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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @MaaliMKen 25 May \ parent \ on: Why MSTR's Bitcoin Are Worth More Than Yours (Money Stuff, Matt Levine) econ
The criminals can actually be found if they steal bitcoins.
For example US authorities caught the guys who stole Mt Gox's bitcoins.
The thieves can run, but if the government is on your side, they really can't hide.
Especially if they keep moving the stash. Lots of variables can be tracked including IP addresses (which is how Ross was nabbed), bitcoin--dollar or even bitcoin--other_crypto--other_fiat conversion points, etc.
"But burglers and $5 wrench attackers can't get my MSTR shares, because they're not self-custodied! They sit in a database at Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, safely hidden away from kidnappers and thieves!
Ha-haaa, checkmate "decentralized" finance!"
Haha. Spot fudging on.
Decentralized Finance is all great, but centralized protection of valuable assets has always been superior.
As I argue in my book, we might reach a point where the US government, every government, decides to protect its Bitcoin and users Bitcoin -- via a GPS system for tracking the former and corporate systems for tracking the later.
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Why? Because Bitcoin can justify continued money printing. As it can capture increasing value ad infinitum with no fear of collapse from degeneracy of use (e.g. with real estate houses unused degenerate, with collateralized debt obligations in 2008 mortgages unpaid stack up and the thing collapses. With Bitcoin, if it doesn't move, that's OK. It's like gold, except super scarce so all the liquidity can channel into that and see 10x gains in the same time). Of course, if most of the debtors start to want repayment, then negotiating a new debt system while Bitcoin serves as global reserve money is a perfect way to release tensions. (And get some people paid back some money, while others chill).
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What is the threat to the BTC? local $5 wrench attacker and international BTC hackers (I called mine TZB) will need this level of corporate/ state interference. At the extreme end, this infact fuels a "Pro-individual Bitcoin reset" say if certain countries hold that much more BTC than civilians and suddenly it goes stolen by the criminal mastermind. So they'd (we'd) have to copy Ethereum's playbook here, using our permission of course, to rewind the chain. Because we (Bitcoiners) want to. If not, no biggie. The criminal goes on living nice and easy with their millions in stolen BTC (worth maybe trillions. Ouch. That's a lot of liquidity to leave to a criminal).
Otherwise, Bitcoin soon becomes a big political tool for UN politics and greater UN coalitions, as government capture makes it worthless hence collapsing fiat systems.
Governments have to be careful to ensure they play to keep Bitcoin decentralized (otherwise it will turn into Ethereum. Which I do not see participating in international politics 40+ years from now).
It is a very interesting technology -- Bitcoin.
Conclusion:
If the State (via corporations) captures it, it loses it. And the real Bitcoin will go back into the shadows. Tens of trillions of good dollars of value wiped which would have benefitted the State!
If the State (via corporations) protects it as is without pretending to own it for itself, it gains massively.
Especially if, via the LN, it finds a way to keep those Tens of Trillions of dollars circulating with its border.
Unstolen.
'Hodling Moving Bitcoin'.
Thank you @Educational_Stacker 🙏
Thank you @Riberet. Will greatly appreciate it 🙏
I had an idea to build out in-wallet video games as a side feature of wallets, and then sell these as extra software features for wallets.
Sounds a little silly, but I figure if children can associate gaming (on wallets, but they wouldn't know nor care about that yet until they were of age) with Bitcoin, they'll catch on sooner.
This way, Bitcoin moves from just being a monetary medium to also kind of being a gamer-currency true to the word. Like, gamers will be trading BTC not for in-game purchases, but because Bitcoin and gaming have developed together.
Spot on.
Monetary socialism is the way the world economy is operating right now. It has its advantages, as it would have been impossible to finance tech companies like Google or Microsoft at the speed we did, using physical gold bars.
But it has its drawbacks -- Inflation and stealing from the poor to stack the rich and their buddies near the printer.
Monetary capitalism is however now made more possible by Bitcoin. Money can go back to ALSO being private property whose minting, storage and utility follow the same rules as other goods.
Of course, like normal citizens cannot be expected by society to own tankers and bazookers, normal citizens might not be expected by society to hold market breaking amounts of BTC (Saylor will have to sell, eventually.
Even Manhattan real estate was sold and the fact that rich people got immensely rich just sitting on it is a sign of Monetary socialism and its overreach.
Nobody should have their progeny rich for generations ad infinitum just by having their name on a property.
That's really stupid. Saylor is thinking like a fiat overlord.
Say, why stop at Manhattan real estate. Might as well own the earth and charge other humans and creatures for living on it).
Each generation should proof-their-work.
This solves the Hodling-to-Breaking-Point or Hodling-to-market-supply-shocks that are detrimental to proper economic functioning.
That said, Bitcoin is the perfect ledger for tracking digital Monetary value exchanges and ensuring digital monetary property rights.
But where we need to hedge Bitcoin from challenges like power outages, solar flares, etc, gold is the best hedge for Bitcoin.
(Also, lugging around gold bars will make humans physically stronger on average. Too many people getting fat these days. Especially women whose biological drives are naturally more sedentary than men).
Bitcoin and Gold. Minimal fiat, as fringe as cigarettes for currency.
This is how we level up human economics.
This is how we cooperate on levels unimagined.
This is how we make 10x improvements in health, outlook, ambition. Even marriage will be easier as more women will be irresistible sexy bombshells who carry gold bars to buy groceries.
Moreover virgins. Focussed on serving Bitcoin society until they are of age (Like religion, Bitcoin gives a chastity life away from shitcoinery behaviour like sleeping around).
The Trump administration, by advocating for peace and setting up a BSR, is setting up the economics and the psychology for this leap.
If the Government allows itself to add bitcoin it seizes to its reserves, it will create new reasons to seize bitcoin.
Firstly, do you presume individuals can have a right to hard money while the government does not?
How are you gonna stop them?
Governments are more powerful financial institutions than corporations, hate it or love it.
We cannot stop governments from enjoying individual + corporate liberties and then some, so let's analyze whether it is good or bad to champion government ownership of Bitcoin.
It's goes two ways and imo depends on how we Bitcoiners think about the state as a construct.
If we hate the idea of government and think government getting Bitcoin funding / reserves = evil, then governments will seize Bitcoin if they want, or ban and attack it if they don't want.
I don't think anybody in this ecosystem wants that.
If we love the idea of government and want it to be efficient and work for our societies, like Elon hopes to do with D.O.G.E, then government getting Bitcoin funding / reserves = good.
Will some governments abuse this benefit of the doubt? Yes.
Can they be called out on it?
Of course.
It is how these democratic Republicans won the elections, right?
To end, I think states understanding Bitcoin = better governance for us all.
Otherwise, prepare for CBDCs and more propaganda in the news and in the ads.
And we all know it can get weirdly worse than that.
Bitcoin is trust inscribed on all transactions in the record + 1 every 10 minutes.
No other money inscribes trust like this.
I've written this story this week - https://hackernoon.com/bitcoinized-fossil-fuel
Feedback will be appreciated.