3/ In 1971 the French were so worried that the dollar would devalue as a result of exorbitant American spending on war and social programs that they sent a battleship to New York City to collect their gold.
6/ One thing kept secret at the time — and later declassified — was that the Saudis would get preferential rates on purchasing US treasuries, + they began to buy billions worth of them with their petrodollar income.
7/ As a result of this recycling of dollars back into the dollar-based financial system, the “eurodollar” shadow banking system and financialization of the world economy spiked dramatically:
9/ The effect of OPEC pricing oil in $ stretched far beyond energy markets. Countries were forced to either build export-led economies to earn $, or buy them in international markets, creating a stronger trading pair between their currency and the $:
10/ The petrodollar system put enormous pressure on the Soviet Union, which had to dig oil out of the ground, whereas the US gained the privilege of printing money to buy oil:
13/ The Saudis have supported a huge amount of global extremism, destroyed Yemen, and tortured women's rights activists all while being protected by the US.
15/19 9/11 hijackers plus Bin Laden were Saudi, but the US reacted by attacking other countries:
14/ In October 2000 Saddam announced Iraq was leaving the petrodollar system. By 2002, Iraq was selling billions of euros of oil to Europe via the “petroeuro.” In March 2003 the US + UK invaded Iraq. In June 2003 Iraq started selling oil in dollars again:
18/ The world reserve currency may not follow these models but rather may trend towards a Bitcoin standard. This could be good for freedom, peace, + the planet and bad for dictators, war, + fossil fuels.
If you liked this thread, check out my full essay!
1/ In a new @Telegraph column @jamestitcomb claims that it is "hard to argue that Bitcoin has lived up to its mysterious inventor’s early intentions as a world-changing financial protocol" and says the main outcome has been making "a small number wealthy"
🧵 on why he is wrong:
2/ To be fair, it is easy to arrive at this conclusion if you completely ignore (as Mr. Titcomb does) how people are creatively using BTC worldwide.
If you only read buzzy US headlines about Tesla + NFTs, you'll miss the big picture. I hope journalists are willing to dig deeper
3/ A lower-bound estimate of unique Bitcoin users based on exchange data (excluding p2p activity) is ~130M people. Many of these millions are in emerging markets. For example there are 1.3M users of one Bitcoin trading platform alone (@Paxful) in Nigeria:
Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work was invented to escape Proof-of-Stake financial systems, where the largest asset owners can unduly influence the rules of the game.
Thanks to PoW + full nodes, neither miners nor the biggest BTC hodlers can change the protocol.
In the coming year, we will see many people increasingly try to argue that Bitcoin should shift to Proof-of-Stake for various reasons.
This would defeat the entire purpose of Bitcoin.
Most recently, @Noahpinion argued that Bitcoin should move to Proof-of-Stake in Bloomberg.
By doing so he demonstrates that he does not understand how or why Bitcoin work.
@nic__carter did a great job dismantling his argument here:
2/ The book covers the "blocksize wars" of 2015-2017 and the two major visions for scaling Bitcoin to the world.
Which philosophy would win out, the one that prioritizes transaction volume + corporate control?
Or the one that prioritizes decentralization + individual control?
3/ This tour of the battle for the soul of Bitcoin starts with the scaling debates that began with Satoshi and revisits Gavin and Mike, Bitcoin XT/Classic/Unlimited, the DAO, SegWit, the NYA, Segwit2X, Bcash, NO2X, and the eventual triumph of a Bitcoin controlled by its users.
“Bitcoins: Can the Tinkerbell Effect Become a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?”
There are pictures of little girls wearing fairy costumes on the cover and Peter Pan quotes inside.
3/ DB: “Bitcoin’s value will continue to rise/fall depending on what people believe it is worth. This is the Tinkerbell Effect: the more believe in something the likelier it is to happen based on Peter Pan’s assertion that Tinkerbell exists because children believe she exists”
2/ “Harriet Tubman will soon grace our $20 bill… She brought herself and many other enslaved Americans to freedom through a remarkable combination of intelligence, courage, faith, boldness, diverse expertise, fearlessness, experience, strength, resilience, and cooperation”
3/ “These traits and experiences equipped her to serve in the Civil War as a scout, nurse, cook, and military expedition leader. Tubman’s commitment to liberty was not abstract, but personal and life-changing to each of the individuals whom she led on a grueling march to freedom”
1/ The Aker shareholder letter from Kjell Inge Røkke is remarkable.
Having worked in Norway since 2008, IMO this is a major step towards more Scandinavian Bitcoin discussion + adoption.
Here's a 🧵 on the letter's unexpected highlights especially regarding Lightning + privacy:
2/ Aker is a 180-year-old Norwegian corporation now launching Seetee, a Bitcoin company:
"We will use bitcoin as our treasury asset and join the community. We will be hodlers. Perhaps not as rebellious as the cypherpunks... But more progressive than most established corporates"
3/ A recurring theme in Røkke's letter is an interest in privacy.
Early on:
"I am particularly interested in micropayments and how these may enable us to avoid usernames, passwords, and our personal data being monetised with, and often without, our knowledge or consent”