3954 sats \ 8 replies \ @Coyote_Cosmico 25 Jan \ parent \ on: Naivetes in Bitcoin bitcoin
I was first exposed to Bitcoin in late 2013 when I moved to Bali. Ubud at that time had the 2nd largest number of Bitcoin ATMs in the world, behind San Francisco! At least that was what I read, and it seemed to hold up because there were indeed lots of them, and most taxis and restaurants were accepting BTC as payment. It was quite a scene.
Anywhoo thinking back on the early adopter OGs I hung out with there, I've concluded that many were early to BTC not because they were ultra-prescient tech/ economic wizards, but more because they were societal dropouts and rebel hippie types. I don't say that with condescension, it was just a theme I observed.
An alternative financial system and dreams of a pleb revolution are very attractive ideas to certain edgy personalities, and the traits that got some of these folks so excited about Bitcoin when nobody else was paying attention also seem to manifest some other odd duck beliefs and behaviors.
It appears to me that there is a loose correlation between how early someone adopted BTC to how likely they are to hold some extreme and rigid ideologies, and to have a strong track record of wildly incorrect predictions.
There are plenty of exceptions to that generalization, and it makes the exceptions even more impressive. Some folks truly just "got it" and still very much get it.
It's just an interesting thing to think about, that to be a true OG in Bitcoin it required some blend of foresight, intelligence, naïveté, and weirdness - and many OG's are so heavy on a few of those measures that maybe best not to take them on as one's guru.
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Ubud was just ground zero for the digital nomad movement back then and attracted a lot of bitcoiners who were recently balling out because it had mooned to ~$1k around Dec/Jan '13.
Hubud co-working space in particular was the spot, as internet was still incredibly slow across the entire island, except there. Pieter Levels was always working at the standing desk near the entrance building the early NomadList MVP, and there was a guy who would give an orange-pill Bitcoin presentation there every Thursday or Friday, it cost like $20 and you would leave it with a wallet and knowledge and the $20 equivalent in satoshis.
Unfortunately I never went to that presentation and I began to take BTC more seriously some years later, whoopsie.
There were a lot of middle aged programmer guys renting insane villas and throwing LSD fueled orgy parties, it was strange times.
As I mentioned almost every taxi in Ubud was accepting BTC -- I think that guy who was giving the presentations and his crew had orangepilled the whole taxi cartel and many of the cafes, restaurants, hotels etc.
It didn't last, as I believe a while later Indonesia passed a law either explicitly banning using crypto for these sort of transactions, or they said you could only transact with Rupiah.
I was coming and going from the island but just so happened to be in Bali during the height of 2 bullruns after that and it's been funny to see how things have evolved - from a real pure & punky counterculture ethos in 2013 led by gen Xers and older, to the much younger altcoin liquidity farming defi bros in the last go round.
An alternative financial system and dreams of a pleb revolution are very attractive ideas to certain edgy personalities, and the traits that got some of these folks so excited about Bitcoin when nobody else was paying attention also seem to manifest some other odd duck beliefs and behaviors.
This is an incredibly wise and provocative statement.
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