Bitcoin: The Monetary Index of the 21st Century
(by @saylor)

If you look at really wealthy people, billionaires, they own buildings, sports teams, or a collection of Picassos.

That's what the wealthy use as a store of value. [1] The middle class store of value is the Vanguard 500 index, the S&P 500 index, or the QQQ [Nasdaq 100] index.

It's basically a diversified portfolio of stocks and that's been the status quo for 40 years. [1]

This thread represents 5,000+ hrs of research, curation, and synthesis to help you make sense of #Bitcoin and adjacent topics.

They're educational resources I wished existed when I began my own journey. Happy reading.
↓ The relationship between scarcity and abundance.

https://x.com/anilsaidso/status/1544541290678759426

6 books you should read to prepare for accelerating currency debasement:

1.

https://twitter.com/anilsaidso/status/1483236976895483905?s=20

2.

https://twitter.com/anilsaidso/status/1418329477440892928?s=20

Explainer thread on ‘monetary premiums’:

🖨️💰➡️💵📉➡️ 🧲 🏠🖼️💎 When Ray Dalio uttered the words “cash is trash!" on CNBC in early 2020, he seemingly broke the fourth wall.

For someone of his stature and influence within the political machine to acknowledge the chronic and unavoidable debasement of fiat currency was a clear turning point.

A beginner-level intro to #nostr: an open protocol for censorship-resistant communication networks created by @fiatjaf.

thread. Before we get into what it is, it’s probably equally as helpful to understand what it’s not.

https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1611377277954293763

20 years ago, Michael Crichton coined a term that has now become essential for navigating the incentives of today’s news media landscape:

The Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect.

🧵 Named after Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann, Crichton explains the pitfalls of observing errors in the reporting of a topic, yet trusting the same source in areas where you are less knowledgable/able to verify accuracy.

All of my beginner-friendly resources to explain/teach bitcoin.

250+ slides.
Free to download.
↓ 1. Why we use money and why all forms of money compete with one another.
anilsaidso.gumroad.com/l/onemoney

In 2018 @real_vijay published an article (now book) that carefully laid out the case for bitcoin becoming the future global monetary base.

This thread recaps the 8 attributes of a good store of value covered in the book: 1. Durability:

"In the case of fiat currencies, many governments have come and gone over the centuries, and their currencies disappeared with them.

Bitcoins, having no issuing authority, may be considered durable so long as the network that secures them remains in place."

An intro to the mechanics of bitcoin mining for beginners.

↓ Miners consume electricity from either an electrical grid or directly from an energy source.

A handful of concepts that will improve your understanding of bitcoin: Many previously scarce things are now abundant thanks to innovation: calories, textiles, information.

But scarcity in money provides the incentive to create abundance in other things, as there's a mechanism to reliably store value.

My new book is out today.

It’s a textbook full of key concepts that help explain the forces driving bitcoin’s adoption.

I put an unreasonable amount of work into it and hope the wait was worth it.

The foreword was graciously written by @JeffBooth 🙏
anilsaidso.gumroad.com/l/concepts In total, the book covers 40 core concepts + 13 related concepts.

It's written for a non-technical audience that enjoy visual explanations.

An illustrated quote thread of some basic Lightning Network concepts. “In February 2015, Joseph Poon and Thaddeus Dryja proposed a possible solution to the Bitcoin scalability problem, with the publication of ‘The Bitcoin Lightning Network” white paper."

lightning.network/lightning-netw…

This is the story of two disruptive innovations, several centuries apart, with remarkable similarities.

It teaches us the impact of technology in altering economic incentives and steering the evolution of how society is organized.

🧵 L: Jan Hus denounces the moral failings of clergy, bishops and Roman Catholic church. Burned at the stake for heresy.

R: Fed chair Ben Bernanke celebrated for bailing out over-leveraged financial institutions and ‘rescuing the economy’ in the wake of the financial crisis.

Reminder: anyone is welcome to translate any of my public work (posted on twitter) into ANY language.

Just make sure you:
∙credit me
∙don't sell it or charge people

Bitcoiners remain undefeated 🙏 Here's a great example from @Jacques_BTC who translated 'Bitcoin Terminology' into French and turned it into a video:

Allow me to take you on a journey of glassdoor employee reviews of the regional banks that make up the Federal Reserve System.

TL;DR 😐 For context, the Federal Reserve System is comprised of three key entities: The Board of Governors, the FOMC, and the 12 Reserve Banks.

Each of the regional banks serves a specific district.

Ok, enough of that, let’s get into it..

'Energy and Civilization' explores the inextricable relationship between human flourishing and our ability to harness energy through the process of innovation.

A thread on the role of energy in agriculture, transportation, communication, and urbanization. "While the transition from foraging to farming cannot be explained solely by energetic imperatives, the evolution of agriculture can be seen as a continuing effort to raise land productivity in order to accommodate larger populations."

As #bitcoin adoption continues its relentless march, so too does the onslaught of misconceptions, red herrings, and flawed arguments.

The result of ignorance, malice, or fear.

Here are the most common fallacies to be on the lookout for:

(eBook link in the thread) "Bitcoin is a radical break from the past, so understanding the way traditional money works doesn’t help you understand bitcoin.

If anything, it hinders it.

The people who understand bitcoin the least are monetary economists. They cannot wrap their heads around it."
—@aantonop

Bitcoin is an innovation in monetary technology.

thread. As humans innovate, we find ways of doing more with less.

https://twitter.com/anilsaidso/status/1546907622703476736

When Europeans were first made aware of the platypus in 1798, it was believed to be a hoax.

Such an animal defied explanation at the time.

Strangely enough, this lesson serves as the perfect analogy for why many people initially dismiss bitcoin.

h/t @CremeDeLaCrypto The platypus specimen shipped back to England (from Australia) was thought to be the product of various animals sewn together as part of an elaborate attempt to fool the public.

I'm going to teach you more about the basics of money in the next 3 minutes than most college-level economics classes. Let's start with trading one item for another, a process known as 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳. Works fine for 2 people.

But add in a few more items, and suddenly there are too many different exchange rates to keep track of.

An economy with just 6 items has 15 different exchange rates.

If you've just started learning about bitcoin, this thread will place you ahead of 95% of people.

And if you're giving a presentation on bitcoin, steal these slides (link in thread). Let's start by differentiating between 3 distinct components (although interdependent) which are often confused.

The money, the network, and the blockchain.