Many people make the serious miscalculation, that if the CPI isn't too high, then printing money isn't a problem and doesn't really cost them anything. This couldn't be further from the truth. All it means is that the cost is just that much harder to see. But if you want to look at something that is truly dominated by the fiat culture and incentives of the money, there is no better example, than finance. This is where the money printing begins, and so all of the disastrous effects of monetary...

"That dogma was necessary — without it the people who have built this ecosystem into what it is today wouldn’t have had the motivation to do so. Without that dogma, those people would not have had customers and users to build anything for in the first place. It was the foundation of everything we have around us today. Now the inevitable is happening: the foundation is cracking." ~ Shinobi Guy Swan delves into an article by Shinobi from Bitcoin Magazine, exploring the complexities of...

"On the face of it, Bitcoin’s existence seems to violate Mises’s theorem, unless a preceding non-monetary use can be demonstrated. That is, Bitcoin would have to be first valued for its direct utility before it could hold indirect exchange value. So have the criteria been met, or does Bitcoin violate the theorem?" - Emile Phaneuf You've inevitably come across the argument that Bitcoin violates Mises's Regression Theorem if you've been in bitcoin long enough, but is this really true? And...

"Hedgehog uses relative time locks. So that if they don't have to worry about closing that channel with a relative time lock, it's whenever you do close the channel, now you've got 2016 blocks to sweep the money using the pre-image. Otherwise I can sweep it after those 2016 blocks go by... And because it only uses relative time locks, it's much more delay tolerant... In the Lightning Network today, you've got hours to settle these things. And often if someone sends a zap to somebody and then...

"It's going up forever, Laura." ~ Michael Saylor I know to many people that sounds crazy, and I can still see in my mind why it sounds crazy. Today, I'm going to make the argument for why it isn't crazy, but both natural and intuitive. Also, why it *doesn't* mean what you are probably picturing in your head. I'm going to make the case today, and I hope that you walk away realizing that this isn't unrealistic at all, but is the way it's *supposed to work,* that Bitcoin is, in fact, going...

"People that are in the Western world and specifically in the United States, what they're realizing, whether they can say it this way or not, is you're watching the end of an empire. I said this for a long time, and it's not the empire is going to collapse. The empire is collapsing right now. We are in the midst of, and people say economic collapse, it's empire collapse, which means economic is part of it." ~ Jack Spirko In this episode I interview Jack Spirko, host of The Survival Podcast,...

"We know the law is unconstitutional. FinCEN knows the law is unconstitutional. FinCEN knows we know the law is unconstitutional. And yet we're supposed to pretend like nothing happened and comply with an illegal law." ~ Jameson Lopp What do we do when a regulatory agency continues to enforce an illegal law against a judicial verdict? Jameson Lopp explores the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), revealing how it mandates extensive reporting to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network,...

"You have to decide how to move forward. You have to decide what game you want to play; how much responsibility you are willing to shoulder. Do you want to stay stuck in the machine? A machine that uses and abuses you? A machine that feeds itself by extracting and devouring your time, attention, and value? Or do you have the courage to take control of your wealth, health, thoughts, and speech?" ~ DerGigi Free speech is a non-negotiable foundation for society and human progress, as the...

Guy Swann and Preston Pysh explore the dramatic shifts in global finance and the pivotal role of Bitcoin amidst rising inflation and the banking sector's vulnerabilities. They discuss how Bitcoin's growing influence could recalibrate financial power dynamics, offering a stark contrast to traditional economic mechanisms prone to manipulation and control. How might Bitcoin's ascent challenge the existing financial order and catalyze a shift towards more decentralized, resilient economic...

Fiat money has a collection of malincentives and consequences for the degrading and rotting of society. As we covered in the first part of this series, it leads to mindless consumerism and a more materialist culture. As we continue, I want to cover something else that it does by stealing the value of our savings which is our bet on the future health and capacity of society to provide for us. What happens when we are forced to bet against the future. As well as artificially lowering the price...

"The mechanisms enforcing this modern censorship are not confined to private sectors or individual platforms but are significantly directed and influenced by the U.S. government itself. This intertwining of state powers with censorship activities marks a troubling departure from traditional American values, where free speech has been held sacred." ~ Dr. Joseph Mercola The troubling and dangerous emergence of a modern censorship system has taken hold in the west. A partnership of the...

"As far as I'm concerned, there's no obvious increased danger from the CCP having control over our access or our information or even modifying the algorithm, than it is the alphabets of the world or the METAs of the world or the CIA or the FBI's of the world, like these people... as far as I'm concerned, the United States federal government is way more of an existential threat to me than the CCP. I'm domiciled here, they have the ability to fine and tax and sanction and imprison me for wrong...

"In a system that depends on irresponsible government spending (especially for perpetual war) and fiat printing to cover that irresponsibility, alarm bells cannot be allowed to work. There must be no pure price signals. ~ MacroScope In "Bitter Opposition to Bitcoin," the episode delves into the reasons behind policymakers' aversion to Bitcoin, particularly the prospect of a Bitcoin ETF. What if the antagonism has nothing to do with the openly stated claims? Does Warren actually think...

"Bitcoin will probably crash again but it is neither a Ponzi scheme nor a bubble – it’s something far worse: It is an inherently secure, tightly-controlled asset with a regulated supply, and is therefore a subversion to the whole basis of free-market financial capitalism." ~ Alan Kohler What if Bitcoin is actually much worse than a Ponzi scheme? What if it's both here to stay, but also a total subversion to the very idea of the system we are currently in? Could this be another...

"Of all measurement instruments, the clock is the most valuable because so many of the things we sacrifice to create are not fungible. The massive clock towers of Europe, with their enormous loud and resonant bells, broadcasting time, fairly across the town and even the countryside, rather than the last relics of the medieval, were the first building block of the wealthy modern world." ~ Nick Szabo Part 2 of "A Measure of Sacrifice" delves into the profound impact of mechanical clocks on...

"From an engineering perspective the mechanical clock with its novelty, the escapement, was by far the more important invention. In terms of its impact on contemporary temporal relationships, the mechanical clock and sandglass were of similar importance. The main innovations were the restructurings of the relationships themselves. Chief among these was the time-rate wage, which played a leading role the economic revolution that started in the late Middle Ages. -- During this era physically...

I'm sure you have heard the claim that without inflation and the good people running the counterfeit machine, people would never spend money and it would cause an economic crisis. But have you ever seriously considered what the consequences of encouraging consumption and materialist economic activity might actually be, and whether we really need to subsidize the human desire to use up resources? What if it degrades the very process by which we even determine what our resources are worth to...

"Whether you're a rekt crypto bro or a friend of fiat, there is one thing that is especially difficult to accept. The one thing that sets Bitcoin apart: it all works without anyone in charge." ~ Gigi The crypto and fiat bros of the world are likely in shock as Bitcoin, once again, has not died. Once again, rallies toward all time highs despite the clear "unbacked tulip mania bubble" that it really is if you ask the typical fiat and crypto minded. I think it's valuable to go back to a...

"It might feel as if the promised future is perpetually out of reach, but building Lightning is a lot like climbing a mountain. Climbers never really see the summit until they’re standing on top of it. They often can’t even see over the next ridge. Planning the ascent is important, but most of the time you’re simply concentrating on the next foothold. But the steps add up. Just like the view from the top is the reward for all that effort, a brighter monetary future will be our reward for...

"Izzy said there could be inflation in a hyperbitcoinized world. And she's right. Calm down, maxis, calm down! Explaining why this is true sheds light on yet another of Bitcoin’s quasi-magical properties and paints our hyperbitcoinized future an even rosier shade of orange. This is good for Bitcoin." ~ Allen Farrington This may seem crazy, heretical even, but inflation can occur in a hyperbitcoinized world. How could that possibly be? When there's only ever 21 million BTC? Is this nothing...

"I'm super confident that lightning is not just the present but also the future of lightning. It is the interoperability layer between all things Bitcoin." ~ Roy Sheinfeld What is the future of the lightning network and how is it transforming the Bitcoin ecosystem? Today we take a journey with Roy Sheinfeld of Breez, diving into the latest innovations in lightning, exploring the Breeze SDK, liquidity management, and the path and place that lightning will have in an open, permissionless...

"The foregoing considerations are by no means an exhaustive account of the cultural and spiritual legacy of fiat inflation. But they should suffice to substantiate the main point: that fiat inflaiton is a powerhouse of social, economic, cultural, and spiritual destruction." Fiat inflation is more than a hidden tax on everyday folks—it's the fuel for the worst parts of our system, feeding both the war monster overseas and a creeping police state at home. It fosters a culture where...

"During the peak transaction fee times over the past month, our example transaction would be dust even for .001 BTC. That’s a little less than $50 at current market conditions. This feels incredible. 100,000 sats suddenly turned into dust. Gone. Unusable. This is terrifying." ~ Joe Rodgers While we have a short respite from the crazy fees that have hit the Bitcoin world recently, there couldn't be a more important time to discuss the cost of moving UTXOs and just how to manage your...

We had an awesome chat on Twitter Spaces where we discuss the launch of Pear Runtime, bringing Paolo Arduino, Mathias Buus, David Markclem, Samson Mow, and Giacomo Zucco! We dig into what this could mean for the future of application development, the impact it will have on the tech industry, how it could disrupt monetization models, how this could be used in gaming, journalism, social media, et al, the control it will shift back to the user, and about ushering in the second coming of the...