ryanjohnsonhunt

Building the next layer of finance | Founder & CEO of Toroa Group | Future positive, action led | Proud Māori (Ngāi Te Rangi)

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

@nawazahmednz Don’t forget @getnewmoney

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

This week’s Field Notes: Technofeudalism - platform power and the question of a new economic order

Field Notes is a 10-year project of mine documenting humankind’s digital transition from the field. These notes are shaped by what I’m seeing, building, and discussing as our physical and digital lives continue to converge.

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https://t.co/HElleIQPP9

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

🤯

[Daniel Batten @DSBatten]

A made up script and an actor to deliver it: what a perfect combination.

Welcome to the world of funded narratives that are made to look like journalism.

Context:

1. More Perfect Union is an activist-based company founded by former Bernie Sanders staffers. It specialises in presenting narratives that paint community as victims and business as perpetrators. It has previously promoted false narratives about both AI and Bitcoin mining.

2. Ben McKenzie is a former actor who several years ago wrote a book that performed badly when he tried to link Bitcoin to crime, despite the fact that even the US Treasury’s 2024 National Money Laundering Risk Assessment Report found that “the use of virtual assets for money laundering remains far below that of fiat currency.”https://t.co/IeDIkMmcFa

His book has been roundly debunked and he disappeared from X shortly after.

Never one to let fact stand in the way of a good story, Ben is now acting the part of concerned citizen lip-syncing another equally fact-free narrative.

The facts about Bitcoin's creation are well documented source: https://t.co/YoMTuAVnq0 and unsurprisingly are nothing like the story you'd get from our actor-friend.

The irony is that More Perfect Union claim to be the champion for the little guys, but through their ignorance do the opposite.

By attacking Bitcoin they are in attacking those who most use it: small nations like Bhutan who used it to avoid IMF austerities, Women in afghanistan using Bitcoin to avoid state legal gender discrimination against women holding bank accounts, Human Rights activists throughout Africa using Bitcoin to fight for freedom without their bank accounts being frozen, and those throughout the hyperinflating world (Lebanon, Turkey, Venezuela...) using Bitcoin simply to make ends meet.

That is why Stella Asange called Bitcoin "The real occupy movement."

In other words, they help the oppressor: The IMF, Central Banks, and oppressive governments.

Simone de Beauvoir once said "The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices amoung the oppressed."

It was the More Perfect Unions of this world that de Beauvoir was talking about: those that claim to stand up against oppression, but in fact through either ignorance or intent - end up helping the oppressor.

IMF and merchant banks rub their hands together every time More Perfect Union, wittingly or unwittingly, do their work for them. Brandolini's law tells us that every bit of BS takes 10x more truth to counter it.

So no doubt, some more impressionable people will be taken in by this nonsense.

But so long as you base your stories on ignorance and misinformation, there is a use-by date on these stories, and a use-by date on what credibility you have left.

[Daniel Batten @DSBatten]

We're now 3 years in to Bhutan's Bitcoin experiment
That means we now have robust data on how it has impacted the economy

For context: Bhutan's economy was in dire shape in 2022 due to loss of all tourism income (it's #2 export earner) during the COVID period.

It got so bad that Bhutan was 3 months away from defaulting on import payments.

IMF was poised to step in to structure a loan which would have led to heavy debt repayments, but also ceding of economic sovereignty to a lender whose loan conditions permit them to dictate how to (re)structure an economy.

Instead, Bhutan formed a large Bitcoin Strategic Reserve by using their surplus renewable hydropower to mine Bitcoin.

The IMF has warned on numerous occasions that nations embracing Bitcoin would destabilize their economy, be less effective at attracting foreign direct investment, and endanger their decarbonizing and environmental initiatives.

What does the data say (as reported by Wall St Journal, Al Jazeera and Forbes)

1. Bhutan was able to "use Bitcoin reserves to avert a crisis as foreign currency reserves dwindled to $689 million"

2. The bitcoin reserves have directly addressed pressing fiscal needs. "In June 2023, Bhutan allocated $72 million from its holdings to finance a 50% salary increase for civil servants"

3. Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay in an interview said that bitcoin also "supports free healthcare and environmental projects"

4. Tobgay also said their Bitcoin reserves helped in "stabilizing [the nation’s] $3.5 billion economy"

5. Independent analysts have now said that "this model could attract foreign investment, particularly for nations with untapped renewable resources"

Considering that what transpired in Bhutan has helped stabilize an economy that the IMF warned Bitcoin would destabilize, it begs the question: what data was the IMF's predictions based on?

For Bhutan, Bitcoin didn't just boost the economy, it allowed Bhutan to maintain economic independence and provided an example to other small nations of a path forward that did not require the IMF.

[Daniel Batten @DSBatten]

Wow - did you wake up and think it was 2021 this morning?

Respectfully, this is a very outdated take. It is also clear you are commenting well outside your domain expertise and misinforming your followers as a result.

1. Calling Bitcoin a waste of energy is not only non-scientific, but it is a value judgment that shows you are unaware of how Bitcoin is used. It has 19 very important social and environmental benefits - source: ,https://t.co/uXoq4wWEiz

2. Far from wasting energy, the opposite is true. It uses renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted. This was reported on just yesterday. Source: https://t.co/qmLB901vif

3. Bitcoin mining is the only industry in the world that has been demonstrated to use predominantly sustainable energy. Source: https://t.co/kp3iOgqE7k

4. There are 22 peer reviewed journals and 8 independent reports that show significant environmental benefits to bitcoin mining. These include
- mitigating methane
- stabilizing grids
- accelerating renewable energy expansion through monetizing otherwise wasted renewable energy
- obviating the need for expensive, fossil-fuel intensive gas peaker plants.
Source: https://t.co/eoFTC8E3wm

5. The academic opinion piece that resulted in the misconception that "Bitcoin mining wastes a lot of energy" (written by a part time student and Central Bank employee) was debunked in peer reviewed research in 2024 by Sai and Vranken. Source: https://t.co/W1C7g5lwnB

Do better!

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

@DSBatten @lowcarbGP 👏🏻

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

This week’s Field Notes: Africa’s layered approach to digital money and identity

Field Notes is a 10-year project of mine documenting humankind’s digital transition from the field. These notes are shaped by what I’m seeing, building, and discussing as our physical and digital lives continue to converge.

Read & subscribe for free 👇🏻
https://t.co/YdvPAFaApE

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

If you read one thread this weekend, it’s this one.

Truely the key to stablecoins achieving true mass adoption and scale

[Superset @SupersetFinance]

Stablecoin adoption outran execution design.

There is now roughly $300B+ in stablecoin float across ~173 chains and 330+ assets. Liquidity is not the bottleneck anymore. The problem is where that liquidity sits when execution actually happens.

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

@YuvalRooz @cantor8 This is super exciting!

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

@richardzphotoz

[NewMoney @getnewmoney]

Built for the internet, but good for a roadie and fish and chips.

That’s dNZD.

Get some at https://t.co/ssnOSdIq8p

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

This week’s Field Notes: DTCC Approves the Tokenisation of $100T in Equities

Field Notes is a 10-year project of mine documenting humankind’s digital transition from the field. These notes are shaped by what I’m seeing, building, and discussing as our physical and digital lives continue to converge.

Read & subscribe for free 👇🏻

https://t.co/a8cvCkQ3ZR

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

This week’s Field Notes: The AI productivity question - distribution or concentration?

Field Notes is a 10-year project of mine documenting humankind’s digital transition from the field. These notes are shaped by what I’m seeing, building, and discussing as our physical and digital lives continue to converge.

Read & subscribe for free 👇🏻

https://t.co/sSQQJO7XnA

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

This week’s Field Notes: From code to concrete, digital ambition meets energy reality

Field Notes is a 10-year project of mine documenting humankind’s digital transition from the field. These notes are shaped by what I’m seeing, building, and discussing as our physical and digital lives continue to converge.

Read & subscribe for free 👇🏻
https://t.co/MSz6rCHWaR

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

@ick_real Stumbled across the concept of a Dark Night of the Soul. After lots of reading and watching, it helped me push through and I’m better for it now.

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

This week’s Field Notes: Digital Assets drift from market narrative into institutional finance plumbing. Special shout-out to @CantonNetwork.

Field Notes is a 10-year project of mine documenting humankind’s digital transition from the field. These notes are shaped by what I’m seeing, building, and discussing as our physical and digital lives continue to converge.

Read & subscribe for free 👇🏻https://t.co/Yt3DOcgzPG

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

⚠️‼️Share to spread the word‼️⚠️

Here is the path of the exploit that was attempted on many today, including us. Starting with a compromised telegram account of someone we know:

1. Sending calendly invites.
2. Minutes before meeting, hacker posts fake zoom call links for people to join (IN PRIVATE chat, not in the group where others are)
3. Once joined, in the call are deep fakes (our one had deepfake videos of two ppl)
4. In the call, the audio doesn't work, so it asks the joiner to do an update sdk with a terminal prompt supposedly to update Zoom so the audio can work
5. If the person runs the prompt for updating the sdk, supposedly that's where all the damage happens
6. ⁠if try to join by mobile, get a zoom branded screen that says must join from laptop.

Stay safe out there everyone!

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

‼️Lots of phishing attack going on today. Be skeptical of any requests to download software and look at the url carefully

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

‼️Lots of phishing attack going on today. Be skeptical of any requests to download software and look at the url carefully

[ryanjohnsonhunt @ryanjohnsonhunt]

@felixleezd @ADPList 🙋🏻‍♂️