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0 sats \ 12 replies \ @02d769cb73 31 Aug \ parent \ on: The Fight for Bitcoin Privacy Has Truly Begun bitcoin
anyone is free to choose to use Bitcoin, or not - and anyone who chooses to use Bitcoin is free to choose the terms on which they do so.
each approach has it's own characteristics, and defines the experience for the user - which at large, over time, is the path, or journey, to Bitcoinisation.
acting in this awareness, anyone can experience the use of an open access, permissionless protocol in any context they prefer - that is the reality.
Do a basic google search on bitcoin -
The vast majority of the results that come up are articles about its 'price price price'.
Not about the hashrate, not about its decentralization, not about necessarily running a node (although there are many resources on this)... not about the mempool, not about its block construction or even where to spend bitcoin or how to custody it...
Not about new bitcoin software or signing threshold schemes - nope. Just price price price what is it going to do - go up or go down. That's it. So and so trader says 'it's going up' or this or that trader says 'it's going down' - some trader 'breaks their silence' and 'they're worried'. Because of some stupid chart? Where was that trader a year or more ago?
And I can't help but feel this type of coverage is for the idiots, whoever they are, that keep their sats on an exchange. They don't hold their own keys, they don't run a node, they aren't using bitcoin to actually pay for things, they aren't using lightning in any meaningful way if they use it at all... it's just 'hey what's the price doing'. And so the only way they interact with bitcoin is to sell it with the click of a button, which is not on-chain but instead just an exchange database. They don't make bitcoin transactions themselves so... I guess that's why the only thing they know is the price? I mean, do they check mempool dot space to see what's going on?
In many ways the price is the LEAST interesting thing going on with bitcoin. It is a volatile currency that goes up and down in value but that is not really a reason to have it... in my opinion its inherent qualities and network effects is what makes it valuable NOT the fiat price. And yet... look at the Google search results it plays right into the hands of 'speculative store of value' instead of medium of exchange.
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My central point is Bitcoin is being systematically attacked and undermined and the fundamental purpose and ethos of the protocol is increasingly undermined.
You fail to refute any of the key facts and issues I raise.
Rather you appear to seek to dismiss them by ignoring them.
That's not a path to rational truth- that's simple denial.
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no, it's the reality that anyone can make a choice and act upon it - the choices people make are what matters - different people, in different places, are making different choices - a casual look around the wider world clearly shows that.
the ability of any Bitcoin user to reclaim power, and assert it, is undiminished.
it is only within your frame of reference that anything is being undermined - Bitcoin user unaffected.jpeg
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The protocol as a whole has been under constant and continuous attack and the ability of individual protocol users to utilise the protocols P2P MoE potential is steadily being undermined as more and more Bitcoin is locked up into institutional capture and control and as the perception of Bitcoin as a P2P MoE is steadily eroded. The bankers and governments are deliberately engineering this as Bitcoin as a speculative commodity is much less of a threat to their monopoly power than Bitcoin as a MoE.
As individual users we can still use Bitcoin for MoE but there are already severe restrictions imposed on such use, primarily via the tax reporting obligations which make P2P MoE effectively impractical to comply with in a lawful way.
If the trend continues and Bitcoin is more and more portrayed and used as a speculative commodity it becomes more and more possible to justify a ban on private custody. Lalalalala all you like, but at that tipping point- its Game over Rover.
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there is a bigger game playing out than your myopic argument can accommodate
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Interesting then that you cannot articulate what you allege.
What is the bigger game and what is myopic about what I have described?
Looks like you are shooting the messenger ~ because you cannot refute the message.
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where are these things happening ?
to whom are they happening ?
are they happening to you ?
none of the things you mention are happening to me, because i make the choice not to use Bitcoin on those terms, in those places.
all your positions seem based in fear - fear of what someone else might do.
Bitcoin is something that YOU can CHOOSE to DO.
the people, and the places that allow others to choose for them will suffer for as long as they do so.
maybe they will invoke tyranny, maybe they will experience collapse, maybe they will get wiped out, it's on them (and maybe you).
the solution is of course, to make choices for and by themselves, be it individually, and/or societally.
individuals, networks, and countries are making their choices - this is the journey to Bitcoinisation the world is on - whether it is faster or slower, lumpier or smoother, dramatic or incremental for anyone, anywhere, is entirely dependent on themselves.
it's there for anyone to notice, and experience.
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I am describing how the use of Bitcoin by everyone is being steered very strongly away from its original fundamental purpose...as a P2P MoE alternative to the fiat imposed MoE monopoly.
This steering is being done by the bankers and governments who currently gain most of their power via the fiat monetary system over which they have claimed and asserted a monopoly over MoE.
I want to be able to use Bitcoin freely as a MoE and have used it in a small way offering payment in my business, knowing that even doing that I risk sanctions imposed upon me by my bank.
Banks have almost universally sanctioned any person or business involved in Bitcoin use as a MoE. If you dont see this as market obstruction and obstruction of free market capitalism then you are in DENIAL of Reality.
Use of Bitcoin as a MoE in almost all jurisdictions incurs tax reporting obligations which effectively make Bitcoin impracticable for any rational person or business- this is state imposed obstruction of citizens freedom of choice regarding MoE.
You cannot choose to use Bitcoin for MoE without incurring huge obstruction from banks and governments - if you deny that you are denying the truth and therefore an apologist for that obstruction and those who are imposing that obstruction.
Surely they employ people to act as apologists for them and to spread narratives that support, excuse or obfuscate their obstruction. This is the shit monopolists do and this is the shit we need to call out if we are to acknowledge their parasitic rentseeking market manipulation and the undermining of our democracies that goes with it.
Fuck them.
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you have 4 options -
surrender to government.
defy the government.
change the government.
leave.
i have made my choices, you and everyone else must make theirs, including authoritarian regressive governments themselves.
they, and all those who choose to suffer them will have to play catch up further down the line.
there is a bigger reality to experience - far from plato's cave and those that exist in thrall to the play of the state's shadows on the wall.
It’s an open forum. Any one that cares can take you up on your arguments.
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Yes and I welcome anyone to do so :)
Contest of ideas is fundamental to a free open market just as narrative rigging via paid social media consultants and MSM is central to the established rentseeking cartels and monopolies and thus the biggest cartel monopoly of all is very active in seeking to redefine the understanding and use of Bitcoin from P2P MoE to speculative commodity!
As a speculative commodity Bitcoin is much less of a threat to the fiat debt farming bankers and complicit governments.
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