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@ max pain
2024-09-02 04:03:29Zero:
"We will restore the republic, and we will make America and bitcoin bigger, better, stronger, richer, freer and greater than ever before. Thank you all. Have a good time with your bitcoin and your crypto and everything else that you're playing with..."
With these statesman-like words, President Trump declared his endorsement of bitcoin in front of many bitcoiners, politicians and wall streeters. Among other things, Trump affirmed his support for the right to self-custody as well as a dollar stablecoin within seconds of each other. This speech may or may not mean much, but it signals that "they" have arrived. It, whatever it is, is happening.
But the fact is, we've never needed Trump to keep bitcoin buzzing. Arrows and sparks are always flying around, skirmishes abound. For eg: the developer community has been discussing a plethora of new, esoteric opcodes that enable covenants, improve lightning but also other "wizardry". Saylor has been going on about bitcoin as a treasury asset and a "triple maxi" store of value, inventing bigger & bigger numbers no one knew existed. Meanwhile, our "public servants" have not been quiet either. For the past couple of years, bitcoin businesses were attacked through Operation Chokepoint 2.0, but 2024 started with the prophesied spot ETF approvals. Something had changed – it opened the doors to bulls, bears and other animals from wall street who have since crashed the bitcoin party. We also have now seen a bitcoin strategic asset bill in US Congress as well as prosecutions of multiple crypto developers for nebulous crimes within a span of a few months. Meanwhile, Whitney Webb and Mark Goodwin have been publishing steamy exposés & dirty laundry of one sinister party after another to an enthralled audience, who consume it vociferously then suppress it immediately, like some true crime episode.
However, bitcoin continues churn out one block after another, detached like a yogi in a battlefield. Perhaps Satoshi himself is one such yogi. But most of us are not yogis, including yours truly who finds all this bewildering. The fact is, bitcoin community today is a melting pot of cypherpunks, politicians, wallstreeters, developers, regular plebs and more. Quite the motley crew, with conflicting perspectives, incentives and objectives, often at loggerheads with each other.
This should not be a surprise, since Bitcoin is a versatile force that animates in many dimensions. On one hand, it must become peer-to-peer electronic cash; on the other, the fount of property rights for 8 billion people. Bitcoiners must innovate tirelessly towards a cypherpunk dream but also become the ark of refuge for corporates and governments in an inflationary deluge. 1) what.
Bitcoin is the bull. Bitcoin is the honeybadger. Bitcoin is a conflict of visions.
One: Bitcoin for Billionaires (to be continued)