The Great Realignment: Power, Money, Greed & Bitcoin
Preface
Preface
This book was written “open-source.” Meaning I published everything online as I wrote. I cannot be certain this is a unique, or indeed, even a sound approach to writing a book. Yet, it is the approach I decided upon. For those early readers, this was unlike most books, where the effort to compose it is long since past by the time the reader puts their eyes to the page. The early readers were along for the ride, so to speak. Just prior to writing this I realized I have written 350,000 to 400,000 words on Medium over the last two and a half years. In terms of most mass-market books, that word count falls somewhere between three to five books worth of material. To be fair, most of it would not be worthy of a book. My approach on Medium was largely devoted to an educational campaign around basic macro-economic concepts and the safe navigation of digital asset markets.
Of late that focus has transformed to a singular one: The promotion of Bitcoin as a global treasury reserve asset.
This shift in endeavor did not come overnight, nor was it one that was undertaken lightly. Prior to writing on Medium, I published a number of peer-reviewed academic papers on a diversity of topics. While I am a firm believer that an advanced education and defense of ideas is a noble pursuit, I recognize now that such endeavors come with hidden costs. Most notably, the rigor I applied to evaluating so-called “crypto assets” blinded me to a number of unique and distinguishable properties of Bitcoin. The academic mind is a suspicious one and rightfully so. Extraordinary claims must be backed by extraordinary evidence. Absent such backing, caution is always warranted before one draws strong conclusions.
Unfortunately, this led me to a number of unseen and unacknowledged biases. The conservatism of academia provided me with an intellectual cover that I ego-centrically pursued to maintain an appearance of objectivity. Ego-centric or not, objectivity is appropriate when discussing topics such as those found in scholarship on financial regulation and criminology — my particular areas of expertise. Within those fields, there is a vast history of critical thinkers and astute, learned scholars working through the often intractable problems of human interaction. Novelty of approach and analysis is uncommon, as the depth of existing scholarship rarely has holes large enough to find a new idea worth exploring.
Not because seemingly new ideas do not materialize. More so because what can often be mistaken for a new idea is rarely one that has not been thoroughly discussed, debated or definitively answered by someone, or indeed, many someones along the way. This being a long-winded way of saying, there are very few unturned stones in legal and criminological circles. This is why academic papers are so often focused on minutia and feature much tinkering around the edges of core ideas. Thus the introduction of something that is truly new can be disruptive. The impulse is to reject novelty out of hand. Not due to a lack of curiosity, but rather because curiosity in academia is so rarely rewarded.
Again, conservatism of approach is highly prized and well regarded in that field. To take a stand on a new concept is to challenge much orthodoxy and it is an uncomfortable place to remain steadfast. And yet, my curiosity continued to pursue the little threads and tendrils of Bitcoin knowledge and ideas that are often presented as irrefutable or inevitable by the devout. Unfortunately the certainty of the Bitcoin devotees was anathema to my predisposition, right or wrong. All of which conspired to make the revelation of Bitcoin’s deeper qualities very opaque to me. I consider myself fortunate that I set aside my suspicion long enough to pursue greater knowledge of Bitcoin with an open mind.
Upon doing so, it became evident that I had been wrong about Bitcoin all along. That said, I think my true blessings are the possession of a sufficient quantity of humility to recognize I was wrong and the ability to correct course. This book is my attempt to contribute to, explore and expand Bitcoin knowledge. My intention is to bridge an undefinable gap between “pure” academic writing and mass market narration. My hope is to achieve some form of middle ground. The ultimate goal is to provide an alternate reference point for discussion and debate. If this proves limiting to my audience, so be it. My incentive is pure. I am solely focused on enhancing and furthering constructive dialogue around Bitcoin and what I believe is its primary utility as inalienable individual property.
I am certain many will disagree with my analysis and it is welcome criticism. I am not, and will do my best not to become, dogmatic in approach. In terms of sourcing and citation, this was originally intended for a digital medium. My idea was to link to sources. As I have decided to also publish a physical print book, bibliographical references are now included as well. There are two-fold issues here nevertheless. The trouble with links is they can move or expire. The trouble with bibliographies is they are rarely pursued, as I learned all too well when I was called upon to be a peer-reviewer myself. That being said, this work is very modestly sourced. It is not intended to be a deep academic treatise and much of it is theoretical anyway. I suppose only time will tell how well it all holds up.
Shifting gears a bit and for insight into the writing of this book, I published online weekly. It was an odd process for me as a writer. This method of work certainly developed and morphed the book from where I started. Long form writing requires a lot of mental shifting. And shifting from focused to diffuse thinking has uncertain timing. For me, this is not a predictable practice. It is one, however, that is critical to navigating a long writing assignment successfully. All this to say, the writing I did over these last few months was not linear, nor was it complete. It was really quite fractured because of my intention to post updates to the book weekly, regardless of the state of things. This was all in pursuit of a secondary hope I held for this endeavor. That hope was it might benefit burgeoning writers with their journey. I thought that providing an example of the writing process unfolding week-by-week might prove helpful. Of this I saw little impact. It was a fun experiment to try, despite the lack of results. That said, I completed this book in its entirety on Medium. From here, it shall be published (hopefully) on Highlighter.com via the NOSTR protocol. It will also be published on Amazon for those who might like to buy a physical copy. I will leave the choice to the consumer. Selling the book is only for the convenience of those who do not like reading from a website, but are still interested in what I have to say on the matter at hand.
I am a firm believer that Bitcoin will be one of the most profound, fundamental changes in the way human beings interact and transact. That being said, I also find the idea that Bitcoin’s greatest purpose is a medium of exchange for any and all transactions a bit absurd. This puts me in some conflict with many of the original developers that helped create the Bitcoin we know today. Regardless, the amount of infighting and hostility among the various Bitcoin republics is disturbing to me. I think most of it childish and counter-productive to the potential embodied in the small-block version of Bitcoin. That is to say, the version that is currently preeminent among the ideologies, at least in terms of adoption. A perhaps vain hope for this book is to eventually bridge the gap and find unity among the various camps. As I alluded to above, the implications of Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset and individually sovereign property seem to me far more important and impactful than a censorship-resistant, black market, micro-transactional network could ever hope to be.
In pursuit of this argument, this book advances a number of historical theories, namely around the concepts and origins of power, money and greed in our modern economy. I do this to provide an alternate view of the world molded by my own academic experience and work. This is not intended to upset any apple carts. The purpose is rather to provide more context for the broader economic discussion and where this Bitcoin thing might end up. I think the Bitcoin story, much like the human story, is truly about to blossom. My hope is to present a coherent and hopeful narrative along which those stories might evolve.
