Hope moves us forward, and our values chart the way. Money is intended to be a safe harbor for economic value—not a constant cause of stress, worry, and entrapment, as it is in the world today. A fundamentally dishonest money, fiat currency ruins our relationships with the intrinsic entropy of nature and our fellow humans. To rejuvenate hope for more harmonious human action in the world, we must set our sights upon the invaluable aims of honest money, entrepreneurship, and civilization.
Hope is the Wind
Hope is the wind which carries us forward: an attitude to act instead of despair. Most of our lives are spent navigating from “what is” to what we believe “should be,” each of us charting our way by what we perceive to be valuable. The ideal state towards which we are (hopefully) moving ever-closer is the realization of our own potential — a seemingly ever-receding horizon no matter how rich, fit, or well-liked we become. True progress is only possible by taking actions guided by clear valuations. Action is akin to a slicing scythe, which separates proverbial wheat (the valuable) from chaff (the valueless). …
Ideas ambulate humanity across history. A new and useful idea is an innovation, which can benefit everyone for the rest of time. Therefore, it is critical we construct socioeconomic structures conducive to the creation of new ideas: civilization can only advance amid an everlasting flow of fresh knowledge. Free trade is the means by which we maximize ideation and its physical manifestation: wealth creation. Anything that impedes trade—like central banking—is (by definition) a terrible idea. Contrarily, all accelerants to free trade—like money—are among the most brilliant ideas we’ve ever had.
Ideas Drive Economics
“A pile of rocks ceases to be so when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind.” …
Money is a tool for trading human time. Central banks, the modern-era masters of money, wield this tool as a weapon to steal time and inflict wealth inequality. History shows us that the corruption of monetary systems leads to moral decay, social collapse, and slavery. As the temptation to manipulate money has always proven to be too strong for mankind to resist, the only antidote for this poison is an incorruptible money — Bitcoin.
Counterfeiters are Slavemasters
In ancient western Africa, aggry beads—small, decorative glass beads—were used as money for many centuries. Of uncertain origins, these beads were a means of wealth transfer between people in trade (as money) and across generations (as dowries or heirlooms). When European explorers appeared in Africa in the 16th century, it was quickly apparent to them that aggry beads were highly valued by African locals. Since glass-making technology in Africa was primitive at the time, aggry beads were difficult to produce and, therefore, reliably scarce relative to other goods—a monetary property which supported their market value. …
Satoshi gave the world Bitcoin, a true “something for nothing.” His discovery of absolute scarcity for money is an unstoppable idea that is changing the world tremendously, just like its digital ancestor: the number zero.
Zero is Special
“In the history of culture the discovery of zero will always stand out as one of the greatest single achievements of the human race.” — Tobias Danzig, Number: The Language of Science
Many believe that Bitcoin is “just one of thousands of cryptoassets”—this is true in the same way that the number zero is just one of an infinite series of numbers. In reality, Bitcoin is special, and so is zero: each is an invention which led to a discovery that fundamentally reshaped its overarching system—for Bitcoin, that system is money, and for zero, it is mathematics. …
Economics is the social science of cooperating and competing to overcome the immortal tyrant of time scarcity. In this never-ending struggle, one of our most important tools is money—a socioeconomic emblem of human time. For centuries, time was the only absolutely scarce substance in the universe, but now a novel money has also exhibits absolute scarcity—Bitcoin.
A Tyrant of Time Immemorial
All human action inescapably occurs within the bounds of time. As the universally shared element of experience, time is the grand paradox of nature; it heals all wounds, yet ultimately ravages all things. Each of us feels a current of time that is totally impersonal; in a ruthlessly egalitarian manner, time flows equally for rich and poor, sick and healthy, young and old alike. The temporal flows we experience cannot be reproduced, reversed, or stopped. At an intrapersonal level, our allotment of time is as scarce as our lifespan is limited. Interpersonally, time scarcity manifests as the total time we can collectively allocate towards serving one another; whether we are making goods, providing services, or gaining knowledge — we have but a finite quantity of hours to commit towards our efforts. In this sense, time scarcity is the immortal tyrant subjugating all of us mortals. …
An open letter to hedge fund colossus Ray Dalio regarding his worldview, the forces of financial nature, and how Bitcoin is bound to reshape both.
Introduction
Ray, your ability to penetrate the opaque realm of economics and share its secrets in an easy to understand language is one of your greatest gifts to humanity. With your videos, openly published research, and authorship, you have opened the eyes of many to a topic most consider too difficult to comprehend. The world needs more pioneers like yourself writing easy-to-read maps for the nearly incomprehensible territory of economics. …
In the ancient story of money a new chapter is being written…
A synthesis of perspectives from many prolific thinkers, this 3-part essay will cover the following topics in sequence:· Money — its properties, story and evolutionary history· Bitcoin — its nature and significance in the story of money (see PART 2)· Time — perspectives on its value and how the story of money might play out (see PART 3)This essay is guided, inspired and adapted from the literary works of many. Each section header will include a number [n] referencing relevant synthesized works at the end of each part. …
In the ancient story of money a new chapter is being written…
A synthesis of perspectives from many prolific thinkers, this 3-part essay will cover the following topics in sequence:· Money — its properties, story and evolutionary history (see PART 1)· Bitcoin — its nature and significance in the story of money (see PART 2)· Time — perspectives on its value and how the story of money might play outThis essay is guided, inspired and adapted from the literary works of many. Each section header will include a number [n] referencing relevant synthesized works at the end of each part. …
In the ancient story of money a new chapter is being written…
A synthesis of perspectives from many prolific thinkers, this 3-part essay will cover the following topics in sequence:· Money — its properties, story and evolutionary history (see PART 1)· Bitcoin — its nature and significance in the story of money· Time — perspectives on its value and how the story of money might play out (see PART 3)This essay is guided, inspired and adapted from the literary works of many. Each section header will include a number [n] referencing relevant synthesized works at the end of each part. …