Executive Director @BitcoinCoalitionCA Coordinator @FBCE Global health and community development professional with 20+ years in not-for-profit leadership.
Public Key
npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Profile Code
nprofile1qqs2djjvdzlgr4ppzd29qj87xkass6vjn0hj48kyd077zecj5ee3gzgpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsuav9ke
Author Public Key
npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Show more details
Published at
2024-05-06T03:11:43+02:00 Event JSON
{
"id": "26bf70fa677b413a392b9e6e07c27132bf40dbd892229ee5581a36be33c0d91a" ,
"pubkey": "a6ca4c68be81d42113545048fe35bb0869929bef2a9ec46bfde16712a6731409" ,
"created_at": 1714957903 ,
"kind": 0 ,
"tags": [],
"content": "{\"picture\":\"https://www.cachc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/CE5904C6-7A72-4093-ACBF-B2CD45C63E49.jpeg\",\"banner\":\"https://www.cachc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/F1A36031-61D4-4911-9E84-C6A09F53A2A8.jpeg\",\"about\":\"Executive Director @BitcoinCoalitionCA\\nCoordinator @FBCE \\n\\nGlobal health and community development professional with 20+ years in not-for-profit leadership.\",\"display_name\":\"Scott Wolfe\",\"lud16\":\"[email protected] \",\"lud06\":\"\",\"website\":\"www.fbce.io\",\"nip05\":\"[email protected] \",\"name\":\"Scott\"}" ,
"sig": "f9bc078eeb0eca5c75ed68de0b8060f5e55889b611b34ef816560274a0c5d2b96adb00cfd46a71c967ad1f490f58d10ed5b74c00736a4e16992ed02358cfba98"
}
Last Notes npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott 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. npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott One of the most beautiful songs ever written, one for me that epitomizes “saudade”. https://youtu.be/DjU6ZjrQulc?si=4Mk-5U9M7eI5uRuH npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Hi all, I just wanted to take moment to let you know that you can also find me on this old app called X. You can connect with me using my handle over there: @ScottAWolfe. X is a centralized, proprietary app owned by X Holdings Corp. While you don’t get to own your personal ID on X, you do get to participate in an ecosystem that feeds you carefully selected content via an algorithm operating with opaque rationale and objectives. Just in case you need more, you also have the opportunity to be censored for a number of reasons, most notably if your thoughts stray from approved government parameters (oopsies!). Yes, I know you like the experience of non-algorithmic content consumption and engagement over here on your Nostr app. But come on over to X if you’re open to some good ole algorithmically-fulled click bait and toxic repartee with a diverse range of nyms and basement-dwellers. I’ll be over there for a bit still. Come find me! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Hatred pulls you in And love pulls you out. Love sets you free. https://youtu.be/J7yyd0cfVa4?si=zPl5bKIIACdNi5DK npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott I try to remind myself often…and a lot more than usual as of late…that over 90% of the world would love to have my “problems”. Attitude of gratitude. https://m.primal.net/KDnx.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott On another note, is there any work underway to have a “lists” function on Primal. For me, that’s the single biggest missing piece. I use lists a lot on X to track content and create content. I would be dedicating a lot more time to Nostr if I had that functionality here. I want to migrate a lot more of my time to Nostr. npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott For all my fellow hip hop heads. ✊🧡 https://m.primal.net/KBZm.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott In both the U.S. and Canada recently, we see @KamalaHarris @KamalaHQ and @theJagmeetSingh raising the idea of price controls to combat the impact of inflation. Thing is, time and again they’re shown to not work. They sound nice, but so does the idea of just printing a million dollars for every person. We need informed policy on the political left, grounded in political economy, not pandering for votes through bread and circus ideas and appeals for us to simply punish strawman villains. https://www.economicforces.xyz/p/lets-talk-about-price-controls?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott 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. https://t.co/VRTI8P2aM0 npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott I have no idea! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott 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! ✊🧡 https://m.primal.net/JMXh.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott I can help. I’ll send you a DM and we can find time to talk. For starters, keep tuned to @FBCE as we’ll be doing a lot more at global level. I would recommend being in contact with @npub1th5…mnel and @npub1tam…0ynt which are the two most advanced circular economy efforts in North America right now, as far as I can tell. I want to help support more of this via @FBCE and it’s also on our national priority list for Canada at @npub1j46…dffy npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott So many people talking about WTF happened in 1971, looking at the history of dollar debasement and the cantillon effect…but no one paying attention to this. We need to get to the root of this problem. 😂 https://m.primal.net/IfrZ.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Without a doubt, my favourite interview of the year so far. Checks all the boxes! ✅ #Bitcoin ✅ Toronto ✅ 🇨🇦 ✅ Basketball ✅ Music ✅ Public health Please follow @npub1jz0…h5z8 and her awesome new show “Ask a Bitcoiner 21.”. 🙌 https://youtu.be/DMEc-0-XoRE?si=8wnth2e5G27oD05B npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Lightning! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott TLDR - #Bitcoin is a tool for financial inclusion, human rights, economic growth, climate action, AND a savings tool to protect against inflation. By saving in #BTC your purchasing power GROWS over time. The key to this is to look not at short timeframes but at longer timeframes (3yrs +). Case in point: 10 Canadian dollars exchanged for #BTC in September of the following years would enable you to now (ie, as of May 2024) purchase the following number of shawarmas at @npub12ym…2gc5 : 2022: 3 shawarmas 🫔 2020: 5 shawarmas 🫔 2019: 8 shawarmas 🫔 2018: 10 shawarmas 🫔 2017: 16 shawarmas 🫔 2016: 104 shawarmas 🫔😲 Now, chances are you are not saving for shawarmas (if you are, give @npub12ym…2gc5 a heads up). However, you may be saving for a house, home renovations, university/college tuition, retirement, or other goods and services down the line. Think 3+ years out. At @npub1j46…dffy we have a variety of accessible resources to help you better understand how to put #Bitcoin to work for you and, at the same time, contribute to building a better world. That's a double bottom line every Canadian should get behind! 🔗 https://bitcoincoalition.ca/why-bitcoin%3F 🔗 https://bitcoincoalition.ca/educational-resources #note1j43…gmql npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott In a response to Canadian Member of Parliament, Mark Gerretsen, back on Sept 29, 2022 (linked below) I indicated that I would timestamp and revisit his post in the future. It's time. First, let's get some maths out of the way. Yes, that shawarma which Official Opposition Leader @PierrePoilievre purchased at @npub12ym…2gc5 with #Bitcoin on April 1, 2022, at a Canadian dollar equivalent of $10.00, would have cost a Canadian dollar equivalent in Bitcoin (BTC) of $22.35 on Sept 29, 2022. Fast forward to today, however, and that same shawarma purchased with #Bitcoin would cost CAD $5.60. That's almost 50% less. All of the above is based on the closing exchange rate of BTC to CAD as follows: Apr 01, 2022: 1 BTC = $57,936 Sep 29, 2022: 1 BTC = $26,772 May 11, 2024: 1 BTC = $83,300 Mr. Gerretsen was seeking to discredit Mr. Polievre's claim that Bitcoin is a powerful tool to help Canadians protect themselves from inflation. Thing is, he was wrong. In fact, if Mr. Gerretsen had decided to exchange 10 of his Canadian dollars for Bitcoin on Sept 29, 2022 (the date of his tweet) he would now be able to take that very same CAD $10 worth of Bitcoin to @npub12ym…2gc5 and buy 3 shawarmas. There would even be enough left over to leave the server a nice tip! Yes, the price of #BTC in Canadian dollar terms can be volatile, especially on shorter timeframes. That's because it is a commodity-currency which is still quite young (launched in 2009) and early in its global adoption. However, when one zooms out and looks at the trajectory of BTC against the Canadian dollar and other government-issued currencies around the world, the trend is clear. BTC is continually appreciating in value and purchasing power over time. This is the key point which I believe Mr. Polievre was making when he called Bitcoin a powerful tool to protect Canadians from inflation. The double significance of Mr. Polievre's shawarma purchase at @npub12ym…2gc5 -- an amazing Canadian food chain owned by Canadian-Egyptian entrepreneurs Aly, Omar, and Ahmed Hamam -- was to underscore the global dimensions of Bitcoin. This includes the even greater importance of Bitcoin as a tool to save people from hyperinflating currencies like the Egyptian pound, and its role around the world as a tool for human rights, for financial inclusion, for community development, and for energy growth and climate action. I'll touch further on these in a moment. Getting back to the question of this famous shawarma purchase in April 2022, let's do some more investigation. Let's keep zooming out and take a look at what Mr. Gerretsen's purchasing power with Bitcoin would be if he had exchanged 10 Canadian dollars for BTC on Sept 29 of years before 2022. We've already seen that Mr. Gerretsen's "2022 Bitcoin" would now be able to buy him 3 shawarmas today. What if he had exchanged Canadian dollars for Bitcoin in previous years? Well... Mr. Gerretsen could take his CAD $10 exchanged for BTC on Sept 29, 2020 and buy 5 shawarmas today. He could take his CAD $10 exchanged for BTC on Sept 29, 2019 and buy 8 shawarmas today. He could take his CAD $10 exchanged for BTC on Sept 29, 2018 and buy 10 shawarmas today. And so on, and so on. The point is that Bitcoin is in fact a tool for Canadians to opt out of inflation. Another way of saying this is that, over medium to longer time frames, Bitcoin helps Canadians preserve and INCREASE their purchasing power. The key is for Canadians to study this technology and currency in order to understand how it works and how best to make it work for them. We need education, and we need policy makers to get behind this effort. For many years, various Canadian educators and content creators have done their part of increase education about Bitcoin hoping that it would resonate with a diverse audience. In 2014, educator Andreas Antonopoulos presented information about Bitcoin to the Canadian Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce: https://youtu.be/xUNGFZDO8mM?si=x2EF1x25P9q8PADr However, more was needed still. This is why a wide range of stakeholders from across Canada came together over the past two years, including at the 2023 Canadian Bitcoin Conference in Toronto, to discuss the potential to establish a body for these purposes in Canada. This year that became a reality with the establishment of the Bitcoin Coalition of Canada @npub1j46…dffy in January 2024. The @npub1j46…dffy is a multi-partisan, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to engage federal, provincial, and municipal policymakers across Canada, as well as media and the general public, to increase awareness of Bitcoin and its many benefits to Canadians and people around the world. This includes not only its role as a tool to protect purchasing power, but a tool for human rights, financial and social inclusion, energy abundance, and climate action. We outline the many uses and benefits of Bitcoin at bitcoincoalition.ca/why-bitcoin%3F and other resources. What's perhaps more encouraging about the potential impact of Bitcoin across multiple domains, is that it should appeal to policymakers across all political parties and it should unite Canadians. As we approach the 2-year anniversary of Mr. Gerretsen's tweet below, I say let's move on. Let's make sure that all policy makers, across all political parties in Canada commit to studying Bitcoin and to engaging in sincere dialogue about how we can harness this technology and commodity-currency to increase opportunity across Canada and to build a better world. https://x.com/markgerretsen/status/1575521175044001793?s=46&t=wq0GoOCdXxA5DblxlsJJng npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Hey @npub12vk…pugg, I’m so impressed with the evolution of the app over the past year. The functionality via this app for Nostr is amazing! Wishlist item: a lists function, to help keep track of and follow accounts by theme. This would be HUGE and really help to supercharge our use of Nostr for @npub1l00…nypq and @npub1j46…dffy. Is that in the development pipeline? 🙏 npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott It’s the first Nostr account we set up. Unfortunately, we lost the private key so needed to abandon that account and start a new one. npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott It’s my honour to help move forward two important organizations as part of the global #Bitcoin movement. I sincerely hope you will give them both a follow here on #Nostr. Thank you! @npub1j46…dffy and @npub1l00…nypq My hope is that the work that we’re doing to advance Bitcoin circular economies globally will soon have more local nodes here in Canada too. The sort of work that @npub1th5…mnel is doing and the SATurday Market initiative led by @npub1rxy…hnp8 @npub1r4x…0jus in Calgary are exactly the sort of efforts that will lead to flourishing Bitcoin circular economies here! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott 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 https://m.primal.net/ICdN.png npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 https://youtu.be/Hu3mpAtbGuo?si=iQZiqoq6rYAnmmQO npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott “Debt-based money is a public health issue”. Please watch and share this interview by Tom Karadza with my friend and colleague, Dr. Emma Apatu. Emma is an Associate Professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario 🇨🇦, Founder of Dream Grad Academy, and a member of our @npub1j46…dffy Education and Public Engagement Committee. Emma discusses the evolution of #publichealth practice, the social determinants of health #SDOH, and how some of our most pressing social challenges are the downstream consequence of broken money and broken systems. She shares a bit about her journey, as an educator and public health practitioner, coming to understand why and how #Bitcoin is a key ingredient for fixing many of these entrenched problems in Canada and globally. https://youtu.be/YLiVCXh-AQI?si=PzzYArS911v0xDaH npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott On the eve of the “People Power Academy”, here’s a very important new article from @npub1trr…hdpu. Please share it widely! ✊ QUOTE: “In almost every dictatorship, the financial system is weaponized. Whether it be Erdogan in Turkey, the military regime in Zimbabwe, the Gnassingbé family in Togo, the Maduro junta in Venezuela, or Putin in Russia, a “first-choice” tool of autocrats when dealing with dissidents or political opponents is financial deplatforming. Protests are expensive, and if organizers can no longer receive donations or pay community members, democratic momentum can fizzle out. Within this context, the rise of #Bitcoin #BTC as a dissident currency of choice starts to make sense.” https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclusive/how-to-dictator-proof-your-money/ npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott The U.S. national debt has been expanded consistently by both Democrats and Republicans. Don’t be fooled by the theatre of politics and partisan sabre rattling. Fix the money, fix the incentives, fix the world. #Bitcoin #BTC https://m.primal.net/Hzvs.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott THIS DATE IN HISTORY April 22, 1978: Bob Marley performs at the One Love Peace Concert in Kingston, Jamaica. He had just returned from14-months in exile outside of Jamaica after armed gunmen had raided his home in Kingston. The concert was organized to help stop the violence between the island’s rival PNP and JLP political parties. Pictured here, Bob had invited PNP Leader, Michael Manley, and JLP Leader, Edward Seaga, onto the stage, clasping and raising their hands upward together in a sign of unity. One love! https://m.primal.net/Hynz.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Thank you! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Great points! I too started to go down the content creation path with FIRE in my early moments, trying to figure out how I could turn it into my “side hustle”. I never got far and quickly pulled the plug. It didn’t feel right and I realized that my interest in having a side hustle that could be monetized had taken precedence over my ability to actually share something meaningful and of value. I’m glad that I discovered Bitcoin not too long after and the proverbial rabbit hole have me new adventures to pursue! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott I appreciate where you’re coming from. There are different segments to FIRE community and yes, some are simply self-interested and just about getting ahead and to that beach life at almost any cost. Same could be said for many groups or movements though. I also think there’s a very sizeable portion of the FIRE community that is composed of people who look at the world we occupy, driven by debt, employment bereft of meaning, and creeping nihilism and are saying “no”, I choose a different path. Influencers pushing FIRE are often looking to monetize that pursuit and we should question incentives…but same could be said for Bitcoin content and influencers. All said, I think the vast majority of Bitcoin and FIRE adherents and content creators are net positives, especially because both are still a relatively small portion of societies at large. Therefore, there’s still a large market to educate and get on board. They’re not simply trying to capture and gain financial benefit from an already captive audience. My two sats on this. npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Thank you for sharing! 🙏 npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott When I started out on my self-directed journey to better understand personal finance about 6 years ago (admittedly late in the game), I quickly came to align with the “Financial Independence Retire Early” #FIRE movement. What I most appreciated is that the FIRE movement provides a narrative and lifestyle framework by which to live and consider one’s relationship to money. In #Bitcoin parlance, that framework is “low time preference”. It includes learning how to progressively spend less than one earns; how to find everyday life hacks; and, ultimately, how to make the most scarce resource of all (one’s time) the goal of living and investing via early retirement. Live life, make life beautiful, one could say. Fast forward. I’m now four years into my journey with #Bitcoin #BTC and I see a clear alignment between FIRE and Bitcoin on multiple levels. These include: smart investing (longer-term ROI); low time preference; and, individual sovereignty over one’s resources, decisions and time. It couldn’t be more glaring. It therefore puzzles me that more FIRE adherents and content creators have not tuned into the importance of Bitcoin. My theory is that FIRE has established a firm foothold already and is heavily influenced by experiences from the 40+ year history of “how to” in a low interest rates, with emphasis on housing financialization and dividend investing. I believe that the core values of low time preference and self-sovereignty remain intact, but that the majority of FIRE adherents have fallen prey to the common misperception of Bitcoin as a “risky and speculative” asset and have conflated Bitcoin and crypto. At some point, this will change and a sufficient number of FIRE adherents will come to appreciate the numerous layers of alignment between FIRE and Bitcoin. That essentially reflects my own personal finance thesis/position related to Bitcoin (BTC). Now, when some of these FIRE adherents who ALSO care about human rights, fairness, global development and generally building a better world come to understand the macro political, economic and civilizational importance of Bitcoin…watch out! If you are a FIRE adherent but haven’t yet begun studying Bitcoin, I highly recommend you take that step. It’ll take some time and work. It can be a bit disorienting at times. But you’re used to that, I assume, if you’ve already taken steps to explore and implement a FIRE plan. Best wishes, and one love y’all! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott The passage of #FISA with Section #FISA702 is further evidence of two Americas. 1️⃣ America the Empire 2️⃣ America the People The Empire will do what it must to perpetuate its dominion. It will weaponize all tools at its disposal, even against the People as deemed necessary. This tendency to pursue imperial ends on home soil was baked into America from its earliest days, from the slave blocks of Charleston, to the Trail of Tears, to the blood soaked ground at Wounded Knee and the 1980s inner city. America the Empire has always been at work against America the People to whatever extent factions of the latter are perceived as impediments to the former. All the while, this operation has been clouded by the noble lie of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Just as true, however, is that America has been a contested project where “America the People” have carved out victories against Empire. Amendments to the Constitution are key examples. America remains an experiment — perhaps the greatest one ever known — of a people, so conceived, against the yoke of Empire and authoritarianism. This #FISA turn of events is a victory for the Empire. Hopefully a new chapter will soon be written though: The People Strike Back. #Tor, #Nostr, #Bitcoin et al. These are the tools of America the People. Learn what these tools are. Use them. Help others to do the same. Strike back! ✊☮️ npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Happy #BitcoinHalving and welcome to Epoch 5 of #Bitcoin. Let us re-commit to building a better world, one of opportunity and abundance for all, as we march forward toward the next halving at block 1,050,000 in the year 2028. One love! 🧡☮️ https://m.primal.net/HxdD.png npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott While the dogs of war have yet again been let loose by state actors fuelled by easy money, others around the world — literally all around the world — are celebrating a different vision; one of hope, peace and putting power back in the hands of people. The #BitcoinHalving is an important event because of what it means for the onward march of #Bitcoin and #BTC as money with “rules, not rulers”…but it’s also an important moment and opportunity for us to come together around the world, as a species, under the banner of hope and abundance. Let’s dig in and make a better tomorrow a reality. #BitcoinNotWar https://m.primal.net/HvgA.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar #Bitcoin #BTC https://m.primal.net/Hurv.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar #Bitcoin #BTC https://m.primal.net/Hunv.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar #Bitcoin #BTC https://m.primal.net/HxCw.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar #Bitcoin #BTC https://m.primal.net/Hunt.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar Another powerful image c/o @npub1vzj…x9gc https://m.primal.net/HvgA.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott A look at the history of money creation by central banks for war-making. Exhibit A: Bank of England (1914). “The government wanted to raise £350 million, but brought in less than a third of that. Officials worried that revealing the shortfall would hurt future capital-raising efforts, and help Germany. So instead of allowing the disappointing truth to come out, the Bank of England secretly funneled money to hide the gap.” #BitcoinNotWar https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/08/542238978/-financial-times-issues-103-year-old-correction npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar https://m.primal.net/HvEA.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar https://m.primal.net/Husm.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar https://m.primal.net/Hunv.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar https://m.primal.net/Hurw.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar https://m.primal.net/Hurv.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar https://m.primal.net/Hunu.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #BitcoinNotWar https://m.primal.net/Hunt.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott As news and images of “World War 3” make the rounds, it’s easy to feel helpless and hopeless. I want to take action right now and get a movement started TODAY. Please join in making #BitcoinNotWar go viral and let’s use this to accelerate the global PEOPLE’s MOVEMENT for peace. The road to global peace is multi-faceted. But one step that individuals can take is to begin removing the money lever from those who continue to war-monger. Please share resources, ideas, tools and local supports from wherever you are located to help people move to #Bitcoin and away from the US dollar, Ruble, Canadian dollar, Yuan, Euro and other fiat currencies that easily facilitate our governments fuelling war without our consent. This is not a fix all solution. This is one step. But it’s something we the people have within our power. The Occupy movement started in 2008 from the people saying “no”, “enough”. Bitcoin is the continuation of that movement on a global scale. Let’s go! Let’s make war unaffordable. #BitcoinNotWar https://m.primal.net/Hunt.jpg https://m.primal.net/Hunu.jpg https://m.primal.net/Hunv.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Amended #Bitcoin mantra: Don’t be a jerk Stay humble Stack sats Carry on! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott 🚨 Calling all health promoters, community animators, Community Health Centre colleagues #CHCs and others working in community health and social impact around the world. 🚨 I invite you to direct your attention to a global movement that is brewing, one that is hitting a milestone YESTERDAY and TODAY in a small place you've probable never heard of: a small town in England called Bedford. Look it up on a map, and then look up Cheat Code Conference and Real Bedford FC. So what's this all about? Well, it's about community development, grassroots organizing, and socio-economic inclusion. It's about providing fresh opportunity for individuals, families, communities and local businesses and that have been pushed to the margins over time by political and financial structures -- like large commercial banks, multinational corporations, and donor-rich political parties -- that have increasingly centralized power, wealth, and control over the past 50 years. You see, this very clever dude named @PeterMcCormack wanted to do something for his town, one that has come on rough times in recent decades. Peter clued into the notion that he could help revitalize his town, bringing hope and opportunity, by rallying people around sport. Many of you community health and social impact folks have seen other examples of this sort of social enterprise in your work. Now, Peter is thinking big. So big that it might be hard for some to believe. But read on, and suspend your disbelief if you will. He has developed a plan to take his local football (er, soccer for some) club from the very bottom rungs of English football all the way to the famed Premier League and, in the process, to use this as an anchor for a much large vision of community economic revitalization. Here's the magical element, and I'm gonna ask you to keep suspending your disbelief until you learn more: the tool that is powering this effort and carrying it beyond what Peter could ever have imagined a few years ago is #Bitcoin . Peter and team have placed Bitcoin and the currency that is transacted over the Bitcoin network, #BTC , at the centre of this vision. A little more than two years in, the results speak for themselves: two consecutive years of promotion up the ranks of English soccer (the 2nd about to happen); adding a woman's professional squad last year (now top of their league); making football accessible to youth in the community who don't have the financial means to participate; growing the financial resiliency of the club (Real Bedford FC) through #BTC as a savings tool; and so much more. The "so much more" part brings us back to today and the milestone being hit. The impact of this project to revitalize Bedford has been so successful that it is now being replicated by other towns and businesses. This includes the likes of football clubs @Botev_EN in Bulgaria, and FC Lugano in Switzerland. The vision that Peter and team set out, and their ensuing success over the past two years, have garnered increasing global attention and support, albeit among a smaller group of early observers (like yours truly) who were primed to take note of the Bedford plan and to see it grow in its initial stages. Having seen the plan not only work locally but begin to gain traction in other settings, Peter has coined it the "Cheat Code" and he has been giving away the blueprint to anyone who will listen, anyone who wants to explore how it can help them. Today, visionaries from around the world and curious local observers have gathered in little ole' Bedford to discuss this all at the first ever @CheatCodeCon (see schedule attached). There's magic happening here. #Bitcoin #BTC is at the centre of it all. Now, if you're a community developer or other ally working in some domain of social impact work and have managed to keep your disbelief suspended thus far, I want to issue a challenge: learn more about this "Cheat Code", learn why many of us believe that #Bitcoin is a powerful tool for human rights, community development, and economic empowerment. Dedicate some time to studying this. You may -- and I hope you will -- discover that new opportunities to advance and scale your own local social impact work await you. If you're asking "who the heck is this guy to talk about social impact work and how this Bitcoin thing matters", well, I've shared some of my own journey in this little piece: https://x.com/scottawolfe/status/1766688560357241121?s=46&t=wq0GoOCdXxA5DblxlsJJng I hope it provides a bit of reassurance, and a bit of encouragement to just give this Cheat Code idea and this Bitcoin thing a closer look. Feel free to reach out. I'm happy to discuss and to share other evidence of where Bitcoin is having a powerful social impact -- like Bitcoin circular economies that are taking shape around the world from the grassroots up (see @FBCEglobal). Kudos to @PeterMcCormack @_DannyKnowles @realbedford and many, many others who are bringing the Cheat Code to life in Bedford and not only making a difference in the lives of locals but also providing inspiration for what is becoming a truly global movement. Onward (and best luck this weekend @realbedford)! cc: @IFCHC @NACHC @CACHC_ACCSC @Bromley_by_Bow npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott The added counterparty risk of tradfi banks. Be your own bank with #Bitcoin #BTC. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4IAYiar4u_/?igsh=MTcxNGRuenJvaG1ycg== npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Spending a bit more time on #Nostr and just followed about 200 new accounts (or new to me). It’s a small act, but hopefully following people is kind of like paying it forward and it’s helps accelerate the network effect of this amazing platform. ✊🧡 npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott True stuff, Chi-town! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott 🚨PUBLICATION ALERT🚨 Please read and share this recent article by Dr. Emma Apatu. #Bitcoin and Public Health: Addressing the Debt-Money Crises https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/bitcoin-public-health-addressing-the-debt-money-crises- npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Think twice before you order that next fast food meal. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/5sGgSSGe89oNyHgV/?mibextid=WC7FNe npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott What policy makers,, political parties, and aspiring politicians around the world will all learn, sooner or later, is the following. We have passed the point where #Bitcoin can be killed or stopped. Bitcoin is gravity, electricity, the rotation of the earth on its axis, the rotation of the moon around the earth, the rotation of the earth around the sun. It is what the digit “0” was to the preceding world of Roman numerals. It is now a part of the human experience and will continue to be. Policy makers cannot and will not stop Bitcoin. They can only prevent individuals within their jurisdiction from easily participating in the benefits of Bitcoin (I say “easily”, because they cannot completely prevent this). They can only remove their government, and their state from benefitting from Bitcoin. Ban Bitcoin mining? It continues elsewhere, accruing the financial benefit to those other jurisdictions, with a net loss to the jurisdiction “banning” it. Make it difficult to exchange local currency for #BTC and hold it? Like with Bitcoin mining, you only push capital to leave your jurisdiction, while making your population hostage to impoverishment under old, dieing systems and structures. This has already become evident to some governments, some politicians, and political parties. Over the coming months and years, others will learn. I lament the fact that most will learn this through the experience of loss and not through education and foresight. To the people and countries that heed these lessons earlier and adapt to these realities — like #ElSalvador — will accrue the benefits of early adoption. As it did to those jurisdictions that harnessed mathematics and science. The coming years will be rocky and far too many populations will suffer losses and disarray because of governments that refuse the opportunity to learn. Hopefully, the glaring light of opportunity, growth, peace and abundance in those other jurisdictions that have adapted to Bitcoin will be enough to spark popular movements from the ground up. In the end, by the people, for the people. Onward! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott THE OTHER 4-YEAR BITCOIN CYCLES? There is already a significant amount of analysis and discussion of the 4-year cycle associated with the supply schedule of #BTC baked into the #Bitcoin software code. This is the reduction in new supply of BTC (the block subsidy) by 50% every 210,000 mined blocks (Fig. 1), what is referred to as the Bitcoin "halving". A new halving occurs roughly every 4 years (ie, 210,000 new BTC blocks are mined roughly every four years) and these will continue until the final halving at some point in the year 2140. This diminishing supply of new BTC into the market, coupled with Bitcoin's fixed total supply (only 21 million BTC will ever exist) produce a supply/demand phenomenon which drives the price of BTC up over time relative to all other currencies. This is why the price of BTC compared to the CAD, USD, Euro and other currencies is always "up and to the right" over longer time frames (Fig. 2). With the next Bitcoin halving just around the corner (est. April 19, 2024) there is a fresh wave of focus on the halving phenomenon and what the next reduction of BTC supply per block (from 6.25 BTC per block to 3.125 BTC per block) will bring. The other side to this supply/demand equation is, of course, demand. The "up and to the right" dynamic requires demand to remain constant or increase relative to supply. The extent to which demand remains equal or grows over time, the price of BTC relative to other currencies will increase. That is a very simple description, of course, and there is further nuance. Nevertheless, this is the basic interplay between supply and demand. So what about demand? Well, it's pretty clear from a scan of the global environment and the recent upward tick of BTC relative to all currencies around the world that demand continues to increase. Key features of this include the growing adoption of BTC in countries around the world where local currencies are experiencing rapid devaluation, as well as the ongoing introduction of new BTC purchasing mechanisms such as spot BTC Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), most recently in the United States. It dawned on me recently that the demand side of the equation may, in fact, have its own 4-year cycles, one "sociological" and another "individual/psychological". The first has to do with the increased visibility and perceived credibility of Bitcoin as its price relative to other currencies continues to increase over time, and the second refers to the time it takes for individuals to undertake education about Bitcoin. These warrant further consideration. As anyone who has become convinced of Bitcoin's value and importance will tell you, the educational journey is multi-faceted and ongoing. It's why we colloquially refer to it as going down the Bitcoin "rabbit hole". The more you learn, the more you realize there is yet to learn. Each step down the rabbit hole reveals new steps to be taken...from learning about how the Bitcoin protocol functions, to learning about what money actually is, to learning about how global debt and financial markets operate, to learning about how energy markets operate, and so on. The seemingly never-ending Bitcoin rabbit hole is why individuals and groups from such a vast diversity of backgrounds have been drawn to Bitcoin and why it is gradually (though not quickly enough) working its way into academic circles where, ostensibly, people have the time and mandate to study, study, study. A great example of this is reflected in the forthcoming "Resistance Money: A Philosophical Case for Bitcoin" by philosophy professors @resistancemoney @rettlerb @craigwarmke. It's also why @SatoshiEducate was established and why student groups like @BTCStudents @CornellBitcoin are sprouting up in the same way that local Bitcoin circular economies have in recent years. We're just at the outset of this new wave of academic interest and adoption. We've also seen new stakeholders and market mechanisms come into play over the past couple of years -- institutional adopters of BTC and tools like the Bitcoin ETFs. All of the above could be considered part of a sociological 4-year demand cycle for Bitcoin. As the number continue to go up, as this thing simply refuses to die, and friends tell friends (so to speak), Bitcoin evolves sociologically. Add to this the phenomenon of individual learning about Bitcoin, a journey from initiate to adept. Put otherwise, the time it takes to earn one's belts (white belt, green belt, and so on). That analogy may sound odd or even corny to people who still haven't even peered into the Bitcoin rabbit hole, but anyone who has spent time down the rabbit hole will tell you that it's quite apt. The learning journey requires curiosity, humility and, along the way, a willingness to challenge conventional wisdom on many fronts. It almost always includes mistakes and course correction. All of this takes time, and it may be useful to consider this in terms of cycles as well. Perhaps another 4-year demand cycle, the individual/psychological cycle. Now, a 4-year learning cycle may sound daunting to someone who is just beginning to learn about Bitcoin. It could be off-putting. I would say the following in response. Most of us who have been on the journey (me since 2019) fumbled into it. We didn't know we were on a journey until we were far enough down the rabbit hole to look up and appreciate it for what it is. We were simply following our noses and that little part of us that says "hmm, that's interesting" or "no, that can't be true, let me take a closer look", fearing not to place one foot after the other, and to continually submit ideas to interrogation. Four years into the educational journey myself, I can honestly say that while it has been dis-orienting at moments, it has also been renewing and richly rewarding. The latter far outweighs the former. These themes are reflected in a couple of other pieces I've written recently, if you're interested: Going Further Upstream on SDoH. A Call to Action. x.com/ScottAWolfe/st… Sojourns in the digital future twitter.com/ScottAWolfe/st… If you're just beginning to learn about Bitcoin, I would recommend just keeping your eyes on the next step, all the while recognizing that this time next year you will look back and be positively amazed. The beautiful thing is that there are now so many resources available (books, podcasts, conference, meetups and more). I marvel at what it must have been like 6, 10, 14 years ago to peer into the Bitcoin rabbit hole and follow one's nose forward. If you have read this far, what do you think about the idea of there being these other 4-year Bitcoin cycles, on the demand side? Does that resonate? Does a 4-year timeframe just seem arbitrary? These sociological and individual/psychological timeframes wouldn't pair exactly with each other nor the 4-year supply cycle. However, they might provide valuable conceptual and analytical frameworks. What do ya think? Thanks for reading! ———————————- Figures 1 and 2 https://m.primal.net/Hnas.jpg https://m.primal.net/Hnat.png npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott I bought the #Bitcoin dip. I also bought the dippity dip. I wasn’t able to buy the dippity dippity dip though. However, since the fiat price of #BTC is back up above the dippity dip level, I don’t feel quite as sad. IYKYK npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott During the early stages of adoption, disruptive technology like #Bitcoin #BTC very often lives on the fringes of law and social acceptability. Consider the case of the VCR, precursor to DVD and, ultimately, steaming services via the Internet. In 1981, only 2% of U.S. households had a VCR. An estimated 50% of all video cassettes in circulation were pornography. It wasn’t until 1984 that use of VCRs was clearly legal and VCR manufacturers had protection from liability for the use of these devices by those who owned them (SCOTUS - Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.). Similar to VCRs in the mid-1980s, #Bitcoin has, over the past few years, been crossing that blurry line from fringe to mainstream. I suspect that by 2026 we will look back upon the period 2021-2024 as that transitionary period, where the blurry line was crossed. npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott 📙PUBLICATION ALERT 📙 Bitcoin Use Cases: A Scoping Review https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/15/1/15 Dr. Emma Apatu (Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact; Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, McMaster University ; Founder, Dream Grad Academy) and Poornima Goudar (Faculty of Science, McMaster University) Please see and share this important new contribution to research on the evolving use cases of #Bitcoin #BTC globally. Of particular note, Section 8 (Implications for Future Research). A valuable companion to the recently published Bitcoin and Its Energy, Environmental, and Social Impacts: An Assessment of Key Research Needs in the Mining Sector (Rudd et al) https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/14/4/47 npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott It feels good to feel good again (about professional sports) For the past decade or so I've had an on-again, off-again relationship with professional sports; in my case, football and basketball. As a former footballer who (many years ago) dabbled professionally, and who has carried that passion forward as a fan of both football and basketball, there are a few reasons for the "off-again" moments. The first, of course, has to do with unrequited dreams. Yeah, what coulda and shoulda been. I've got therapy for that though. It's now less of a factor. The more significant factors in my "off-again" moments have to do with the considerable social consequences of professional sport as an opiate of the masses, and the extent to which the scales have tipped heavily in favour of sport as (global) business. Why worry about major social, political, and economic issues when one can lose oneself in the trivia and minutia of this year's sportsball standings, right? And, anyhow, fewer players and fans alike are connected to a local town or city. It's all just de-racinated business. Teams have increasingly become global brands, largely as a prerequisite to flourish in the era of hyper-financialization of sport. In the end, what is it all worth? How does this benefit me and the issues that I care about? All that said, I also celebrate the profound social and global good of sport (including at its professional levels): the many lessons about integrity, teamwork, and proof of work; providing a healthy channel for aggression and competition; providing a mechanism for social belonging; and, fostering bridges across cultures, nationalities, and many tense social and political divides. These are all the things that continue to pull me back into my "on-again" moments with professional sports, especially as the parent of children who are all now immersed in football. I must confess though that, over the past decade, it has felt harder and harder to justify space in my soul for pro sports. I have this lingering feeling that, on the whole, pro sports are distractions that may be doing more harm than good. Over the past year though, a cause for optimism has emerged. A certain "x factor" has been gaining steam and has been pulling me back in. I'm referring to the decision of various sports franchises to tether their vision and activities to #Bitcoin as a means of organizational growth and advancement, and as a way to connect their organization to a larger movement aimed at building a better world. Among them are football clubs @realbedford. 🇬🇧, @npub19jf…8rx0 🇧🇬, @FCLugano1908 🇨🇭, and baseball team @PerthHeat 🇦🇺 -- all franchises which, it's very safe to say, would not otherwise be on my radar. Perhaps most prominent among these is @realbedford, a club which plays in England's Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division, about 10 divisions below England's famed Premier League. In a move that has captured a remarkable amount of global attention and support (including from yours truly) @realbedford has set the ambitious goal of climbing the ranks of England's football leagues to the Premier League by leveraging what club Chairman @npub14mc…frlx has called the Bitcoin "cheat code". The cheat code involves harnessing the multiple advantages of #Bitcoin as sound money, as a powerful savings tool, and as a truly decentralized, global network and movement. Learn more at: dailybitcoiner.substack.com/p/the-bitcoin-…. The other clubs I mention above have all adopted this cheat code in their own ways. I wager other will soon follow. Not only are these clubs amassing a global supporter base, they are enhancing their day-to-day operations, and they helping advance the global #Bitcoin movement. In the case of Real Bedford, McCormack explicitly articulates this as a vision for revitalizing the town of Bedford, his home since childhood. So yes, a professional sports franchise with business ambitions is at the centre, but this is fundamentally about community development and positive social impact. Be still my community developer heart! I'm under no illusion that all of the above is a panacea for professional sports. I'm certain that the forces which have, for years now, caused that "off-again" push for me will continue apace. However, in the grand scheme of things, sports clubs harnessing the #Bitcoin cheat code are chalking up major points in the "on-again" side of the ledger for me. Sure, I'll continue to bat an eye at the Premier League race between Arsenal and Liverpool (ahem, go Arsenal!) but I'm remarkably more interested in tracking @realbedford's progress. The same goes for @Botev_EN and @FCLugano1908, and I'll be watching for the day when all three clubs make their way into Champions League discussions. At a moment in time when there are so many causes for pessimism, #Bitcoin cheat code sports teams provide much needed hope. I'm feeding these energies and I encourage others to do so. Closer to home, I am not aware of any MLS teams that have yet signaled their intention to join the ranks of #Bitcoin cheat code franchises. What's certain is that there are clear early mover advantages to doing so and the clock is ticking. Who knows, maybe @TorontoFC will be the first. That would be epic! Most important to me, for now, is that these trails are being blazed and it makes me feel good again, in new and unanticipated ways, about losing myself in the love of the game at its professional levels. ⚽️🧡 npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Another half-baked reflection from time spent down the #Bitcoin rabbit hole. I have been preoccupied lately with the question of how we rescue and renew institutions and other social intermediaries from debasement, tribalization and capture. We are in an epoch of social and political tribalization predicated on distorted signals and coding (in language), Big letter ideology/affiliation has replaced the actual political-philosophical underpinnings that gave rise to people grouping and organizing around them. “Conservative/Liberal” have replaced “conservative/liberal”. “Progressive/progressive” has followed suit, although (ironically) progressivism was a reaction to the distortion and capture of liberalism manifest in the US Democratic Party. These distortions have become entrenched via political parties which a similar role as sports franchises. They centralize, encapsulate and re-present to the public a wide range of values, beliefs and emotions with the goal of attracting and maintaining congregants. The frenzy of tribal affiliation, channeled through political parties, is amplified by mass media which prey upon this theatre of competition. We are provided a steady diet of coded language & signals that perpetuate the sport. We then recycle these in civic engagements. How do we retrieve ourselves from the gravitational pull of this destructive state of affairs. What in the prescription for action? I have a couple of thoughts, both imperfectly fashioned. The first is for us to recognize the theatre for what it is and ourselves as unwitting actors. This means becoming conscious of our tribalization and the factors at play. It also means interrogating our tendency to falsely attribute intent to individuals on the “other team”. 8/ As I’ve said before, I believe that 80% of people can generally agree on 80% of issues. We are in an epoch where we are conditioning ourselves (perhaps conditioned) to believe that only 20% of people can agree on 80% of things. The act of seeing across perceived difference and political affiliation, of exercising a spirit of generosity and willingness to dialogue, is one that can be undertaken personally. It doesn’t require a political or social movement. This is empowering. Secondly, however, another potential remedy for the ills of our epoch is to remove political parties from our liberal democracies. Let us return to an era of elected political representation WITHOUT the affiliation of our elected representatives to a centralized/ing party. This could (would?) incite greater discourse at a local level and place increased weight on civic education and engagement to achieve value, rather than our default to the centralized political packaging of party institutions. A re-de-centralization of democracy. I welcome thoughts on the above. If you made it this far, thank you for considering my reflections. npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Tales of #inflation and #shrinkflation from Canada. A year-and-a-half ago, this bottle of solution for my contact lenses cost CAD$11.99 (at Walmart) and was 120ml. Now it costs CAD$15.49 and has been reduced in size to 105ml. #cdnecon #cdnpoli https://m.primal.net/HlyE.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott One of the biggest opportunities and BEST chances for civic renewal in Canada, U.S. and elsewhere is for progressives / social democrats and conservatives to meet at that contentious question “how are we going to pay for x,y,z” and to have sincere dialogue. The majority of conservatives who ask “how will we pay for this?” are not heartless, anti-social, everyone for themselves uber-capitalists. Most care deeply about having a healthy society and not wanting people to suffer and feel the pangs of poverty. Most progressives / social democrats are not anti-markets, and don’t just simply see government as a nanny and an ATM. They want good government and simply want to use mechanisms available to relieve pain and suffering for as many people as possible. So what gives? Well, I think we’re this point now where camps are talking across each other AND there is just a fundamental lack of education about how money works, how debt works, and the mechanics of markets. Focus on filling that gap and we begin to heal. This is where #Bitcoin comes in. One doesn’t begin to grasp #Bitcoin until one “gets” the mechanics of money, debt, markets and why Bitcoin matters. And, it’s unlikely in our current noise-filled society that one begins to “get” these things until one begins to study and give Bitcoin a chance. In this sense, #Bitcoin is a filter or a set of corrective glasses. It allows us to begin to truly see the things we spend so much time arguing about — the site of so much social and political division — in better context and perspective. Once we can see money, debt, markets in proper perspective (what they are, how they function) we can then finally have informed discussion about how we need to work with them and/or change them to build a better society. And I do believe that 80% of people can find agreement. So, let’s turn this question of “how are we going to pay for x,y,z” into a neutral meeting place. Let’s not have it be politically charged as the conservative “austerity agenda” nor as the progressive “spend-thrift” disposition. Let’s make it a noble, sacred question. npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Hey, #Toronto small businesses! There is a fast growing community of people in the GTA and people who visit Toronto that want to support YOUR business if they can pay in #Bitcoin #BTC. Accepting BTC is very easy and has many advantages and benefits. If you are interested and want some support, let us know at @BTCToronto_. One of the members of our collaborative, like @BTCadvisors, can help. We’re happy to answer questions or stop by for a visit. Who are we and what’s in it for us? We’re an informal group of collaborators, from different walks of life, who all believe that #Bitcoin is the future and a key to building a better, more inclusive, and more fair world. As part of this, we believe strongly in the value and power of local small businesses. We want Toronto to have a prominent place in this fast accelerating global movement. For us, this is about strengthening community and empowering local small businesses as leaders of today and tomorrow. #note1w77…0j0p npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott A little under 4 hours to go until we are less than 5000 blocks from the next #Bitcoin halving. https://m.primal.net/Hliq.png npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott TORONTO | Pay in #BTC ☕️ Capulus Coffee House 📍881 St Clair Ave West Delicious food and beverages. Support businesses that accept #Bitcoin. @npub1864…t2tq @npub1j46…dffy While you’re at it, please follow @BTCToronto_ and @BTCcoalition_ca. 🇨🇦 https://m.primal.net/HlNG.mov npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Going Further Upstream on SDoH. A Call to Action. ***reposted from X. see original post at https://x.com/scottawolfe/status/1766688560357241121?s=46&t=wq0GoOCdXxA5DblxlsJJng for figures and additional links*** It’s hard to admit when cracks begin to appear in one’s worldview. It’s even more challenging to reorient oneself to new processes of learning and un-learning, and to then re-engage the world with revised perspective. I know because this is the journey I’ve been on in recent years. For more than two decades, I worked in the areas of global health and community health/development. This included a stint at the World Health Organization (@WHO @PAHOWHO), a few years with a global not-for-profit organization focused on HIV/AIDS care (@IAPAC), and 20 years working with “community health centres” both in Canada and globally (@CACHC_ACCSC @IFCHC @AllianceON). These entailed roles in communication, policy and government relations, and executive leadership. A thread that ran through all of this work was shifting the attention of healthcare providers, policymakers, and other civil society stakeholders to the upstream causes of illness and social distress. We often refer to these as the “social determinants of health (#SDoH)”. Our understanding of the SDoH is grounded in a significant body of research, theory, and practice. Major early milestones include the groundbreaking work of 19th century Prussian physician, Dr. Rudolph Virchow (1) who practiced and advocated “social medicine”, as well as Dr. Michael Marmot's seminal Whitehall Study in London, UK (2). Marmot’s 1967 study documented clear differences in risk factors, morbidity, and mortality among British civil servants correlated to their grade of employment and socio-economic status. The lower the grade and income, the greater the risk factors and greater the morbidity and mortality rates. Since the late 1960s, an ever-growing body of research has further documented the correlation of risk factors, morbidity, and mortality with various social factors. This body of research underscores the importance to health of factors like adequate income, access to shelter/housing, access to adequate nutritious food, freedom from social exclusion, and many others. In fact, these SDoH are vastly more significant to the health of individuals and groups than strictly genetic and biomedical factors (3). It’s also important to note that what we have come to understand about SDoH via Western processes of learning was already deeply embedded in other cultural perspectives on health and wellbeing. Indigenous practices throughout the Americas, for instance, provide abundant examples (4, 5, 6). We must honour these. The SDoH may sound like common sense, and they should. However, it’s important to have actual evidence of these correlations and to use this evidence to guide us in developing frameworks and plans for action at a societal level. In other words, what should we do about these social factors? Should we treat the SDoH as strictly personal responsibilities? Is there a role for the state and, if so, what? What is the role of civil society groups, of individual health practitioners, and so on? These are complex questions which merit continued attention as a matter of political philosophy. I remain convinced that we should attend to these matters as a shared responsibility, with important roles for the state, for civil society groups and organizations, for health and social service professionals, for educators, for families, and for individuals. Since the late 20th century, health and social service organizations, government agencies, and many other relevant stakeholders have increased attention and activity focused on the SDoH. We should celebrate this evolution in thinking and action. It reflects an ethic of mutual benefit and an orientation toward prevention before treatment. A shift toward the SDoH also provides a systematic way to safeguard against pathologizing the human experience, where every aspect of dis-ease is handed over to a perversely incentivized medical-pharmaceutical industrial complex. This is not to disavow allopathic medicine, nor our major advances in diagnostics and treatment. It is simply to say that we need balance. We need to avoid spending scarce energy and resources on treating downstream that which can be prevented or better treated upstream. As part of this movement, health and social service agencies have embedded a wide range of programs, services, and policy/advocacy positions that explicitly address various SDoH. For more than two decades, I have been an active participant in this movement and a vocal proponent of this approach. In diverse ways, I helped to translate our understanding of SDoH and health equity into practical lines of action within the organizations for which I worked, up until late 2023 when I embarked on a new vocational journey. In practical terms. SDoH focused programs within the organizations I worked for included things like developing protocol and tools for individual doctors, nurses, and other practitioners to better connect vulnerable patients with much needed social supports. It included social workers and community health workers securing shelter or employment or food for at risk clients. It included integrating services like childcare and transportation with clinical services in order to reduce barriers for mothers seeking care for themselves and their children. And, it included advocacy for public policy and government investment that supports school nutrition programs, affordable housing, and other social inputs for health. These are just a few examples to illustrate the point. I’m incredibly proud of this past work and I believe that the emphasis on upstream thinking and action needs to persist and to drive public policy and systems design. However, over the past few years I have become increasingly attuned to important new information (new to me, that is) which has caused me to reconsider my perspective on some of this work. I have come to believe that, despite our best intentions and the nobility of our efforts to address upstream causes of illness and social distress, we have still been labouring too far downstream. Our scarce energies have been misallocated. In certain instances, we have unwittingly been a marginal part of the problem too. I’ll try to unpack this. I see two interrelated problems. First, we have reached a point where our remedial programs and services focused on SDoH are at risk of becoming institutionalized and self-perpetuating. I fear that we are becoming captive to the collective, organizational inertia of these remedial efforts instead of allocating more of our energy and resources to the larger public policy challenges that engender individual and social distress. Secondly, and more insidious I believe, our typical approach to those larger public policy matters (when we do direct energy to them) sometimes fuels many of the problems we seek to correct. I’m referring here to our tendency to seek increased public spending as a panacea for socio-economic disparities. So, what new information has caused me to change perspective? Well, it has been a journey of learning about the mechanics of financial and monetary systems, and about the nature and consequences of money itself. That is to say, what money actually is, the history of money, what makes for sound versus unsound money, and the many consequences of the money we choose (or are forced) to use. As a result of this educational journey over the past few years, I now believe that the most significant cause of social disparities is something which has actually escaped our attention: our “broken money” and its deleterious impact downstream. I still believe that it’s very important to continue providing services that address SDoH on the ground, and to continue drawing attention to housing, food security, and other inputs for health. However, my revised perspective is that in order to effectively achieve our diverse goals related to the SDoH, we must reallocate a significant portion of our attention and our resources to tackling the major cause which has escaped our attention. We must paddle further upstream to fix the money. For a proper examination of our broken money and its downstream impact, there are several resources that I would recommend. Among them are @LynAldenContact's Broken Money: Why Our Financial System is Failing Us and How We Can Make it Better (7); @saifedean’s The Fiat Standard (8) and The Bitcoin Standard (9); and @SebBunney's The Hidden Cost of Money: How Financial Forces Shape Our Lives & the World Around Us (10). For the sake of this brief essay and my call to action, I will offer a high-level breakdown of key points. I hope that I do them some justice. The money which dominates globally -- our national and regional “fiat” currencies like the Canadian dollar, U.S. dollar, Euro, Mexican peso, Kenyan shilling, and so on -- can be produced in unlimited quantities to pay for government expenditures. When governments increase the supply of these currencies, which they have been doing at alarming rates over the past five decades (see Figure 1, for example), they cause inflation and reduced purchasing power as the currency debases in value. Not only does this exacerbate the challenges faced by individuals and families looking to meet their ongoing needs, it also unleashes a wide range of market forces that disproportionately harm individuals and families at the lower end of the income curve. Figure 1: US Money Supply (M2) A good example of these perverse market forces is found in housing (11). As a result of inflation and our debasing currencies, individuals with discretionary income require assets that can help them preserve their earnings and wealth, such as real estate and stocks. A preferred choice has been residential housing, largely because it is a hard asset which has a clear utility value (can be lived in) and is also widely accepted socially as a “safe”, investable asset. When people en masse channel money into housing with the expectation that it is an investment rather than simply for its utility value, this drives up prices. We are financializing the housing market rather than having housing meet our societal needs. Housing becomes inaccessible for increasing portions of the population and the strain of carrying costs places tremendous, cascading pressures and stress on individuals and families. Figure 2 Examples of these unleashed market forces abound. They have been growing in scope and degree for more than five decades, particularly since 1971 when the U.S. dollar (as de facto global reserve currency) was de-pegged from gold. A fascinating collection of charts that paint the picture of trends since 1971 can be found at: wtfhappenedin1971.com We have been dramatically increasing the money supply in countries around the world for the past five-plus decades, with government spending outpacing government revenue at an accelerating rate. Government debt has risen at alarming rates (see Figure 3, for example), and the cost to governments of simply servicing debt is reaching dangerous levels. For stakeholder advocating increased public spending to tackle social disparities, we must recognize that we are doing so against this backdrop of persistent deficit spending and debt. Figure 3: U.S. National Debt In order to provide increased public funding for housing programs, for food security programs, and for other social benefits, governments must either increase tax income or create new money. Since raising taxes is politically fraught and would still likely be insufficient to meet all committed expenditures for most governments, money creation is the option of choice. This is done to pay for military expenditures and social benefits alike. Conservative, centrist, and social-democratic governments alike are all guilty of money creation. This is not about ideology, it's about broken money and systems. The creation of new money causes further inflation and reduced purchasing power. Those with greater income continue to chase assets like housing and stocks to preserve wealth while lower income earners unable to save and invest in such assets are left struggling with mounting day-to-day costs and fleeting options for financial stability. Millennials and GenZ-ers now face the brunt of this decades old experiment with fiat money creation, as hopes for future financial security become increasingly fleeting. The experiment with fiat money creation, deficit spending, and debt has gone on for so long now, and across the political spectrum, that it is hard to imagine any possible course correction from within this system. We are left with two viable and interconnected options. The first is to elevate public discourse about balanced budgets and the important choices we must make about priorities for spending. The second option is to move to a system where governments cannot simply create new money to fulfill promises through deficit spending. This second option has been an elusive dream in the era of fiat money. However, the introduction of #Bitcoin -- a sound, decentralized global money which has rules but no rulers – now provides hope (12, 13). Around the world, millions of people are turning to Bitcoin after arriving at the same conclusion: that if we fix the money, we can fix the incentives, and fix the world. In writing this brief essay, I hope to pique the interest of individuals and groups that are actively involved in programs, services and advocacy focused on SDoH. My call to action is to take a closer look at the question of money, financial and monetary systems, and the fresh alternatives presented by Bitcoin. This is the learning journey that I have been on over the past few years. While it has been dis-orienting at times, I have never before felt such hope at the possibility for meaningful impact in reducing socio-economic disparities, both domestically and globally. On the global front, @Gladstein's books Check Your Financial Privilege: Inside The Global Bitcoin Revolution (14) and Hidden Repression: How the IMF and World Bank Sell Exploitation as Development (15) are must reads to better understand the harmful impact of fiat currencies on a global scale and why/how Bitcoin is an essential part of the solution. I'll end with an appeal to anyone moved to take a closer look at resources that I've linked here, to embrace not just the content but a spirit of generosity and openness to new civic engagements. We live in an era of such political tribalism. Matters to do with money, taxation, debt, wealth, and social disparities tend to evoke strong partisan sentiments. To the extent that we can engage on these matters across these partisan lines, to discuss broken money and how to fix it, we are already beginning to fix the world. REFERENCES 1. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11… 2. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1674771/ 3. himss.org/resources/impo… 4. fnha.ca/wellness/welln… 5. iphcc.ca 6. www3.paho.org/hq/index.php?o… 7. amazon.ca/Broken-Money-F… 8. amazon.ca/Fiat-Standard-… 9. amazon.ca/Bitcoin-Standa… 10. amazon.ca/Hidden-Cost-Mo… 11. ohchr.org/en/special-pro… 12. bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/bitcoi… 13. bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/how-bi… 14. amazon.ca/Check-Your-Fin… 15. amazon.ca/Hidden-Repress… npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Hey Steve, it doesn’t show me what observation/post you’re referring to. I’m. Assuming the conservatives/progressives can agree on 80% of things post? npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott SOJOURNS IN THE DIGITAL FUTURE (an original piece) “Turning and turning in the widening gyre; The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world; The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” -🔖W.B. Yeats, The Second Birth “A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.” -🔖Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart The year is 1990. For the past four years, you have been gradually familiarizing yourself with the infrastructure and tools that make up a still nascent global technology which is being referred to as the Internet. You and some of the peers in your network are now using a personal computer for word processing and a few other functions. However, you are the only one in your peer network accessing this Internet. For you, it all started four years ago. A seed was planted when you listened to a radio interview with an engineer who had worked on something called #ARPANET, a precursor to this new Internet, developed by the U.S. Department of Defense. The engineer described how this emerging Internet would eventually become the public version of ARPANET. The interview piqued your interest and you began sifting through available information to learn more. Four years later, you are now part of a local Internet users group which meets once per week to discuss your respective experiences and prognostications. You are collectively referred to by friends in your non-Internet peer network as that “talking computers group”. Over time, this group has come to occupy an increasingly important role in your life. You now awkwardly straddle two peer groups, continually searching for ways to find overlap and to integrate these two dimensions of your social life. It isn’t easy, and you leap back and forth between hope and despair. You have begun to see more clearly into a future, just over the horizon, where life will be irretrievably transformed by this Internet. You see both opportunities and threats, and you have come to believe that we all need to become invested in this discussion in order to guard against threats and to achieve the greatest good for society. You make the case with your non-Internet peer network, but it is difficult to gain traction. They get the excitement regarding personal computers, but computers talking to each other? Digital communication replacing the postman, the video store, the newspaper, making its way into the workplace and other such predictions? It all seems a bit far fetched. They grow weary of your persistent “wait until you see how the Internet is going to change this” interventions. Eventually, you elect to just keep mostly quiet on this topic when with them. Your local Internet users peer group provides you with much needed community. Still, you lament that you live in a sort of limbo. You imagine what the Internet portends for daily life five, ten, or forty years into the future and how radically transformative it is going to be. However, there is little nourishment from that today. You’re in a period of prolonged waiting. You long for tomorrow, today. You long to be in the imagined world of the ubiquitous Internet, where networked technology and communications will be placed in service of the greater good and an acceleration toward the marvels of human potential. This longing and the awkwardness of straddling divergent peer groups persists for what feels like an eternity. Then, as if out of nowhere, a buzz circulates through your “talking computers group” and other similar groups. It turns out that there are some forward-thinking communities around the world, possibly three or four, that have begun to pull forward the future into the present. They have connected the majority of people in their local community to the Internet and it has begun to permeate many dimensions of daily life throughout their region. You decide that you need to see it for yourself. You book a Pan Am flight and hit the friendly skies to visit one of these communities. After being greeted at the airport by a contact with whom you had corresponded via a clunky chat room, you make the short drive back to the community. En route, you marvel at the small portable phone your contact has nestled beside him, a Motorola. It’s the new “flip phone” you’ve heard about. He tells you that a few homes and businesses in the community just got them, but most are still using older Siemens or Nokia portable phones. “Older?,” you think to yourself, and "wait, these people are all using cellular phones?” The next week spent in the community is filled with more discoveries and revelations... The local postal service has been significantly reduced over the past year. Locals instead resort to electronic mail for most of their routine communications. They're calling it e-mail. Agonizing waits for services and long lines for day-to-day activities have been reduced. Forms and information exchange have mostly gone “online”. There are several major businesses in town which are now processing orders for goods entirely online, with delivery right to your doorstep. More are planning to follow suit. There’s even rumour that within the next couple of years you will be able to pay online for goods purchased online; no need to pay the delivery person at the door by cash or cheque. After a week of living in the digital future, you return home to your life, to your two local peer networks, and your state of limbo. The difference now, is that you have experienced a taste of the future. It is no longer simply imagined. You know it is possible, and what it feels and sounds like. You share tales of the future with both of your peer groups. Your Internet users peer group activates. Many plan to also book that Pan Am flight, so they can see and feel it for themselves. Your other peer group finds it somewhat fascinating, but they mostly nestle back into their daily, analog lives. Fast forward. The year is 2023. For the past four years you have gradually been learning about the global #Bitcoin network and software. You exchange portions of your local “fiat” currency for the commodity money which goes by the same name, Bitcoin or BTC. You are sampling a new digital future. It feels like déjà vu (all over again). In 2023, you again find yourself part of two divergent peer networks. You again make a pilgrimage to visit communities that are pulling forward the future into the present, using Bitcoin. You again feel as though you are living in a state of limbo back at home, enduring a period of prolonged waiting. In 2023, however, it feels as though your appeal to peers, hoping they will take an interest in your newfound passion, has a different quality to it. The stakes feel much higher, the consequences more grave. It’s hard to put your finger on it, but somehow it feels as though this is a game for all the marbles. You and other so-called Bitcoiners around the world have amassed enough intelligence on a range of interconnected topics revolving around Bitcoin to sense that a battle is being waged. You envision a future where many more facets of life will be mediated digitally, much through artificial intelligence. It doesn’t take much to convince your non Bitcoiner peers of this. However, it's a challenge to keep their attention for a discussion of what's at stake and why Bitcoin matters, both for and in this future. You have shared with your non Bitcoiner peers how money, something that permeates nearly every facet of our lives, is not actually what we thought it was. More aptly put, we have ceased to think at all about what money is, other than the extent to which we possess or lack it. You have made the case that this collective amnesia has very serious consequences. You have invited your peers to consider the history of money and the story of how, over time, humans have chosen to store and exchange value. Your hope is that, like you, they will come to appreciate the harmful impact of our most recent monetary experiment: fiat money. You have shared resources about the insidious nature of inflation, enabled by fiat currencies, and its many downstream social effects. You have highlighted the imperatives of perpetual growth and conspicuous consumption that are required by our global financial systems, propelled by consistently manipulated fiat money. You have described the mechanics of global debt, resource extraction, neocolonialism and how small portions of the world remain relatively affluent at the expense of others which are correspondingly impoverished. You have attempted to connect the dots, tracing the line of fiat money which runs between them. Sadly, this is a dish for which you struggle to find ready bellies; a pregnant discussion for which you struggle to find ready minds. You want your non Bitcoiner peers to see that it is our broken money and the toxic incentives which it aids and abets on a global scale that are at the heart of so much strife, division and inequity in the world. You want them to grasp that it is our diseased fiat money lifeblood which preys upon humanity’s organs. You want them to consider what happens if we carry forward this fiat monetary system fully into the digital realm. You want them to see that this will very likely be a world of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and social credit scores, mass surveillance, censorship, behaviour-control, and state-sanctioned violence; a world whose dystopian cocktail carries a potentially fatal hangover. You want them to grasp that, right now, today, one of the single best strategies we have to prevent such a dystopia is to replace our fiat currencies through mass adoption of Bitcoin. As you did in 1990, however, you mostly keep quiet with your non Bitcoiner peers. You carefully select your moments and your opportunities to plant seeds. You water. You hope that one day soon a garden will blossom. You know that there are milestones on this learning journey, aha moments, and it takes time. You know that there is profound depth and nuance to these matters, and that the learning journey requires not only an intellectual curiosity but a willingness to interrogate conventional wisdom. This is all the more challenging amidst the incessant noise of attention-grabbing media, politically-motivated narratives, and tribalized civic spaces. You learn patience. You find community among other Bitcoiners and you build as a community, globally. You embrace self-deprecating humour, knowing that to many who are close to you and have not embraced this learning journey you appear unhinged at times. Nevertheless, friendships are occasionally strained. Such is the life of one who possesses knowledge while uncomfortably straddling epochs. Yes, things fall apart. Still, maybe, hopefully, through sheer persistence and by the grace of those greater daemons which elevate our humanity, we shall eventually hold the centre. npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Detail is everything!!! https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3Md5DqMrEx/?igsh=MXJld2NzbzF2eHFwMg== npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Inflation got you down? Birthday coming up? We got you covered. Check back for frequent life hacks. Oh, and just stack sats! https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2khrPEOZlb/?igsh=eGV3bHl6ZHluZWI5 npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott See, what had happened was… https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0w0s0yMdQk/?igsh=MWJkZXF3bGUxZTNi npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott SPREAD THE WORD!!! LONDON (& 19+ countries worldwide) 🔥TUE 20 FEB 🔥WED 21 FEB Royal Courts of Justice 8.30am #DayXisHERE It's NOW or NEVER! #FreeAssange #JournalismIsNotACrime https://image.nostr.build/16bfe521d6a8020cb0ab26666451212d988d1c8d1d98ca95ad3fa899f337af52.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott I miss KMart. One of the first to allow you to ship your pants. https://www.facebook.com/reel/685615010414449?fs=e&mibextid=q8x1r0 npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott 🚨Business accepting Bitcoin🚨 Hey #Toronto residents! New coffee shop accepting #Bitcoin on St Clair Ave West. Capsules Coffee House. Go show them some love and support! Let’s get this circular economy going!🚀 c/o @npub1vtk…gjfc https://maps.app.goo.gl/EPh9MHBXifiEaFUX7?g_st=ic npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Haha, I guess they’re reallllly trying to get the word out! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Follow @npub1kns…3582 !!! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Wohhhh!!! 🔥🔥🔥 https://www.instagram.com/reel/CytcWQPOUnr/?igsh=MTZjbDh5NTIwdXh2aA== npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott All good. Lots to be proud of and lots to love here, and with Bitcoin and Nostr we can make it even better! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott So cool to have my new @npub1t9z…stxq NIP-05. Thanks for hooking me up, @npub1826…7t95 @npub1pfm…665m @npub1erh…ru26!!! Excited to collaborate on #Bitcoin and #Nostr education and adoption in Toronto. Look g forward to growing our local community. npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Follow @npub1t9z…stxq !!! #note1hws…gt4c npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott I’m not a big American football fan, but happy to join the pile on. https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2Gghy6rWhb/?igsh=MWZxeHhoaHUwdXlzbA== npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Great to learn about your efforts (wish I had known earlier). Yes, let’s combine efforts. DMs don’t seem to be working here for me, for some reason. Let’s keep in touch here too, but I’m going to DM you over on the blue birdy app. npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott It’s never too late to start something good. https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cy87vYbgXTy/?igsh=OGxlcTNnN3F3YXk= npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Barber shops for the win. Sitting in the chair today, talking shop with an up and coming Toronto-based hip hop artist who is frustrated with traditional streaming services. Orange-pilled him to #Bitcoin, #nostr and value-for-value. One person, one step at a time. https://image.nostr.build/57955cec64e36d49b411c82d59d6dc63317a40fda168477509a92924472c0aae.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott #Bitcoin only https://image.nostr.build/713b685ab0aa165fb7e7678a479982e69389b81d66f1f6927c95329316352998.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Facts! https://image.nostr.build/285e7504e9b62948305f307fa41609fdc3de88e9cbf4be149b448990f41404b3.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott I woke up this morning feeling this immense sense of urgency that we need to onboard another 10 million people globally to self-custodied #Bitcoin by January 3, 2024. A combination of new Bitcoiners and Bitcoiners getting their #BTC off exchanges. Are forthcoming spot #Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. positive or negative in the long run? I dunno. BUT, I don’t want for us to risk the transformational potential of Bitcoin globally. So, let’s front run the hell out of large institutions b/n now and Bitcoin’s 15th birthday (Jan 3). LFG! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Thanks, Will. I’ve fixed and am good to go! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Please help! I’m trying to use Nostr more routinely (via @npub18m7…q955) and am running into this problem. I have no idea what wallet is currently attached to my profile. It seems I can zap and be zapped, but I have no idea where it’s going to or coming from. Have tested via a couple small zaps and it’s not connecting to any of my current wallets. I also go to the “Settings” page and try to “Attach a Wallet” but either get an error message when I click “Attach Wallet” or get a scan option with a “Paste” option but when I try to paste in a wallet address nothing happens. Can someone help? @npub1xts…kk5s anyone else? 🙏 npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott And delicious npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Hey #Nostr Nostriches! Please follow @npub1u79…q05v and help raise visibility and support for efforts to increase #Bitcoin outreach, education, adoption, research, and public policy in Canada. A re-post would be helpful too. Thank you! 🇨🇦🧡⚡️ https://image.nostr.build/23c726609ead95f635fcb8176c4439a71dc248f565463f1e10ddea8464b70e85.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Curry goat npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Let’s make war unaffordable. #Bitcoin fixes incentives, which can help heal the world. https://image.nostr.build/436823916da949a08afb3072eda4e49aa130c269119f7d7d40228ebc4c6d780e.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Thank you! ✊ npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Fix the money…to fix the incentives…to fix the world. #Bitcoin #peace https://image.nostr.build/ee7a4e2e6cd8b9c305fa059ce44ecb68e6d52f4cc7d4eab4a521d024656f1f30.jpg npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Pineapple and spicy sausage/pepperoni is pretty dope too. npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott Hello all! I’ve been away from Nostr for a bit. I’ll try to get back here more regularly. Shout out to all who are building the decentralized, free, open-source future for humanity! npub15m9yc697s82zzy652py0uddmpp5e9xl0920vg6lau9n39fnnzsys6mq643 Scott I sure as hell hope so!