@ Jakk Goodday
2023-08-05 11:02:13
How long have we lived with the term Bitcoin as a Store of Value (SOV)? The financial sovereignty, that is...
Among those who are aware of the system's problems, they often accept Bitcoin as an asset that will preserve their value over time. The question is, how many of these people are there in society? The society we call the Matrix...
Yes, there are still few.
Not to mention how to store it safely, that's even fewer. We can see that the demand in the past mainly came from 2 groups. The first group is the SOV group, and the other is the profit speculators. Other groups were just a sprinkle. In early 2022, when the price of Bitcoin started to decline, I couldn't imagine what the next wave of demand would come from. All I knew was that in that downturn, Bitcoin often had new developments.
I mean... the desire to own Bitcoin, not the trading demand that would cause the price to skyrocket or anything like that.
Until, if I remember correctly, it would be the second half of 2022... The wonder of the Lightning Network began to occur continuously in the Bitcoin community worldwide, including in Thailand where we also helped push it to this day (actually, it existed before that, especially after the big event in El Salvador, but it wasn't so prominent).
Lightning makes the world of Bitcoin full of possibilities. From static money held for wealth, money saved for children and grandchildren that has always been stigmatized as not even enough to buy noodles at the front of the alley, it has become convenient money that today begins to stick in our hearts everywhere (I mean in the group of people who accept Bitcoin, of course).
Bitcoin used to be "difficult" for everyone. Transferring in and out each time was a headache, our hands were shaking. But today, many of us know that we can take the smallest unit of it to pass on to each other, whether it's for fun, to express feelings, to flirt, or to buy and sell things, etc., as we saw at the BTC2023 event, right?
https://i.imgur.com/W3D1pdk.png
It's just stuck... If we don't count the easy-to-use general usage, system management, or running a Bitcoin Lightning node, it makes us feel like we have to be god-level to do it. Understanding its working mechanism is also not easy.
When it's like this, I think to myself... Hmm... It probably won't take much longer for people to learn, understand, and familiarize themselves with this new technology.
But I believe... This is not impossible. It's not that hard. What we need is a ***"method or approach"*** to present or disseminate knowledge that the general public can access and grasp more easily.
Right Shift is being propelled in a direction that will make the "choice" of accepting Bitcoin more tangible, a direction that leads to the "actual use" of Bitcoin in scenarios where it becomes a "Means of Payment," a new alternative for those with free hearts.
We coordinate and collaborate with various partners, including our brothers and sisters within the community. Besides the value that won't easily diminish over time, the real value that we can actually utilize is overwhelmingly pleasing to our hearts. Those who have experienced it themselves probably won't argue much with me on this matter.
But there's something that has always made me feel... this is still not enough.
Offering a choice for people to shift their mindset from "hoarding" Bitcoin more than eggs in a nest is one thing. Issues of privacy or Non-KYC is another. Starting with Custodial services is another. Educating is hard enough, and creating a balanced demand-supply is even harder.
We once made businesses support Lightning to a great extent, but no one ever knew where to get Lightning to buy things, and how to buy it?
Once people started doing it, they looked for places to buy, and it turned out that the supply, the entrepreneurs, couldn't keep up. They stumbled and needed considerable assistance to start. Not to mention legal matters, accounting, taxes... See? Our work is not just about making videos.
If you look at the whole picture, this task is much bigger and longer than we thought (by "we" here, I mean everyone in the community aiming for the same goal).
https://i.imgur.com/t0sJ4ju.png
So, we, the main partners like Right Shift, LATES, BOB, and Chitbeer, and many more, will probably have to spend time driving and spreading these stories further. We hope to receive excellent cooperation from our friends in our community.
We are planning to tour various places, maybe universities, schools, malls, provinces, etc., wherever people want to learn about Bitcoin. We will organize on-site courses similar to what happened in El Salvador, arrange events for people to try using Bitcoin, and we would be delighted to have volunteers who want to push with us... But then, today...
Not long ago... I found a third option.
If starting interest from the investment side, saving, preserving, or accumulating Bitcoin, and using it seems too hard for most people,
What if we try to shift the perspective, starting with what they are already familiar with, easily accessible, and can have fun with first? Will acceptance be easier and more logical to plunge into the next rabbit hole or not?
I didn't let myself drown in doubt for too long, so I touched it myself immediately... And the answer is... It's really true.
We just switch from mainstream social media that is causing us more pain every day to a new society that is like the true root of the online community. This way, it seems easier to move on... Why do I think so?
The society on a decentralized protocol grants us, as users, almost complete freedom. In all honesty, it's no more difficult than setting up a Lightning wallet, something we've all done before.
Every day, tens of thousands of us click 'like' on Facebook countless times, expressing our satisfaction with a creator's work or a friend's post. Sometimes, we're not even sure if we genuinely want to do it.
What if we change from 'like' to Zap!?
How much economic value is circulating there (currently, there are more than 12 BTC Zapped on Nostr)? It's not just us who have to go and Zap others. If you do well, benefit the community, even a laugh can get it. Others are ready to Zap you all the time as well.
You can use it without linking to a Lightning wallet. The question is, how can you experience expressing satisfaction or receiving it instantly as Satoshi's value?
Yes.. with such a situation, it's inevitable that people will have to learn and understand Bitcoin and Lightning, at least at a basic level.
https://i.imgur.com/qJddift.png
But this time, their motivation isn't for wealth or prosperity, not financial domination, or solely technical prowess.
It comes from a desire to participate in a society they want to be a part of. It comes from a desire to appreciate or admire someone's work that has benefited them on Nostr. It comes from the joy of living freely in a new land, and so on.
On the creator's side... Instead of losing money, time, and physical energy thinking about content day and night, finding ways to get people to see their posts, waiting for the money that the platform might withhold for another month, and avoiding annoying algorithms and constant changes,
Now, they just invest their value into their content, post it for their followers to definitely see, and receive 'thank you' in the form of Sats instantly.
They can present their content piece by piece without waiting for it to be finished. They can present any form of content there.. The users are the same. This is the activity of passing on value to each other, called ***"Value for Value"*** on Nostr.
When V4V becomes something they enjoy, they will start to delve deeper into Bitcoin as time goes by. They will want to own more of it. How else could it be? They just don't like it and are looking for other options to accept it.
So.. Now, do you think the Network effect on Nostr or in real life will be stronger and faster?
Honestly, we don't have to choose. We don't have to decide which direction we will push acceptance.. whether to save, to educate, to use it occasionally, or to experience a new life on a social media society like Nostr.
We should push it together in every way, because it's all beneficial to our Bitcoin society. It's beneficial to everyone who will try to touch it, and it's beneficial to people in the next generations.
Bitcoinization, which used to be just a dream, is about to happen in not too long. Now, I can start answering my initial question. What should the demand come from? It should start from our interest first.
Interested enough to try to touch it in every aspect. Take the rotten fiat money on your fridge and turn it into Lightning for a bit, then let it slide on Nostr.
In 2023, our choices, the world's choices, are not just SOV or Lightning anymore.. which either way, it's good for Bitcoin.
It's opening wider than we think. . . // Author by: Jakk Goodday