Bitcoin and Crypto and DeFi and Sometimes Ayn Rand

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Dean,

That's too cryptic for me.

I don't know what you are talking about.

But then again, I just now finished watching a couple of episodes of Agents of Shield with my stepson, so maybe my frame is off.

If you think exploding I-beams with aluminum and kerosene are dangerous, you should see what gravitonium can do.

That's where my head is right now...

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Dean,

Also, I looked up baneling and I understood even less.

 

Are you making a reference to come kind of creature in World of Warcraft? Does this have something to do with the magic box with lights?

Woe is me... I feel so outside...

And if I sought out a wizard? Would that help?

 

Michael

[deanwins]

I'm currently re-reading a book, "Blood of The Fold", by Terry Goodkind.  Its part of the fictional Sword of Truth book series... where a guy named Richard kicks ass while seeking truth and defending himself, friends, and the innocent.  (The author is influenced by Rand).  A "baneling" in his books means, translated to Christian: "a person who serves the devil". See also his meaning of "the wizards first rule":

The mind is ruled by psychological biases. Such biases twist the mind into believing some things are true, when they are not. Two of the most powerful biases are hope (or, described differently, optimistic belief that something may be true) and fear. When someone hopes something may or may not be true, such as that a friend did not betray him, then he may actually believe in a lie told to him by another, or told to himself, that the friend did not betray him, when in actuality the friend did. Similarly, when someone fears something may or may not be true, such as that one is not competent enough to fill one's job responsibilities, then he may actually believe that such is true. Instead of allowing biases to twist one's brief, one must try and escape the effect of the biases and determine the actual truth of a situation.

Baneling, Terrorists, Witch, all mean the same thing... a person who serves evil.  A term commonly used (with false accusation) by power seekers to create fear (control) and eliminate threats to their power.

"US killed over 4.5 million people since 9/11".  Hmm, emergency call 911. 911. 911.  Fear fear danger danger, need gov to protect me.  Friend government, allways my friend protecting me.  Or else whole metal buildings will fall through themselves as if all their beams had been exploded simultaneously.  And all of my neighbors will want to kidnap my kids and shoot them.  Yay go team America, world police! Here to save the day from terrorists! Since the day of "danger call the government for help" the mercenaries killed 5 million of them!  Magic from the lips of the mainstream media made metal beams fall through themselves due to kerosene in the minds of their slaves.

==========

Many sheeple are mercenaries enforcing the slavery of their brethren.  From my best judgment, its impossible to convince the sheeple that our current money system is the root of evil and we need to switch to free market competition of money.

I tell my friends IRL... I know of only three ways to greater freedom, either: 1. Most of the sheeple die (which the powers that be seem to be working towards severely reducing herd size) or 2. Bitcoin technology disrupts the centralized monopoly money printing, which bypasses the need for large numbers of sheeple to die. 3. Move to the "frontier", which in the future includes places beyond Earth.

Bitcoin technology might be able to create a prevalence of free market money, despite the power mongers' wishes.  Then most sheeple will stop being mercenaries for the power mongers... since the power mongers will have less to bribe with.  There will still be the old religious leader mind tricks... but that is a much smaller and easier problem to defend against.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

3 hours ago, deanwins said:

I'm currently re-reading a book, "Blood of The Fold", by Terry Goodkind.

Dean,

Just an aside, I haven't yet read any of Terry Goodkind's fantasy stories. But I devoured his modern Angela Constantine works with great pleasure. It's a shame he developed her as a character late in life because there are not many books he completed (two novels and two novellas). Dean Koontz said he wished he had come up with the idea of a character being able to look into someone's eyes and see the murders they committed.

I found his style a bit drawn out at times when setting up the payoffs. But payoffs come in grand style. He sure luvs him some rape and blood and comeuppance to evil.  

I know I am going to have to go through Terry's fantasy books before long. It's almost a crime I have not read one yet seeing how there is a Rand connection. But also because he's a damn good author.

Anywho, just want to comment on Terry.

I'll get back to Bitcoin in a bit.

 

btw - Thanks for the baneling explanation. If you look at it from a wide lens, baneling is very similar to the esoteric certainty that James Linday talks a lot about these days when he talks about gnosticism and hermeticism. In case you have not seen a Lindsay lecture, I cannot recommend him highly enough. I made a thread to present some of his stuff and discuss it here: Reason, Faith and Gnosticism as Epistemology.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Really cute and mostly right.

I'm not sure about that "majority" part, but then again, I'm still learning this thing. As it stands, I don't think there is any way to change Bitcoin at root. Everything I have studied goes in that direction.

Still, you can get the main concept here in a cute, easy-to-understand manner.

And don't forget, billionaires, lots of billionaires, own Bitcoin. Not to mention El Salvador accepting it as legal tender.

Bitcoin is what Midas Mulligan could have and should have invented if Rand had lived longer and written Atlas Shrugged in current times.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Heh...

Simple, but true and effective.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

If only they know back then...

I hope the pizza was good.

 

Michael

[tmj]

Is the Pizza shop still there?

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I don't know when this video is from.

But it explains Bitcoin from one angle (cash) that makes it easy for anyone to understand.

I have yet to see Bitcoin explained better from that angle.

Well worth your time.

I don't know when this video is from. There is a copy here on May 4. And Peter Van Valkenburgh, the guy giving the Senate testimony, retweeted it on May 19.

But the point of this post is not the date this explanation happened.

It's that this explanation happened.

 

Watch it and you will see what I mean.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This is where it is all heading.

 

For O-Land people, did Galt's Gulch seem practical?

If not, why not?

Well, now there's a way to make it happen for real, not just in a novel.

El Salvador is leading the way, too.

Right in front of the eyes of the entire world.

To paraphrase the Bible, many look but few see.

At least so far. That will get better.

Just so ya'll know, El Salvador means The Savior.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

El Salvador is going for the big guns.

For those who are not aware, Saifedean Ammous wrote The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative (referral).

This is not only about Bitcoin, but it is becoming well known throughout the world as one of the best books on money itself in all forms ever written.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This video is hilarious.

Max and Stacey talk about communities of losers as a sign of the collapse of the dollar and fiat economy.

Another sign is the fentanyl crisis where the industrial middle class was gutted.

Another sign, of course, is the explosion of crypto shit coins.

And it's all out in the open for all to see who have eyes...

Enjoy.

 

Michael

[Strictlylogical]

5 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

This video is hilarious.

Max and Stacey talk about communities of losers as a sign of the collapse of the dollar and fiat economy.

Another sign is the fentanyl crisis where the industrial middle class was gutted.

Another sign, of course, is the explosion of crypto shit coins.

And it's all out in the open for all to see who have eyes...

Enjoy.

 

Michael

Has anyone wrote about the relationship or correlation between decentralization  ( and although I hate to say it) / diversification and freedom/humanity?  

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

2 hours ago, Strictlylogical said:

Has anyone wrote about the relationship or correlation between decentralization  ( and although I hate to say it) / diversification and freedom/humanity?  

S,

Yup.

On 5/31/2023 at 7:45 AM, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

For those who are not aware, Saifedean Ammous wrote The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative (referral).

This is not only about Bitcoin, but it is becoming well known throughout the world as one of the best books on money itself in all forms ever written.

There are lots of others, too.

Also, watch any video with Max Keiser, Michael Saylor and so on. Michael is a person who has been interviewed by The Atlas Society discussing this very thing.

 

Michael

[Strictlylogical]

8 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

S,

Yup.

There are lots of others, too.

Also, watch any video with Max Keiser, Michael Saylor and so on. Michael is a person who has been interviewed by The Atlas Society discussing this very thing.

 

Michael

I've never been the kind to take a stand against natural temporary so-called monopolies, but it seems to me that recent history has illustrated that individuals should take the time to foster a sort of local, independent, thriving economy-system, with diverse individual citizens and small businesses interacting in the real world, rather than allowing themselves through laziness to get addicted to an isolating and monolithically centrally planned set of distribution systems...

not sure if I have stated that clearly...

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

S,

There was a time when people could not imagine living without Kings and Queens.

That changed. 

 

And still the Predator Class is trying to sneak a world dictatorship of technocrats past everyone.

 

Now people cannot imagine living without money controlled by central banks.

But guess what? If the Predator Class cannot control the money supply and administration, they cannot steal it from everyone and pay for their evil plans.

No money, no honey.

It's a simple recipe...

 

Michael

[Strictlylogical]

2 hours ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

S,

There was a time when people could not imagine living without Kings and Queens.

That changed. 

 

And still the Predator Class is trying to sneak a world dictatorship of technocrats past everyone.

 

Now people cannot imagine living without money controlled by central banks.

But guess what? If the Predator Class cannot control the money supply and administration, they cannot steal it from everyone and pay for their evil plans.

No money, no honey.

It's a simple recipe...

 

Michael

Yes.  

I’ve heard it said Control the money and you control the world, but as long there is free will you cannot control the money without already controlling everyone in the world… the biggest blind spot in those wanna be psyops overlords is they do not see that in the final inch humanity will not be controlled… a desire for freedom is not a bug, it’s a  feature built into every one of us even if we forget from time to time.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

S,

There is another thing, too.

I have done a lot of independent thinking about money since I did some time running after bullshit secondary bond market deals in Brazil. 

Whenever gazillions came up, I kept asking people where the money is coming from. And nobody knew.

Here in the US, I have discovered the con the Treasury Department uses with the Fed. There are several accounts of authorized buyers of Treasury Bonds. The Treasury Department tells the Fed it wants to sell 2 bazillion dollars of bonds to Jack Oceansofgreed's authorized account at the New York Fed (there are about 17 authorized accounts to choose from). The Fed says no problem. It's on it.

Then a little dude with a computer sitting right beside Jack Oceansofgreed types in 2 bazillion dollars into Jack Oceansofgreed's account. 

Done.

Note, I did not say he transfers 2 bazillion dollars. The dude simply types it in and the NY Fed credits this account as having 2 bazillion dollars. Then Jack Oceansofgreed gives this 2 bazillion dollars (created out of nothing) to the Treasury Department in exchange for 2 bazillion dollars in Treasury Bonds, which the Fed uses as collateral for loans.

Nice job if you can get it.

 

But for us out here in Realandia, there is an immutable law of nature regarding money. Every penny in your pocket came from the hand of someone else. Every penny. That means every penny you have represents a relationship with another human no matter how distant. This relationship exists.

With Bitcoin, this relationship can be one-to-one and nobody can do anything about it. A crypto exchange is usually used, but this is not necessary for two people to settle transactions in Bitcoin. Just the two people are enough.

With dollars, you always have a third party in the relationship--the central banks (including the Fed). There is no way to exclude that relationship since the banks can devalue--at whim--the money you carry in your pocket by simply issuing more (not to mention all kinds of other schemes to skim). 

This is impossible with Bitcoin since nobody does or can issue any more--or less--than what's in the algorithm. And that algorithm has a cut-off date where no more Bitcoins will be issued, ever. And your Bitcoins cannot be confiscated by any government or other legal entity, ever. The only way is to torture you until you give up your hashes. Otherwise, they can't touch your money.

That's the beginning of true freedom.

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Self-explanatory.

And there's this.

 

Michael

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

This message is The Great Reframe.

 

Michael

[Strictlylogical]

50 minutes ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

This message is The Great Reframe.

 

Michael

Technically speaking there would be no reason why a competitor “money” could not start up, one which works using the same principles and methods as bitcoin.  I gather no one has set out to do this yet?

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

1 hour ago, Strictlylogical said:

Technically speaking there would be no reason why a competitor “money” could not start up, one which works using the same principles and methods as bitcoin.  I gather no one has set out to do this yet?

S,

Absolutely correct.

The main problem for a newcomer currency is adherence. Without an owner, they would need some kind of years-long planning the way Satoshi Nakamoto did.

Most people who think along these lines start working on it, then reach a point where they see the the potential for gobs of moolah and, although they say they will make it decentralized, they make another shitcoin.

Greed is a magnificent emotion to behold in action.

 

Michael

[Strictlylogical]

1 hour ago, Michael Stuart Kelly said:

S,

Absolutely correct.

The main problem for a newcomer currency is adherence. Without an owner, they would need some kind of years-long planning the way Satoshi Nakamoto did.

Most people who think along these lines start working on it, then reach a point where they see the the potential for gobs of moolah and, although they say they will make it decentralized, they make another shitcoin.

Greed is a magnificent emotion to behold in action.

 

Michael

We don't want no shitcoin.

Has anyone made any estimates as to whether or when Bitcoin could be hacked or compromised?  How long term is it really ?

[Marc]

11 minutes ago, Strictlylogical said:

We don't want no shitcoin.

Has anyone made any estimates as to whether or when Bitcoin could be hacked or compromised?  How long term is it really ?

The reality of Bitcoin is that it continually has withstood attacks and anyone trying to hack it and the more that anyone tries to hack it, the stronger BC becomes.

[Marc]

15 minutes ago, Strictlylogical said:

We don't want no shitcoin.

Has anyone made any estimates as to whether or when Bitcoin could be hacked or compromised?  How long term is it really ?

A lot longer term than fiat currency, stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, art  or gold