"The line of differentiation between the masses and the Remnant is set invariably by quality, not by circumstance. The Remnant are those who by force of intellect are able to apprehend these principles, and by force of character are able, at least measurably, to cleave to them. The masses are those who are unable to do either." - Albert Jay Nock Today we read an incredible piece posted in the Atlantic Monthly nearly a century ago, in 1936. Libertarian author Albert Jay Nock explains the nature o...
Oct 01, 2021•1 hr 6 min
“As Gall’s Law suggests, we believe the general principle favoring Bitcoin’s layered architecture is not one of software engineering so much as engineering entirely in general, yet as elegantly applied to software.” - Only the Strong Survive Listen to Part 1 if you haven't yet! https://traffic.megaphone.fm/CSN7556187630.mp3?updated=1632359979 Part 2 https://traffic.megaphone.fm/CSN8589484720.mp3?updated=1632533362 Completing our journey through the incredible piece from Allen Farrington & Bi...
Sep 28, 2021•55 min
"Lyn Alden captured this well in her excellent piece, An Economic Analysis of Ethereum, which we highly recommend in addition to our own. Similarly observing that there does seem to be a lot of “financial” activity on Ethereum, specifically: it’s what you would build if you were trying to replicate finance just by looking at it but not really understanding what the point of it all was" Listen to Part 1 if you haven't yet! https://traffic.megaphone.fm/CSN7556187630.mp3?updated=1632359979 Today we...
Sep 25, 2021•1 hr 40 min
"The consensus is what matters. The breakthrough of proof-of-work and the difficulty adjustment is far more about harnessing energy and existing communications infrastructure to calibrate incentives than it has to do with computation. Computation is a tool that makes the process more efficient and reliable, but Bitcoin is not itself a 'computer.'" We start our dive into the incredible piece from Allen Farrington & Big Al, on the complete philosophical, technical, & social case for the un...
Sep 23, 2021•1 hr 32 min
“Sandwiched between Guatemala and Honduras, El Salvador — the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America, with an average GDP per capita of around $3,500 — is a most unlikely ground zero for a financial revolution.” - Alex Gladstein Gladstein is back with the full story of Bitcoin and El Salvador. What it's like on the ground, the people it all started with, the responsibility we have as a community, & the history that gives much needed perspective to the actions of the p...
Sep 21, 2021•1 hr 39 min
"Schumpeter would have loved Bitcoin. He would have seen in Bitcoin a living representation of his theory of capitalism, so often quoted but rarely understood. Creative destruction is the process by which capitalism continually rejuvenates itself. It is what drives markets forwards, constantly being refreshed with new ideas that destroy extant structures and erect better ones in their stead.” - Prateek Goorha & Andy Edstrom Today we are digging into the evolution of the economy and the cycle...
Sep 17, 2021•1 hr 6 min
"we often hear the U.S. dollar called an “exorbitant privilege.” Namely, that the U.S. benefits disproportionately from the dollar’s reserve currency status. This article will detail why the current financial system has, in fact, been a burden on the United States, why the fiat dollar system is ending and what that means for the future of Bitcoin." - Ansel Lindner What if the dollar fiat reserve system isn't actually a great privilege, but is actually a burden that wears on the US success and gr...
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 10 min
"For those with the curiosity to look, Bitcoin has emerged as a vast and mysterious space to explore, with treasures, dangers and untold potential. And similar to the Statue of Liberty’s beautiful but no longer true invitation, bitcoin beckons those who are tired, poor and yearning to breathe free to enter its realm and bask in the light of its gifts." - Tomer Strolight Why choose Bitcoin? Why Bitcoin is the new frontier. Why and how Bitcoin uses energy. Why everything that should hurt Bitcoin, ...
Sep 14, 2021•2 hr 11 min
"the fact that bitcoin is now legal tender in a country is absolutely astonishing. Yesterday, some nerds discovered a system that allows magic internet money to emerge by sending messages back and forth. Today, a country decided to adopt this system as their currency" - DerGigi Today we cover an excellent little piece from DerGigi that takes a step back and puts the news of legal tender in El Salvador into perspective. This isn't just another bullet point, this is a key step in the realization o...
Sep 10, 2021•30 min
"There has never been a more secure, scarce, valuable, transportable, decentralized and networked asset in all of humanity’s history. It’s more mobile than gold. It appreciates faster than property. It’s supply is fixed unlike stocks and bonds. It’s payment network is faster and cheaper than Visa’s" - Akarsh Nalawade With Lightning exploding on the scene and becoming the default means of interaction with the Bitcoin system, legal tender going live in El Salvador, the massive hash rate migration,...
Sep 07, 2021•42 min
Proof of stake, versus proof of work. Isn’t POW super wasteful, while POS is the cost free alternative that obviously is as equally secure? Are we throwing hashes into the wind for no reason, or is there something fundamentally wrong with this comparison? Find out in Episode #6 of Shitcoin Insider. Subscribe to the show, don't forget to check out Bitcoin Audible for tons of other deep dives into the nature of Bitcoin and Proof of work vs Proof of Stake, and check us out on Twitter here . (Link: ...
Sep 06, 2021•1 hr 49 min
"Long before we had the Bitcoin energy debate, we had the gold resource cost debate. The contours were similar: the costs associated with gold refining and extraction were a waste; they were too great relative to a mere fiat standard in which notes could be printed for virtually nothing." - Nic Carter Great piece today from Nic Carter published on Bitcoin Magazine. The energy cost debate of Bitcoin might not be quite what it seems to be. And we can take a lesson from history by understanding the...
Sep 04, 2021•50 min
“Farzan and her family traveled by foot, car and train thousands of miles through Iran and Turkey, finally making it to Germany in 2017. Along the way, dishonest middlemen and common thieves stole everything they brought with them, including their jewelry and cash. At one point, their boat crashed, and more belongings sank to the bottom of the Mediterranean. It’s a tragic story familiar to so many refugees. But in this case, something was different. Through it all, Farzan was able to keep her bi...
Sep 02, 2021•59 min
Dave Smith has finally done a Bitcoin episode! For those of you who missed this, I am making it available on my own feed and for those of you who do not know Dave Smith, he has the best podcast on libertarianism out there. It is absolutely one to check out if you haven't yet. Check out the links below to watch this episode on youtube, or explore the other great content on Part of the Problem. Part of the Problem with Dave Smith: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAqs3DOXqCc https://podcasts.apple....
Aug 30, 2021•1 hr 11 min
"Bitcoin fails as a money b/c of its naive monetary policy. Many people think government printing too much is evil, so a fixed money supply must be good. The reality: a money that cannot expand would crush the economy and put us all in poverty. Here’s why and how to fix it." - Natasha Che Today we have a fun one to go through. A twitter thread by Natasha Che who was eager to explain why Bitcoin's monetary policy would ultimately lead to economic destitution and poverty. A prime example of "I've ...
Aug 24, 2021•56 min
“This technology goes around blockades and government restrictions, it allows you to move value without trusting anyone, it connects you to the world, and it allows you to empower yourself and do things that are otherwise impossible,” he said. “It has created hope for those who want change.” Today Alex Gladstein takes us on another Bitcoin journey around the world, this time to Cuba. A communist regime where dissent is illegal, where 70% of the value of the currency is stolen by the government i...
Aug 19, 2021•1 hr 28 min
"By all extant metrics in security system review, this system should have failed instantaneously, at every possible layer. And, to be fair, it has failed at other layers – BitCoin thefts have occurred, in the meta-code that surrounds the core technology itself. But the core technology actually works, and has continued to work, to a degree not everyone predicted. Time to enjoy being wrong. What the heck is going on here?" - Dan Kaminsky Today we read an excellent blast from the past by legend Dan...
Aug 17, 2021•34 min
"And it’s easier to sensationalize things for pageviews or political gain. For example, it’s commonly said that the Bitcoin network uses more energy than some countries. That’s true, but then so does Google, Youtube, Netflix, Facebook, Amazon, the cruise industry, Christmas lights, household drying machines, private jets, the zinc industry, and basically any other sizable platform or industry. From that list, Bitcoin’s energy usage is the closest to that of the cruise industry’s energy usag...
Aug 12, 2021•2 hr 7 min
"Bitcoin is a network, a money, a language, a system of rules, & a clock. Bitcoin is backed by Truth" - Guy Swann Links to other works mentioned in the show today for further digging and study of these concepts in detail. Plus a really funny clip on the ridiculousness of the English language: Dergigi's "Bitcoin is Time" https://bitcoinaudible.com/bitcoin-is-time/ Gallagher on the English Language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfz3kFNVopk Shelling Out: The Origins of Money: https://bitcoin...
Aug 06, 2021•1 hr 3 min
The word “fiat” is growing more aggrandized in the modern lexicon, however, despite its increasing popularity it is often ill defined or misused. I regularly observe people falsely call Bitcoin a fiat currency. This is thanks, not least of all, to the layman’s poor grasp of history and money. Fiat is of Latin origin, meaning authoritative sanction; a decree, command or order. Fiat does not mean “backed by nothing” or “redeemable for nothing” or “pegged to nothing.” - HAC A walk through the histo...
Aug 03, 2021•1 hr 7 min
"Here's the deal with the US infrastructure bill: A new provision has been added that expands the Tax Code's definition of "broker" to capture nearly everyone in crypto, including non-custodial actors like miners, forcing them all to KYC users. This is not a drill" - Jake Chervinsky The government is trying to sneak in an incredibly arduous and expansive redefinition of the tax code that could be interpreted as so broad to essentially encompass every computer and piece of software running in the...
Jul 31, 2021•40 min
"Many tellings of El Salvador’s story have largely overlooked and understated the role of the Lightning Network. But make no mistake: any country could have adopted bitcoin five or eight years ago. The base layer hasn’t changed much. The new ingredient, the innovation that has made this possible and is opening up all kinds of possibilities for the future, is Lightning.” - Roy Sheinfeld Today we dive back into Lightning in another excellent article from Breez Tech founder Roy Sheinfeld exploring ...
Jul 29, 2021•52 min
“Independence is financial,” Abukhdeir told me. “If we don’t have financial freedom, nothing is going to change.” - Alex Gladstein Another brilliant addition to the Gladstein series from Bitcoin Magazine. Gladstein has been investigating Bitcoin's benefits for people all over the globe, those in the first world, the third, connected to the modern banking system, the entirely unbanked, those stuck under oppressive regimes, monetary colonialization, & behind walls of political tyranny. Today h...
Jul 26, 2021•1 hr 53 min
A great piece today detailing out the different kinds, the nuances & the long history of inflation. What misconceptions do we still have about inflation? What are the major correlating factors? And what can we do to protect ourselves in different environments? All this and more in another of Lyn Alden's incredible pieces from her investment newsletter. The Ultimate Guide to Inflation: https://www.lynalden.com/inflation/#investing Check out tons of other great works & discussion at Bitcoi...
Jul 22, 2021•1 hr 32 min
"Owning bitcoin is often put in contrast to owning stock in a company that produces a good or service. In virtue of the company producing a good or service and receiving money for the good or service, stock in that company is said to have intrinsic value. Methods of calculation of the intrinsic value of a stock usually involve calculating the value of the assets the company has and/or the expected future earnings. Bitcoin is not a company and produces no goods or services — so it lacks intrinsic...
Jul 20, 2021•37 min
"For decades, economists have pointed to 17th-century tulipmania as a warning about the perils of the free market. Writers and historians have reveled in the absurdity of the event. The incident even provides the backdrop for the new film Tulip Fever, based on a novel of the same name by Deborah Moggach. The only problem: none of these stories are true." - Lorraine Boissoneault What if every single time Bitcoin critics derided the Bitcoin phenomenon as nothing but market madness, a mirror of the...
Jul 16, 2021•39 min
"Bitcoin (BTC, the currency) in its current form can scale – enough to process every txn in the world! It just needs the right combination of layer2s." - Paul Sztorc What would it look like if we could use sidechains today to scale Bitcoin to the worldwide payments capacity? Paul Sztorc, proponent and developer for Drivechains & BIP300 to bring this model to the Bitcoin ecosystem, lays out his vision for a future with the Thunder Network; sidechains with heavier data throughput to bridge to ...
Jul 13, 2021•1 hr 19 min
"Of course, “developing your own cryptosystem” is the purview of only cranks and researchers, so it was reasonably assumed that none of these “altcoins”, as they were called, could ever be plausibly presented for public use. Boy, were we ever wrong on that one" - Andrew Poelstra How did we find ourselves in an environment where people copy/paste "crypto tokens" on a daily basis, and foundational cryptographic infrastructure is tossed around like casino chips? Prior to the days of Bitcoin, no one...
Jul 07, 2021•1 hr 33 min
"Perhaps Bitcoin can help Americans reflect on our history and remember that our true glory, in Adams’s words, is “not dominion, but liberty,” and that our true march is “of the mind” and not the sword." - Alex Galdstein Happy Independence Day fellow Audionauts! This is the day to celebrate the American experiment and the ideals which it sought to achieve. An ideal of "all men created equal," individual liberties, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and so many more revolutionary principles ...
Jul 05, 2021•1 hr 9 min
We had an awesome discussion on Twitter spaces, getting some major Bitcoiners and Libertarians together to talk about the tools available to us in the endless fight for liberty, & why Bitcoin should be at the center of it all. Hope you guys enjoy this discussion as much as I did, and sorry for the minor audio hiccups and lack of censoring. As an open discussion there is some language so don't have your kids around if you don't want them to hear. Thanks to @BranchFloridian for putting this to...
Jul 02, 2021•2 hr 51 min
