"Bitcoin isn't backed by anything."
Let me stop you right there.
Bitcoin is backed by energy. Real energy. Kilowatts. Heat. Physics.
The kind of backing you can't print, fake, or vote into existence at an emergency Fed meeting.
Every block mined is a thermodynamic proof of work. Not a promise. Not a policy. Proof.
The issuance schedule has never been amended by a committee. Not once. Not ever. Because there is no committee.
There's just math. Cold, indifferent, and immune to political theater.
The network is secured by more raw computing power than anything humanity has ever built. Hundreds of exahashes per second standing guard. Every single day.
Now let's talk about what is backed by nothing.
The dollar.
It's is backed by confidence. Specifically, confidence in the institution that printed $6 trillion in two years while telling you 3% inflation was healthy and you should be grateful for the soft landing.
In the same people who can't pass an audit.
Who fund wars with a credit card.
Who promise solvency while sitting on $39 trillion in debt and accelerating.
"Backed by nothing" isn't an attack on Bitcoin.
It's a confession about the dollar.
Follow if you're serious about building wealth they can't print away.
Most systems in life function better under centralized governance, but digital cash is one of the rare exceptions where a decentralized system is clearly superior.
A centralized culture is far more effective at preserving and upholding its core principles than a decentralized one. Without a strong culture around Bitcoin that actively defends those principles, you end up with scammy shitcoiners running nodes and pushing changes that erode Bitcoin’s foundations.
To truly preserve Bitcoin’s decentralized, borderless, open-source, and peer-to-peer nature, people must be centrally aligned around the idea that these characteristics are non-negotiable.
When participants interpret the protocol however they like, you get Ethereum, XRP, and thousands of other distractions that waste time and undermine the separation of money and state.
You cannot genuinely support decentralized, borderless, open-source, peer-to-peer money while also maintaining your own personal philosophy about what it “really is.”
These are Bitcoin’s core principles:
• DECENTRALIZED
• TRULY SCARCE
• CENSORSHIP RESISTANT
• A DISTRIBUTED LEDGER
• INCORRUPTIBLE
(These five properties set Bitcoin apart from every other cryptocurrency)
• PERMISSIONLESS
• AUDITABLE
• TRANSPARENT
• IMMUTABLE
• BORDERLESS
• HARD TO COUNTERFEIT
• PSEUDONYMOUS
• FRICTIONLESS
• TRUSTLESS
• PEER-TO-PEER
These are not suggestions open to interpretation, they are factual, measurable characteristics. Developing your own personal philosophy around them should not be encouraged. Anything that opposes these principles, whether at the code level or the cultural level, opposes Bitcoin and the separation of money and state.
Participants who reinterpret, develop their own “unique philosophy”, or dilute these core principles should not be tolerated. They should be treated with hostility by the culture surrounding Bitcoin for opening the door to changes that erode Bitcoin’s foundations.
This also applies to Bitcoin artwork. If it does not align with the mission to separate money and state, then it is not Bitcoin art.
Bitcoin art does not need fiat art school pseudo-intellectual, conceptual gobbledygook or philosophical mental masturbation. It needs artists who are monetary maximalists, fighting with pen, pencil, and brush to destroy fiat.
⚔️
Steep climb up to my favorite mountain coffee spot to start the day.
Perfect Sunday morning.
I vividly remember sitting here when I had like $100k saved up, wondering how I was going to turn it into millions so I could afford to stay at a hotel like this whenever I wanted.
I had no doubt I'd make it, but I remember wishing I could jump to the future just to see the path that got me there.
Now that I'm here, I realize how little the specific details of the actual path mattered and how a few specific beliefs were everything.
Number 1 is believing that opportunity is absolutely everywhere
Especially when you get to the point where you have some capital to invest.
Do whatever you have to do to get your first $100K saved up.
But then realize that there are incredible investment opportunities that can multiply your capital in a relatively short period of time.
How do you find them?
It sounds silly... But you need to do what most people don't: Actually look for them
Most people are terrified to invest in anything besides an index fund
If you want average results you should do the same
But if you want extreme results you need to do something different
Set a clear objective of what you are looking for in your mind.
"I want a quality asset with real 10x potential over the next 5 years that I can hold with conviction through extreme volatility"
Set that as your mental filter.
Set it as a strict bar.
And you will find the right asset.
Trust yourself. Trust the universe. Do the work until you find that asset.
And when you find the asset, have some balls and size up.
Not financial advice.
This worked for me but may not work for you.
Oh one last thing... The goal is not the number on the screen. It's not to cheerlead for any one asset either
The goal is to multiply your capital to provide your family with a high quality of life
Set that as your guiding principle and you'll win
New version of Nostr VPN is out. Like tailscale, but no email addresses or 3rd party accounts, just public keys. New:
* native multiplatform user interfaces
* Nostr-based multihop routing (FIPS protocol) — very useful when NAT holepunching fails
* improved network management UX
Martti Malmi, one of Bitcoin's earliest developers, just released a new version of Nostr VPN, an open-source mesh VPN that replaces the entire trust model of traditional VPN services.
Traditional VPNs route all your traffic through a central server operated by a company you have to trust. They see your data. They require your email. They can log your activity. They can be subpoenaed, hacked, or shut down. Even modern mesh VPNs like Tailscale, which improved on this by sending data peer-to-peer, still require you to authenticate through a centralized coordination server using third-party accounts like Google or Microsoft.
Nostr VPN eliminates the central server entirely. Your identity is a Nostr keypair, a self-generated cryptographic key pair with no registration, no email, no third-party account. The underlying transport layer is FIPS (Free Internetworking Peering System), a self-organizing encrypted mesh network where nodes authenticate each other, route traffic for each other, and establish connections without any central authority or global topology knowledge. Each node's Nostr public key (npub) serves as its network address.
The architecture uses two layers of encryption: hop-by-hop encryption between peers and independent end-to-end encryption between mesh endpoints with periodic rekeying for forward secrecy. When direct connections fail due to NAT issues, the system falls back to Nostr-based multihop routing through other FIPS nodes rather than relying on company-operated relay servers. Peer discovery and NAT traversal happen through public Nostr relays using encrypted gift-wrapped messages.
The new release adds native desktop apps for macOS, Linux, and Windows, an Android app, Nostr-based multihop routing for when NAT holepunching fails, and improved network management. It supports UDP, TCP, Ethernet, Tor, and Bluetooth transports simultaneously on a single mesh.
This is what happens when you apply Bitcoin's design philosophy, permissionless, self-sovereign, no trusted third parties, to networking infrastructure. Built by one of the people who helped Satoshi build Bitcoin in 2009.
@TokenTalk3x Fiat corrupted everything that shaped our society, making us poorer, dependant on money that keep evaporating while we invest real time for it and shaping universities, science and the things we learn from them, politics and how governments operate while keeping us trapped.
Here is an almost 2-hour long documentary, filmed, edited & narrated by me.
ZERO STOCK FOOTAGE.
I literally went to these places to show you the mainstream historical narrative in Peru doesn't make sense.
If this work matters to you support it with a like/comment/repost
Money didn't emerge from barter markets. It emerged from death, conflict, and marriage, centuries before markets existed. 📜
@NickSzabo4's latest essay "The Fabric of Desires" traces Bitcoin's deepest roots.
Read the full piece on the JAN3 Blog. ⬇️
https://t.co/67ddYfoYyI
Up next:
A simultaneous global credit freeze like 2008 with a global energy crisis like 1973.
>>>> Put everything into Bitcoin and move to El Salvador ASAP.
“CocoMax & Relax” at @LaCajitaKitchen EL ZONTE