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True. Although the hooks into the brain go much deeper than that with the grand narrative web of meaning, promise of making you very rich, and slot-machine-like rewards of daily price action. https://twitter.com/6102bitcoin/status/1319621108203651072
That was the real innovation... because, practically speaking, #Bitcoin 
is a very unpopular, very bad idea — an idea that routinely loses in the free market of ideas (see Szabo below). The genius trick was making it accepted by human minds.
is a very unpopular, very bad idea — an idea that routinely loses in the free market of ideas (see Szabo below). The genius trick was making it accepted by human minds.
In other words, nothing has changed — #Bitcoin is still the same very bad idea it was then. The only reason that idea is gaining currency now (no pun intended) is because a short-term financial incentive was cleverly attached to it.
is still the same very bad idea it was then. The only reason that idea is gaining currency now (no pun intended) is because a short-term financial incentive was cleverly attached to it.
The cleverest part? The financial incentive is separated from the real-world effects of the technology, and the practical costs of the system’s operation (the downsides that make everybody think it’s a very bad idea) are externalised, paid by the rest of society.
That means that people following their atomic self-interest will pursue the course of action, keep the system operating, and advocate for it religiously, even if the net effect on society is (as almost everybody thinks it will be) very bad.
So why do people compare #Bitcoin to a religion? Because Bitcoin and religion both create ways for bad ideas to be accepted by the human mind and pursued unthinkingly, without restraint, generating mass movements of people in a potentially unadaptive direction.
to a religion? Because Bitcoin and religion both create ways for bad ideas to be accepted by the human mind and pursued unthinkingly, without restraint, generating mass movements of people in a potentially unadaptive direction.
Both hook deep into the brain, hijacking the motivational centre/limbic system with pre-programmed behaviours. The thinking mind is a long way downstream and will make up endless back-rationalisations, justifications, convincing narratives, and plans in service of the program. 
What’s the sound of bitcoin.exe trying to replicate itself? https://twitter.com/michael_saylor/status/1320325110973202436
It’s worth bearing in mind that Satoshi is probably Paul Le Roux; a legit (if wayward) genius, exact fit both for skills and utility of the system, and one of the few people with a) a very serious real-world need for anonymity and b) the technical chops to actually maintain it.
Barefaced stuff from Nic Carter. 
https://medium.com/@nic__carter/bitcoin-at-12-f6fce39cb9bb
He writes about devotion to something larger than oneself and serving long-term non-financial interests knowing full well Bitcoin is 99.9% composed of intensely individual short-term interest in making money.
https://medium.com/@nic__carter/bitcoin-at-12-f6fce39cb9bb
He writes about devotion to something larger than oneself and serving long-term non-financial interests knowing full well Bitcoin is 99.9% composed of intensely individual short-term interest in making money.
The religious language is not an accident. Nor is the use of big fancy words to convey authority. This man is transparently hacking the meaning-making centre of your brain.
Unreal... You sort of have to respect the honesty here from @tracyalloway: “ #Bitcoin because fuck truth; fuck actually making sense; fuck integrity; it’s good at recursively leveraging confused people’s hopes & dreams to manufacture a demand pyramid.” https://twitter.com/tracyalloway/status/1323416097891078145
because fuck truth; fuck actually making sense; fuck integrity; it’s good at recursively leveraging confused people’s hopes & dreams to manufacture a demand pyramid.” https://twitter.com/tracyalloway/status/1323416097891078145
When you understand that it’s fake, but that the incentive coordination and resulting behaviour is nonetheless real, *and* that there’s no way to exploit that knowledge for profit, you understand Bitcoin.
https://twitter.com/michaeljburry/status/1328446965730795521
https://twitter.com/michaeljburry/status/1328446965730795521
There’s a madness of crowds effect that comes from the way the behaviour appears to ‘confirm’ its own theory to itself, regardless of whether the theory is coherent.
I.e. By participating in the demand pyramid based on false impressions and plausible-sounding narratives that no-one is incentivised (and few are equipped) to question, the virus spreads, more people buy in, number goes up, and hooks deepen.
That madness of crowds effect is, as @tracyalloway points out, a reliable phenomenon. You can bet on it. And maybe more interestingly, you can also target it and exploit it, proactively, if you have a way to print fake dollars.
The miraculous $14 billion USDT year that Tether has had since the price of BTC cratered in March, violating the narrative, is the most undiscussed and curiously anti-interesting thing in crypto. In a culture supposedly built on verifiability, people don’t want to know. Why?
Because it serves Bitcoin. The goal of a fake-$ scam would be to manufacture real-$ demand for Bitcoin using fake demand — by painting the tape in a way that appears to ‘confirm’ the Bitcoin narrative, generating FOMO. https://twitter.com/bascule/status/1329580017446047748
The stock-to-flow model of price, for example, predicts imminent 10x+ returns due to the block reward halving. It’s mechanically nonsensical, of course, but who cares? It sounds plausible and creates an impression, stimulating the right receptors, and that’s what matters.
We cannot know how much of the 14 billion USDT printed this year is real or air, and so long as Tether can maintain that plausible deniability, and as long as 1 USDT trades @ $1.00 on anonymous exchanges, the effect of the scam only pushes in one direction for BTC, up.
If it works, and successfully stimulates an influx of real-$ buyers, pushing the price up further, they’ll get away with it. And Bitcoin can’t be directly harmed by the scheme. So everyone looks away and stays quiet. Or rather, plays dumb, like this: https://twitter.com/_ConnerBrown_/status/1328372323230081026
If people are trading on faked price signals, that’s ethically wrong, and goes against everything Bitcoiners say they stand for. But, of course, it can always be circularly justified (in one’s head) as being a problem that #Bitcoin (theoretically) fixes.
(theoretically) fixes.
