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277 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby 15 Jun \ on: The Jolly Contrarian Review Of Bitcoin Is Venice bitcoin
I love that Bitcoin that isn't abstract at all.
Satoshi wrote and released the code for software that allowed strangers to agree on the state of a ledger. Bitcoin started when he mined the first block and the network got going when someone started requesting the block history from him.
It's a voluntary system: no one compels you to use it. How much value you attach to your ability to make a specific change to the ledger is up to you...and whoever you can convince to trade with you.
One thing many of the obituaries of Bitcoin have had in common is their focus on Bitcoin in abstract. JC has written here another obituary for Bitcoin (" Bitcoin has been fixed...The utopian dream is truly over.") and I expect it will age as well as the rest for its inability to grasp the practical nature of Bitcoin.
A few notes:
There is no dissonance here. JC's gotcha (You have to trust someone else to think it's worth anything, so it's not trustless) is like saying "What if there is no electricity?" The only way one could achieve some ultimately trustless experience (as JC seems to imply Bitcoiners seek) would be in the abstract. In reality, we're swimming in trust and Bitcoiners are only looking for a way to avoid trusting our finances entirely to third parties who might turn on us at any moment (or at the compulsion of government).
At this point, I can barely resist an appeal to the midwit-bell-curve meme: left and right say having some cash under the mattress is good; midwit says
This is true for everything. It is just to say: people must want a thing for it to have value.
Finally,
Bitcoin, the US dollar, euros are not fictions that works as long as people believe in them. Using money is not like the scene in Hook where Peter suddenly begins to believe and the magical food appears so all the lost boys can have a joyful food fight. Money is a network we use and, yes, it has more value the greater its extent (the more people who use it). But it doesn't feel like people believe in money. They use it because it works. The second it stops working, they stop using it. Belief on the other hand can continue for millennia without the return of Christ. Money is not a metaphor.
While I certainly admire JC's erudition, I can't say that it amounts to much. (His fiat version of not your keys, not your coins was interesting though).
In reality, we're swimming in trust and Bitcoiners are only looking for a way to avoid trusting our finances entirely to third parties who might turn on us at any moment (or at the compulsion of government).
Excellent
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