Robert Baggs

The community around Bitcoin is, and has been for many years, fantastic. It's one of the asset's greatest assets. But, increasingly, I find myself in a lonely place with the political side of the conversation. The values I took as central to Bitcoin have been adopted (and in some instances, co-opted) by political figures I find little in common with, philosophically. I've had key Bitcoiners tell me they're single-issue voters (Bitcoin-only) and thus they've disconnected all other politics from the conversation; I can't seem todo that. I'm concerned that, in politics, the wrong people have been the first to make the right decision. What's more, many of these figures who have embraced Bitcoin strike me as disingenuous. That is, being pro-Bitcoin is a means to their own ends. This isn't wholly good or bad, and the reverse would be an equally mixed bag in different ways. "Fix the money, fix the world" is pithy, but an exaggeration, and I wrestle with the current menu: Support the Bitcoin-positive politicians I don't agree with, or support the politicians I align more with and hope they see the orange light. Whichever path is best, the current situation feels isolating to me.

One of the most interesting things I’ve learned about Bitcoin this year is that not every bitcoin commands the same price. This has nothing to do with technical fungibility. Firstly, from the Nobitex hack, I learned that where satoshis have been in their life dictates whether some institutions, exchanges, and people will touch them in the first place. The traceable history means that many have to be careful not to hold any bitcoin that may have travelled through sanctioned entities or interacted with blacklisted wallets. Imagine if this were true of cash! Secondly, newly mined bitcoin commands around a 5% markup by virtue of its clean history. Thirdly, to many institutions, bitcoin that has been mined sustainably is also more desirable than bitcoin that hasn’t been. Green bitcoin commands a premium and some believe this demand will only increase. Digital provenance is a double-edged sword, but fascinating when it’s a component of money.

Nostr is going to retain me off the bots alone. Notification dopamine on X is at an all-time low.

I think about this graphic every week. It’s from May of this year and it shows an uncomfortable trend in Bitcoin. Individual holders of BTC are the biggest demographic (around 66% of the supply), but they are also the only demographic seeing overall outflows. There are some normal reasons for this, but it’s still one hell of a fumble.