@primal I can't seem to post a note that references another note (with the "note:" notation). Any idea why? I'm on MacOS

Pura Vida!

"Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather" These are the opening sentences of John Perry Barlow’s “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” published in Davos in 1996. You read that correctly: 1996. The precision of Barlow’s predictions is remarkable. Cyberspace is finally coming into its own with respect to its ability to withstand nationstate government intervention. It is emerging as a realm with its own rules, its own governance and its own sovereignty. Many will argue that the missing piece in facilitating this transition was #Bitcoin. “Cybermoney”, as the authors of the 1997 book “The Sovereign Individual” called it, “reduces the capacity of the world’s nationstates to determine who becomes a Sovereign Individual […] and liberates the holders of wealth from expropriation through inflation.” We are at the precipice of a new world in which nationstates will struggle to maintain their power, likely culminating in several transition crises. On the other end is a new world: a more just, more egalitarian and more humane society, with significantly greater prospects for human flourishing.

For my German 🇩🇪 #Bitcoin friends: ZEIT on Bitcoin Atlantis

DIE ZEIT

Bitcoin auf Madeira: Im Bitcoin-Paradies

Bitcoin ist so wertvoll wie nie. Auf Madeira trafen sich seine größten Fans. Sie träumen von Überfluss, Weltfrieden, Harmonie – und dem Ende ...

Learning how to move from my toddler: If you have a toddler, I highly recommend considering them your movement teacher. Children move very freely and effortlessly, without all the internal resistance and tension that we accumulate over a lifetime. I notice this in particular when I watch our daughter pick up objects from the floor. Unlike me, who bends down forward to perform this action, she effortlessly squats down. The squat, of course is the much more efficient and healthy way to do this, in fact it is one of the most essential movements and increasingly used as a measure of youthfulness by the longevity community. It is just something we unlearn. By playing with children we can slowly but surely regain our ability to move in an optimal way.

A principle that stuck with me from my time at Google was a quote from co-founder Sergey Brin that “scarcity breeds clarity”, alluding to Google’s humble beginnings in a Menlo Park garage. Being confined to a small space and limited resources helped Brin and his co-founder Larry Page focus on the essential and thus build one of the most important products and businesses in history. Today, clarity is hard to come by, both in the products and news stories we are exposed to and in our day-to-day interactions with colleagues and friends. #Bitcoin proponents will claim that the current absence of clarity in our social, economic and political lives is largely due to… an absence of scarcity. When money is not scarce but abundant, even the worst business ideas (the class of WeWork, Peloton, Snapchat, 23andMe etc.) can garner a lot of initial attention and make their founders very wealthy before inevitably returning to a more sober valuation. An abundance of bad ideas and businesses, funded through the dilution of all our purchasing power results in frustration from those who are not participating in the pipe dreams. And this frustration eventually overflows into outright hostility and political radicalization as the resulting inflation makes most poorer. Only scarce money can return an economy back to clarity and sobriety. Scarce money, not subject to arbitrary government debasement, allows for unencumbered price discovery for economic goods. #Bitcoin is the only scarce money currently in existence. Maybe, just maybe, a #Bitcoin economy will end the myopia and blurriness of our current economic and social lives and will ensure that those who are playing crucial roles in our society (nurses, teachers, artists etc.) earn their fair share again. (If you enjoyed this short read, I would really appreciate a like on my substack page: https://soirbleu.substack.com/p/scarcity-breeds-clarity)

I understand what market makers do but - why do we need market makers?

Having been right about Bitcoin may provide wealth and relative safety but it won’t provide the satisfaction many of us are hoping for: victory laps will feel out of place in the face of misery of those who thought they were pursuing real careers when becoming influencers, economists or real estate brokers

I will respect the “stay humble” part and not shove this rally down people’s throats…