GOLDBUGS AREN’T BITCOINERS
And they never will be.
Yes, they’ve identified a common enemy - central banks and governments who print money out of thin air.
And they have the right prescription - sound money.
Logically they should be our greatest allies, but they are not; why is that?
Because Goldbugs are in it for themselves. They want a return to a gold standard not because it would free people from fiat debt slavery, not to help the unbanked or to separate money and state.
No, they are goldbugs because it would pump their heavy bags. The fact gold is already captured and controlled means Goldbugs cheer when Central Banks buy more because they don’t want to overthrow the table and reset the system; they just want fiat repegged to shiny rocks in a vault no matter their rhetoric.
This is why so few actually convert to becoming Bitcoiners; they’re not in it for something greater than themselves - they’re in it only for themselves.
The few who have joined us had ideological axes to grind. Whether it was
@Saifedean Ammous watching his country get rekt, or
@npub1d3f4...r4xv who got fukt in the GFC or Quoth the Raven who realised the “cult” would be a self-fulfilling prophecy - they saw beyond 5000 years of history and understood this could be bigger than all that, and might actually work.
And this is why the Goldbugs ultimately failed - they had no positive vision to articulate for the world, and thus no identity for others to adopt.
They could tell you about a better monetary system but economics is inseparably intertwined with politics and culture and philosophy; without which they lacked a comprehensive worldview and aspirational conviction for others to follow.
Bitcoiners must learn from this lesson of the Goldbugs if we are to succeed. Millennials need to step up and lead the way, demonstrating a better life that people want to emulate and opt into.
Merely asking of the fiat system to use our money is not enough.
Replies (21)
Goldbugs need the state and their fiat rails to make their asset liquid, they're very open about this
> And this is why the Goldbugs ultimately failed - they had no positive vision to articulate for the world, and thus no identity for others to adopt.
🎯💯
What about the implications of Bitcoin ETFs. These financial instruments allow entities to accumulate large amounts of Bitcoin, potentially gaining enough control to influence its price significantly. Such a concentration of Bitcoin in the hands of a few is concerning and contradicts the decentralized ethos that Bitcoin advocates for. If one of the primary critiques of Goldbugs is their self-serving approach and the centralization of gold, then the same scrutiny must be applied to the Bitcoin ecosystem. The potential for a similar centralization through Bitcoin ETFs poses a question worth pondering: How can we ensure that the movement towards digital currency remains true to its foundational principles of decentralization and accessibility for all, without replicating the very issues it seeks to resolve?
If only there were any goldbugs on Nostr to raise a counter argument.
From listening to Bitcoin podcasts, most big names in the podcast space are at least on friendly speaking terms with goldbugs.
Most of the argument from goldbugs seems to be something along the lines of ' we have more in common that we have in difference' kind of thing.
The idea that gold would be fit for a modern day economy is just kind of fantasy in and of itself really isn't it, I mean it's just archaic.
What is the picture of the gold statue about, is that really made out of gold?
Gold isn't going up, fiat is going down
It's not about "pumping my bags" it's about having money that doesn't evaporate
And Bitcoin is nothing - a game of telegram, a chain letter
Just another fiat
The ETFs were inevitable. Wall Street are the epitome of “in it for themselves” and it became too clear that there was huge money to be made here so they wanted in, and they always get what they want.
From Bitcoins perspective, think of the ETFs as a way to more efficiently dump fuel on the fire. A pipeline for capital which is going to send the price this cycle in an unprecedented way that can’t simply be switched off by Gov as they’re doing for retail on-ramps which are a garden hose in comparison.
My concern isn’t the ETFs centralising Bitcoin the network, or it’s consensus. My concern is this is the sovereign game theory starting in earnest and nobody is talking about that.
They’re on track to have 10%+ of coins by the end of the year - that’s a gigantic honeypot for the USGov to 6102 and possibly use to repeg the dollar to Bitcoin rather than gold. Luke Gromen is the only person who has articulated how/why, watch 5 minutes of this:
View quoted note →
THAT would be a problem. That’s hyperbitcoinisation in a way that we DO NOT want. They would be using our sound money in the fiat system, no table overthrow or reset - just fiat games which Bitcoiners will have to deal with.
The upside here is that, Wall Street and the USGov have never played this game. They’re on our turf and it is completely alien to them. They’ve never had to deal with meatbags custodying Trillions in wealth behind a few keys, nor a whole bunch of now rich anarchist types who want to smash their system and have money to fund their schemes..
This is where Bitcoiners get to go on offence. If they hold 70% of the corn when it hits $1 Million+ then we have a well funded army to go out and recruit more people through that positive vision, to grow the network rapidly, to demonstrate a better way.
Don’t sell corn to Larry Fink - prepare for shit to get real.
Pegging the dollar to bitcoin? I could see this working in the short-term because we still use paper money else there is no real advantage I can see. Let me watch this vdo and see if it can open my mind.
Not made out of gold, I just thought it very fitting.
The few ideological Goldbugs who don’t get Bitcoin are like Generals fighting the last war.
They don’t understand why their tactics have no chance at working, they’d show up on the battlefield in suits of armour with spears and swords and expect their ancient armour and weapons to be effective because they don’t understand how the world has changed.
This statue is a Vietnamese warrior - they waged war for centuries against the Khmer and Siam and Ming dynasty and were actually very strong - then the French showed up with guns and massive ships and destroyed them with little effort..
A fitting comparison!
Not all are. They’ll say “End the Fed” in one breath and then cheer on CBs hoarding shiny rocks with the next. But in practice you are right, they need the fiat system and don’t want to destroy it
Fiat is by decree of a centralised authority - Bitcoin is anti-fiat.
If you truly wanted money that doesn’t evaporate you’d opt for the hardest money known to man which in 3 weeks after the halving, will be Bitcoin.
I don't care about stock to flow or whatever
Even if hyperbitcoinization happens gold's value will still be based on how difficult it is to pull out of the ground
While if gold circulates more freely Bitcoin can go to zero
You don’t care about S2F, but S2F cares about you. Ignoring economic reality will be your problem, no-one else’s.
Golds value will be like that of silver - staying flat forever Laura. It will find increasing industrial applications and lose its monetary premium.
It’s never coming back as money. We’re not returning to physical MoEs - the world has already moved on and it’s only the Goldbugs who believe we will regress to Mad Max societies.
No, there is a massive advantage - it stops BRICS and keeps USD on life support as a global reserve.
Every nation in the USD trading sphere will want the limited amount of corn because they can’t print USD and will need it for international trade and/or fiat sovereign bonds.
When you say the currency would be pegged to bitcoin, the currency would also be pegged to other assets and performance too? Then I could understand, else it would be a one-to-one relation with bitcoin like it once was like with gold. It worked with gold because fiat is easier to carry and divide.
I'm fine with flat forever
I don't hold gold to get rich (although I do think it will appreciate in real terms as fiat dies)
The problem they might run into with pegging a fiat currency to Bitcoin, is that Bitcoin works better than fiat already. Pegging fiat to gold works because fiat works better than gold for commerce and transactions. But Bitcoin transaction>>>>>>>bank wire, lightning/e-cash>debit card, and so on.
So all they'd accomplish by pegging to Bitcoin, is to instantly reprice everything into Bitcoin for us. Then it would be completely seamless for the NPCs to say "oh so I can just use Bitcoin directly like I do cash and avoid the headaches with banks and taxes like cash, I think I'll do that."
And pegging to a hard currency "for real" (redeemable) kills the banking system's ability to create unlimited credit/debt. Without that ability the whole system collapses tomorrow. So I think things would have to be really desperate for the parasite class before they tried that.
But who knows, today we have bonds down, dollar up, and Bitcoin up. That's the kind of crazy action that might push things to "desperate" levels faster than I expected.
You’ve identified the upside with the immediate god candle of repricing, now let me tell you about the downside.
Every nation state in the US sphere now wants Bitcoin for international trade and they don’t have any. How do they resolve this?
They go get KYC lists from every exchange and start hunting down everyone who ever bought it in their jurisdiction. Any business which has reported it on their taxes too.
People say they don’t have the manpower to enforce this - this scenario is now an existential risk to these Govs, they will muster up the resources. This will become priority numero uno, overnight.
They will remand Bitcoiners who don’t cough up under the guise of National security. Forget about “rights”, they won’t exist. New laws will be created as needed and Bitcoiners will have a choice between handing over their keys or indefinite gulag (if the authorities can’t locate the seeds and outright steal it). They’ll have the media rile up their NPC drones about evil Bitcoiners and the people will be turned against them too - after all, why shouldn’t we “tax the rich”.
Fiat forcing hyperbitcoinisation is not a good thing. Yes they’d have to be desperate to try it, but does anyone here think this situation isn’t headed for desperate times? That the US empire won’t go to such lengths to maintain its power? That other nations won’t go hunting people for resources without which they will cease being able to be a government?
Sadly, this.
Stupidly I bought my first stack using a KYC exchange.
Fortunately my other wallets have no connection to KYC, but buying non-KYC is hard...
Well, the attempt would be futile. There are two things I will never do at any cost: go to serve the state in military, and give up my bitcoin. Well, I might give up a wallet with a few sats and maintain that is all I had if that helps them go away. But I might also get more guns than the state and kindly ask them to fuck off. As
@Max Keiser once said: "I don't give a fuck what's legal, I can buy the senate and change the law if I want to!". A loose quote from memory. And he said it while burning USD banknotes 😁.
