Bitcoin: What Do You REALLY Want?

This is an open letter to all Bitcoin Millionaires of this world: “What’s next? Drinking Martinis in a Paradise Island… or fixing REAL problems that Bitcoin promised to fix?”

This newsletter does not represent the views of the author’s employer and is not a financial or investment advice.

It is intended as a psychological, philosophical and systemic approach to the Bitcoin phenomenon to elevate the consciousness levels in the finance industry.

The newsletter is about Bitcoin and should not be generalised as views to the wider theme of Blockchain technology.

The writing of this article intends to be gender-neutral.

Bitcoin Lost Ethos

This newsletter is directed to all the Bitcoin Millionaires of this world.

Let me start sharing something with you.

One thing that unites me to Bitcoin Believers is a common understanding that the current economic models by which the world is ruled are both outdated and nonsensical.

This is not a small inconvenience but a big problem.

A problem that — unfortunately — little was done since the 2008 crisis.

A decade was lost on diverting efforts to implement regulations in the sector that, although welcomed, are built using 18th-century mathematics by the name of “Taylor Expansion”.

Not to mention the erroneous principles underlying the models by which finance practitioners work hard in their Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint reports.

Reports that are used to ensure a false sense of safety within the system, each month-end congratulating themselves for the achievements done while the obvious has still NOT been addressed.

In that sense, and as a former Bitcoin Believer, I secretly enjoy watching the old school of economics scrapping their heads when faced with the crypto phenomenon.

Together with the hysterical attacks of the Bitcoin Believers in the status quo.

But this is where the enjoyment stops, and the deep concerns start.

As much Bitcoin Believers have a point on the numerous flaws in the current system, their proposal is equally nonsensical, if not worst.

Let’s get serious here.

Bitcoin’s original ethos was to fix problems.

Instead, what we witness is a wave of juvenile people who got rich and did not know what to do next.

Bitcoin Believers seems more concerned with creating silly memes and dumb projects of buying paradise islands to drink martinis, decoupling themselves from the world’s harsh realities.

Is this what the world needs?

No Finesse In Bitcoin

“Is there a part of the Bitcoin community that understands it is time to build?

To build the sorts of things that look awful right now?

Right now, it’s time to search for REAL solutions to our problems.

We’ve got 75 years where we stayed in a stage where we’re leading archaic lives in general, and everyone knows that our lives don’t really make sense anymore.

Bitcoin is a story about destroying the old.

But if Bitcoin is here to fix things, the question is… “does it?”

Is there enough trust in the Bitcoin community that’s positive and pro-social to allow the wealth that has accumulated to now do beautiful amazing things?”

—Eric Weinstein

Personally, I doubt that Bitcoin Community can build anything sustainable due to their priorities on self-preservation and mocking critics.

Creating something new requires more finesse than destroying the old.

And finesse is what lacks in Bitcoin Believers.

A community that fails to be inclusive, acting in a juvenile & reactionary way.

Destroying the old is not the same as building the new

As for that, it requires intellectual wisdom, humility and self-mastery.

I love watching Bitcoin Believers bashing others for any criticism in their beloved crypto — failing to understand that criticism is a way to make any system stronger.

Take Quantum Computing as an example, where a series of milestones were possible following the open criticism by those who could see what others failed to recognise.

Had Bitcoin Believers taken the criticism and acted on it, maybe by now, Bitcoin would be less volatile, less CO2 damaging, less open to fraud and less weaponised.

In short, Bitcoin Believers fail to understand how science & technology works, let alone its impact on social behaviour.

As for that, Bitcoin Believers will need to overcome a paradox.

Is Bitcoin Trapped In A Paradox?

Bitcoin is a paradigm shift.

I have no doubts about that.

Underlying this paradigm shift is the Blockchain technology that solved the “double spending” problem.

The breakthrough is more than the creation of a radically new monetary system.

What the breakthrough really means is the ability to translate the “conservation law” of the physical world to the digital world.

A paradigm shift that allows us to move the real world’s boundaries into the digital layer, allowing us to rebuild everything that we know.

With a caveat.

ANYONE can do so.

Bitcoin’s central ethos is that one cannot print more Bitcoins than the 21 million initially coded in its protocol.

Let’s, for a moment, ignore the theoretical possibility that such a single line of code can be forked — such as a possible major event as miners reach a saturation point.

Then, indeed, Bitcoin has solved the problem that one cannot print more money… in that currency.

But nothing prevents NEW cryptocurrencies from being printed!

Bitcoin narrative is, therefore, a tautology.

It’s far from being immune to a 10x technological development.

It is why Bitcoin is not a currency but rather an IDEOLOGY to Bitcoin Maximalists.

A cult if you wish.

Why?

Because Bitcoin is a weird combination of technology with money, that manifests in a massive conflict of interests.

A paradox.

On the one hand, Bitcoin is the expression of a new technology for which fixed protocols have been written to gain the trust of its believers.

On the other hand, such technology cannot evolve.

As for that, it would disrupt the fundamental Bitcoin Protocol ethos, in particular on the proof of work and, with that, the trust within its believers.

Hence the conflict of interests in those holding Bitcoin and their refusal to change the protocols.

Any major technological development would incur the risk of a loss of wealth in Bitcoin holders.

But if Bitcoin refuses to evolve as a technology, how is that going to be a solution to the real problems we have in the world?

Bitcoin got itself trapped.

And Bitcoin Believers know that.

What I suspect is that Bitcoin Believers don't know what fight they are fighting against...

The False Inflation Narrative

Bitcoin is said to solve the inflation problem.

The acclaimed reason is that it has a fixed supply of 21 million coins.

The problem with this idea is that a healthy currency devalues!

If money does not deflate, people will prefer to keep it than exchange it for goods & services!

By trying to solve the inflation problem, a Bitcoin economy would be widely open to hyper deflation.

It is like trying to kill a mosquito with a bazooka.

Moreover, do we even understand what “inflation” is?

We all know that the CPI and RPI inflation indexes are highly questionable in their calculation methodology.

And yet, they are the indexes by which Governments and Central Banks make decisions impacting all society.

The mathematics used is more archaic than the 18th century “Taylor expansion”, used to risk-managed highly complex financial derivatives.

It is closed to the Pythagoras theorem, assuming the sides of a triangle are fixed eternally.

That reflects the economic assumption that people don’t change their tastes.

A universal fixed basket of goods to measure inflation is as good as a bazooka to kill a mosquito.

From this perspective, both Bitcoin mathematical inflation assumptions and CPI mathematical assumptions are equally dumber.?

Resulting in “dumber & dumber” endless debates between the two.

One can’t find the right answers until we develop the right questions.

The question is: do Bitcoin Believers even know what they are fighting against?

Thank you for reading this newsletter.

Tip Of The Week

We are living in the age of weaponised math and techno-fetishism.

It is time to remember who we are and where we came from.

Human nature is what prevails as the most critical factor.

And yet, Finance and Tech are probably the least humanising fields out there.

I believe the priority is re-humanising Finance and Tech.

Bitcoin is moving us in the opposite direction.

Instead of focusing our energy on building trustworthy systems, we seem to be outsourcing our Humanity to “algorithms”.

The danger of Bitcoin utopia is not so much on replacing the Fiat system.

The danger is the blind trust in obscure technical protocols and mathematics that only a tiny percentage of Humanity has a broad understanding of.

And that opens the manipulation of the technology to be weaponised with little control.

This is not just about Bitcoin or even Blockchain.

We have many new technologies that can either be used for the good of society or instead be weaponised; AI, CRISP and, in a perhaps not so long future, Quantum Computing.

This is why there is a need to create the next wave of Conscious Leaders, who can think in a multidisciplinary way and not be limited to single technical expertise.

It is also why I provide coaching to those who want more than chase technological trends and instead have a conscious impact on the paradigm shifts we are living.

If you believe that the problems faced in Humanity cannot be exclusively solved by technology and are curious about becoming a Conscious Leader, please feel free to book an initial 15-mins call here:

https://cal.mixmax.com/nunoreis/15_introduction

Alternatively, feel free to DM for more information

Nuno Reis

Former Bitcoin believer turned into a Bitcoin sceptic.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are my own.

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