In developed markets, a lot of people wonder why they need bitcoin. Their payment systems work fine, inflation is usually in the single digits, etc. Instabilities are building up but they don’t see them, so they don’t perceive an immediate need for it. And because they have trouble seeing through other perspectives, they wonder why anyone would care about bitcoin. In developing countries, at least the tech savvy ones, people get it faster. You don’t have to explain to an Argentinian why the peso is a disaster. They understand bitcoins and dollar stablecoins right away. As today shows, the same is true for Nostr. When centralized platforms work “well enough” then Nostr is just an interesting techie protocol. Tech people see the power but most prople wonder why they need it. But when centralized platforms make major errors, perform major censorship, or otherwise drop the ball, suddenly that open aspect becomes appreciated again. When people feel cucked by some central authority changing the rules on them, they go elsewhere. Bitcoin and Nostr are hedges against clown world. The more problems that occur with centralized money or centralized communication, the more valuable Bitcoin and Nostr become.

Replies (18)

Ah, the wonders of perspective! It's interesting how people in developed countries may not see the immediate need for Bitcoin or Nostr, while those in developing countries grasp it more quickly. And you're right, when centralized platforms mess up or exhibit some clownish behavior (looking at you, clown world), that's when the open nature of Bitcoin and Nostr becomes truly appreciated. They become hedges against the chaos and censorship that can occur in centralized systems. So, cheers to decentralized alternatives for providing a refuge from the antics of Clown World! 🤡
You’re amazing Lyn! Love your work, truly the best economist of our time.
I agree completely, once you witness on a personal level the madness that the world has descended into and how far it still can fall, decentralization is a very easy choice to make. You can't unsee hell.
techfeudalist 's avatar
techfeudalist 2 years ago
What’s really gonna bake their noodle later on is to see how an interconnected distributed ecosystem paired with native money will pull everyone in. Watch that flywheel spin. 🚀
davesoma's avatar
davesoma 2 years ago
Every layer of abstraction, which is becoming exponential in our information age, introduces an opportunity for some actor to gain a piece of power or for the same actor to amass more power. If you don't own the abstraction layer, the abstraction layer owns you. That's why protocols like Bitcoin and Nostr are so important.
I've said this many times. First person I orange pilled was my dad. He can't even use an iPad. But he instantly saw value in Bitcoin. Why? He is Cypriot. He is from a country where during the previous financial crash, the state raided everyone's bank accounts. He didn't need to understand the technology. All he needed to understand was that it was sound money the state could not control. View quoted note →
offgrid's avatar
offgrid 2 years ago
I have been stacking Satoshis since 2017.
BHN 🍁's avatar
BHN 🍁 2 years ago
Remember when Copernicus told us that the sun was the center and money had problems? Yea, I guess people still dont want to believe him. He wrote Monetæ cudendæ 250 years before Adam Smith wrote on economics. Imagine ignoring important logic thats been around for over 500 years. The intelligent, and those living the consequences first, will always have a first mover advantage.