Money is Power and Bitcoin is Redefining the Game
Money as a system-of-control
I recently re-watched Andreas Antonopoulos’ (author or Mastering Bitcoin) talk on “Money as a System-of-Control.” He argues that money is supposed to have three properties: store of value, medium of exchange, and unit of account but since Nixon signed the Bank Secrecy Act in 1970 money has become a political and enforcement tool over which we have no power. The consequence is money can no longer serve its original three functions; instead the control mechanisms favor the rich and drive economic exclusion for the others. Bitcoin rebalances this power because it’s neutral, borderless, and censorship resistant. It’s a form of money that empowers individuals to voice their discontent and exit the existing financial system beyond government control. We saw it during the Geek debt-government crisis and we’re seeing it today with millennials adopting this new form of money.
I particularly like this talk because it takes us back to the fundamentals of why this technology is so powerful. It’s easy to get lost in the potential of smart contract platforms, DLT, and dapps but ultimately the first use case of creating an alternate form of money that is decoupled from government remains the most powerful one.
Watch “Money as a System-of-Control” talk here.
From around the web
PoW is efficient (Medium) by Dan Held — Explains why PoW isn’t as wasteful as one would think, rather it’s a matter of perception. Most things in our lives use energy so the real question is whether the benefits afforded by PoW are they worth the cost?
Bitcoin’s Next Big Software Upgrade to Feature New Language for Crypto Keys (Coindesk) — Bitcoin core is due for a software upgrade, which should improve wallet usability, protocol scalability, and more.
Debunking Market Narratives: Litecoin ($LTC) Edition (Multicoin Capital blog) — Analysis of Litecoin concluding that the cryptocurrency has no use case and therefore no value.
Single collateral Dai — 9 months in review (Medium) by Mike McDonald — Analysis of how the DAI stablecoin (pegged to USD) has performed since launch December 2017. Amazingly, it’s managed to hold the peg despite Ethereum’s epic 2018 plunge.
Understanding Decentralized Identity (Medium) by Richard Chen — Admit, rolled my eyes when saw the title thinking “yet one more post on identity” but it’s a good one. Recaps Zooko’s Triangle for evaluating security, decentralization, and HCI trade-offs and looks at how projects to date are faring with respect to these.
WebAssembly & The Future of Blockchain Computing (Zk Capital blog) — Explains what WASM is, why it’s ideal for decentralized applications, and how implementing it in Ethereum, EOS, and DFINITY will make smart contract development more accessible.
Game of the week
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The views expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of my employer.
