Bitcoin Circular Economy - such a wonderful term, hard to achieve

We are bitcoiners and we want freedom and free market. Not gov intervention in our own businesses and use of our own money.
If you do not agree with this statement, please go back to your own statist cage and cry hard, voting whatever politician to rule your life, paying taxes, debate meaningless "legislation". This post is NOT FOR YOU.

WARNING !

I REALLY DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ANY STATIST AND FIAT MAXI OPINION, so don't bother wasting your time and sats commenting this post. If you do not hate gov, fiat and banks, this post is not for you. This is a super extra bitcoin maxi post. So all haters can kiss my ass.

Precedence

Why am I writing this post? Because I am pissed off about so called bitcoiners pretending to be bitcoiners and in fact are just fiat maxis. I am tired of all this misleading and influencing noobs, all this hypocrisy all around. See this shamless post: #573492 promoting the use of VISA (fiat) cards instead of direct use of Bitcoin payments.

Why do we need a Bitcoin Circular Economy?

Because we want to get rid of fiat ! Fiat money is a disease that is consuming our energy. For longer we use fiat, longer and painful is our journey towards freedom.
Less you are using any form of fiat, stronger will became Bitcoin. Bitcoin, without circulation, it will became another meaningless IOU, fooling people into giving it away in exchange of shity tethers, stablecoins, fiat visa cards, CBDCs etc...
DON'T LET THE FUCKER FOOL YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN! Bitcoin is your own power you can get, it is YOUR property !
A VISA card is not your property and is not carrying any money, just IOUs. By using a VISA card YOU ARE LITERALLY CREATING FIAT MONEY FROM THIN AIR, you are perpetuating the use and creation of fake money ! You are fooling yourself !
PLEASE STOP THIS MADNESS OF FIAT USE !
Ask yourself: in which world do you want to live?
  • a fiat debt world ?
  • a freedom bitcoin world ?
Also a simply explained video here, a 4 years old video about how to achieve a Bitcoin circular economy and why is important:
Why do we need to avoid as much as we can the use of fiat currency in any shape or form? Here is a brilliant 15 min presentation by @jimmysong - FIAT DELENDA EST - a MUST watch !
I will not repeat myself, I already wrote a guide here about How ₿itcoin will save the world?.
In that guide I talked about pushing towards merchants adoption and how we can achieve that, by helping them.
Going to a merchant with a VISA card (that you previously loaded from your sats), IT IS NOT BITCOIN ADOPTION ! Is just a shamless fiat use and pushing forward the use of fiat railways. You are NOT helping that merchant to accept Bitcoin, you are NOT using Bitcoin in any way paying that merchant.
Please stop lying yourself that by paying with a fucking visa card you are helping "bitcoin adoption". It is NOT!

Steps towards Bitcoin Circular Economy?

If you really want it, you can do it. I myself I fought a lot to achieve this level. Is not easy, I know, but is necessary a lot of dedication and determination to FUCK THE BANKS, FUCK THE FIAT SYSTEM AND FUCK THE GOVS. If your goals are not those, then please go back to your comfortable fiat slave miserable world. Bitcoin is not for you.
  1. Start EARNING Bitcoin, not buying it anymore. This is the most important aspect ! Being paid in BTC. Convince your clients/ employers to pay you in BTC directly. Your mind will change DRAMATICALLY JUST BY THAT.
  2. Reduce your spending as much is possible. Move from big fucking cities where life is fucking expensive. Live a simple cheap life in a rural area. Grow your own food, spend less.
  3. Convince ANYBODY around you to accept your sats. That is a key point. Start with fresh food producers nearby, they will be happy to take your sats (if you explain it well).
  4. Stop paying taxes ! taxes are only for slaves. Work for yourself not for the gov. Gov is a corporation and a big fucking lie!
  5. Read my guides: I wrote several guides about how to achieve this goal. I put very specific clues inside. Some of my guide even contain 12 words from a 1 BTC wallet... that nobody find it in the last 5 years !
  6. STOP supporting any business that accept only fiat. Boycott them and use as much as you can those that accept BTC.

Funny story about how to play with merchants.

Some years ago I was pushing a lot Bitcoin adoption around me. So I went to some local merchants and pushing them to accept BTC. From 3 of them only one was interested. But once he start accepting my sats as payment, I went to the other two and ask: "hey can I pay with BTC?" The answer was "no". So I said: "ok, I will go the one next to you that already accept BTC and also is giving me a discount for paying with BTC".
That really make them intrigued. Next weeks when I went again to the "fiat only" store, I asked: "hey are you considering accepting my sats?" The answer was "OK, but don't go to the other shop." And I said: "fine, but keep in mind, the other shop is offering me a discount for paying with BTC. I am willing to pay you without discount just to help you get onboard. I will give you all support for free".
I hope this post will help many fiat maxis to change their mind and all other bitcoiners, find the right way to push bitcoin adoption in their local community.
START SMALL, THINK BIG... Removing myself from a fiat world was not easy !
So one step I think will become much more prominent in the coming years is not convincing merchants to take Bitcoin, but Bitcoiners acquiring businesses and operating on a Bitcoin standard.
I've found it's mostly hopeless in getting businesses to adopt Bitcoin, as they don't really get it. You need Bitcoiners that understand its value to run these businesses, and there's a tremendous opportunity as many of these profitable businesses are being sold due to boomers retiring. Even a few businesses in the same town will have a pretty big effect, and these businesses will have a major advantage with Bitcoin on their balance sheet.
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I've found it's mostly hopeless in getting businesses to adopt Bitcoin, as they don't really get it. You need Bitcoiners that understand its value to run these businesses,
I think you nail it. We do not need clueless merchants that only see in Bitcoin as another Paypal, dumping it instantly on fiat. We need real Bitcoin merchants that understand the value and power of Bitcoin.
In my almost 12 years in Bitcoinlandia, I was helping a lot of merchants, but your words make more sense nowadays. It was a real struggle to convince merchants to accept bitcoin and in the same day they dump it for fiat, not even trying to save the small amounts they received or paying some employees.
Now I choose very wisely my "victims" in onboarding with Bitcoin.
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So one step I think will become much more prominent in the coming years is not convincing merchants to take Bitcoin, but Bitcoiners acquiring businesses and operating on a Bitcoin standard.
Agreed. The thesis I am mentally working out before writing up a post on this topic is that there is a chicken and egg paradox preventing retailers from adopting Bitcoin. Retailers don't want to trouble themselves with Bitcoin until there is mass adoption, and people won't adopt Bitcoin until there is ubiquitous retailers accepting it. It is wasted energy trying to get retailers to accept Bitcoin.
What will happen are use cases where fiat simply cannot compete for specific types of economic activity. Bitcoin, Lightning, NOSTR, and eCash, the "stack", enable new economic functions that fiat simply cannot compete with, like zapping pennies or even fractions of a penny right here on @sn. And the IoT universe will use the stack for transacting in purely automated and digital ways. KYC regulations will be the ball and chain that doom centralized entities like Visa/Mastercard from competing in the IoT space.
We think of Bitcoin as a layer on top of the Internet. I argue that we can rebuild the Internet on top Bitcoin. Imagine remaking email so that it costs 1 sat to send. Spam is immediately eliminated. And the quality of each email just went up by several orders of magnitude. Free email is not free for the recipient to waste their time with.
And digital advertising, the bane of the Internet, enriching a few centralized entities like Google and Facebook, while sucking time and resources from billions of people can be flipped and inverted. Companies that want us to look at ads can zap us for our valuable time directly, disintermediating the middle men and removing fiat from the equation as per Brian Harrington's first video and distribute the trillion dollar ad revenue in sats back to the people. If everyone is getting zapped, adoption will skyrocket. And retailers will capitulate. Thanks @darthcoin for posting these 2 videos. And @jimmysong FIAT DELENDA EST indeed!
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31 sats \ 0 replies \ @joda 16 Jun
dang Jimmy that's a good point. I wonder if it's those Gen-X and Millennials that now have money and assets and are building businesses. Seems like the younger gen doesn't have money or the grit to start a business.
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I can feel the force choke through the screen. Thanks for the reminder we can all do better Darth.
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I post this only for those willing to think about these aspects. Separating from fiat world is not easy, I know very well, because I struggle myself for almost 5 years to achieve that. But that doesn't mean we should just give up the fight and just go along with the regular fiat rails, used to have all around.
WE MUST REJECT BY ANY MEANS THE FIAT WORLD. It's the only way.
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I wholeheartedly agree and appreciate the forceful reminder.
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Steps towards Bitcoin Circular Economy?
I'm doing taking all of these steps. However, not finding a great success on one of them.
Convince Anybody— I live in a very small town in India and it's surrounded by a lot of villages. The farmers here are so little educated that they don't even know how to properly use a mobile phone. For others, most people are afraid of government. The corporate media has spread so much confusion about Bitcoin that people will consider you a criminal. Government has also spread that they will take 32% taxes (on profits) you earn from virtual assets (as they say).
So, all's not bleak though. I've orange pilled a few people but because of the above my success rate isn't very promising.
However, I am hopeful that this will change once the Bitcoin circular Economy takes over Europe and NA. India will follow then.
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It's all about people's education. Educate them. Start small, think big.
Start with those that YOU have an interest into: food producers, your direct services providers etc.
People tend to listen to their closest ones not to the government. so start your own meetups with a small group of people and explain them what is all about.
Forget about gov and corporate media ! Forget about US and EU in your local adoption! Bitcoin adoption start from grass roots not from the top !
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I will follow every word you said. Thank you so much.
When I ask people 'do you accept Botcoin?' They laugh at me and generally ignore or give a look that they are looking at a criminal.
I just smile back and move ahead in search of someone else. We have so many people. This is a plus.
I referred SN to a few and I feel it's magical. Out of my 14 known references, 4 are now learning to become Bitcoiner.
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32 sats \ 2 replies \ @joda 16 Jun
Think about it this way: If you orange-pilled ONE person, you DOUBLED the Bitcoiners!
If each person orange-pills one other person, eventually the world changes.
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yes, one by one, slowly, with patience and well educated.
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Thanks. I think the same same way that's why I regularly remain in hunt.
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I like of the part not pay taxes. I still see many Bitcoiners paying this every year.
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I not easy to achieve that level of experience and knowledge ! I am not saying to everybody that starting from tomorrow stop paying taxes. that's stupid.
What am I saying is do your own research, slowly, study and prepare yourself with caution.
It is possible ONLY if you know what are you doing. Not everybody is prepared, not even mentally to that level.
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I agree most people aren’t prepared to fight against State of form “true”. The State is stronger than us for now.
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As a practicing solo-preneur capturing fiat for satstacking by working for real estate owners who are fully embedded in the fiat plantations I am forced to overprice my services so I can deal with delays and fees using centralized fiat payment processors. My business costs go up just to get paid in shitty digital fiat monopoly 'money' through KYC'd systems, and my idiot clients, even the tech savvy ones in Austin, TX Bitcoin Mecca, would rather pay me $200 extra each week rather than pay me in cash, or to save $400 each week to pay me in LN sats.
The problem I find with running a business these days, in the US at least, is that many are still enjoying their seigniorage, paying higher amounts for more services than Bitcoiners will ever consider doing. Those who've left the fiat monopoly money game board are FAR less willing to part with their capital for any reason and tend to be far more competent as critical thinking problem solvers capable of doing things for themselves. I literally have full grown adults paying me over $1/minute to climb on a ladder to change light bulbs or hang pictures. Bitcoiners won't even buy chairs, let alone pay for drapes or for someone to hang a TV or art on the walls.
Seems to me that any and all businesses that begin operating on a Satoshi Standard will over time accumulate more capital than those currently drunk on the fiat debauchery that's commonplace these days. Until then, I'll gratefully stack sats as often and in every way that I can, trying to administer as many profitable income streams as I can.
Personally, I'm trying to figure out how to earn sats by helping other solo-preneurs stack more sats for themselves using whatever talents they may possess. Putting on my own satoshi life mask 1st...
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Is understandable that your actual business is based on older clients that are still stuck in fiat world. Is not even worth it the effort to start convincing those to user Bitcoin. You are right, charge an extra fee for paying in fiat. Fiat maxis will don't bother.
In time, I would recommend to promote your services to a broader spectrum of clients, where maybe you will find some bitcoiners willing to pay for your services in sats.
Or consider changing your activity if you really want to be paid in bitcoin.
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Absolutely agree with the need for Bitcoin Circular economies 100% -
I have some posts that resonate with this idea and creating a new incentive model that is perhaps better aligned with Bitcoin than FIAT... I find a large number of Bitcoiner's offering discounts in FIAT terms if people pay with Bitcoin....which is/was a great start...but as I sat and though about this, it always struck me as a very FIAT mindset - offering a discount to an inflated price of something.... I suggest we change this paradigm and instead offer Bitcoin users the opportunity to share in the appreciated value of their Bitcoin used for payment....
I believe this is a benefit for users that is much more in keeping with Bitcoin ethos...
When my tenants pay me rent in Bitcoin I give them 6 months (this time period could vary) after they paid to tell me when they would like to have returned to them upto 50% of any appreciated value of that paid bitcoin. There is no downside risk to them...if Bitcoin FIAT value goes down they don't owe anything additional - the option just runs out after 6 months.
I wish there was an app that allowed this to happen automatically cause right now they have to trust me to give them the credit and to have the BTC available...but I could see something like this driving adoption of BTC even quicker if it was easy...
I imagine almost every transaction you have with any business accepting Bitcoin you could have a negotiated time period and % share. It could be negotiated right on the app...right at the time of sale - quick and easy...some businesses could have their terms posted and not fluctuating and others could....larger payments could have the time frame extended and smaller transactions would have shorter time frames... you could buy your coffee and the business could offer 75% of the appreciated value for 24 or 12 hours.... or possibly 100% for 1 hour...or something (at that point it would be a marketing plan dictating the terms...it could be based on what the value of BTC is at the time, or whether the business needs FIAT to pay bills vs. BTC to save....it becomes a cash flow management plan at that point?
Again - back to your point - we (as bitcoiners) need to get out of the FIAT mindset and the FIAT Business model and quit focusing on the FIAT value of our Bitcoin and start operating like we only have Bitcoin.... a world operating on Simply Bitcoin (shameless plug to Nico and Opti) is a very different world indeed - the old FIAT business Model is broken and our Better Bitcoin one needs to be adopted - we need our incentives better aligned with Bitcoin!!!
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21 sats \ 3 replies \ @joda 16 Jun
A cool thing about accepting Bitcoin is that you'll get a bunch of Bitcoin Tourists. People will take 40 hours of travel time to get to a pretty dumpy little town in South Africa just for the novelty of spending Bitcoin. Or they'll hop the Atlantic to go to Pubkey NY. It's pretty cool.
I can't wait to see a whole block of businesses in Amsterdam or Berlin accept Bitcoin (though I'll settle for Nashville and Austin)...
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Have you heard of concrete cases where merchants had a significant boost in their sales after starting to accept bitcoin?
Unfortunately my experiene has been different so far: Many merchants I found through BTC Map, mentioned that they stopped accepting bitcoin after a while, because it was used very rarely.
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @joda 16 Jun
Same experience for all of them locally, as well as ones I've tried while traveling. They basically stopped because they forgot how to even do it after several months or years of no customers requesting it. They were never "orange-pilled" in the first place, so their interest waned immediately.
Bitcoin tourism requires several businesses accepting bitcoin, typically hospitality/restaurant/bar AND some publicity (not hard to get, given how many Bitcoin media outlets there are and how few Bitcoin economies).
Pubkey won't franchise (stupid integrity), but I think they're talking about opening a new location. Big chain adoption flopped, but ground-up Bitcoin-native businesses expanding just might work.
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I have found the same thing.
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Merchants will take Bitcoin if there's enough incentives, easy on/off ramp and simple enough on their books.
It's not going to happen with them running lightning node or getting new payment service just to accept Bitcoin without the financial incentives.
There's actually a lot of nuances with adding more currencies for companies once it's at certain size
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Opago is doing great job with this #576860 They onboarded a lot of small merchants.
We need more companies like Pubkey or Tahini's where they accept Bitcoin. The key is to have good businesses do this. Onboarding can work in the short term, but if no vendors are shopping with Bitcoin, we will see what happened in Lugano where many vendors never get customers asking to pay in bitcoin. POS terminals is also a great place to start implementing lightning (Clover, Toast & Square terminals).
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Thanks! I want to start it from my village but the network coverage isn't great there. Is there any solution that stackers can recommend?
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Funny story about how to play with merchants
I like the way how you convience other merchant. Thanks for sharing this.
Steps towards Bitcoin Circular Economy>
By follow these steps, I believe many of us can achieve our goals.
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Thank you for all your guides, they were really helpful when I was trying to figure things out. Now I have a reason to go back and 👀.
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@DarthCoin did you set up dummies?
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@DarthCoin that was a wild 24 hours. 2 poems, 4 empty wallets, and endless insanity. that was really fun! legit, first bitcoin hole type of fun and insanity. that said, i'm going to bow out. I usually don't like being in a creed hole for more than a day. I appreciate you madness.
to be clear to everyone, darthcoin didn't just leave some bitcoin for people to find. they set up a labyrinth to make you question what you are doing with you time. every thread you pull is set up for you to lose track of where you were. that or i am not smart enough to grasp what i was doing in the first place.
find out for yourself puppets.
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I'm also one of those who believes that we need to spend bitcoin, not just hodle it. But that's perhaps a topic for another post.
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Is not only about spending. Is also about how to help those merchants to accept your payment in sats. Is kind of chicken and egg problem, but stackers are the ones that should initiate more this problem, not the merchants. Merchants will accept whatever they can only to increase their sales (see my story about playing with 3 different merchants).
But if you go to a merchant with a VISA card (it doesn't matter if was loaded from your sats wallet), that merchant will see ONLY a fucking VISA fiat card, not bitcoin at all.
But if you go to that same merchant and try to convince it to accept BTC through any solution you have considered good for him, that will change totally the formula.
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE ATTITUDE ABOUT ADOPTION.
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Never expected that Guy Swan is also a defendoor of using VISA fiat cards !
Slay your (false) heroes...
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It's too tempting to sell yourself to the fiat system, only a few stand strong and steadfast.
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In 2018 I closed all the bank accounts and cancelled all fiat cards. I went to the bitcoin only path.
I know is not easy for many others, but is all about how much you want freedom from fiat debt slavery.
I've done many sacrifices to achieve this level. But I do not regret any of them. The "secret" ? Live a simple cheap live in a rural area and don't give a fuck about the rest of the world. Mind your own business and calculate very well your expenses.
YES! I DO NOT PAY ANY TAXES FROM YEARS AGO ! Who pay taxes... consider yourself a clueless slave.
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I don't know why you're knowingly putting people in danger. Your approach is right: Nobody should be forced to pay taxes. Now we're getting to the point. That only works if you don't make any mistakes along the way. You might live somewhere in the woods, not fearing the government because nobody is interested in you. But if you recommend your strategy to everyone here, it can end badly very quickly. Let's say someone bought Bitcoin with KYC on an exchange or runs a shop in the middle of town and accepts Bitcoin. Now they listen to your advice and stop paying taxes. Depending on the state and how quickly it gets discovered, the person concerned ends up in jail for tax evasion. That doesn't work that easily. Maybe for your current situation, but that just doesn't suit 99.9% of the people here. The right thing to say would be: pay as little tax as possible to prevent state violence. And find ways to trade tax-free, which is best not done in public.
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I wrote several times about how to not pay taxes. You are not just go and stop paying them. First you need top prepare yourself and educate well in this matter.
It's up to you if you want to continue supporting a theft and funding terrorism and wars: https://www.probityco.com/
There are many ways NOT to pay any taxes. But just playing chicken and ignore all that, is worse.
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21 sats \ 3 replies \ @IanM 16 Jun
Below is my 2 sats that I posted on Twitter in response to seeing this thread.
TLDR: I wonder if a bitcoin-backed stablecoin concept on Lightning could accelerate this process by (1) getting people onto the network by giving them the familiar unit of account which will be needed for some time still; but (2) WITHOUT feeding the fiat beast in terms of additional demand for fiat-denominated assets that serve as the collateral for centrally-issued stables like Tether.
I'm sure this will get some hate :) Just sharing it as I see it. But love the sentiment and appreciate all that you do Darth. I also like and agree with Jimmy's point re: businesses owned by Bitcoiners, but that of course will take time.

I deeply sympathize with the sentiments here. Trust me, the last thing I want is for the fiat system to exist for a day longer than it needs to...
However, we are not going to get there by shouting within our own echo chamber. The market has been abundantly clear that the vast majority of people are nowhere remotely close to embracing bitcoin payments and have an insatiable appetite for dollars as their unit of account. That's okay - it takes time for sure.
But at this point I think we also need to embrace stepping-stone technologies like Taproot Assets which bring stables to Lightning. Stablecoin payment volumes currently do at least 1000x that of the Lightning Network - the market is being unambiguously clear here (and I say that as an individual and entrepreneur who is wildly bullish on Lightning and on Bitcoin as an eventual MOE/UOA).
So the essential question is:
Do stablecoins on Lightning accelerate getting people onto the Bitcoin network and make it easier for them to transition their MOE/UOA over time?
OR,
Do we lengthen fiat's lifespan by doing so?
I think it likely depends on what type of stablecoin we're talking about. Centrally-issued stables backed by fiat-denominated assets represent a new source of demand for those assets, so it's easier to see the argument that the fiat system could get extended.
But there could be other flavors like overcollateralized bitcoin-backed stables. Not only would these give individuals the familiar unit of account that they are insatiably demanding, but it would represent additional demand for BTC collateral instead of fiat. As this model grows and more people switchover, it starts to directly suck lifeforce from the fiat system. @david_seroy has written about this (and I similarly recognize that TAs on their own may not be enough to make this completely trustless but imo is a critical ingredient).
As with most things, I don't think it's perfectly black or white, but think it's an important conversation to be having. What do people think?
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I wonder if a bitcoin-backed stablecoin concept on Lightning
I stopped there reading all the rest. Bitcoin IS the stablecoin. All the rest are a joke.
If all your argument start from the "stablecoin" perspective is nothing to consider.
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75 sats \ 1 reply \ @IanM 16 Jun
I'd encourage you to read the rest sometime. You're simply not going to force people to change something as fundamental as their unit of account overnight, so the options are then either (1) try and convince them over time to do so (brutally difficult), or (2) provide a solution that accommodates that fundamental need in a way that gets more people onto the network and increases demand for BTC the asset. I think both are worth trying.
And to be clear (since you didn't read it), I think centralized stables like Tether are indeed dangerous, but that's not what I'm suggesting as a potential solution here.
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I'd encourage you to read the rest sometime.
I can't read ANYTHING that start by the word "stablecoin". That is pure shitcoinery I will always reject it by all means. Bitcoin circular economy do not include any form of stablecoins. Is pure Bitcoin.
Start your argument with other aspects and maybe I will read it. Read again my warning: stablecoins are fiat maxis dream. So fuck'em ! CONSISTENCY IS ALL THAT MATTER. BITCOIN ONLY. STABLECOINS ARE NOT BITCOIN.
Are you willing to share, do you pay rent, health insurance? And if yes, all in bitcoin?
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yes I pay rent in BTC, p2p to the landlord. Health insurance is a scam. I better save sats and pay a medical service only when is needed.
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Another question if you permit: How do you do about internet connection? I assume for your phone you use something like silent.link? Do you also have a home internet connection that you pay with bitcoin?
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yes I do not have any bank account from 2018
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Thanks for sharing.
Did you convince your landlord to accept bitcoin?
About medical bills, have you also found doctors, that accept bitcoin?
About health insurance, I agree that most bills are best paid manually. Just think it can be worth it to insure against edge cases, like the rare operation that can cost you more than 1 BTC. But yes, thats a topic for a different conversation.
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stackers have outlawed this. turn on wild west mode in your /settings to see outlawed content.