Bitcoin Tech Talk #302
This is a paid newsletter. If you’re an open source contributor to Bitcoin projects, please email me with your contributions and I will give you complementary subscription.
What I've been working on
Fiat Meaning - My article this week explained how meaning has been debased by fiat money. Specifically, the things that used to give people meaning like family, community and religion have all been infiltrated by fiat money and made extremely high time preference. The result has been a plunge into addictions of all kinds.
Philosophy of Science - I talked to Troy Cross about philosophy, academia and Bitcoin. Troy is a professor and we talked about why science and academia are not producing good results and why they seem to be off track. Readers of this column will not be surprised at my opinion on the subject, but Troy gives a slightly different perspective from the inside.
El Salvador - I traveled to San Salvador to teach 9 programmers the Bitcoin protocol. I was really surprised by how much development they’ve had since I last visited, which was a mere 6 months ago. There are more roads, better looking buildings, really nice restaurants and so on. The country is developing quickly and it’s great to see it. It’s crazy to me how much human creativity and entrepreneurship can change a place, provided they aren’t being oppressed by those in power.
What I'm up to
Russia - I have a podcast this week with Anna Chekhovic, who handles finance for the main opposition party in Russia. She’s had to flee from Putin and lives outside her home country. This episode will be eye-opening for those that don’t understand the extend of control people like Putin have over the monetary system and how that can be used against you.
Fall Conference Season - There are a lot of different conferences that are coming up that I will be speaking at. There’s BitBlockBoom in Austin in late August, Baltic Honeybadger in Riga in early September, bconf.de in Innsbruck later in September, and Plan B forum in Lugano in October. I’ll try to have my books available at each conference.
Violence and the Sacred - I finally finished this book by Rene Girard and it’s definitely made me think about the precarious nature of violence in civilization. We take civility for granted, but it’s largely bought through shared belief. The violence at the heart of every civilization is something that we hide and purposefully mythologize. The book has given me much to think about with respect to how communities form and how communities are kept together.
Tweet of the Week
What I’m Shilling
Unchained Capital is a sponsor of this newsletter. I am an advisor and proud to be a part of a company that’s enhancing security for Bitcoin holders. If you need multisig, collaborative custody or bitcoin native financial services, learn more here
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Bitcoin Tech Talk to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.