Seriously. We live in a day and age where everything is so spoon fed and taken care of for us, that some bitcoiners dilute themselves into thinking that's a feature not a bug, while completely missing the entire point of Bitcoin.
Self custody is what makes Bitcoin, Bitcoin.
Remember all the phone numbers of friends and family you once kept stored in your head? Addresses, map directions, account numbers, song lyrics, movie quotes, irrelevant niche historical facts, food recipes, formulas, birthdays, holida--.
That world, when we had to remember some of these things, is not that old. Yet now we're not supposed to be expected to remember random set of 12 words (that you can technically turn into any of the aforementioned ^ , if you so wish).
How pathetic do we assume humans to be?
Writing down a seed phrase and storing it somewhere safe, and/or simply remembering it, is not difficult. We've done the same thing with countless other aspects of our lives, we can do the same for seed phrases.
Anyone trying to make Bitcoin seem "difficult" to use is just trying to psyop you into actually losing your money, they're not protecting you.
Another rant this week, i am ANGRY!!!
It's part of the communist re-education program to destroy the base layer of civilization: infantilization. Making people believe that only state-run institutions are able to protect You from risks in life. The result is a form of stupidity that grows like cancer.
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bigotry of low expectations
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That's the way. Self reliance, a strong family and close contacts in business....
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Very good idea. I still didn't find time to join the community here in Spain. This afternoon me and my wife will be joining a fiesta outside the town. Let's see if there are some BTCers.... greets to You
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This. Said far better than I did. Dunno if I buy into the commie bit but it's sure about control. Keep the public stupid and dependant and you can drain all their resources. If anything it's maximalised capitalism.
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You can observe communists/ socialists following the same agenda since Plato:
  1. Destroy the family as last protection from the state
  2. Attack the language as zivil. base layer of repeated morals. (Media control)
  3. Overtaking the education of the youngsters
  4. Destroying free culture
  5. Destroying private property
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Isn't the exact same true about rampant capitalism? It's about control from either end of the spectrum. Make the only authority the rich and powerful. Have the poors fight over what words should be banned (see also distractions). Overtake education of youngsters, teach them not to think but to obey authority and to sit and work for 8hrs a day. Destroy free culture by aggressively shorting the fuck outta new innovation. Destroy private property. WEF - you will own nothing and be happy.
I don't think this is about capitalism Vs communism at all. I think political arguements serve as a distraction from what is really happening. The consolidation of wealth and power. How I can see this is the case. It doesn't matter who's in charge in what election cycle. Dem, repub. It doesn't matter, nothing changes, if nothing changes with two polar opposite parties, then politics isn't the answer. Follow the money, who's buying your representatives? That's who's really calling the shots and they don't care about Red or Blue. They care about them and only them.
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"rampant" capitalism under a system of soft money ends up flowing back up to the state. In a hard money system rampant capitalism, if permitted, should only really lead to the creation of capital .
Once can attempt to use their entrepenrial wealth and capital creation to amass power but the opportunity cost of doing so becomes enormous.
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Yes right. But if You want to keep power(s) in check You need to empower the individual. Best way we know to do so is by free market capitalism that is based on absolute private property rights.
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Would also like to ask. If the best way we know how is completely ineffective. Is it the best way?
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Sorry, I don't get Your question. In my opinion history has proven the collectivistic approach as inhuman and ineffective. Do You refer in this direction?
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You said that our current method is the best way we know how. I'm contesting that anything this broken can be the best of anything except perhaps the best example of a failed and corrupt experiment.
Do you need to empower the individual? Or do you just need to make the individual feel empowered? The illusion of empowerment is just as good as keeping the masses under control. Only now you haven't given up any real power to keep them that way.
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In the long civilization needs real empowerment of the individual by private property. Short term propaganda and dillusion can be working for sure as well
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Absolutely. But shorttermism is a plague that society has fully caught. I once heard it referred to as "microwave culture" everyone wants everything now and no one wants to wait for results in the long term.
What's the deal with this McCarthyism? Jesus was a socialist, man. Read more.
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Good one
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property insurance aligns an insurer's incentive with the insured and strengthens ones protection of property. One now has an ally against the state who is incentivized by skin in the game.
Austrians wrote extensively on this.
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yes but in a hard money system, the penalty of not paying a claim is pretty severe. The original statement i was arguing was the comment that insurance is anti-soverign - Im not arguing that its trustless.
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its the cost of losing clients when you can't borrow infinitely to raise them agaiin. in todays system, there's no real penalty to an insurer denying claims because they have an infinite marketing budget.
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I see this narrative alot, that people are "lazy and greedy and dumb" to put it simple. But its a projection imo. or its something people tell themselves and others, some are more subtle when they communicate it, and its probably not something they are conscious about, but if they believe that others are lazy and inconsiderate and so on then its ok if they are too. Its kinda heart breaking when i put it into words :) Because its like a decentralized downward spiral where people convince each other that humans are bad? And it can become a self fulfilling prophecy it seems.
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i completely agree
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The last 20 years in particular seems to have been an anomaly.
Memory has been optional in recent years, in fact it’s been counter productive to remember anything of importance. Inefficient to expend time on it. This is why collectively we have been de-learning and not using critical thinking.
Just like just-in-time manufacturing, the pendulum swung too far in the direction of efficiency and it will now swing back in the opposite direction to incentivise us having redundancy & autonomy.
Make no mistake, there’ll be a renaissance when these platforms we rely on for information become increasingly gated, inaccessible or diluted with more trash content.
Fairly obvious, personal responsibility is making a comeback. People will learn again… but only the hard way.
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I had kinda noticed a general "not my fault" ideology seeping it's way into general society. No one wants to take personal responsibility or accountability for their actions anymore. Always looking for someone else to blame.
"I got hacked" probably not, you probably use the same password for all your accounts and it was "leaked" (see also sold) in a data breach.
"I got scammed, they're scammers and they're awful" - yeah sure, but it required you to do something, to believe their story and send them details or money or whatever, you had to make an action. Scammers can't do shit unless you let them.
"The government should step in to stop this" - or you can be more vigilant.
Personal damn accountability. If you blame everyone else, you don't learn from it you just believe it was an unfortunate accident that could have happened to anyone. It happened to you because you let it. Not taking responsibility diminishes any learning you can get, if you didn't do anything wrong there's nothing to learn right? Well if you didn't do something wrong and aren't partially responsible then it wouldn't have happened to you.
Et Fín.
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"Anyone trying to make Bitcoin seem "difficult" to use is just trying to psyop you into actually losing your money, they're not protecting you."
Pretty much says it all, really. Yet shitcoiners like udi still seem to attract a huge following, which is a pain in the arse.
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I could not agree more. We in the west have had it easy and it has had many negative effects. When I managed devs for a while one thing I observed is how common it is for people to underestimate their own capabilities. Humans are capable of amazing things if we try. But if you dont beleive you can, you won't.
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I am no expert on this but Ive read historians that say this is a cycle. It happened in Rome and other times in history. Humans get lazy and then they pay for it. Or rather their descenants do. I suspect this will occur in at least the next 100 years.
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ZIRP happened, over and over.
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I think a popular Bitcoiner said ‘personal responsibility is the new counter-culture’
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I tried to give Udi the benefit of the doubt because he often made me lol but when I saw Udi use the Luke Dash Jr getting hacked situation to FUD self-custody that was the day I stopped taking seriously anything he said.
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I truthfully think he has the right idea of wanting to be that “devils advocate bitcoiner”, nothing wrong for wanting to have different points of view, but he does it in such an obvious engagement farming/disingenuous way that it’s hard to believe he really cares about bitcoin or bitcoiners at all
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I emphatically do not recommend memorizing 12 BIP-39 words as a long term storage solution. Suggestions like that give ammo to provocateurs like Wertheimer.
Those things that people memorize are things that people routinely misremember, if not forget entirely.
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Yeaa I prob shouldn’t have included /or, just memorize and backup
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It got flushed down the woke toilet.
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Bitcoin will make responsibility rewarding again.
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and/or simply remembering it, is not difficult.
Remembering a seed phrase is very difficult and bad practice, which I think is line with your oversimplification of self-custody, particularly with large amounts/percentage of your savings. There are a lot of footguns and gotcha's that I have personally messed up with over the years ("testing" on hot device, taking picture, where to store, on what to store, etc), and I consider myself (now) pretty technically knowledgable.
That being said I also think self custody is the most important part of bitcoin and we should help teach/encourage people to do it properly.
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true, there certainly are a lot of areas where you can mess up. I dont think it's necessary as bad as you may think, especially if you customize it to some phrase or lyrics you only know, but that's why i think memory + backup is the best way -- try to operate having it memorized, but rest assured knowing you have the backups. Memory is the backup of the lost backup!
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You may be right. I can see some benefits, but also some downsides (torturing the seed phrase out of you, using drugs to trick you, overconfidence in your memory, physical head injury). I haven't seen using a memory backup as being an recommendation from a security expert so i'm skeptical as using it as a selling point for the ease of self custody.
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Reminds me about back in college, when I would memorize the phone # to my dorm room immediately with no effort and remember it the entire year, and then completely forget it within 2 days of the school year ending… I thought that was weird back then, but even weirder now
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i def cannot remember where but awhile back i was reading studies about how the brain chooses to store which information, for how long, etc... was a very interesting rabbit hole to go down
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Yeah. It is important to keep a backup for a while, some months, before trusting it entirely on memory and keep training your brain on remembering it constantly.
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Social recovery is a thing. Like it ot not, not everybody is able to be its own bank. Seed phrases are not a solution for every use case.
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No, but self custody, and having the free option to take it yourself, is the solution to fiatville, and a whole host of the world's other problems
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sure! not only for yourself but also aiding your friends and family. For instance every big spend needing a confirmation from trusted designates or be subject to a delay, to neutralize key stealing
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It went out the window when people were allowed to sue for spilling coffee on themselves
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Real freedom comes from self-responsibility.
I even started to make my clothes with a tailor these days; from picking fabric to choosing designs, now I can make whatever clothes I want instead of being told what is popular each season 👀
Going against all the convenient traps takes practice.
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Seed phrase is useless unless you can afford $500 transaction fees on base chain
I wouldn't even worry
The future of BTC is custodial
At least, with current technology.
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you'll rarely be interacting with the base chain, high fees are a good thing
The past was custodial, Bitcoin changes that
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>high fees are a good thing actually, since most plebs won't care to use bitcoin anyway
Didn't know I woke up back in 2017.
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