This recent post about LARPing in Bitcoin really got me to think. The accusation stings because it's something I've felt for a long time. The feeling that Bitcoin is mostly a "lifestyle" brand that people engage with to signal their attitudes on monetary economics, freedom, and technology. That's why you got a lot of purity signaling but not much actual checking.
Even thinking about my own engagement with Bitcoin, a lot of the things I've purchased with Bitcoin over the past few years have been Bitcoin-branded swag, like clothing items, or other visibly bitcoin-themed products.
But how much of my Bitcoin related activity has contributed to an actual weakening of the fiat monetary system? Or even how much has it actually improved the life of my family? In comparison, how much has my bitcoin activity contributed to signaling the kind of person that I am, and my values?
My guess is the latter outweights the former.
Is Bitcoin just a lifestyle brand?
Not primarily, but the lifestyle brand is what's in your face.
This was unavoidable and probably what Bitcoin's architects had in mind in making something resilient to social whimsy.
Bitcoin kind of weaponized it too, the hallmark of a great psyop.
Anarchists and libertarians shilling with full passion an NSA project as the next world reserve currency?
Privacy larps shilling a globally transparent ledger that's infinitely more useful to the Treasury department's surveillance operations than subpoena's to international banking cartels?
Social justice warriors shilling a unit of account that only scales to 200M of the world's wealthiest?
Someone at a think tank was a genius.
I've been meaning to ask: If you think bitcoin was a NSA project, why do you work on it? Is it because you support the NSA's objectives, or is it because you think bitcoin has evolved to something beyond that?
A number of reasons, my framework is more complex than "state bad" just because state is usually bad.
The state is, as much as i'd like to see an AnCap utopia, that philosophy has no bearing in reality.
The state is not a monolith, it's a battlefield, the factions of the day are nationalists and globalists. Bitcoin is anti-globalist. Nationalism is minarchism when compared to globalism.
Bitcoin is more private for average individuals, less private for globalist institutions and enemy states. More of a balance shift than absolute gain.
Infinity divided by 21M is better than depreciating fiat as a unit of account even if your only exposure is via institutional equity.
I live in the US and life in the US only gets better with Bitcoin as the world reserve currency.
I'd also just throw in TOR to the discussion, sometimes spooks make good stuff.
TOR is slop, globalist/CIA
But as a psyop very effective, honeypots privacy larps even better than Bitcoin
Makes sense, and I basically agree with all of that
'I live in the US and life in the US only gets better with Bitcoin as the world reserve currency.'
You are delusional.
Without the vast income and seigniorage from the USD fiat debt slavery system the USA is broke.
Bitcoin is opt-in. If we wanna get rid of the LARPs, let's first get rid of the Ammous LARP. There could be an incentive to adapt it, but currently there are many reasons to be extremely careful with that. Maybe in the future? Not right now, and there's nothing you can do to make a state use Bitcoin. No, not even El Salvador.
I think that using Bitcoin is a means to strengthen you, not weaken someone else's system, so this is the better question. The best question of all 3 in fact.
I think that if it didn't bring anything for you, then you can opt-out too. It's ok. It's harder to do when you depend on it, so if it doesn't help, don't let it dominate your life.
Your bitcoin activity is literally your payments? Hopefully these don't contribute to any statement and you at the very least used LN for every activity you did? Why on earth would you want your money to reflect your values?
Maybe I am wrong about this tho.
Lots of Ammous larp sure but it's like the broken clock that's right twice a day, some of his stuff may be the highest signal propaganda when you filter out the noise.
The "Bitcoin Standard" concept is exactly right, people want to make it other things, but a proper measuring stick to become the world reserve currency is ultimately all that matters.
Exactly. I didn't say Ammous was the larper (he defo is a little, maybe a little more than a little, but we all are) but its what people have turned it into.
Probably a better way to put it is that the products that I actually spent money on were lifestyle products. I haven't actually bought anything from a bitcoin company other than such things. I did buy a few generic products, like books or gift cards, using bitcoin as well.
Oh! Well that just means you're not using bitcoin for everything, I think?
Neither am I. I paid rent in dirty cash this month, and yesterday my groceries were cash too. I truly hate going through the "foreign exchange" network of friends but it's the consequence of a choice I made and it doesn't work as well from one place to another and from one month to another.
Safe Ammous LARP?
Yes.
Ah man, don't blue ball me with insinuating shit talking about Safe Ammous, I wana HEAR IT lol.
I'm gonna blue ball the fuck out of you now and just make random arguments in different threads (was gonna do that anyway) over the next year and try to not to forget to cc tag you.
Lol thanks.
Is what friends are for.
Stop larping then. Start using it. Savings, spending and earning.
Bitcoin improved life of my family by giving it liquid secure savings for the first time. Saved me from tyranny. Paid medical expanses. Helped avoid the government thiefs.
If dont need savings, own money, transact freely and privately and dont mind paying into the fiat machine, Bitcoin is useless for you.
Part of my point was that even when I try to use it, the most available products to spend it on are lifestyle products. Most merchants you use for regular daily living stuff just don't accept bitcoin.
be patient & persistent.
we are early.
if you're buying from fiat merchants, try to find alternatives. there are many out there, and if they're successful we will see more
If you've bought Bitcoin and hold with the intention of having a currency that will be valuable when the fiat world falls apart, then you're doing the right thing: https://nakamotoinstitute.org/mempool/im-hoarding-bitcoins-and-no-you-cant-have-any/
It doesn't matter how you relate to it ("lifestyle brand" etc.), as long as you're holding as an act of saving, you're using Bitcoin economically
What's the counterfactual for your stack? Savings account? Stocks?
Stocks, probably?
Probably quite a bit less impact than if you would otherwise have more savings.
"Just" is a bit of a reach, but you make many good points.
Responding to another comment, this thought I had really crystallized what was going through my mind when I made the post:
I'd go so far to say it's a cult, not just a lifestyle brand. Don't get me wrong, a cult built on solid foundations. Like the religion I was raised in, there are the core rules and beliefes, then there is all the LARPing on top, and its hard to tell the difference between the two. But fortunately for us, there are a lot of good benefits to being in the cult whether we understand why or not.
What benefits?
Just the usual stuff, having sound, censorship resistant money.
Bitcoin has benefited my family and our future because we have our savings in BTC to protect against inflation so that our money doesn't disappear, and I accumulate as much as I can for this purpose, since BTC is the most valuable asset that exists and the trend is for the price to rise while it becomes scarcer.
Here is my humble opinion
Only use bitcoin if you want to be part of the peaceful revolution building an alternative to the fiat debt slavery bankers cartel.
I am retired and living the dream because of Bitcoin...but that was not my intended or expected outcome.