Zapping Value in the Bitcoin Age
Lately I’ve grown more aware of the bad habit, passed down to me from the fiat internet of my childhood, of not zapping value when I see it. All of us were raised in a cyberspace that devalued human action down to absolute zero. We’re far too comfortable passing by value without balancing the scales ⚖️ and returning that value.
Nothing Online Was Ever “Free”
The culture of “free value” broke the internet by rewarding data strip-mining. Interacting online peer-to-peer on a mainstream social media platform offers no value to anyone but the data mining algorithm overseeing these exchanges of conversational nothing. Angry, sad, friendly, or hateful, the behavior of digital natives was recorded, processed, and sold as a commodity, while the digital data NPCs handed their time, attention, and energy over to the corporation in return for… nothing.
Growing up in that environment handicapped my mind into not valuing value when I see it. Even today, I’ll catch myself just saying “Thank you” without also sending along at least a micropayment that authentically expresses the value I felt. But if I can’t send along even a few sats—not even a fraction of a cent in U.S. dollars—aren’t I… lying? 🤔
Ergo, I’ve been molding my words and actions to be more conscientious and (literally!) accountable. Time is truly money in the Bitcoin age. The expenditure and receipt of human energy should align, and so…
- I zap for gratitude.
- I zap for insights.
- I zap for creativity.
- And I zap by my wholly subjective internal pricing (valuation) mechanism—according to how much the action contributed to my own purpose, which I alone understand.
This latter bullet parallels Mises’ views in Human Action 📕, where the old man says: