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374 sats \ 10 replies \ @Fabs 22 Feb \ on: Bitcoin 'unstoppability' as tea party bitcoin
I think what people also like to skip over, is the fact that "they" don't have to stop Bitcoin as a protocol or as a network; they simply have to make it that hard and that risky to own BTC or even be exposed to BTC, that it's not worth it anymore to the masses, slashing the interest - and thus, most likely demand - for Bitcoin, which would seal it's fate as a nerd-collectible.
That will never happen.
Nation states either adopted gun powder, or were conquered by those that did.
Nation states developed nuclear weapons, or are forever pillaged by those that have them.
Bitcoin is technology. Those that choose to limit its use will cease to be relevant, and at some point cease to exist.
Once you discover fire, you can choose not to use it, but that doesn’t un-discover it.
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Ok I can agree with you there. I should have been more nuanced. Governments may put friction in place, but that won’t stop successful people from using it.
The Church tried, but couldn’t stop Venetian proto-banks from using the number 0.
The Church burned printing presses through out Europe. People made more, and the second most printed book was how to make a printing press. Then the knowledge mind virus destroyed the Church’s power, that had lasted centuries.
Can you think of a time in history when technology, and the people who wanted it, were separated?
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Can you think of a time in history when technology, and the people who wanted it, were separated?
This is a good way to put it, I think. But here's a better way:
When people wanted something, and powerful others didn't want them to have it, how long did it take before everyone had what they wanted, and what carnage came along the way?
Btc will always exist in some form. If you'd be perfectly happy if it were to be exchangeable at a (current) fiat price of $1 dollar and then hovered around that value for a decade, then I am fully in your camp that everything will be fine.
But that's not my definition of 'fine.'
A lot of people (including me) would be sad if it lost so much of its current value; it would constitute a drastic collapse of savings and is contrary to the usual store-of-value narrative. That's the kind of outcome that is very much within the reach of a concerted and powerful countervailing multi-governmental effort, imo.
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Only some failure of the technology itself would result in the entire network value of BTC being less than the wealth of one well-off person.
Government action will not have this result…if anything it will make BTC even more valuable.
They demonetized gold, but were never able to destroy it. People who have gold have been well protected.
Bitcoin is anti fragile. Whatever the attack makes it stronger: we will continue to print books on how to make printing presses, until they can no longer burn enough to matter.
Governments that embrace it will create a brain drain on the ones that fight it.
It is self defeating: The EU against fossil fuels? Let’s see how that plays out. If there are some people that want to starve and freeze to death, there are plenty more that aren’t going to just lay down and die.
Look at Nigeria: let’s see how many stop using BTC there.
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I'm with you most of the way, but I don't think its fate would be sealed as solely a nerd-collectible. I do, however, think that its destiny as money for the world could be delayed twenty years, easy, and maybe more than that.
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As a “fringe currency” does it not still do everything we hoped? It’s working now…and it’s as anti fragile as anything.
Yes, some people are brainwashed and will continue being slaves. We can’t save everyone.
I can’t do anything about North Koreans, or Chinese, or New York, Seattle, and San Fran. All I can do is live as free as I can and protect my family from those who would enslave them.
There are probably 10 million people with most of their wealth in this system. That number grows every year, and never shrinks.
No amount of force can take it. Government can try, and people slip away, out of reach, like water. The sooner that day comes, that will be the suddenly part of “gradually then suddenly.” For many, that would be the biggest endorsement to get BTC any way possible, for any price.
When more restrictions are proposed on gun ownership, more first time buyers get guns than ever. Gun sales during Obama’s second term were record breaking, and most of those were first time gun owners.
I’ll make a prediction, if Biden gets a second term, that those years will break the Obama records for guns sold.
Governments restricting what people want, only makes them want it more, or ask the question, why? When they ask the question, they can then see the answer, then buy the thing that the slave master doesn’t want them to have.