And I'm not really worried about the custodial options. Bitcoin is permissionless, which means we can't stop custodial solutions. Our priority is to make self-custody safer and easier. As long as we keep doing this, including more great things like cashu, and the number of self-custodying users increases relentlessly, then the custodial users will gradually transition to self-custody. I just orange-pilled a friend, who's doing lots of research now, and my friend didn't even know that self-custody was an option.

Yes, we know Bitcoin is a hard asset and the idea is keeping it that way. As I said in the post, Bitcoin is permissionless, and we can't stop custodial solutions, however, we can incentivize Bitcoin treasury companies, ETFs, exchanges to provide proof of reserves by investing in only those who do. This prevents paper Bitcoinization and rehypothecation. Once people start trading non-existent Bitcoin (similar to FTX) on a large scale, then Bitcoin becomes less of a hard asset. At one point in time more than 100 times the existing gold was being traded (paper gold) which lead to massive price suppression. To your other point about merchants accepting it when they see the advantages about lower fees than Visa/MasterCard, instant settlement, no chargebacks, you are basically projecting the current state of affairs forward. Governments aren't exactly known for giving up control and embracing competition and as the post states: 137 countries and currency unions, representing 98% of global GDP, are developing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). In the not so distant future, people are going to be paid UBI deposits using CBDCs and I'm going to take a wild guess that you won't be able to use the UBI to buy Bitcoin. The whole idea of the post is for the vast majority of people comfort > sovereignty. If governments make Bitcoin very annoying to use with regulation, taxation at point of conversion, surveillance, excessive KYC with Digital ID at the exchanges, Bitcoin wealth tax, and at the same time make CBDCs frictionless, there's going to be less people using Bitcoin. Especially if this trend of paper Bitcoinization continues, and the price is suppressed for long periods of time because everyone and their mother starts a Bitcoin treasury company that doesn't provide proof-of-reserves. Again, most people are expecting for governments to just roll over and give up control. That has not been my experience, but optimism is great to have. It's great to think you're so smart and governments so incompetent, and at the same time governments are always incompetent when it comes to stealing money or rights from the plebs, and never incompetent in favor of the plebs. It's almost like these retards you see on TV aren't the actual people pulling the strings and making the decisions.