Choosing between bitcoin and gold to protect your long-term purchasing power should be an unemotional decision, grounded in logic, with the interests of your future self in mind (a single-player game).
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Thread.
1/ Gold solved sending value across time.
Bitcoin solves for both time AND space.
2/ Both gold and bitcoin cannot be artificially synthesized.
But bitcoin is more easily authenticated.
3/ The physical nature of gold comes with security, storage and insurance costs that scale linearly with value.
Compare this with securing a 256-bit number.
4/ It should also be noted that what we deem 'money' is not static.
Money is technology that changes over time.
5/ Creative destruction is the process of entrepreneurs out-innovating incumbents, rendering them obsolete, under a free-market.
The dominant tech forces of today were once new entrants that dematerialized a previously physical good or service
6/ Money is not immune from this process, it evolves over time as new forms offer stronger incentives.
7/ As store of value assets compete in the same environment, even a slight advantage will result in a disproportionate share of the spoils.
8/ The winner will also drain part of the monetary premium from all other stores of value.
9/ Technology gets obsoleted, money gets demonetized. We've witnessed this throughout history.
Case Study:
India’s adoption of a silver standard from 1835-1893 while the trading partners upgraded to gold
10/ We now have over a decade of data from which to identify a trend and draw a conclusion.
You be judge, after all- it’s your purchasing power.
11/ In summary:
first-principles > emotions
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Satoshi Nakamoto cites 8 references in the Bitcoin white paper. Each one uniquely influencing the design of the Bitcoin protocol.
In this thread we’ll explore what they are and why they’re important.
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0/ First, for context, it’s helpful to understand that the Bitcoin protocol combines several existing tools, technologies and systems in a highly novel way.
1/ ‘b-money’ by Wei Dai is the very first reference listed. Dai was also one of the first people contacted by Nakamoto.
“efficient cooperation requires a medium of exchange (money) and a way to enforce contracts.
I describe a protocol by which these services can be provided.”
This thread is a compilation of selected quotes from @Breedlove22’s interview w/ @lexfridman: Philosophy of Bitcoin from First Principles.
Clocking in at 4hrs, it’s an unbroken chain of logic, crystalizing the importance of Bitcoin as an innovation for society.
0/ Quotes are organized according to the following topics-
(although the conversation spans much more)
1/ “When you look at the system of capitalism or the system of communism, there's ideals. And a lot of people argue that in [it’s] perfect form it would actually be good for the world.
The question is how resilient are they to the corruption of human nature?”
Taken from ‘Economic Facts and Fallacies’ by @ThomasSowell, the Open-Ended Fallacy lays out the dangers of causes, movements and campaigns whose advocates disregard the limited nature of time and resources or the reality of trade-offs.
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1/ “Who could be against health, safety, or open space?
But each of these things is open-ended, while resources are not only limited but have alternative uses which are also valuable.”
2/ “No matter how much is done to promote health, more could be done. No matter how safe things have been made, they could be made safer. And no matter how much open space there is, there could be still more.”
Selected quotes from Part II of @FossGregfoss’s salient paper:
‘Why Every Fixed-Income Investor Needs to Consider Bitcoin as Portfolio Insurance’
0/ “Bitcoin is the best asymmetric trade I have seen in my 32yrs of trading.”
1/ “Owning Bitcoin does not increase portfolio risk, it reduces it. You are actually taking MORE risk by not owning bitcoin, than you are if you have an allocation.
It is imperative that all investors understand this, and I hope to lay out the arguments why..”
2/ “The GFC just transferred excess leverage in the financial system to the balance sheet of the governments.
Perhaps there was no choice but there is no question that in the ensuing decade, we had the chance to pay down the debts that we had pulled forward. We did not do that.”