The crypto vs banks “rivalry” that is playing out surrounding the U.S. Clarity Act is way too contrived. It is orchestrated theatre. It is fake competition, the stuff of willing partners in an evolving oligopoly. Banking and crypto are merging. The real rivalry is with YOU, with freedom, and truly “decentralized finance”. To use a sports analogy, the banking “league” has simply agreed to a league expansion. They are allowing new teams into the league, willing to dilute their market share because they have calculated that doing so grows the market and profit. Armstrong/Dimon = Knicks/Thunder. This evolving oligopoly will have defined rules for who’s in and out, centralizing power and control over a vast landscape of digital assets (including custodied BTC). The true rivalry is now with actual decentralized finance: you holding and spending self-custodied Bitcoin.

I’m definitely guilty of fading away from Nostr until I’m reminded why it is so important. I’ll do my best to be more consistent over here and to try to advance use by more than just fellow Bitcoiners! Have a great day Nostriches!

Just listened to Pete Rizzo’s interview with Michael Terpin:

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Supply Shock (@SupplyShockBW) on X

New interview with Bitcoin Supercycle author Michael Terpin dropping tomorrow! @michaelterpin explains why he thinks #Bitcoin's 4-year cycle is N...

While it was excellent overall, there was one thing that I want to respectfully push back on. In discussing Bitcoin and/vs crypto, Michael notes that he looks at Bitcoin as "store of value" and the rest of crypto as "innovation". I feel very strongly that this is a narrative that is not only mistaken but against which we must push back (again, all respect to Michael). I ask: innovation toward/for what? When I look out at the vast landscape of crypto, what I see is a network of projects guided by technological determinism and engineering masturbation. Projects that extol the virtue of innovation but offer up self-referential loops of engineering gymnastics garnished with flourishes of Web3, DeFi, Blockchain (all rhetorical devices). So what is innovation? Well, I believe that it is something that moves us -- humanity -- into a new stage of development, of growth. One can argue over the etymology of the term "innovation" (see etymonline.com/word/innovation), however, I believe strongly that the restoration and renewal to which it speaks is a profoundly humanistic one, focused on virtue and evolution. In its beautiful simplicity and what it offers us -- the ability to communicate truth, trust, value and meaning across time, space and culture (h/t to @Ella Hough and @Troy Cross) -- Bitcoin exudes innovation. It enables and ushers us into renewal, restoration, growth, and evolution across multiple domains of existence. The manifest distinction between the self-referential, technological determinism of "crypto = innovation" and "Bitcoin = innovation" is that the latter ultimately makes human action and relationships the locus of activity. We are not anticipating salvation and surrendering ourselves to the tool, we are employing the tool (whether consciously or not in all instances) as a tool for human renewal and growth. We are re-ordering and re-constructing the architecture of human relationships. We are re-fashioning how we "communicate truth, trust, value and meaning across time, space and culture". As far as what this looks like, well, I see it play out in multiple domains. It is evident in opportunity afforded mothers in Kenya participating in @BitcoinBabies who employ Bitcoin as means to re-claim their rightful, virtuous place within community and to restore and empower community in the process. I see it play out in the growth of children participating in @BitcoinEkasi who are moving toward an increased expression of their human potential against the heavy weight of oppressions that time and history have assigned to them at birth. I see it in the almost unimaginable spark of self-determination that is being realized in high Andes Mountain communities through @npub1q0pa...5u4j'S work. And so on, and so forth across community-based projects and human rights cases harnessing Bitcoin. Those of us privileged to live in Canada, the U.S. and other more affluent countries can also witness the innovation of Bitcoin is the unprecedented potential it offers many individuals and groups to climb the hierarchy of needs against the headwinds of social distress either caused by or exacerbated by debt-money. For instance, the opportunity afforded a GenZ-er to realistically plan for the sorts of life goals/goods (home ownership, financially sustainable family life) that were once simply taken for granted by most. In this respect, one can argue that "store of value = innovation". I don't want to get bogged down in semantics nor over-extend this analysis. What I do want to get across is that we must actively resist the Siren call of crypto as innovation. Yes, the "Bitcoin is digital gold" analogy is useful and has some applications...but it only scratches the surface and is utterly inadequate at capturing the many overlapping circles of innovation that Bitcoin achieves or births. Bitcoin is a store of value. Bitcoin is a medium of exchange. Bitcoin is a unit of account. Bitcoin is a network. Bitcoin is a protocol. Bitcoin is a map and the territory. Bitcoin is innovation and gives rise to innovation. Let us not neglect the staggering beauty of this exquisite phenomenon. Let us not surrender the human story and evolution which Bitcoin exalts. Let us not relinquish the rightful claim to innovation which is Bitcoin and is set forth through Bitcoin. 🙏🧡

With all due respect to any OG Bitcoiner who may be selling Bitcoin due to disenchantment, I would humbly say that this is a lack of focus and perspective. Every day, I have the honour via @Federation of Bitcoin Circular Economies of connecting with local projects around the world that are living out the vision of “peer-to-peer electronic cash”. Freedom money. 100 sats here, 1000 sats there. A local barber, taxi driver, cattle rancher, or corner store on-boarded to Bitcoin. A group of children receiving and then spending sats as reward for their participation in an educational program. A mother saving sats for her child’s future schooling costs. On and on, far away from the boardrooms of Wall Street, the original vision for Bitcoin is very much alive, thriving and growing through local Bitcoin circular economy projects. So, to anyone lamenting the entry of large financial institutions to the Bitcoin ecosystem and the #hodl only mentality, I respectfully say: you’re not looking in the right places. Tune into circular economies and the #spedn vibe. Take a step back, look at and support local Bitcoin circular economy projects. You can find them all listed on fbce.io and you can find how to donate to them (multiple options) via our partner website at bitcoinconfederation.org/explore. If the entry of large institutions to Bitcoin frustrates you, if you feel that the soul of Bitcoin is in jeopardy, help the amazing people on the ground in communities around the world who are bringing the Bitcoin white paper to life every single day. Please follow and support @Federation of Bitcoin Circular Economies to help us bring Bitcoin circular economies to scale over the months and years ahead.

Hubris (a short story) In the year 2029, the global economy trembled—not from war or pandemic, but from a quiet revolution that had been gathering beneath the surface like tectonic pressure. The story began a decade earlier. @Microsoft, @Apple, @Google, and the other titans of Silicon Valley were basking in record profits. Their balance sheets overflowed with trillions in cash and equivalents, most of it parked in U.S. Treasury bonds—low-yield, “safe,” and endorsed by decades of convention. CFOs nodded confidently at board meetings. Risk was for startups. Stability was strategy. But a storm was building, and they refused to look up. In a small but growing corner of the global economy, something different was taking root: Bitcoin. While the tech elite dismissed it as volatile, slow, or worse — a haven for libertarians and groups trying to go around institutions — it kept humming along, block by block. @MicroStrategy, a company dismissed as a curious footnote on @CNBC, quietly continued converting its balance sheet into Bitcoin. Others followed, slowly, and then into a growing wave. Sovereigns too: El Salvador, Bhutan, then Brazil, Czech Republic, and more. A parallel system was forming, one that operated beyond borders, beyond central banks, and beyond the cautious worldview of the titans of corporate America. By 2027, inflation had returned—not the kind central bankers claimed to control, but the kind that eroded real wages and made corporate bonds unattractive. U.S. debt spiraled as interest payments surpassed defense spending. Apple’s $200 billion in cash began to shrink—not in numbers, but in purchasing power. They were rich, yes. But so was Rome, once. Still, they didn’t move. Why risk headlines for a speculative asset? Why anger investors stuck in the modalities of the past, those convinced by Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett and other investing giants of the past that this Bitcoin thing was a speculative fad? Why rock the boat when the tide had always lifted them? Because tides change. When the dollar crisis hit in 2029, it wasn’t sudden. But the consequences were. Treasury yields spiked. Foreign investors and stable-coin companies dumped U.S. debt. The Fed, cornered, scaled up its money printing. The world finally noticed that the emperor’s currency had no clothes. Meanwhile, Strategy’s balance sheet exploded in value, as did those of other corporations that joined the early wave of Bitcoin Treasury Companies. Once small-cap and mid-cap firms, these companies now dwarfed the giants of the past. Countries lined up to mine, secure, and settle in #Bitcoin $BTC. A new monetary standard emerged—not by decree, but by demand. At an emergency summit in Davos, the CEOs of the world’s largest firms gathered in panic. Microsoft’s CFO whispered, “We should have bought Bitcoin back when it was under $100K.” Apple’s board, once lauded for its caution, found itself questioned by shareholders who watched their cash erode in real time. The corporations that once shaped the world had missed the future by clinging to the past. It wasn’t lack of information. It wasn’t bad luck. It was hubris. And hubris, history reminds us, is always punished in the end. $MSFT $AAPL $GOOG $NVDA $TSLA $NFLX

Many an athlete was made in the process! 🤣

Reflecting on an inspiring experience from this morning. On my run down by Lake Ontario, there is an indigenous encampment drawing attention to consequences of Bill C-5 (One Canadian Economy Act) and a variety of outstanding Treaty issues. I said hello and thanked them for the beautiful smell of sage that was filling the air, after which an Elder invited me over to smudge. Grateful for the gift, we began speaking about different issues pertaining to their grievances (very legitimate, centuries old grievances). It opened an opportunity to speak to the Elder and a couple of others about Bitcoin and the potential for economic sovereignty (and by extension, other forms of sovereignty). I told them about the work my colleagues Suman Kumar and @Emma are doing to nurture dialogue and learning about Bitcoin with Cree community members in the province of Quebec. The beautiful thing: they got it. The concepts resonated. They were interested to learn more. I’ll be going back to speak with them again and to share some resources. It reminded me that a myriad of groups, communities, nations stand to benefit from the opportunity Bitcoin presents to (figuratively) bulldoze gates, fences, and enforcers that prevent them from achieving autonomy and sovereignty. I we can find more openings and opportunities to engage First Nations, Inuit, and other native communities throughout the Americas regarding Bitcoin. We, the creator’s children, and future generations, all stand to benefit.

HABEMUS PAPADUM! 🙏

Man, I would love to have heard the presentation and walked beside the buyer for a minute just to see if any wheels were actually turning. 🤣

El Salvador’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve (6024.18 BTC as of today) now amounts to roughly 0.00095000 BTC per capita based on its population of .~6,300,000. They continue to grow this per capita holding every single day. In order catch up to El Salvador's per capita BTC reserves, these countries would need to hold the following BTC in their own Strategic Bitcoin Reserves as of today (the vast majority haven’t yet started an SBR). These numbers will continue to grow every day as El Salvador's per capita BTC holdings grow. 🇮🇳 1,384,896 BTC 🇨🇳 1,346,727 BTC 🇺🇸 329,000 BTC 🇳🇬 221,045 BTC 🇧🇷 201,809 BTC 🇷🇺 137,579 BTC 🇲🇽124,865 BTC 🇯🇵 117,237 BTC 🇩🇪 80,083 BTC 🇬🇧 65,889 BTC 🇿🇦 61,179 BTC 🇫🇷 63,273 BTC 🇨🇦 37,950 BTC 🇦🇺 25,508 BTC 🇨🇭 8,498 BTC There are only 21,000,000 BTC to be had...ever. Countries for whom the 💡 goes on and realize that BTC is gradually becoming the base layer of the future global economy will be competing not only with each other for BTC, but with the world's 8 billion individuals, as well as companies, investment funds, unions, community organizations, and a myriad of other groups around the world. Sometimes the profound reality of "scarcity" can just smack you in the face. It is very likely that most, or possibly all of these very large (many very wealthy) countries will never possess the per capita wealth of El Salvador measured in BTC. It boggles the mind what this will mean in the future that is taking shape right now. Most importantly though, if YOU are reading this, it means that YOU have the possibility of holding your own BTC and doing so while the vast majority of national and sub-national governments, companies, and other groups are still asleep or have not learned enough about Bitcoin (BTC) to take it as seriously as they should (and will, eventually). The most beautiful thing about Bitcoin, I believe, is that almost everyone on the planet has the ability to hold it and use BTC. That includes youth in the most remote parts of the world, for example; individuals who are excluded from the wealth of the current world in so many ways. It is absolutely remarkable that as governments, companies, and other groups slowly begin to tune into the transformational value of Bitcoin, individuals have already been at this for 16 years. More than 55% of the total available supply of BTC right now -- roughly 19,800,000 BTC out of the 21M that will ever be available -- are held by individuals. This is power to the people in action. Let's keep it that way! Stack sats, stay humble. ✊🧡

Haha! Truth! 🇨🇦🏒

Here’s my observation with respect to the U.S. Elections. Most people opining on why Americans shouldn’t vote for the other party/candidate are full of shit, painting caricatures of people who vote for the other party/candidate. This goes both ways, from both the “Trump/Vance” camp and the “Harris/Walz“ camp, both Democrat and Republican. The majority of people are re-enforcing inherited narratives about the “other”, fuelled by the toxic incentives that guide electoral politics as sport. I’m more and more won over to the idea that this is by design. If we actually invested time to speak with each other, to focus on values and hopes for society, we would find that 80% of people can generally agree on 80% of things. However, our current civic climate pushes us to engage at the fringes, beginning from the disposition of the 20% focused first and foremost on the 20% of things on which they disagree. We are sucked into this abyss of false conflict. Regardless of the outcome today, perhaps make a point of talking to more people with who you are led to believe you “disagree”. If you skew Democrat, have a conversation with some people who skew Republican. And, vice versa. Ask people what they think a better, fair society means to them; what it would look like. Try to get at what they think the core values are that should infuse society. Make the effort to extend a generosity of spirit. The only way things get better is if we make them get better, one person, one conversation at a time. #ElectionDay #USelection #press

Did you know?

IMHO, history will record the true hubris of the 2024 U.S. Presidential race as belonging to Republicans and anti-Democrats. So cocksure were they that “Sleepy Joe” would hand them the White House that they casually welcomed Donald Trump back to the throne, failing to appreciate that the bar he sets…policy-wise and as a campaigner (not as a human being, because that bar is extremely low)… is just inches higher than that of the opponent on whom they had set their sights. Trump looked like a Rhodes scholar and Toastmasters Golden Gavel Award winner on stage beside Biden (2024 version of Biden). Whether the Democrat candidate switch was by design or merely circumstantial, we may never know. Regardless, Trump is now revealing himself as the court jester he truly is. Not looking good.

A special 3am run this morning to wrap up my 12-week summer plan of one early morning 21km run per week, on top of my other runs/workouts. I may continue until the temperature drops further. These early morning sojourns have given me a much deeper sense of gratitude and clarity. They have given me a greater appreciation of the quiet and peace that can be found in busy places at rest, places that are typically bustling. They have brought into greater focus the nuances of pain that exists in our midst — the broken lives of people living on the streets, the substance-fuelled escape from pain and trauma, and more. They have also taught me to see and appreciate simple moments of magic and beauty, like crossing paths twice this morning with a baby rabbit that seemed to be on its own early morning running program along Lake Ontario. On the second of these two brief encounters, we stopped and looked at each other for what must have been 5-10 seconds as if to recognize something sacred in the other. Read what you will into this, but it was one of those moments for me when I sensed a higher power at work, a higher purpose for this life, a frequency that deliberately placed us along each other’s path. I’m grateful for all these experiences, these reminders, and the spiritual anchor that they provide in an otherwise hectic life. This universe wants us to be at peace, to find purpose, and to be of service. This truth is screaming to be heard and embraced amidst the noise and chaos of a tumultuous world which often seems to be spiralling toward greater conflict. I hope that I can increasingly be and become an instrument of that truth, a channel for the peace and abundance which all of us deserve to experience. Peace! Salam!

Bring back Olympic tug-of-war! Let’s start a petition to the IOC. View quoted note →

It must be underscored that what is being passed off as a potential “reset” by the U.S. Democratic Party appears to be an “everything but #Bitcoin” crypto fest. Fine, if that’s what is intended by this new “Crypto4Harris” campaign and what is desired by planners and decision-makers aligned with the party and Harris/Walz. But we should be clear about that and we must note what that portends. It says that a potential reset on crypto is being approached strictly as an openness to repurposing Silicon Valley tech narratives via tokenization and more insiderism. It is not about the values expressed by progressive members of the Democratic Partyy: values that Bitcoin exemplifies: financial inclusion, climate action, inclusive global development, and a program of peace. These global domains of #Bitcoin and its particular use cases, as distinct from the vast ecosystem of crypto, appear absent from the program. While some may find business value in these other crypto (fair enough), let’s be frank: they are not ushering in change. They are simply continuing the frameworks, systems and structures of tech-forward, Silicon Valley, venture capital dominated industry, via new means. Communities around the world are not harnessing these crypto to empower the unbanked and marginalized, nor to resist authoritarian rule and to fight for human rights. There is no Solana Beach. There is no Ethereum Ekasi. There is no Doge 4 Social Good. These other crypto are not revolutionizing energy production and economics like Bitcoin is. They are not scaling the supply of renewable energy and mitigating escaped methane like Bitcoin is. They are not outfitting communities around the world with electricity for the first time through unprecedented energy demand/supply models, again, like Bitcoin is. No, these inspiring phenomena that are significant parts of the Bitcoin story around the world are apparently not up for discussion within the “Crypto4Harris” led reset. These positive phenomena associated with Bitcoin are the domain of Bitcoin mining, and no representatives or researchers focused on Bitcoin mining have been invited to the list of esteemed speakers and thought-leaders within the new “Crypto4Harris” reset agenda. Bitcoin, the first technology to use a blockchain; Bitcoin, the largest digital asset by market cap (larger than all others combined); Bitcoin, the world’s largest decentralized computing network and open-source software; Bitcoin, the world’s 14 largest currency; #Bitcoin, the truly revolutionary network and global money, feels absent from the “Crypto4Harris” program despite its overwhelming size, impact and clear alignment with progressive values on the global stage. It must be said that this Crypto4Harris forum appears to characterized more by its glaring omissions than anything else. Perhaps those of us who scratch our heads in bewilderment that the Democratic Party (or at least its Progressive wing) have not yet embraced Bitcoin with full-throttled passion will be pleasantly surprised as this “Crypto4Harris” process continues to unfold. Maybe. I hope so. So far though, signs do not look very promising.

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Crypto4Harris Town Hall

Join our virtual Town Hall to hear from crypto industry heavyweights, policy leaders, and elected officials on our plans to support the campaign an...

A big thank you to the German Government 🇩🇪 for selling 80% of their #Bitcoin #BTC at these very cheap exchange rates (below USD $60K) especially since a very large portion will now be held by individuals spread around the world, building a true global people’s movement of hope. I relish the thought that many of these sats, once held by the German state, will now be held and used in communities throughout the global South to assist in true community development and empowerment where so many years of national “foreign aid” and multilateral loans have failed. Power to the people! ✊🧡

Without a doubt, my favourite interview of the year so far. Checks all the boxes! ✅ #Bitcoin ✅ Toronto ✅ 🇨🇦 ✅ Basketball ✅ Music ✅ Public health Please follow @Saidah - Ask a Bitcoiner 21 Questions and her awesome new show “Ask a Bitcoiner 21.”. 🙌

Things are getting grim in the United States. At the behest of the White House, federal agencies have been carrying out a series of enforcement actions against individuals and groups that develop privacy tools which #humanrights activists around the world rely on for their work and to stay free of authoritarian oppression. These enforcement actions are being carried out in the context of regulatory ambiguity from FinCEN and other relevant federal bodies. In the process, they are causing a chilling effect to reverberate in the U.S. and beyond, further eroding trust in U.S. institutions and, in many cases, placing lives in danger. What is at the root of these prejudicial actions? We are left to speculate. Regardless, they are exacting non-trivial collateral damage. These dubious enforcement actions imperil the rights of the American public and they undermine the interests of diverse populations around the world living under the yoke of dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. Ironically, tragically, these U.S. enforcement actions impact human rights activists and resistance movements fighting tirelessly against regimes which the U.S. government claims also to oppose, often at immense expense to the U.S. taxpayer. The game afoot appears not to be one of moral righteousness, democratic principle, and the sanctity of the law, but rather, one of power, privilege, and Empire. These prejudicial enforcement actions come in the wake of recent re-authorization of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act which contains new provisions, within Section #FISA702, granting U.S. agencies unprecedented authority to surveil the communications of Americans without a warrant. These enforcement actions also coincide with the troubling resort to brute force being exacted upon student protestors on campuses throughout the U.S. who are calling for an end to the murder of innocent children, women and men in Palestine. This militarized response, though not centrally coordinated, is one being legitimized by a state-sanctioned mischaracterization of what these protests fundamentally aim to achieve. A thread runs through it… Policing tools for privacy. Enabling the surveillance of Americans. Squashing dissent and protest with force. These are the signposts of creeping authoritarianism, of a state apparatus that has detached from its moral foundation and its raison d’être as expressed in its guiding documents: the Constitution, its amendments, and the Bill of Rights. This creeping authoritarian state seems to grow more self-assured and more self-referential by the week. Having pierced the veil of covert operations, however, it stands naked now before the subjects whom it chooses to villainize: students, privacy tool creators, and no less than the everyday citizen who presumes to transact privately and to communicate freely in the digital world with her peers without fear of interference from and censorship by the state. A thread runs through it. It is time for America to hold up a mirror unto itself and ask, which direction now? cc: @ninaturner @IlhanMN @RepRashida @AOC @SenSanders @RepBobGood @HRF @ACLU @EFF @hrw