Thread by @gladstein

Some thoughts on the @saylor / @jack fireside:

On Bitcoin's global impact, Jack says it's important for there to be a world currency where "decisions in Washington don't impact people in Nigeria"

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Saylor brings up the Blocksize Wars and says he didn't appreciate their significance when he first learned about Bitcoin but now realizes how critical they were.

Jack points out how remarkable the outcome was given that Satoshi didn't have to get involved.

Jack mentions that in Bitcoin, "nothing is hidden"

This is, IMO, one of the most important parts about Bitcoin.

Everything is open and knowable. There are no smoky back rooms.

Jack mentions the "noble incentives" of the Bitcoin network

IMO he's describing how in Bitcoin, when everyone simply pursues their own self-interest, they end up helping everyone else.

This is NOT how it works, obviously, most of the time.

In telling the founding story of Square, Jack talks about financial inclusion.

How can we help people anywhere participate in the economy?

It's no coincidence that he's focused on an open, neutral, non-discriminatory monetary network.

He says they integrated Bitcoin into Square in 2014, but it was too early.

They were the first public company to talk with the SEC about BTC, and ended up adding BTC to Cash App.

It challenged "absolutely everything: security protocols, legal, compliance, engineering, product"

Jack says one of his proudest moments has been to see Cash App recently integrate the Lightning LDK project that Spiral has been working on for years to allow users to connect to the Lightning Network.

Jack: if Bitcoin had existed before Twitter started, I think we'd have seen different business models without a dependency on advertising.

We'd see fewer problems with privacy and surveillance capitalism.

But we didn't have this currency yet, forcing us into dangerous models.

Saylor: the benefits of adding Bitcoin to your business include global compatibility, peer-to-peer commerce without undue credit card processing fees, with total transparency.

Jack: "I can see the fees that Bitcoin imposes on me, and I can understand why... whereas in corporate finance, these tools are all in a black box. You can't see how they work or how they are priced."

On NFTs: "we have the right question, but the wrong answer"

He says finding ways to support artists is key (and behind all of Block's work with Tidal), but currently NFTs have "the wrong foundation"

Jack: when we put Bitcoin in Cash App, no one believed that it should be there, folks thought we were reckless and irresponsible.

But you "power through" and the market responded.

Cash App has, as of today, sold more than $10 billion of BTC.

Jack: "BTC gets a lot of knocks vs ETH in the media regarding speed of development. But it's a question of the ultimate outcome of those moves. Bitcoin is very deliberate about what goes in and what stays out. Slower things tend to last and be more predictable and secure."

Saylor: Unlike stock, "if I ever have any questions or doubts about Block, I can always take my layer 3 assets to layer 2 and even layer 1 and pass them along to my grandchildren"

Jack: "I just fired up an antminer in my house. It's chugging away, and Slushpool sends Bitcoin to my Muun wallet and then I can go buy a taco. It changes everything. No banks or governments. I could see and understand every single step along the way."

Jack: "A lot of our future is probably happening in El Salvador right now that is not evenly distributed yet. It may not be the manifestation you see now, but what's happening there is likely going to rhyme with what happens across other countries in the future"

Jack, pointing to the success of the open-source LDK project now powering Cash App, strongly suggests that companies consider supporting open-source Bitcoin development.

Jack: "There's a ton of lessons with Libra and Diem. They tried to create a currency that was owned by Facebook. Probably for the right reasons. There are also some reasons that might indicate simply just getting more people into FB..."

"They did this instead of using an open protocol like Bitcoin. There was a lot of wasted effort and time when they could have instead worked on making Bitcoin more accessible for people around the world which would also benefit their messenger product..."

"We have this protocol now, it's usable now.

We have to be open to not owning the thing to get value from it."

Great way to end the talk and the thread ✌️