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I definitely promised some Stacker my intellectual journey into Bitcoin. I probs sent them my "How Bubbles, Price And COVID-19 Changed Bitcoin for Me"... but now I finally wrote up the more low-key story:

We talk, talk, talk, but it feels like nothing happens??

...and sometimes you seem to make zero headway, but the seeds are there -- the orange virus working away at you.
Friend I spoke to a lot about money and monetary policy definitely failed to orange-pill me back then. But also... not...?
My friend’s repeated, passionate arguments during those formative years were probably decisive, setting me up for embracing Satoshi in my heart. There was no specific orange-pill moment, and the intellectual (and, I suppose, ethical) trajectory I went through was anything but smooth — with plenty of soul-searching and reassessments of core beliefs along the way.
In the piece I list some of the articles I wrote about bitcoin through the years, chronicling my progression:

"next time you have a Bitcoin conversation that felt like a waste of your time, remember: It might not have been."

214 sats \ 16 replies \ @Scoresby 20h
You know, I really like Bitcoin, but there are definitely some weird similarities to religions.
We have our creation myth (Chancellor on brink of second bailout) and a savior (satoshi) and our dogma (hold your own keys, 21 million, run a node, no middlemen), we are supposed to spread the good news (orange pilling), and we have sins (shitcoining, fiat things), and also we have our conversion stories.
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113 sats \ 0 replies \ @crrdlx 12h
100% agree there's a religious hint about bitcoin. Personally, I don't like the religious allusions that accompany bitcoin. 1. Bitcoin is a lot of things: tech, math, physics, economics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, life coach?, other? But it'd not a religion. 2. It's disrespectful to real religions to "play religion" with things that are not.
I think the bitcoin-religion comparisons mostly pop on the scene because they're easy and they're fun.
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of course.
You're not the first to remark on that.
...and I also don't think it's that weird. It's a similar kind of before/after moment, completely shifting the way you look at things.
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29 sats \ 2 replies \ @Scoresby 18h
I'm trying to think of other cases where a tool becomes a religion. Tech evangelism (you gotta try this new thing) isn't quite the same: bitcoin is so much more participatory. And it has a moral element (the fiat system is evil). Even the environmentalists don't have such a cohesive set of religious elements.
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tech didn't change people's worldviews... smartphones e.g., just run their lives, having captured their minds etc. But nobody has a completely altered perspective because of them
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11 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby 17h
But this is what is so fascinating about the bitcoin-religion comparison: it should be more like smart phones or the internet or something, and yet it's so different. Why does it "completely alter" our perspectives?
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....and religion almost always ends up with some sort of toxic fanaticism, or say "extremism"
Is it really a good thing or is it bad? Can it possibly cause a stall in Bitcoin adoption?
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I dont think it is a bad thing.
I'm just remarking that it's there.
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I wonder if those similarities are serendipitous in helping it resonate.
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113 sats \ 3 replies \ @Signal312 18h
I've definitely been accused by my nearest and dearest of being in a cult. First Bitcoin, then Carnivore.
Once I get got interested, I was just so fascinated that I couldn't stop talking about it.
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45 sats \ 2 replies \ @Scoresby 18h
It's kinda freaky that way. I fell hard and still haven't pulled myself out of the rabbit hole.
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Freaky Friday sequel
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Also - I feel like Bitcoin and Carnivore are some of the most important, and NON OBVIOUS "discoveries" of my life, in terms of how much they improve it. But both of them are actively propagandized AGAINST.
That's why I talk about it so much. They're not obvious. People mostly believe the exact opposite.
It's as though you meet a starving person, but you're right next to a river with lots of fish that are easy to catch. Not telling them how to fish would feel like you're doing something evil.
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We've even got our Inquisitors. Slay!
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107 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 20h
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33 sats \ 1 reply \ @LibertasBR 10h
Like anything in life, someone can take it and create a cult around it. This is only true for those who follow the precepts you described. If someone sees it as decentralized money, there's nothing religious about it.
I know there are many Christians who seek Bitcoin as "salvation" against the oppressive state. However, that doesn't make Bitcoin a religion.
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The turning point is whether you think there's anything supernatural/divine about Satoshi or Bitcoin beint delivered(!) to humanity.
Regardless, it's not far off
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33 sats \ 1 reply \ @LibertasBR 8h
next time you have a Bitcoin conversation that felt like a waste of your time, remember: It might not have been.
All the conversations and approaches I had regarding Bitcoin never led me anywhere. I had to harness my greed to learn more and discover for myself.
Unfortunately, none of these conversations addressed the main elements: decentralization, state currency, control, corporations, what happened in 1971, central banks, fractional reserve banking, debt, sovereignty, and freedom.
So, I received information from shitcoiners about shitcoin using the Bitcoin name as a medium, so unfortunately, they were all a waste of time for me.
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Not sure I have to defend the statement, "every convo — about bitcoin or otherwise — is always beneficial."
I bet those shitcoiny rants made you look at it, tho? Spurred your interest, sort of?
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33 sats \ 2 replies \ @Aardvark 18h
I'm fairly certain 99% of everything I say or do is a waste of time....
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NOT WASTED! I listen -- always
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I'm not sure how good of an idea that is lol
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