Hello from one of the biggest Bitcoin mines in Norway! 🇳🇴 ✌️

It was a pleasure to visit KryptoVault's Hønesfoss site today to see the impact that CEO Kjetil Hove Pettersen and team are making by harnessing running water to help defend open-source money for people worldwide
One thing I learned from Kjetil is that in addition to helping to secure the global Bitcoin network--which tens of millions of people rely on everywhere from Cuba to Iran to Palestine--they are also assisting local communities in Norway, like our friend here, a local lumberjack
Norway's sustainable forestry industry (Norwegian forests grow by about 25 million cubic meters of timber per year) often dries lumber in the summer sun, taking 2-3 months.

But here, using excess heat from Bitcoin mining, wood takes as little as 4 days to dry
This is just one example of BTC mining's unexpected positive externalities.

Soon, the site will act as a drying site for the Norwegian seaweed industry.

The vision that Kjetil and team have for supporting local business is fresh and inspiring
One thing that amazed me about this mine is how quiet it was.

When I pulled up to the exterior of the warehouse, I couldn't hear a thing.

Which was surprising, as a few years ago this particular site was in the news for being hugely loud and causing noise pollution.
But Kjetil and team figured how how to noise-proof the operation, eliminating this negative externality from the community.

Inside, the equipment is still plenty loud 😅
This current mine is outfitted with S19 ASICs, which are about three times as efficient as the older S9 units, which you see here.

They still work perfectly fine and will be deployed shortly to a new site up North where the remote and stranded electricity is much cheaper
It's quite the experience to sit next to the hum of these peaceful, water-powered machines and realize that they are part of the infrastructure of a growing, open-source, decentralized, unstoppable monetary network that is acting as a lifeline for millions of people worldwide
I also appreciate how Kjetil and team are thinking about how to give back to their community, something I think will eventually spread to many more mining sites across the world.

Talk about tech for good, and about doing well by doing good!
And in case you are interested, this company between its three hydro sites in Norway constitutes around three tenths of a percent of the global hashrate.

Their ambition is to get to 1%… it will be a challenge but godspeed!

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More from @gladstein

Feb 12
This @ecb paper on CBDCs reveals what kind of plans central bankers are toying with:

-Overcoming use of banknotes for savings
-Overcoming ZLB with negative interest rates on cash
-Easier ability to provide helicopter money
-Larger seignorage income to the state
-End to privacy
Full paper: "Tiered CBDC and the Financial System"

(H/T: @HaggsBoson)

ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps…
I would point out that these “benefits” are mainly monetary, for the state. Ending privacy is nice for them but they have bigger aims

Satoshi knew
Read 4 tweets
Feb 1
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"

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.
Read 20 tweets
Jan 30
1/ Democratic Peace Theory rests on the idea that democracies have “skin in the game” when it comes to war and are less likely to fight than autocracies unless for a narrowly-defined, popular, vital cause.

This book by @sekreps argues convincingly that this theory is broken 🧵 Image
2/ History shows that over time representative governments—especially in this case the US—inevitably turn to financing war through *borrowing* instead of through taxes or war bonds, hiding the immediate costs of war from a public that is less and less interested in war fighting.
3/ America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (and the ongoing Global War on Terror) were — unlike WWI or WW2 or even Vietnam — paid for *entirely* by borrowing.

Bush even cut taxes during the Iraq War.

So far Americans have paid ~ $1 trillion on interest for this borrowing spree.
Read 7 tweets
Jan 29
1/ I recently finished "The Lords of Easy Money," a superb new book from @CLeonardNews on how over the last three decades the @FederalReserve financially engineered a system of cheap borrowing and inflated asset prices with shocking consequences 💵 🧵

simonandschuster.com/books/The-Lord…
2/ Many people don't believe the Fed has much power over society, saying for example, they just "follow the market."

This book gives strong evidence to the contrary, showing how Fed decisions shaped the American economy--and American society more broadly--to a significant degree
3/ The book focuses on quantitative easing, showing how the Fed used QE post-GFC to basically take away savings accounts of banks by buying up tons of 10-year Treasuries, removing "safe" assets and forcing the economy farther out on the yield curve into riskier investments.
Read 70 tweets
Jan 26
1/ "The development of payment gateways and online stores and adopting BTC as a payment method in physical spaces led to a $ in BTC listed higher in Cuban pesos than a $ in cash for the first time"

🧵 on what Cubans are doing with Bitcoin 🇨🇺 ⚡

eltoque.com/products-and-s…
2/ **Paying for Apple+, Netflix and Spotify Premium**

-More and more homes are able to access a stable internet
-VPN use is widespread
-One can use BTC to pay for streaming services via services like @bitrefill
3/ **Transfers to international bank accounts**

-Using services like @QvaPay, one can top up their account with BTC and transfer funds to a US bank account
-Outside of cryptocurrencies, this isn't structurally easy, as the Cuban financial system is designed to trap value
Read 10 tweets
Jan 26
1/ Big-brained @Slate journalists write that Bitcoin is "just a crappy tech stock" and think that its purpose is "absolutely nothing"

Where to begin?

First, Bitcoin has completely destroyed tech stocks over the past decade.

AMZN is up 16x since January 2012.

Bitcoin? ~3,500x
2/ Unlike tech stocks, Bitcoin is open to anyone in the world with an internet connection.

It is open and inclusive technology, and cannot exclude by its very nature.

Palestinians, Cubans, Iranians, and Nigerians can't buy US tech stocks -- but they can buy Bitcoin.
3/ Unlike gold, BTC can teleport anywhere on earth instantly and cheaply, courtesy Lightning.

And unlike gold most BTC is held by individuals, NOT governments + big banks.

It's not centralized in one place and thus can't be demonetized or have its spot price suppressed for long
Read 9 tweets

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