Nougat

Much like the night sky, humanity is largely a dark thing, speckled with occasional bright spots.

I mean, what else was he gonna do?

I've been listening to a great podcast series about Titanic. (This will come around, bear with me.)

One of the things mentioned in the latest episode is that it didn't take long for conspiracy theories to develop about the sinking, that it had to have been done on purpose. Because there are a lot of people who didn't want to believe the truth: that it was possible for the largest luxury liner ever built could go to the bottom of the north Atlantic in two and a half hours on its maiden voyage on accident.

The uncomfortable truth about this last election is that, yes, enough people willfully voted for fascism to put this administration in place. The United States is much further away from the ideal we'd all been led to believe it has strived to be, so far that it's clear that it's not even striving for that ideal anymore. That truth is so unconscionable to some people that accepting a conspiracy theory is more palatable.

No, they said

There is really no reason (other than hype) for the value of Bitcoin to move the way it does.

Which I responded to appropriately. There are other reasons.

In my previous response to you, I said

Whether people do use it beyond speculation is not relevant. Another part of its value is that you can use it beyond speculation.

I didn't say that speculation wasn't relevant. I said that whether people use it beyond speculation isn't relevant. It remains true that it can be exchanged for other things of value. As a counter-example, it turns out that NFTs attached to random JPGs are pure speculation, mainly because they are not a limited resource, and because the things they are attached to are also not a limited resource. If holding an NFT represented ownership of something which was a limited resource - like a piece of real estate, or a car, or a share of a business - then such an NFT would have value. That would require a common public agreement on such a system, which does not currently exist, but it's not impossible.

Now, if we're talking about BTC specifically, its use case outside being a store of value is now pretty limited, mainly because of the way it was designed. Other coins and tokens have greater use cases, but there hasn't really been a "breakout" moment for anything yet.

ENIAC was completed in 1945, and it took many decades for digital computers to become ubiquitous. Now we take them for granted. Someone, at some point, will have a useful practical application for blockchain.

Where can you do the same with gold?

As long as the transaction fees are less than the value you're transferring, there's still value left to exchange. This is part of what drives the price.

Whether people do use it beyond speculation is not relevant. Another part of its value is that you can use it beyond speculation.

The sad thing is only that you don't get to decide when to stop existing.

Once, I almost bought four whole bitcoins.

But then I thought "Man, $100 is a lot of money."

That deadline nonsense is Little t trying to focus attention on this one thing.

Pay close attention to what other things go down in the next two weeks.

All right, yes, I get it. But --

All of those automated systems exist in large part to minimize human error. That Windows UAC prompt that you hate so much exists to minimize human error. Any time you find yourself up against something that makes you say "Why can't I just do the thing I want to do?" it's in order to minimize human error.

When someone is pulling in generally the same direction as you, but using a method you find unpleasant, focus on the first part of this sentence.

Our infighting is their most powerful weapon. Take it away from them.