It's hard to guard your time and attention when it is used as a defacto currency online. Using attention as a surrogate currency has led to all kinds of problems.

The root problem lies in the nature of coin, credit, circulation, and information. 🧵👇

Platforms harvest eyeballs and brain cycles to sell them to the highest bidder. The core of the advertisement model is combining addiction with surveillance, which destroys nuance and privacy alike.

The incentives are broken. #Bitcoin fixes this.

The internet had to use attention as a surrogate currency because conventional currency doesn't work well online. You have to use IOUs when using conventional currency, which implies credit and counterparty risk, and thus KYC.

#Bitcoin fixes this.

Cash is king for a reason. "The whole point of cash is to NOT know your customer," to paraphrase an Italian comedian. Enough with credits and IOUs. Let's use cash money again:

#Bitcoin on #Lightning⚡ fixes this.

Pseudonymity and anonymity make the internet great. But there's a problem: using conventional credit rails without identity is impossible. This is terrible for journalists, dissidents, political activists, and the underbanked.

#Bitcoin fixes this.

Yes, anonymous "troll-demons" can be a problem. Moderation is important, depending on context. If account creation & verification is free, bots and trolls take over. We have to make it costly, but IOUs do not allow for anonymous security deposits.

#Bitcoin fixes this.

Using attention as a proxy for value produces a short head: the loudest, most primitive, and most clickbaity content wins. The head can be monetized. The long tail of niche and nuance loses.

#Bitcoin and #value4value fixes this.

The model of platforms and advertisements leads to self-censorship, audience capture, and "brand safety." If you aren't being deplatformed or demonetized outright, your bank account might be frozen, or your payment platform removes funds from your account.

#Bitcoin fixes this.

Paywalls don't fix this; they break the internet. Information wants to be free, and for good reason. Trying to make files uncopyable is like trying to make water not wet. We have to disconnect price from value, and we have to re-think both.

#Bitcoin and #value4value fixes this.

I tried my best to expand on the above in "A Vision for a Value-Enabled Web" — it's far from perfect, but I believe #Bitcoin and #Lightning⚡ allow us to envision a web that could be better.

https://dergigi.com/2022/12/18/a-vision-for-a-value-enabled-web/

I wrote this, at least in part, as a response to @jordanbpeterson's comments on the problems of "anonymous troll-demons" and his suggestion to fix this issue with KYC and True Names.

I believe this is terribly naive and misguided (should be obvious if you know authoritarianism).

I wrote this *before* @jack stumbled upon nostr and @elonmusk decided to run a guerilla ad campaign for it.

Nostr has a chance of fixing a lot of things too, because it is an open protocol, not a platform.

Let me know what you think of all this, what I missed, what I got wrong, and what you think could be better.

I'm excited that many people are working on all of this. From @TBD54566975 to @Synonym_to to @keet_io to @PodcastindexOrg to @Breez_Tech to @fiatjaf, and many more.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: The future is bright, we just have a lot of building to do.

#Bitcoin + #Lightning⚡ have a crucial role to play in all of it, and I couldn't be more excited.

Onwards! 🚀

A Vision for a Value-Enabled Web

The internet never had a native currency, so it had to use a surrogate: attention.



Due to the lack of a digital native money, we had to use credit (IOUs) to send money electronically. Fraud & chargebacks made micropayments impossible.

Two models evolved:

1) "You are the product"
...which uses attention & user data as a currency

2) "Subscription hell"
...which uses credit IOUs, which requires full control & KYC, and doesn't allow for micropayments (it's always ~$5 or more, nothing else would be profitable)

You can monetize some services outright: storage and compute are easy examples, because they are scarce.

JPGs, however, are not scarce. They can be reproduced at zero marginal cost.

Because reproduction is free, a digital image or a piece of text can't have a market price. It can't emerge, because supply is infinite. I can crush the paywall and distribute it for free.

We have to disconnect price from value, and we have to think about both differently.

#Bitcoin ⚡ fixes this.

I believe that, in a value-enabled web—a web that does facilitate the free flow of payments, in addition to the free flow of data—new models will emerge that are not bound to selling eyeballs and outrage.

We should use money as money, not attention.

Of course, this is already happening. The obvious example is Podcasting 2.0 lead by @PodcastindexOrg, which allows for value-enabled podcasts.

A slightly different approach is the one of @stacker_news: every action has monetary value attached to it, making bots uneconomical.

The thing about monetary value is that it is human action distilled. Many signals can be faked or auto-generated, be it views, downloads, comments, and even content and profiles.

In other words: talk is cheap. Sats are not.

This is Day 2 for the Internet.
It's still Day 1 for Bitcoin.

...and Day 0 for the Value-Enabled Web.

A lot of people are trying to solve the conundrum the internet found itself in. @elonmusk wants to fix it. @jack understands these problems deeply and has the right ideas when it comes to fixing them.

@saylor understands that cash money brings real consequences and real cost to cyberspace, which is one piece of the puzzle.

@csuwildcat understands that we have to get the identity piece right, without having to rely on trusted third parties.


@snowden understands these problems and is on the right track, and like him, I am optimistic that we will be able to fix them.

https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1595802834611900416

Central control doesn't fix this. A new platform doesn't fix this. Protocols do.

In addition to using the right protocols, we have to fix the incentives. And for that we have to fix the money.

#Bitcoin is fixed money.


Digitally native money—money that is not credit—is a big deal. It is a big deal because infinite velocity of money is a big deal, and the removal of counterparty risk is a big deal.

There is a reason why cash is king. And when it comes to monies, #Bitcoin is the king of kings.

Attention is a Terrible Currency

Dear Crypto & Fiat Bros,
you're probably not going to believe this, but I was you once.

I thought that #Bitcoin was stupid.
I thought that "crypto" was the future.
I was wrong.

Here is what changed my mind:

I didn't understand what Bitcoin was or why it was important, because I didn't understand what money was or why it was important.

That's also why I was easily fooled by shitcoins.

https://twitter.com/dergigi/status/1488118850730270727/video/1

I got rekt, and I learned.

I learned that money printing is unproductive and immoral. I learned that #Bitcoin was different. Independent from the centralized exchanges that are doomed to fail.

Mt. Gox was my first lesson.

https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1593598776312225793/video/1

But it took time. A single lesson was not enough. I had to touch the stove twice.

I was fooled by a supposed boy genius, not realizing that promises and technobabble were just the curtain to hide the boy's money printer. I got rekt & I learned.

Ethereum was my second lesson.

Once I realized that it's all money printing in disguise, my view on #Bitcoin vs. "crypto" got stronger.

I slowly turned into a "toxic" maximalist.

https://twitter.com/PaigeErlich/status/1375975568303398912/video/1

Bitcoin & shitcoins are opposites.

Bitcoin removes seigniorage.
Shitcoins re-introduce it.

Bitcoin removes the Cantillon effect.
Shitcoins re-introduce it.

Bitcoin removes trust.
Shitcoins re-introduce it.

https://twitter.com/BitcoinClip/status/1592978343615664128/video/1

It's absolutely disgusting to see regular people get rekt. It's absolutely disgusting to see hardworking people lose their life savings. It's absolutely disgusting to watch shills & shitcoin apologists discourage self-custody and humble stacking.

https://twitter.com/dergigi/status/1524120517279686658/video/1

Yes, bitcoin crashed. Just like it did in the past. Yes, BTC price is down. Yes, purchasing power was lost. But the Bitcoin system did not crash. Price crashed because of greed and complacency.

Bitcoin isn't volatile. Humans are.

https://twitter.com/dergigi/status/1538191819409870851/video/1

Bitcoin is best understood as a force of nature, like the tide, or the rising of the sun.

Your opinion on it doesn't matter. The tide will come and go, the sun will rise and set, and Bitcoin will produce a new block.

Every 10 minutes.

https://twitter.com/dergigi/status/1594295524496064512/video/1

That's why #Bitcoin is different.

That's why it's Bitcoin, not blockchain.
Bitcoin, not crypto.
Bitcoin, not DeFi.
Bitcoin, not yield farming.
Bitcoin, not centralized neo-banks that sell you fractional-reserve paper bitcoin.

Bitcoin.

https://dergigi.com/2022/11/19/dear-crypto-fiat-bros/

Dear Crypto & Fiat Bros

It's easy to dismiss the #Bitcoin mantras as just memes:

• Stay humble, stack sats
• Not your keys, not your bitcoin
• There is no second best

Let's unpack them one by one:

Stay humble: don't trade, don't use leverage, don't over-extend yourself.

Stack sats: provide value, spend less than you make, save in bitcoin.

https://twitter.com/PaigeErlich/status/1375975568303398912/video/1

Not your keys, not your bitcoin

Bitcoin is a digital bearer asset. The power of bitcoin stems from self-custody, from holding your own keys. Take control. Your words, your keys, your coin. No more excuses.

https://bitcoiner.guide/wallet/mobile/

https://twitter.com/thecryptoc0up1e/status/1590729992409059329/video/1

There is no second best

Satoshi's invention is singular. It is the discovery of digital scarcity. Ignore the noise of "crypto." Focus on bitcoin.

Read:
• Bitcoin Can’t Be Copied
• Bitcoin, Not Blockchain

https://bitcoin-resources.com/series/gradually-then-suddenly/

https://twitter.com/dergigi/status/1506989855116562447/video/1

Bitcoin provides sanity in an insane world. Whether it's the rug-pulls of crypto, or the zero-reserve and negative interest rate insanity of the fiat system, #Bitcoin is the antidode.

Your keys. Your node. Your sanity.

https://twitter.com/StarfuryFlames/status/1570370877346451457/video/1

You can look at the markets or you can look at fundamentals. No matter what you look at, one thing should be clear: #Bitcoin is the signal. "Crypto" is noise at best, and blatant scams and pyramid schemes at worst.

It is not too late to take seriously what bitcoiners have been saying for years. We are still very early in the monetization process of bitcoin.

The important part is to get started, taking it one step at a time. Download a wallet. Take self-custody.

https://twitter.com/therationalroot/status/1582053898491408387/video/1

Yes, it is overwhelming. Yes, it is new, and alien, and strange, and confusing—at first. But there is no free lunch. You will have to put in the work. You will have to take responsibility. You will have to take ownership & control.

There is no other way.

https://twitter.com/thecryptoc0up1e/status/1588915098122616832/video/1

The Mantras of Bitcoin

Welcome new #Bitcoin maximalists!

Times like these are learning opportunities. Wipe away your tears, take a deep breath, and repeat after me: "I will stay humble. I will not use yield. I will hold my own keys."

If all you did up to now was click buttons on exchanges, it's time to build a solid base and understand the difference between bitcoin and "cRyPtO," as well as fiat shitcoins.

Nobody is beyond redemption.
Bitcoin is for anybody.
Bitcoin is hope.

https://www.hope.com/en/content/bitcoin-for-everybody

The next step is to get a deep understanding of money and the asymmetric opportunity that #bitcoin represents.

Nobody does a better job of explaining this than Vijay. There are good reasons to be bullish on bitcoin, and it's not memes & lambos and moon.

https://bitcoin-resources.com/books/the-bullish-case-for-bitcoin

By now you should understand that #Bitcoin is not about quick riches, but about freedom & self-sovereignty.

Bitcoin is a protest, a lifeline, and a way out. But you have to use and understand it properly.

https://twitter.com/reason/status/1357756578787708931/video/1


If you had extra money to spare to trade & farm yield you are probably more privileged than most, so always remember to stay humble and check your financial privilege.

Bitcoin is our only chance against financial totalitarianism.
Act accordingly.

https://bitcoin-resources.com/books/check-your-financial-privilege

Back to fundamentals: it helps to deeply understand the basics of #Bitcoin to build up the necessary conviction to hodl through these crashes.

Yan's book is an excellent resource for that:

https://bitcoin-resources.com/books/inventing-bitcoin

Another excellent book to deeply understand the basics is Kiara Bickers' "Bitcoin Clarity," which takes a more visual and systems-thinking approach to explaining things.

It is fantastic, and I believe that anyone can understand it.

https://bitcoin-resources.com/books/bitcoin-clarity

You probably fell for a lot of FUD on your journey so far, still thinking that #Bitcoin is slow or old technology or BS like that.

Rid yourself of this broken thinking by
a) using Lightning, and
b) reading Layered Money by Nik:

https://bitcoin-resources.com/books/layered-money

That's it!

Remember that maximalists are your friends and here to help. If you are willing to learn, that is. Check out bitcoiner.guide for various guides and tutorials when it comes to choosing and using wallets, and always remember:

Not your keys, not your coins!

My personal recommendations are completely unchanged, as is my conviction, and my approach in general:

• Don't trade
• Provide value
• Spend less than you make
• Save in bitcoin (stack sats)
• Hold your own keys & use privacy best practices

https://dergigi.com/2020/04/27/dear-family-dear-friends/

Podcasts are another great way to learn. I try to keep a list on bitcoin-resources.com which is a general entry point, among many others.

I know it's a lot. Take it one step at a time. We all made mistakes along the way. The important part is to not repeat them.

Good luck! 🧡

A Vision for a Value-Enabled Web

Attention is a Terrible Currency

Dear Crypto & Fiat Bros

The Mantras of Bitcoin

Welcome, New Maximalists!