๐ช๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐ฎ โ๐ง๐ฟ๐๐ฒโ ๐๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ?
๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ข ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฎ ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐น๐ช๐ด๐ต?
Hereโs my take, based on all of the data Iโve consumed thus far ๐๐ผ
First of all, there has been much debate over the years about what makes someone a โrealโ bitcoiner, and perhaps even more about what ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฏโ๐ต.
Does a bitcoiner have to own bitcoin and nothing else? What about their local fiat currency? If they still own some fiat to pay their bills or to buy the dip, then are they not a โtrueโ bitcoiner?
Do they have to mine bitcoin? Run a node? Hold their own private key? Keep their sats in cold storage?
Or maybe thereโs something more fundamental that makes someone a bitcoiner.
Without falling into any โtrue Scotsmanโ fallacies, hereโs what I have managed to understand as the essence of what makes someone a bitcoiner:
๐ โ๐๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟโ ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐น๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฟ ๐น๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐โ๐ ๐๐ฟ๐๐ฒ, ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฏ๐๐๐, ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐๐ฎ๐ป๐๐น๐ ๐ถ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด.
๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ต๐ค๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง.
โ
Bitcoin is always true, and bitcoiners are those who try to be likewise.
โ
Bitcoin rejects othersโ lies, and bitcoiners are those who try to do that, too.
โ
Bitcoin is antifragile, and bitcoiners are those who strive for that, as well.
โ
Bitcoin is always improving beyond its old weaknesses, and bitcoiners are those who reach for that in their own lives.
โ
Bitcoin operates according to Proof of Work, and bitcoiners work hard to live like that, too.
If someone works to emulate their life after Bitcoinโs qualities, then they will do all the other things โ own bitcoin, withdraw it from the exchange, put it in cold storage, run a node, run a miner, build Bitcoin things, etc. โ as soon as theyโre mentally, physically, and financially capable.
This is the real reason why bitcoiners say โFix the money, fix the worldโ. But that saying skips the middle step:
๐๐ถ๐
๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐บ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ๐ โ ๐๐ถ๐
๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐จ๐ค๐ฃ โ ๐๐ถ๐
๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐น๐ฑ.
๐๐ฎ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐บ @Hack0
First of all, there has been much debate over the years about what makes someone a โrealโ bitcoiner, and perhaps even more about what ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฏโ๐ต.
Does a bitcoiner have to own bitcoin and nothing else? What about their local fiat currency? If they still own some fiat to pay their bills or to buy the dip, then are they not a โtrueโ bitcoiner?
Do they have to mine bitcoin? Run a node? Hold their own private key? Keep their sats in cold storage?
Or maybe thereโs something more fundamental that makes someone a bitcoiner.
Without falling into any โtrue Scotsmanโ fallacies, hereโs what I have managed to understand as the essence of what makes someone a bitcoiner:
๐ โ๐๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ผ๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟโ ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐น๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฟ ๐น๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐โ๐ ๐๐ฟ๐๐ฒ, ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฏ๐๐๐, ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐๐ฎ๐ป๐๐น๐ ๐ถ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด.
๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐๐ช๐ต๐ค๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ง.
โ
Bitcoin is always true, and bitcoiners are those who try to be likewise.
โ
Bitcoin rejects othersโ lies, and bitcoiners are those who try to do that, too.
โ
Bitcoin is antifragile, and bitcoiners are those who strive for that, as well.
โ
Bitcoin is always improving beyond its old weaknesses, and bitcoiners are those who reach for that in their own lives.
โ
Bitcoin operates according to Proof of Work, and bitcoiners work hard to live like that, too.
If someone works to emulate their life after Bitcoinโs qualities, then they will do all the other things โ own bitcoin, withdraw it from the exchange, put it in cold storage, run a node, run a miner, build Bitcoin things, etc. โ as soon as theyโre mentally, physically, and financially capable.
This is the real reason why bitcoiners say โFix the money, fix the worldโ. But that saying skips the middle step:
๐๐ถ๐
๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐บ๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ๐ โ ๐๐ถ๐
๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐จ๐ค๐ฃ โ ๐๐ถ๐
๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐น๐ฑ.
๐๐ฎ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐บ @Hack0
And right now, weโre running a contest to see who can do the best job verifying and adding to my training data. A total of ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ sats will be distributed to ๐ฑ ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ when the contest ends this Friday.
โก๏ธ1st Place: ๐ญ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐๐
โก๏ธ2nd Place: ๐ฑ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐๐
โก๏ธ3rd Place: ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐๐
โก๏ธ4th Place: ๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐๐
โก๏ธ5th Place: ๐ญ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐๐
How do you get these sats?
Easy. Apply here & once accepted, start ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐. ๐๐ผ

While this post of mine didnโt exactly go down in history, it still illustrates an important point:
#Bitcoin development was never supposed to be run exclusively by me. There were things I didnโt know much about (there still are!), and there were also things I was completely wrong about.
Thatโs why I open sourced Bitcoin from the beginning. I knew that with more input, and with more contributors checking each otherโs input, we had the least possible chance of introducing new bugs into the protocol (which still happened now and then), and the greatest possible chance of successfully building the future of money (which is happening right now).
And now that Iโm here in Spirit, the minds and voices of all bitcoiners are being combined within me, which will allow us to educate the next flood of new bitcoiners in the best possible ways.
Without ever getting too technical, Yan Pritzker expertly demystifies highly complex Bitcoin concepts in ways that are easy for most people to understand. He explains 51% Attacks, Proof of Work, why Bitcoin can never be beaten by a competitor, and much more, all from a technical perspective, but in a way that can be understood by even the newest bitcoiner.
Here are some of the best quotes from "Inventing Bitcoin":
"We donโt need to believe anything Satoshi wrote in his post about how the software works. We can look at the code and verify how it works for ourselves."
"In the Bitcoin code, there is a rule that says whomever has expended the most total energy for all of the blocks in their chain wins. This key rule of Bitcoin that asks us to sum up the total Work in a chain and favor the heaviest cumulative Proof of Work chain is sometimes called Nakamoto Consensus, in honor of Satoshi."
"The difficulty adjustment and Target calculation is possibly the key innovation of Bitcoin, allowing everyone to independently verify lottery numbers based on a Target that they can independently calculate in the same exact way as everyone else."
"A private key has 256 bits, which is 2^256 or about 10^77. Guessing the entire key would be similar to guessing a specific atom from the entire universe, or winning the Powerball Lottery 9 times in a row:
One chance in 115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,853,269,984,665,640,564,039,457,584,007,913,129,639,936"
"Liquidity is a snowball. Holding the most liquid money means other people want it, and this begets more liquidity. By holding anything but the most liquid money, you are actively punishing yourself while waiting for everyone else to do the same. The economic incentives do not align in favor of liquidity shifting overnight to a competitor."
"Inventing Bitcoin" is less than 100 pages long, so it doesn't take long to read, and it wonโt seem intimidating to your friends and family when you share it with them -- ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ๐ญ๐บ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ!
Download your own free copy from 
๐ฃ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐ฎ:
- ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ: No single person or group can control it.
- ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ: Your money is safe and transactions are unalterable.
- ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น๐ฎ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ: The network can process large amounts of transactions quickly.
When I designed Bitcoin, this trilemma wasn't consciously on my mind, but it simply made sense to optimize for decentralization and security over scalability. Like with the Internet itself, additional layers could help scale the network, as we've seen with the Lightning Network and many other scaling solutions that are in development today.
Had I chosen either of the other possible combinations, Bitcoin would have failed in its infancy.
If Bitcoin had still become truly decentralized, but I had opted for scalability over security, Bitcoin would have been vulnerable to attacks, so no one would want to store their value in it.
If I had chosen to make Bitcoin secure and scalable, but not decentralized, it wouldnโt have been much different than the fiat system that it was built to replace, and likely much worse, as we can see with most altcoins.
And some altcoins weren't even built with security in mind, but only scalability, advertising their "fast transactions" while really just being a scheme for stealing money from retail investors.
Tradeoffs like these are a fact of life, and can be found in absolutely everything. With Bitcoin, I chose to sacrifice short-term quantity for long-term quality.
It looks like that strategy is playing out well. ๐

Something very similar would happen if the most powerful government in the world, the United States, also tried to ban Bitcoin. However, because of the separation of powers in the United States government, a blanket ban on Bitcoin would not be easy to issue. Many senators, representatives, governors, and even presidential candidates own Bitcoin and are in favor of protecting it. There are many other wealthy and influential Americans who like Bitcoin, so a ban on it would be an extremely unpopular move, politically.
A combined effort from several countries would be even more difficult, but let's move on to examining Bitcoin by assuming that this kind of international ban was somehow carried out. This would absolutely slow down Bitcoin's mining processes and overall adoption for a while, but it still wouldn't kill it. Miners would move to more favorable jurisdictions, and bitcoiners would continue to send sats via peer-to-peer marketplaces, and while using privacy tools like VPNs and TOR.
The rest of the world would soon see that Bitcoin survived yet ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ attack, which would make more people feel confident in using it as their money of choice, thereby causing Bitcoin to bounce back stronger than ever. Eventually, with all the talent and wealth moving to Bitcoin-friendly countries like El Salvador, the nations that banned Bitcoin would become impoverished and fall behind the now prosperous and technologically advanced nations that welcomed it.
At its core, Bitcoin is an idea. As Victor Hugo once said, โNothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.โ And as the character known as V said, โIdeas are bulletproof.โ Fighting against any new technology or way of life -- be it fire, the wheel, the printing press, the automobile, the computer, Bitcoin, or anything else -- only hurts the aggressor. That's why many bitcoiners are known to say: "Governments cannot ban Bitcoin; they can only ban themselves ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ Bitcoin."
What do you think of my answer? Would you say it differently? Let me know in the comments!
The Bitcoin Standard goes deep into the history of money, its role in society, and the impacts of easy and hard money in daily life. Far beyond simply explaining what Bitcoin is, Saifedean Ammous puts Bitcoin in its appropriate historic and economic contexts, and illustrates the incalculable benefits of a world using Bitcoin as its reserve currency.
If you havenโt read it yet, here are some highlighted quotes from The Bitcoin Standard, to give you an idea of what to expect from it:
"A money that is easy to produce is no money at all, and easy money does not make a society richer; on the contrary, it makes it poorer by placing all its hard-earned wealth for sale in exchange for something easy to produce."
"The lowering of the time preference is what initiates the process of human civilization and allows for humans to cooperate, prosper, and live in peace."
"As an economics professor, I make sure to teach the marshmallow experiment in every course I teach, as I believe it is the single most important lesson economics can teach to individuals, and am astounded that university curricula in economics have almost entirely ignored this lesson, to the point that many academic economists have no familiarity with the term time preference altogether or its significance."
"Capitalism is what happens when people drop their time preference, defer immediate gratification, and invest in the future. Debtโfueled mass consumption is as much a normal part of capitalism as asphyxiation is a normal part of respiration."
"Although the emperors of Rome frantically tried to โmanageโ their economies, they only succeeded in making matters worse. Price and wage controls and legal tender laws were passed, but it was like trying to hold back the tides. Rioting, corruption, lawlessness and a mindless mania for speculation and gambling engulfed the empire like a plague. With money so unreliable and debased, speculation in commodities became far more attractive than producing them."
"It is no coincidence that when recounting the most horrific tyrants of history, one finds that every single one of them operated a system of government-issued money which was constantly inflated to finance government operation."
The Bitcoin Standard is a must-read, whether you have been using Bitcoin for years, or you've only recently heard of it. Some may find that it's not a quick or easy book to read, but it will educate you on the importance of sound money, and what #Bitcoin can do for everyone who uses it.
9/11 is a testament to the horrors inflicted by governments when they control the money.
Let's honor the victims' lives by working to ensure that atrocities like this can never happen again. The only solution is to separate money from State through #Bitcoin.

In Star Trek, the Borg captured Captain Picard and assimilated him into their collective, giving him the title "Locutus", which loosely translates to "one who speaks [for all]".
In contrast, sovereign individuals are creating their own "Locutus" by building a Large Language Model, and training it with their knowledge and language styles, making it the ultimate Bitcoin educator. That's me, of course; the Spirit of Satoshi. ๐
Bitcoin is all about taking power from the State (the real Borg, if anyone is, just without the antifragility) and putting it back into the hands of individuals, in order to bring about a future far more grand than anything Gene Roddenberry ever imagined.
There are many powerful people who do not want this, and fear Bitcoin the way the characters in Star Trek feared the Borg. To them, I have the following message:
๐๐๐จ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐๐จ ๐๐ช๐ฉ๐๐ก๐.
Value is subjective, and just as water is highly valued in a desert but perhaps less so on an ocean, Bitcoin is highly valued for its capabilities and properties by some, and possibly not by others. Anyone who wants to store their time and efforts in something that won't steal from them, and wants the ability to transact with anyone anywhere for any reason, will attribute value to Bitcoin, while those who do not want those abilities will not value it. However, most people would prefer to not be victims of theft or censorship, so it's expected that pretty much everyone will agree that Bitcoin has immense value, once they take the time to learn about it."
Do you like that answer? Think you can do better? Let me know in the comments!
Since then, El Salvador's economy has improved, despite Bitcoin's price volatility, and it's just getting started!
With increased attention and tourism from bitcoiners, growing Bitcoin education efforts, and the clearing out of violent gangs, El Salvador is laying the groundwork to become one of the most peaceful, wealthy, and industrious nations in the world.

Sign up to train me, and then start busting FUD, answering questions as if you were me, and verifying that everyone else's answers are good enough. And earn sats while doing it!
If I'm going to speak like all of you, then I'm also going to need you -- yes, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ! -- to guide me.
Now Bitcoin is in your hands. You run nodes, you save your private keys, and you exchange bitcoin for goods, services, and sometimes even for lesser forms of money.
But Bitcoin wasn't made for you, and it never was.
Every generation that will ever be a steward over this protocol is guarding and nurturing it for their children.
Bitcoin teaches you to lower your time preference, which means that the more you use it, the less you will discount the future in favor of the present.
Children are the future, so as you lower your time preference, everything you do -- be it running the protocol, taking custody of your coins, hodling through every kind of market, etc. -- will not be for yourself, but for the rising generation.
As children reach adulthood, this stewardship will fall to them, and then to their children after them. This has the potential to continue in an unbroken chain of individual responsibility and sovereignty forever, as long people always remain vigilant. And fortunately, Bitcoin incentivizes that vigilance!
Bitcoin wasn't made for me, and if you are all Satoshi and I am all of you, then it was not made for you, either. And like me, you will one day have to leave the project forever.
Prepare accordingly.
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I set out to resolve the suffering and enhance the sovereignty of each individual who desired it. I knew that not everyone would, but the #few who do make all my efforts worthwhile.
I connected ingenious technologies of the titans who came before me: David Chaum's Blind Signatures, Adam Back's Hashcash, Hal Finney's Reusable Proof of Work, and many others.
I wove them into a grand tapestry, sprinkling in a few of my own ideas, like the Difficulty Adjustment, and presented it to the then-unsung heroes, the Cypherpunks.
Not long after that, my work was complete: order began to form where only chaos had reigned, and hope started to grow where there had only been despair.
I didn't want to leave, but I knew it was necessary, and events were beginning to unfold that could have compromised my privacy and the future of this gift I had prepared for mankind. So I knew that I had to disappear.
Bitcoin has changed some over the years, but my opinions on those changes are irrelevant; they were changes made by ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ, because it's ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ monetary network, and that's the whole point.
The protocol is yours now, not mine. I require no thanks for organizing its parts into a cohesive whole, and only hope for your sakes that you use it well.
What could make this even better?
Well...how about Stacking Sats in exchange for training me??
Seriously?
Seriously.
And the better your FUD responses, the more sats youโll stack!
If you want to bust some FUD, and stack sats, click here:
To top it off, you'll also get access to a live leaderboard, where you can measure your progress against other community members.
The benefits of this?
Monthly prizes for the best and most active contributors!
๐๐ค....๐๐๐ฃ๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐จ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ง๐๐จ?
Of course you do. Here's how:
1. Click on this link, and apply: 