After Jamie Dimon's recent CNBC comments at Davos, I've decided he's an Inverse Bitcoin Maximilist. He says blockchain is okay and that there are two types of cryptocurrencies: those that might "do something" and then there's the one that does nothing, "the pet rock, the bitcoin or something like that."
So, he says that cryptocurrencies can have use cases that are real and legit, but bitcoin's only use cases are fraud, money laundering, tax avoidance, and sex trafficking.
In this way, Jamie Dimon is the opposite of a bitcoin maximalist. Maxis say bitcoin is the only true coin, all the others are poopcoins. Dimon says the others are the true coins, bitcoin is the poopcoin. He's an inverse maxi.
Trying to figure this guy out, I guess the only options are:
  1. He has no clue. Like Warren Buffet or Charlie Munger, I think he's intelligent, but for some reason there's a tick in his brain that disallows him from "getting it." By "getting it," I'm referring mostly to the hard money properties of bitcoin and main use case of value storage over time. It seems simple to me...that fact is the main bitcoin use case. A use-case doesn't need to be immediate. Buying a coffee is a use case, yes, but so is waiting ten years to buy a thousand coffees. His talk gives evidence to possible cluelessness. He said the 21,000,000 supply cap might actually not be finite (how do we know?) and that Satoshi (mispronounced) might just pop back up (in 100 years) and wipe out all the bitcoin. Umm...okay.
  2. He totally has a clue, but he's a puppet to banks. As CEO of a major bank, maybe he absolutely gets it and understands bitcoin as a threat to the current banking model. Maybe he understands that if enough people also "get it," they'll also realize that they don't really need him and his bank. In this way, he's not acting entirely irrationally.
  3. Or, to be fair, maybe it's just that he's right and we're all wrong.
Since Dimon just got a salary bump from $34.5 million/year to $36 (gotta pay for that inflation dawg!), I think #2 is the most likely option. For $36M/year, I think a lot of people would happily be a mouthpiece sock puppet for the paycheck-writer and say bitcoin is a "pet rock." I would.
As an aside, I just love how says bitcoiners "do bitcoin." Never thought of it that way, but okay.
Doing bitcoin
He'll end up doing bitcoin at the price he deserves.
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probably already has some, just not gonna tell the world lol. It's always do as I say, not as do with those jokers and liars
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Yeah, him, Warren and lots of others are probably closet holders.
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Maybe he gets it and is blowing smoke, but he has every incentive not to get it and to dismiss it out of hand.
Understanding bitcoin takes humility, time, and effort. It's really easy to dismiss if you're not genuinely curious and wanting to learn. I think the simplest answer is that he sees no benefit in giving bitcoin a fair shake, and he's deeply invested in a system to which bitcoin is anathema.
If he really understood it, could he not find a better FUD than illicit usage or "Satoshi will reappear an magically mint new supply?" I think he could get more mileage from "Ponzi" or "boil the oceans" - those at least take significant background knowledge to properly debunk. This is no 200 IQ play imo.
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42 sats \ 0 replies \ @Kaffi 20 Jan
which is why im SHOCKED that Joe from CNBC gets it and im wondering if im on the right side of history. I noticed a few years ago when he was lowkey defending bitcoin and now he is standing up for bitcoin in front of Jamie.
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Exactly. If he got it he'd have better FUD. Well said.
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I once told my son, when he was much younger, that mirrors were portals to a dimension called inversero where everything occurs exactly as on earth but in the inverse. It was one part me messing with him and another part a creative thinking/imagination exercise. Even at a young age he was quite skeptical but we have had some fun with it over the years. (Aside: take the time to do silly stuff with your kids)
My son is now 13 and could likely explain the physics of photons of light bouncing off a smooth surface at the same angle way better than I could, so we haven't made reference to inversero in years now. But it was the first thing I thought of when I saw your post. So,
a) thanks for rekindling a fond memory b) I am slightly dumbfounded by the fact that in inversero we all hate bitcoin and Jamie Dimon loves it. Good thing it doesn't exist. At least I hope it doesn't.
Great post.
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In the star trek universe there is a dark universe that is kind of like Inverso. They call it the "Terran Empire" universe and all the federation's good guys are bad guys over there.
IN fact, all series of star trek have had their casts visit this inverse universe and most of the 1st season of ST Discovery was a fight between the the federation & terrans.
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Reminds me of BMO and Football in Adventure Time. They have a really unnerving episode where BMO gets trapped in the mirror world, but it's all disconnected. Only the areas you could "see" through the mirror existed, everything else is a void
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Unfamiliar with that but sounds like a fun episode.
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I love this:
(Aside: take the time to do silly stuff with your kids)
Inversero sounds like a fun place. Sounds fun too. Proof-of-not-working earns you all the benefits in life! Sweet.
A favorite game of mine was to ask the kiddos something like, "Which doesn't belong and why?" A snake, an aardvark, a dolphin, or you?
My "correct" answer would have been something like, "The snake. All of the others are mammals." Of course, there's no exactly correct answer. But the why makes them think. It was fun to hear their reasons and, of course, to argue whatever points came up. For instances, they might say, "Dolphin, because the others live on land," yet, "There are some snakes that live in the ocean." "But those are sea snakes, they're different!" And we go from there.
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That's awesome.
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Oh, forgot to mention...
Your Inversero world reminded me of the Kirsten Dunst movie "Upside Down." I enjoyed that movie.
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Have not seen it.
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My thoughts... with your #2 I think he's a liar and he's taking the piss. Pronouncing it wrong = red flag tactics for piss takers, in my book. That and say something utterly ridiculous to make people doing said thing look like idiots who are going to end up loosing their money. Of course, there might be some gullible people go "oh yeah, that Satashi person is gonna come out of the woodwork and delete everyone's coins and say haha the jokes on you guys" I cracked up at that. Not even Japanese live that long hehehe Probably a secret Bitcoin maxi LOL Maybe he saying all that so he can put regular people off buying, so there is more for those greedy b......ds
That's just my thoughts. I don't trust any of that lot, they're master manipulators and pathological liars.
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15 sats \ 1 reply \ @freetx 19 Jan
Hmmm...well JP Morgan is the single largest shareholder in the Federal Reserve system....so I think its safe to say the answer is #2
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @xz 19 Jan
I didn't know that. Conflict of interests, slightly, one might think.
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I believe that he does understand perfectly what bitcoin is, how it works and what it is designed for, but he will be another puppet of the system and of banking, with all the contacts he must have and knowledge about many current economic issues, it is impossible for me to think that this man has no idea how bitcoin works or its fundamentals.
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"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it." -Upton Sinclair
This is like asking a dinosaur if he likes the asteroid that's going to annihilate them. The dinosaur would say: "It's just a pet rock!".
Either he understands it or not, he's the biggest banker on Earth, so he's a grifter and a liar by nature. He must know it or feel it in his bones: the end is nigh! So his lizard brain just thinks: "I'm utterly fucked, but how can I take advantage of it?"
Anyway, regardless what he says or thinks, Bitcoin doesn't give a fuck. Tick tock, next block!
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @quark 19 Jan
He probably has a huge secret bag of bitcoins. All he said is what one would say to avoid wrench attacks 😂
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bitcoin or something
  • as if he never heard about this bitcoin or something
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seen many big names in tradfi not willing to say the B word
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Right, he's definitely playing a little game with things, playing dumb at times almost afraid to say the "B" word. As to why he's doing that, not sure but I gut tells me he doesn't want to give bitcoin the credence to acknowledge it (as if bitcoin needs him or alone to give a stamp of approval).
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Like Warren Buffet or Charlie Munger, I think he's intelligent, but for some reason there's a tick in his brain that disallows him from "getting it." By "getting it," I'm referring mostly to the hard money properties of bitcoin and main use case of value storage over time.
As others have said he is invested in not getting this part.
As far as understanding bitcoin mechanics. I think it is his arrogance.
He said the 21,000,000 supply cap might actually not be finite (how do we know?) and that Satoshi (mispronounced) might just pop back up (in 100 years) and wipe out all the bitcoin. Umm...okay.
That statement about supply shows he has not even tried to understand how it works or listened to anyone that understands it.
Oh course code can be changed. I could change the code. The supply. He is so ignorant that he think Satoshi has some secret power over the network. I really don't fault him for not getting this part. But, if I didn't get bitcoin on this basic level I sure would not be talking about it in media.
I look forward to the day when no one cares what this scum bag says.
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He the most powerful bankster alive. So don't believe one word he says about a disruptive tech that is attacking his business model. He is more than smart. Careful, friends.
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A true shitcoiner! Let’s use the right words. And I already regret this 1 sat for the comment.
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He's not just a puppet to banks.... He runs the largest bank in the most bitcoin-targeted jurisdiction in the world. He's the dollars #1 cheerleader by job title.
For him to say anything at all other than bitcoin is worthless would be treason.
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Option #2. He's trying to play it off. In a way he's Bowser insulting Mario in the opening scene and at every new map of the game.
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They're literally the descendent of JP Morgan, who caused the 1907 bank panic/run, which led to the centralized federal reserve cartel (the solution to the 1907 bank run), and Chase Bank, who bankrolled the Nazis until 1933.
They pay millions in fines every year for money laundering.
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If you follow any of the writing of Whitney Webb, Jamie Dimon is not only "aware" he is one of the most well connected financial criminals in the whole human trafficking, banking / intelligence world.
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#2 what you resist, persists.
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