover in this and I love this this entire concept and there is so many little Diamonds in the Rough in this article, I guess so, Quotes to go through let's in our sponsor and we'll jump right back in. For anyone who has a podcast anchor cannot be beaten particularly for trying to get off the ground their entire platform is free. This includes unlimited hosting both in audio that you upload and how much your listeners download. I have uploaded an incredible library of audio now and I've never paid anchor a dime. In fact, they connect me with other sponsors and have run an ad consistently on my show. So they've paid For exposure to my audience that's really hard to beat even if we ignore that I can record directly in the app or my browser. I don't need any other software. If I don't want it I can edit at sound effects clips and they automatically publish to all of the top podcasting platforms. I never had to do a thing. So if you were thinking of starting a show or already have a podcast, there's no better platform out there check out anchor by downloading the app or go to Anchor dot f FM today I truly think the fundamental argument here is a moral one. And that's why I so many people will debate with me about statism and think that they're going to come up with some really clever utilitarian example for why the state should have this moral exception one the the whole Foundation of why I no longer believe in it. Not only do I think those utilitarian arguments are misunderstandings of long-term consequences of enabling a moral action, but it's also A moral argument that is the foundation of what led me away from the state as as any Arbiter of anything. So, I mean, it was really really hard like like when I say the state is a religion. I know how much that probably triggers people because I remember how hard it triggered me when I had someone tell me that and I was just you know, like it's incredibly hard to Come to terms of the most people it's never something that's entertained. You just don't think about it. Like I felt honor like I felt like incredibly emotionally connected to you know, the national anthem the flag like putting my hand over my heart like I'd get the Goosebumps when somebody really sang the national anthem and like it was part of who I was and I mean 15 years ago. I probably like that Rudy. The only video that like creeps me out. Now. I probably would have gotten jacked at watching that video 15 years ago. I probably would have been like well, you're a defend a country mirror Graham. I'm Erica like so when some some debate is trying to give me some utilitarian argument for the state. I truly see it as the similar. It's going to have a similar effect on me as trying to explain to an abolitionist that oh my god. Well, what about the price of cotton if we free the slaves I'd like for my Pinion who cares like this is a moral argument. It's our responsibilities got nothing to do with this. Like we don't get to just make slaves. It's our responsibility to figure out how to produce cotton absent like like morally It's Our obligation to do it. Morally the simple fact is that the ends are deeply tied to the memes. If we think about this like the violation of these basic and obvious morals. I don't I truly don't believe There is any way for it to have a net benefit even if we were talking about a short-term utilitarian purpose because at the core of Your Action what you are doing is normalizing and desensitizing the people to the concept of acting immorally if it's an excuse that's good enough for whatever the end is. And there is a network effect. There's a consequence in there's a social consequence to absolutely everything that we do if there's one person acting courageously or standing up for themselves or speaking out while everyone else is being quiet. We know and we regularly think of her somebody who like donates or does something nice for someone else it very well may infect ten other people with the idea that okay. I should be more Brave. I should try to be more. Jack if I should speak out when I know something is wrong, but similarly if someone acts immorally to achieve some utilitarian purpose and then is rewarded for it because of the supposed ends that justified that terrible action. Well, then in the same way 10 others will be infected with the idea that oh, well, why don't we do it for our retirement accounts? Why don't we just take money from these people because I can obviously spend it better than they could why don't use inflation to create. The best insurance policy ever that's free quote on quote when we just don't understand what the hell money is. All it does is spread the disease of thinking of immoral solutions to our problems because we set the precedent of valuing the utilitarian end above the the right the correctness of the means of actually treating each other with respect and as human individuals. So it did you just end up being like Oh, well, what's good enough to would just completely disregard the morality of their actions. Like it just becomes an institutionalized immorality to achieve whatever it is of low cost health care or really decent retirement plan or stupid plastic straws and blah blah blah, like it just it always ends up holding the end as a higher purpose than the original action. It becomes a well. Yeah, he he murdered seven people but look how clean the streets are, you know, like you just end up like excusing ridiculous things like 250,000 children starving to death in Iraq and being like Oh, well, the regime is a little bit weaker than it was a couple of years ago. So we think it's worth it like it becomes so utterly insane the more those those actions and eventual ends stack on top of each other in the network effect spreads and ends up. Dude, it's just a complete loss of morality throughout throughout Society is that everybody just looks to the state and political intervention and just doesn't is no longer concerned about cooperating with their neighbor or treating them as individuals who own their own stuff. Like everybody is just at each other's throats all the time and then politics becomes the center of the whole world because God forbid somebody else get their candidate in because it's in charge of now politics is in charge of my health care. It's in charge of my insurance policies in age of my which car I buy is in charge of which drawl I put in my drink. I mean it becomes so micromanage the to avoid politics to avoid the political system specifically is to just leave yourself at the mercy of every other person who doesn't care, you know how much you're forced to pay. And then you have to also have to consider something else that ninety percent of business enterprises fail. If 90% of business Enterprise fails, so too will 90% of political Enterprise and I think that's being extra conservative in just saying that they're equal because people who have no skin in the game will not produce the same ratio of successful projects. They will be far less successful. I bet it's closer to 99% of political Enterprises fail at the job. They are intended to complete. So not only have we now Justified the ends. We don't even reach the ends. Well over ninety percent of the time but we are still engaging in the immoral means to get there constantly. So when they fail they do it on the backs of a mountain of theft police force imprisonment of thousands who had nothing to do with it or maybe even never even wanted to be a part of it while a business fails on the back of the direct investors or of the incorrect or irresponsible decisions of the people involved in that Enterprise only the people who own it. And they pay the costs and the risks and practically no one else is part of the consequences without choosing for themselves to be involved. It's voluntary and Cooperative action. Whereas everybody else is like when Social Security falls apart, I'm stuck. You know, I've been paying into it ever since I got my first job, but I know I'm not getting a dime out of Social Security. I know that thing is done before I ever withdraw from it, and I'm Screwed I have no again. I can't refuse to pay for it. I absolutely 100% am certain that is a completely failed project that is sucking up not 7% but 15% of what I could earn in a job because the employer just pays me 7% less when they have to equal that on there. So it just becomes a cost for hiring someone. So I'm losing 15 percent of the value that I produce for a retirement plan that will not pay me a milk a gallon of milks worth of value in years Okay, I've gone way too far into this. But let's get back to Nick Carter's article. Okay, the next section I want to get into is just the concept of new warfare. And this was a really brief section on but this is really in line with the sovereign individual which is one of the most fascinating books expanding on this concept and talking about the dynamic of the Dynamics and payoffs of the use of violence to control people and there's there's a there's a there's an audible an audio book coming on Audible so you can actually pre-order it now. I'm so if you have not read the sovereign individual you are in luck. There is an 18-hour audiobook coming very soon and I highly highly recommend it. So if you don't have like inaudible account or you haven't purchased your copy your pre-order, I definitely definitely recommend it so good, but Fair really is it's moving into the digital realm. I mean Wikileaks is at war with major corrupt National and corporate institutions hackers play a significant role in the global political landscape and that is both state-funded hackers and just underground journalists or data leakers or just random kids in their garage who are really pissed off about something and want to pack a police station website or flood some servers have some company or in Institution or something somewhere with a DDOS attack? If you haven't done any like reading or exploring on the insane design of the stuxnet virus, um or just on the history of WikiLeaks and like hackers and stuff. You've really got to another just brilliant just as fascinating fascinating exploration of History. I recommend man. Okay another one on the Bitcoin survivors booklist. Go check out the Bitcoin Survivors book list. There's so many great things up there. But this machine kills it's um, it's kind of about the foundations of WikiLeaks and the history of hackers. You can get it all on the crypto Kana me.com and the book list is you'll see at the Bitcoin Survivors book list is just in the menu up at the top but Bitcoin is a major part of this war currency has always played an astoundingly important role in Warfare even in physical and historical Warfare currency was always had a critical role without a strong currency you have no Churches in power without purchasing power you have no soldiers. You have no police literally without control of the currency you have no you have no means of control because all of our economic behavior on all of our economic ends are created through the market through exchange with other people money is half of every single transaction. It is the most critical enabler of that economy without money as a facilitator. You cannot have like barter produces 1 1 billionth of a possible Market than a one with a monetary standard does so if you don't have a strong currency view you if you don't have a currency you can use to purchase your soldiers your weapons your police, whatever it is, then you have nothing and it doesn't matter that you demand taxes in. Currency, either you can tax all you want but if your policies are so bad that your money loses its fundamental value. Nothing can save it on Venezuela perfect example, they're just as violent if they're more violent than they ever have been but their currency still worth crap. So unfortunately almost every modern banking system regulatory regime and political institution believes and is espousing the same exact rhetoric that resulted in the current Venezuelan policies is a little scary but at least to a milder degree and the economy is so much larger and so much more interconnected that they can get away with it for much longer than Venezuela did but here's another great section is that if Bitcoin is truly a Tilt at the state and it is a external to the nation state is a non State institution that we intend and our building to resist the state and survive in spite of For the long term and that's what we are creating this technological and networking system to do. Well then what does that mean for all coins? And the so there's there's a quote that I absolutely love for. This is quote given the immensity of this task and the existential threat that it poses to the state only the most committed could possibly take up the calls the great sin of all Corners is not that they backed the wrong horse, but that they did so with insufficient conviction. They sold a dream that they themselves did not truly believe and quote so true and he talks about he hits it hits it home in the article. Is that the success for an altcoin? ER is a good exit. It's a it's a pre-sale a pump and a dump. That's it. Dumping on the the hype cycle and all Corners desperately holding onto bags. Just hoping for someone else to buy it so that they can exit is literally the story of 99% of all coins in their supposed investors. And what's hilarious is I had no idea but actually read the when he talks about like EOS like he owes holding a hundred forty thousand Bitcoin, he links to an article and actually read the whole article because I was like, holy crap. Yeah. Yes, just as Bitcoin on its balance sheet and this could this could not be a more important lesson to learn for everyone listening to this on the fifth anniversary of bits teens. Everyone is a scammer which you can listen to on the most recent noted podcast or obviously the episode on my show. I'll link to a link to the noted podcast actually and you know if it happens that Michael Goldstein or Pierre or anybody listens either one of them listens to this show. Thank you so much. That was just so awesome. And I didn't know idea. You're actually going to leave the comment area that we are going to grab out the the actual read on but I don't know that just that was really great. And I know it's probably given me a lot more exposure. So I really appreciate that. But if you haven't been if anybody listening to this hasn't been to the Bitcoin conferences and you hadn't met them you got to come in a hangout Goldstein and Pierre are literally the nicest. Pulling the world. All of their trolling on Twitter is absolutely a giant disguise. But he owes could not be a better example just Prime top-notch. Oh the coin is successful. Look at still in the top 10. What are they holding on their balance sheet mountains and mountains of Bitcoin. They do not believe the dream they sold everybody else. And those questions that he poses that we should be asking to our government and banking institutions are a hundredfold more potent Lee applied to just some garbage all coin. Why do you get to knit currency? Why do you get some incredible position of control and power over what the rules of money are what makes your shit coin? So different that it needs a completely new unique system. We're going to ignore the the Thousands of Alternatives but they don't somehow fit your perfect prescription for what a money is. They have to have your control and Direction Where do you wear it? Where does anyone get the authority to do this? And how are you how is it going to be made in vulnerable or at least deeply independent of political capture? The simple fact is they're all there because they want they the power over money The Profit potential of the good with the highest total addressable Market is unknown it is there is no equal anywhere in the world. Like there is nothing as unbelievably profitable which he owes could not be a better example of they have a hundred and forty thousand Bitcoin. They won off of their scam think about it, like what a brilliant play they Made nothing. They didn't do anything. They made a pseudo centralized crap coin and got a one of the biggest balances of the most secure independent money in the world. And when he talks about when Nick when Nick Carter talks about conviction in Bitcoin that the only the most committed could possibly take up the calls it you have to ask another question. Question like Bitcoin maximalism is not at odds with this Bitcoin. Maximalism is a declaration of this it is it is I'm going to hold till the end because I have incredible conviction and this the end is not to get rich the end is to create an extra State institution and external to the state institution. That is the final Arbiter of financial ownership. Maximalists are not a bug they are a feature very critical. Piece of the puzzle for Bitcoin success. It is the it is the intolerant minority that will win by default as Nassim taleb says and I love that we talk about that just just a little while ago a couple episodes back. I can't remember which one but talking about the minority rule that if altcoin a B and C are like, oh we should be Pro Innovation. We should all work together and we'll accept Bitcoin and altcoin a or Bitcoin and and all coin be but then bitcoiners are no we will not accept anything but Bitcoin your altcoin A B and C are all crap. Well, then the bitcoiners win by default because they are the only ones forcing a market Standard or putting their individual steak on a market Standard that they accept only And I love the Nick Carter's idea of the all coin that the idea of an altcoin maximalists world where everybody has their own coin hits and it creates this this ocean of pointless and high friction conversion between currencies not just when you need to transfer money between countries, but every time you shop it ones for versus another and that we're all just going to have our own unique. Nique Network features and to get a feature you have to do a Forex trade to some other currency its is hilarious. Like it's absolutely ridiculous. It really is and all it is is a regression of the market efficiency that a monetary good actually produces you immediately have a your reinstating the double coincidence of wants problem into a virtual my a virtual market for money, which is absurd because the And the one great utility of money is that it solves the double coincidence of wants problem. So to think that the market is then going to produce a double coincidence of wants of goods that are only there to solve double coincidence of wants is just stupid. It just it doesn't make any logical sense. If you actually extend out from the basic idea of Market competition because a monetary good will always tend to one. Oh, I just remembered. I just remember what article it was that we talked about this this was Bitcoin can't be copied. That was Parker Lewis has article man. I'm gonna have so many things to link to in the show notes. Don't forget to check out that one. If you have not heard it yet such a great topic and you know, we went at it Parker Lewis has so many great pieces in his gradually then suddenly series highly highly recommended. But there's another quote from Nick that he gets to. And I love this one too, because Bitcoin even bit like just the idea of Bitcoin maximalism. So many people is like, oh it's anti-competitive know it's steak. It's putting your money where your mouth is that there is going to be a winner in the competition of the best money and that it is Bitcoin and there was nobody saying you're going to be forced to use Bitcoin and this quote was just great. Is that quote you have the right but not the obligation to present to In the most transparent auditable debasement free and well-defined monetary system that the world has ever known end quote gold just gold and success in Bitcoin is not having to exit at all. We just talked about this on Mondays meet up this week on the Raleigh Bitcoin meet up and it's so true the quote-unquote normies who I speak to or whatever who remember that your I Bitcoin at some time and then they see it Skyrocket. They always ask me. So are you going to cash out and you know, you know put it in something and I'm just like I get that perspective. I totally understand it. And I know it's so hard to get around because I can see their perception of me like I can stand in their shoes and they look at me as someone who is just totally in love with an investment that I got paid a huge return and what I should do as a smart investor is extracted. Back into the real economy or real money and I'm just going to lose all my gains because I have become in love with my investment. I'm emotionally tied to it and obviously the because I have had success so far. It will just take over the world and go up for infinity and I will never sell because when women from their perspective obviously this has run its course. It's just finding equilibrium price and how it's going to be done with the massive profit position. That is as it has had in the market, but I'm not selling and I know that looks crazy to most people but Bitcoin is the endgame of my investment strategy. Like I am this success of this system is that I will never have to exit now. I might I might take value out and put it in some other things to better my life or particularly when it's a very life-changing amount, but it will not be dollars. Not be going to Dollars. It will be for some real-world resource or some other function. It will be the very function that money serves I will not be going to Dollars outside of the fact that I may need to go to Dollars first in order to get what I'm actually going for but my money is Bitcoin. I will never go back to having no savings to fall back on it is fundamentally changed my idea of savings my idea of what it means to be stable or prepared for the future. Future and I will never go I will not be going back into debt just to get by on my spending habits have changed my thinking about money have changed and they've changed for good. I cannot properly see how there is any way to go back to my old way of thinking about things and I don't know if that makes me smart or just flat crazy, but that's where I am. I partly even though I get so excited about it and I am so emotionally attached to it as you can tell with my rant. I partly do all of my reading I still had constantly read things that like are against my opinion. It's not really on the show. Um, and or the challenge my opinion that's why I like having debates with people. Um, because I think if I can't hold if I can't defend my ideas for myself to myself against a well-informed adversary. Then I have to admit to myself. I have to realize that I don't know the full truth that I am not accounting for certain information or certain incentives or on aspects of the system that that made completely alter what the results of what I believe are where I am telling myself a current story and a current set of outcomes that you know are always always based on limited knowledge because I'm an individual I can't there's there's millions of times. The information out there than can ever be consumed by even thousands of people there is no I am right. I've reached the end of knowledge. Okay, let's see. Oh, oh the best line in this whole article that I just I was like just it just so sweet. I can hit every part like a dad to stop my recording and like dwell on this one for a second is quote capped Supply is not a feature of Bitcoin. The supply cap is Bitcoin. Adjust straight fire for everyone who does not get this. This is it I never really put my finger directly on it. But this has been the key to something that I have known about Bitcoin for a very long time. And that is the simplest most direct way to put it the capped monetary Supply. The monetary system itself is Bitcoin if that changes in any way it is simply a different thing period I think the signature scheme could be completely altered. The is features could be added core flexibility could be increased or decreased in minor ways. All of those things. I may still call Bitcoin regarding or at least to the degree that it is enabling and enforcing the same ownership in the same Supply schedule, but the monetary policy is the Beating Heart it is the core value. Of what makes it a challenge to the system's it's replacing its what makes it an alternative that is entirely and fundamentally different to what the mainstream or what the status quo alternative is. Then we get into a section about Satoshi in this is something God talked about it in so many times and every time I recover this topic of the incredible just the magic almost of satoshi's story of the origin story of Bitcoin. It just gets better and better. I got want to figure out there needs to be a way to tell this in just a magical beautiful like Promethean style story. But you Manatee like like us as humans. We relate to everything around us. We relate to our social systems. We relate to our friends and our families. Our relationships are our environment. Everything is a story of what it means to us. And that's why I telling someone a story about a character or a human a human story of a technology or of the lesson to learn a moral lesson or something is vast has vastly more impact than explaining some technical. Detail or explaining some pattern or relationship. If you tell a human story, you'll it will spread far and wide if you just explain a lesson to somebody it will sound like electorate will carry no emotional weight and most people won't listen to it. But that's what Satoshi story is. Just amazing. It's a toe she built the system entirely from scratch released it and announced it to the world months before the network went live. I've kept the project alive in its infancy like Helped maintain and nurture it through its early life and then fully stepped away from the project and has left billions of dollars on the table learned from his early stewardship completely untouched and he's anonymous we have no idea who it is. It is just the I mean, are you kidding? Are you kidding me? What an astounding story? And this quote is quote is so beautiful. But this is from Nick Carter's article Satoshi daringly stole the state's most treasured possession. It's right to unencumbered money creation and gave it to the people in the purest way possible end quote gah. I love this article. I love it so much, but you're immediately then we jump into the section of well, why doesn't the state intervenes? Right and the truth of band would not stop Bitcoin. It just wouldn't it would not shut down the system. It would not be of global concern because there would need to be a global cooperation in Banning it. I mean his Nick said are we really expect do we think we're going to see the US and its allies making policy decisions and North Korea, Russia China Saudi Arabia and everybody is just going to play along did these the he's essential in essentially enemies of these institutions would now have an open attack Vector to do damage or weaken the United States in an indirect way because if we're talking about Bitcoin becoming a reasonable threat here, then that would that's what a policy band would actually suggest that they now have access to a Sly rind about roundabout way to to Dethrone the dollar and possibly even make an extraordinary amount of money in the process. I can't see I can't see every country getting that up so easily and it's the could also mean from their standpoint of banning it of many on the surface, but Mining and buying up reserves for a later retraction of that legal status in the future. So it doesn't even have to it can look on the surface but there can still be a war and a use of Bitcoin to threaten the hegemony of some other currency. Obviously the dollar being a prime example here. Here in the background to that. This could be done sneakily. It's not not unheard of for governments to do exactly those sorts of things. And also remember that even in the u.s. Regulations are very often entirely written enacted and enforced start to finish by unelected officials or institutions that are not ousted during an election cycle. These are extra election external to the In process institutions and that's about as wide open of a vulnerability as you can get so when we're talking about a currency like Bitcoin that's made easily Anonymous and censorship and is censorship resistant what better tool for a personal in the dark like Arbitrage play. So if not, the regulator's themselves, which bank is going to do it which Corporation or government hiding behind. Um sort of Corporation somebody is going to play the game to make boatloads of money on something like that in those in those billion billionaire Social Circles. But then again he mentions it also really shined a light on the perception of government's role and that Eric's Matt from Jason Stapleton show that we did in a previous group chat episode. I was on actual Jason Stapleton show, but it's published in my feet. I'm at brought it up as well is that this really confuses or Sean's exposes what the government is actually up to or what its role a actually is because we're currently witnessing a really really serious breakdown in the status quo narrative and Nick Carter says that he thinks everything is getting worse and I and maybe he's right I think and like the political sense, but I think the reason everything is getting politically worse is because a consequence of everything actually getting better at kind of the Grassroots level and maybe he thinks that as well, but I'll explain Like the massive push that he talks about in the article to socialism and openly communist politicians. I truly think it's a result because of them actually losing a lot of their cloud and he's even says the Nick says in the article that did journalists are reduced to like passing on just State messages in a futile effort to the fight against media startups and Youtubers with like a thousand. Is there cloud and I think that's again. I think they're having to cling to that because they are losing their clout because there is this huge Insurgent alternative media a market that is breaking down what used to be one extremely, um widely-held narrative and it's breaking down into hundreds of narratives is breaking down into everyone is telling themselves a different story at a personal level. Is a lot less cohesion. We're having a bit of a global identity crisis right now and it's again, it's not just it's not just the US. It's literally across the modern world that we're losing that political cohesion that we used to have and I think a lot of people who feel desperate or feel like things are getting worse because because of the loss of that Collective identity and because of that they're lat Catching on to the idea of socialism and Far Far More stringent collectivist ideas is because they're losing the power. There's no worry if you have political and social cohesion, you don't really have to cling to it so hard it's like well, we already really kind of have the dominant mindset but when it starts getting challenged when starts to Splinter into all of these different Avenues when you can't control the narrative because not everybody's watching the news anymore because people are leaving those Forms in droves and seeking out different thought that's when you have to cling to it. That's when you have to go that next level authoritarian and you have to try to control these the alternative platforms and you have to fight against it because you're grabbing owns it you psycho somebody realizing the relationship is falling apart. They get extra clingy they get extra jealous and controlling like that's what that's what happens. And I think it's a result of the relationship falling apart. We're losing that power. Our Center that that center of the narrative that we are all telling on and because of that they're trying to they're using far greater breadth of their power and their position in order to attempt to reinforce it as it starts to fall apart. Like I said, it's like a global identity crisis in a relationship that's breaking down and everybody's getting really controlling and clingy and jealous. That's genuinely had kind of how I see it. I think that's a great analogy. You personally but when it kind of comes to that when when a government is again something that Matt talked about on Jason Stapleton show was that will look how ridiculous they look when they're afraid of a financial commodity doesn't expose them as just the controlling parasitic person in this relationship that they actually are from their position. Like what could particularly one that commodity is. Is deeply embracing the idea of openness and fairness that that it is saying you are too you were to corrupt you are not open enough when the actual dichotomy it is only through ignorance that they can position Bitcoin as a less Fair system. So when they're exposed when they're exposed as controlling and paranoid about just a financial tool. Well then using Bitcoin that is the position that using Bitcoin has always been that is Been Bitcoins position is escaping the arrogance an arbitrary authority of the state and corporate institutions. So it all it does is reinforce what Bitcoin is needed for? It's like holy crap. I really do need Bitcoin. I really do need to get around the political whims of the capricious State and is so it only reinforces. Exactly the dominant use or the dominant utility of the Bitcoin system as an alternative to the state as the state becomes more paranoid and more controlling Bitcoin looks more and more necessary to a greater demographic of people across the globe and it's always there. That's the best the most beautiful thing about the whole article and his conclusion is that it's not going anywhere. It's already positioned itself as in that narrative is already very strongly serving that narrative in places in like Venezuela Argentina and Zimbabwe. They're not going to give two shits if their country bands Bitcoin or not. They have to have it to survive and there is a exploding Underground Market for it specifically because of that it is the only way that you can get the true black market price of the currency when the official rates are garbage when they're Just by decree. So as the pool of currencies Invasion terrible and declining situations is growing. It's not getting smaller. It is only going to grow this not I can't think of one. I can't think of one currency in the modern Fiat Financial system. That is it has anything anywhere to go but down right now like the whole thing is deeply interconnected reliant on Each other and all the currencies are in a bad situation debts are bad everywhere across the board. So there will be many more countries added to the list of Venezuela Argentina in Zimbabwe and it will obviously I think it will inevitably happen with smaller the smaller countries. It will be a cascading effect a domino effect that goes up the ladder from small countries two big countries or small currencies to Big currencies, but the number of people that will begin to completely lose respect. Spect and Trust in their country's currency is going to increase the I don't see any way that that Trend declines are stopped, you know could be the Euro could be the British pound. So we got brexit and all that Fiasco happening right now could be the you on the Indian rupee. It could it could be the dollar it's going to eventually be the dollar. I think I don't see any way that we get out of our current imbalance without a massive devaluation of the currency and all of the other ones are tied the mean they're back. $5.00. So what happens when we have, you know, a cascading Bond crisis what happens when negative interest rates all over the place what happens when people's pyncheons start to evaporate during a credit default what happens with the student loan bubble? What what about our wonderfully re-inflated housing bubble or the stock market bubble? What happens when any of these start to Teeter in a significant way when the cracks of these foundations start to be Used and they start the process into their painful and long overdue Market Corrections. What does everybody just going to be like, oh man. Oh, that's all Shucks. That sucks. I really wanted to retire and they're just going to sit and just take it up the rear. These things are Stark are going to start moving together and these systemic problems are tying it all to the same giant sinking Titanic and people will be desperate for an exit. In Bitcoin will be there Bitcoin will remain present for the entire thing. And I personally think that because Bitcoin is the only true Alternative Market that is external to the state apparatus and the deeply connected failures of or the the string of collapsing dominoes of the financial System. Since Bitcoin is the only truly external thing to this that a bet against Bitcoin is a bet for the long-term stability and the successful outcome of global negative interest rates across many trillions of dollars worth of assets. The absurdity of that the we the global economy is so shockingly over-leveraged and exhausted of actual resources that the money manipulators are actually paying financial institutions to borrow money that this is being casually normalized across the majority of the modern world should scare the shit out of anyone with more than $100 wrapped up into the modern. King system I keep the absolute minimum amount of money outside of Bitcoin as I can possibly manage and I make sure it is it is either spent very quickly on useful consumption Goods or some other like real world thing or that it is back behind my private Keys as soon as possible. And people say don't you know, don't put any more into Bitcoin than you're willing to use to lose. Well, I get that to some extent when we're talking about as an investment and but I think there is another thing to consider that it is equally important to remember not to keep any money any more money in the bank and fiat currency than you're willing to lose there is no there is no riskless Safe Haven in this economy right now in the financial world. It is all exposed. It's on to some risk and the idea that the dollar is not a risk and that keeping money in a large banking institution is not a risk is to ignore the risk that is actually there and Bitcoin is going to be there. As all of this comes to a head even with some sort of ban or concerted effort to attack it like a giant political campaign against it. I truly think Bitcoin will not be stopped. It won't be shut down because it just can't be and you know, there may be some incredibly powerful attack and we've seen a lot of attacks and we've seen ways that it can be Your mind but I think it would require such a profound and focused effort and it would be specifically the need to attack Bitcoin would specifically be during a time when I think all of these institutions will have an enormous amount of growing other problems on their hands. So if we're talking about Bitcoin is beginning to squeeze itself into a position where it threatens large National currencies and Banking and corporate control understand that the the purchasing power of these governments and institutions will be falling as Bitcoin increases as Bitcoin grows. So at a certain size Bitcoin could very well be the Catalyst that puts pressure on many of these markets and imbalances to correct them sooner than they otherwise may have been or may have been forced to do the facade is really easy to maintain in a world where all Fiat currencies are falling at the same time but a financial world with I mean make it a lot more difficult to tell a lie about what the price of said money is Venezuela and Argentina are learning that lesson right. Now. I suspect sanctions and controls being forced on Iranians and the you mini population are going to be learning the same thing very soon, and they will not be the last ones to do so. Man, I still have more to say I'm gonna I'm gonna wrap it up though. We're of calling way too long here is going to be a crazy long episode and it's taken me two days to really put this together. So we're just going to end it with I just want to read the last paragraph again of the article. So if you haven't if you haven't listened to it, I'm going to spoil the end. So shame on you for not listening to Nick Carter's article, but I quote you may do ride Bitcoin no matter Echoing will be there for you when you need it. You may not need it. Now you may not need it ever but as we plunge into a more despotic authoritarian and chaotic world. You may one day feel comfort knowing that the world's highest Assurance wealth protection system in history is waiting patiently for you. Until then it will keep ticking along. And what a better way to end today's episode. Thank you guys so much for listening. I also want to give a shout-out. We have got two new sponsors to the show. I already think Maximilian on one of the previous episodes. But in other ones another huge, thank you to Maximilian. And then we have also got a Cameron and David Warren new patrons to this show supporting the work of turning. All the most amazing Bitcoin pieces into the audio versions they deserve and then expanding and educating on all of these Concepts. Thank you. Thank you guys so much and if anybody wants to join us in the crypto economy telegram group and also support the work that I am doing. I would love for you to join us. We have so much fun over there and it is patreon.com Slash the crypto economy. And of course follow me at the crypto economy. And check out you gotta drop if you didn't remember to drop some Applause on Nick Carter's excellent article yesterday or I guess the day before now you got to go do it take a break take a couple minutes. Follow me on Twitter follow Nick Carter on Twitter and drop some Applause on that article. I love you guys. Thank you so much for joining me. I am guys Swan signing out for today. I may have may drop some little more fun stuff just before we roll into the weekend or over the weekend. I've got lots of recording happening in the background a couple got a couple of big announcements coming soon. So thank you. Thank you so much for being patient with me and I will catch you all later until then. Take it easy guys.
Today we have a follow up to Nic Carter's excellent piece on Medium, A Most Peaceful Revolution. An incredible article that deserves an exhaustive discussion and easily earns a few ridiculous rants. What could be better for Guy's Take 23? Other episodes and works mentioned in the show for a deeper dive: A Most Peaceful Revolution https://anchor.fm/thecryptoconomy/episodes/CryptoQuikRead_293---A-Most-Peaceful-Revolution-Nic-Carter-e5bfpm Anatomy of the State https://mises.org/library/anatomy-state A Cypherpunk's Manifesto https://anchor.fm/thecryptoconomy/episodes/CryptoQuikRead_163---A-Cypherpunks-Manifesto-e2ndpc The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/crypto-anarchy.html The Bitcoin Survivor's Book List https://cryptoconomy.life/bitcoin-survivors-book-list/ Bitcoin and the Promise of Independent Property Rights https://anchor.fm/thecryptoconomy/episodes/CryptoQuikRead_225---Bitcoin--the-Promise-of-Independent-Property-Rights-e3j6b8 Bitcoin Can't Be Copied https://anchor.fm/thecryptoconomy/episodes/CryptoQuikRead_291---Bitcoin-Cant-Be-Copied-Parker-Lewis-e58g11  ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 