Lean Into Bitcoin Utility Instead of Politics – Bitcoin Magazine
Below is a direct excerpt from Marty’s Bent Issue #1281: “Posture from a position of force.” Sign up for the newsletter here.
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Monday night was the first Bitcoin Jawn meetup in Philadelphia. I had the pleasure of being present and participating in the discussion. The theme of the first gathering was “Bitcoin and Freedom”, which is very appropriate considering that Philadelphia is the birthplace of the United States, where revolutionaries stuck their flag into the ground and said something along the lines of: “We will no longer be ruled by a irresponsible despotic king who unjustly taxes us while living in a foreign land. We want to be free men.”
As a native Philadelphian, I have always been drawn to the founding fathers, what they believed and how they imposed their will on the largest empire in the world to ensure that they and their families could live a life rooted in individual free will.
During the meeting, the conversation landed on the topic of what can be done to lobby decision makers to protect bitcoin from overbearing regulation. What can we do to protect bitcoin mining from climate hysteria? How can we get a de minimis tax exemption? How can we get bitcoin labeled as free speech, which would eliminate capital gains taxes entirely so individuals can trade freely? These were all interesting topics and definitely things I would like to see. However, I couldn’t shake the irony that we were gathered in a small pub in Philadelphia essentially begging for the most basic freedom: The freedom to choose what we consider to be the best money for ourselves and spend it as we see fit . without fear of retribution from a despotic government. The Founding Fathers would scream in rage at how the republic they created has changed. Benjamin Franklin would surely have remarked, “Well it seems you all certainly weren’t able to keep it.”
Considering the state of the union today, especially the bloated and tyrannical state of the federal government, it doesn’t really seem like a viable path to affect change via the political process. The whole system has been corrupted by vested interests and an overpowered intelligence apparatus. It seems like a completely idiotic strategy to think that lobbying the goliath to take positive action against a tool destined to destroy it is a good way to spend its time and resources.
Instead, anyone who wants to see bitcoin succeed in defanging a shadow government gone mad with power would be better off spending their time and resources working as hard and as quickly as possible to initiate and strengthen a circular bitcoin- economy that equips those who wish to peacefully escape the goliath and supports them from a position of impenetrable strength. Asking the goliath for permission to defang it is acting from a position of weakness that is destined to fail. The Goliath, understanding its perceived authority in the eyes of its subjects, is likely to give permission-seekers a false sense of security by saying things like, “Okay, but . . .”
- You can use bitcoin, but you must report all your addresses to me.
- You can mine bitcoin, but you can only use these approved energy sources and only include these transactions in blocks you mine.
- You can use the Lightning Network for payments, but you can only open channels with channel counterparts on this credential list.
If this is the route that Bitcoiners take, it will lead to a dead end that renders bitcoin’s value proposition completely useless in the US. This is certainly a path I do not want to go down and an outcome I do not want my children to be exposed to.
I want to live free. I want to get rid of the goliath from my life. I want agency over my money. I don’t want to ask permission for something I should be able to do freely. Does that make me a “radical” in the eyes of Goliath? Maybe, but I would sooner change my name to David and take the goliath head-on than bow down and let it lord it over me in a tyrannical way any longer. I think the founders would have the same inclination, and you shouldn’t be afraid to do the same. The Goliath transformed from an entity that was supposed to represent us and protect our liberties to an entity that causes great harm and erodes more and more freedoms with each passing day.
