Wisdom of My Crowd - The weird tribe of Bitcoiners

Dec 20, 2023 · 14 min read · tweets bitcoin ·

Once you have seen Bitcoin, you can not unsee it - it changes everything.

Physical Training

old and strong

What I've realised as I've got older:

Keep doing hard exercise, just not so often and not as much volume.
Keep training power and strength
Daily low-level activity & 2-3 focused aerobic sessions per week
Eat a healthy diet, but without being a bore.
Don't overeat, but get enough protein
Sleep 8hrs a night
Appreciate nature and get outdoors
Every now and then do a 'stupid' physical mega-challenge

Live long and healthy

Forget all the longevity studies for a minute. Every time I have looked at healthy 80, 90 yr olds a few things are common:

They are lean. Not shredded or particularly muscular.
They have a consistent and undeviating routine for decades.
Their 'exercise' doesn't necessarily come from marathons or gyms. They are walking, moving, doing, climbing, and working throughout the day. Again this is not another activity they do additionally. It is weaved into their lifestyle for decades.
Largely traditional home cooked meals. Usually very consistent and frugal.
No concept of retirement. They have their ikigai which continues well into their old age.
They have a sense of belonging. The community and/or family is close.
They are purposeful to others. It's usually never a ' I, me, myself' life.
Peace/contentment/happiness is a choice they make. It's not exogenous.
They usually hv a great sense of humour. Light hearted and easy going.

It's not just diet and exercise. A whole lot of factors determine our health spans.

Hunger

The ability to feel hunger and then not react, is a superpower in the modern era.

Don't over eat

It is impossible to be a spiritual person (religious or non-religious) if you overeat.

Overeating is a crime. Succumbing to base instincts like watching porn.

Simple formula for fat loss

Simple way to make body fat melt off.

2 meals a day.

Lunch: 6 eggs, fish

Supper: soup, meat or fish, some vegetables, Greek yoghurt

Tea, coffee, water.

Resistance training 3 x a week. Low-level activity everyday.

You won't get hungry. Your mental focus will increase.

Fat loss

Fat Loss Weekly Strategy That WORKS:

Monday - 36h fast

Tues to Saturday - 18/6

Sunday - chilled higher carb day

You're in an enjoyable calorie deficit for the week, but also get the psychological benefits on Sunday.

Diseases of civilization

All the Diseases of Civilisation arise from the body's survival mechanisms being chronically engaged. Fat storage (visceral/subcutaneous), inflammation, blood glucose/insulin resistance.

This means that everyone is predisposed to get sick in an abundant calorific environment + without the need to exercise to get calories.

Essentially, a system which is built to survive potential starvation hasn't been designed for chronic abundance. What used to save as in the wild is killing us in the modern environment.

Just 3 or 4 hours a week of resistance training and cardio + plus a good diet with periods of no food, would resolve the modern health crisis.

Regain energy and focus in middle age

1st Tier:

Get enough sleep
Don't eat high carb-heavy meals
Eat light meals based around protein

2nd Tier:

Aerobic exercise & low-level daily activity
Resistance train - keep strong
Dynamic exercise every week
Get lean

Run, run, run

Run fast for 200 metres, have 3 minute rest. Repeat 4 times.

Do this every week of your life.

Play the long game

You will get to an age when ALL your 'unexpected' health events will be negative.

What you need to do NOW is resist the comfort and mindless calorific consumption of modernity - replace them with fasting, resistance training, aerobic and anaerobic endurance - a bloody-minded attitude to resist the aging process.

Nature will get you in the end, but don't accelerate the process by not looking after your health. Your children and grandchildren want you to live.

Degradation

Recovery takes longer. You can train just as hard but are achy for longer. Sooner or later this means that frequency of hard sessions must decrease.
You become more prone to injury.
Need for a good warm-up increases.
Speed degrades.
Reactivity and agility degrades.
Tolerance to acidosis and hard repeats degrades.
Power degrades.
Strength degrades.
Endurance degrades.

Everything about Bitcoin

AI and Bitcoin

I'm very interested in seeing the new batch of companies taking on the intersection of LLM generation and the Lightning Network. IMO there's been an over-focus on retail payments when Bitcoin has a lot more potential to give monetary utility for software infrastructure projects.

Fiat spell

When you're under the fiat spell, you pursue things you don't really want to please people you don't really like to get things you don't really need.

Bitcoin breaks the fiat spell.

Bitcoin is a religion

If Bitcoin is a religion. Ethereum is the Church of Scientology.

Bitcoin Holidays

Jan 3 Bitcoin Day
Jan 11 Bitcoin Running Day
Jan 27 Silk Road Day
Feb 24 Mt Gox Day
Mar 9 Cypherpunk Day
Apr 5 Satoshi's Birthday
May 10 Lightning Day
May 22 Bitcoin Pizza Day
May 25 Craig Wright is a Fraud Day
Aug 1 Bitcoin Independence Day
Aug 21 Bitcoin Infinity Day
Oct 1 Free Ross Day
Oct 31 Bitcoin Whitepaper Day
Nov 1 Diffie-Hillman Day
Nov 8 Shitcoin day
Dec 18 HODL Day

Bitcoin is security

Bitcoin isn't a security.

Bitcoin is security.

Bitcoin and Linux

Bitcoin is Linux for money

Bitcoin as money

Market participants need to be forward-looking if they want a chance for alpha regarding any particular asset. If bitcoin reaches volatility as low as gold due to much more people holding it and using it, it'll have an extra zero or two on its price and this era of excess gains will be over.

So the job of market participants is to analyze its properties and determine the likelihood that its 15-year trajectory towards being good money continues, or what factors might eventually make it stumble. I've bought and sold goods in bitcoin, and so have many others. Millions of people already use it as money. I hold a portion of my liquid savings in it which serves a monetary purpose (mainly, self-custodial portability) that is distinct from what dollars or gold are capable of serving, and in most major urban centers of the world I can access merchants that will take it or brokers that will convert it to that country's local currency. At least one country has it as legal tender, and more might follow.

People don't just magically lose faith in a good money. There are major security and liquidity and developer network effects around it. It would require a shift in its properties to lose that faith. For example, if someone finds an inflation bug and exploits it, and ends up causing some major chain split. Or if someone deploys a quantum computer against it before there is consensus on how to most efficiently make it quantum-hard, and thus contributes to a contested hard fork and chain split. Or if someone introduces something far better and starts taking network effects and liquidity from it over time. Or if the US Government goes to the mattresses on it with a 6102 and then somehow wins major court battles to persist in that, and really drive down liquidity and price for years, etc. Those are examples of things to analyze and assess the probability of, and what the likely impacts would be (i.e. a major setback or outright fatal to the project?)

Comparing bitcoin to Western Union is inadequate because Western Union is a centralized money transfer business. I can't store money in Western Union and then permissionless deploy it later. It's just a permissioned payment system. Similarly, I can store value in gold, but can't do much with it as money without relying on abstraction/credit (e.g. I can't easily pay for things with it directly or access my gold stash globally). So I agree with you that scarcity alone is insufficient.

An analogy I would use is to imagine three cars. One has an engine but no steering wheel. The second has a steering wheel but no engine. The third has both a steering wheel and an engine. How much better is the third car than either of the first two cars? Is it twice as good, because it has both? Or is it orders of magnitude better because the whole is greater than the parts and opens up an entirely new capability (driving!) Bitcoin is thus far the best thing for that regarding money- it has not just scarcity of units, but also has its own decentralized global settlement capability built into it.

So bitcoin already meets a reasonable monetary standard for millions, but what would make it reach that for billions, and thus have more acceptability and lower volatility, and be increasingly de-risked from a regulatory and technical perspective? Mostly I would say time; it's already the only asset that I'm aware of that ever survived three separate 75% drawdowns and went on to reach new highs each time, and is the fastest asset to ever touch a trillion dollar market capitalization from inception. The development and UX keeps improving, and people keep learning more about it.

Sam is evil

For me the most scary thing to see in the OpenAI saga, was how so many workers acted in obedience and conformism signing and tweeting like cult members and not like highly intelligent independent thinkers, it gives me a quite dark perspective on Altman and OpenAI.

Bitcoin tradeoffs - Adam Back

Security: Bitcoin > Liquid > Lightning > Exchange
Trust/uncensorable/unseizable: Bitcoin > Lightning > Liquid > Exchange
Confidentiality: Liquid > Lightning > Bitcoin
Speed: Lightning > Liquid > Bitcoin

Building on top of bitcoin

We're in the Cambrian Explosion of Bitcoin tech. Don't get discouraged. Just keep adding horns and teeth and extra legs. All of this will come something awesome, the mammal of L2 tech.

Ark Covenants eCash Lightning Statechains

Explaining RGB

RGB is a generalized smart contract system built on #Bitcoin and #Lightning.

It's scalable and private because it keeps contracts off the blockchain, and the parts of a contract that can change are anchored to a little piece of a bitcoin called an Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO).

When this piece of a coin is spent, it can never be spent in the same way again, so we know, that part of the contract has changed. This is similar to a tamper-evident single use seal, like a bag with a zipper that can only be zipped once.

Even better, only the person who owns the bag with a single use seal can zip it. And like a bag, it can contain multiple items.

Multiple tokens can be anchored to a single UTXO, and when they're spent, the ones you're not spending are sent back to yourself, to another UTXO you own.

Because contract data is kept off-chain, decentralized storage protocols like Storm and Carbonado are used to keep and communicate contracts reliably.

This is then used by wallets to do things like mint, transfer, accept, and verify on token contracts. There's not really a need for an RGB node, even in web browsers, since the code needed to validate contracts can be built to run in browsers.

This is what is meant when we say client-side validation (CSV); only the wallet needs to know about the contracts, and only peers that interact with each other need to know the contract data.

This allows for privacy and scale in a number of ways:

Contracts are not put on-chain
Contracts are not executed on nodes
Multiple contracts can anchor to a single UTXO
The UTXOs are very small and look like ordinary Taproot payments

If you request a payment from someone, nobody can see what other tokens you have, even if they have the contract. This is because a really big number is added to the UTXO to make a blinded payment.

Nobody can know which UTXOs have tokens by scanning the chain on an explorer, and there's no way to send someone tokens if they don't request and accept them.

Building on top of bitcoin

BitVM, Runes, RGB, Taro, Drivechains, Sidechains, Spacechains, Spiderchains, Atomicals, Babylon, BRC-20, Stamps, Ordinals, Ark, Lightning, DLCs, Atomic Swaps…

It couldn’t be more obvious what’s happening. RIP crypto.

Use Liquid

Buy some Bitcoin on CashApp or Kraken or River or some exchange that supports lightning withdrawals
make a Liquid Wallet. I like @side_swap
go to https://boltz.exchange/swap and make a swap from lightning to your liquid address (DONT DO AMP).
Pay the lightning invoice that boltz gives you, a minute later you'll have Liquid Bitcoin! Go pay people or whatever.

Want to swap back out? If you have lightning-friendly amounts, use boltz to swap back to mainchain lightning. Want to go onchain? hit the "peg out" button on sideswap and you can swap straight from liquid to mainchain for a low fee (I think its like 10bps plus tx fees).

How to survive a bull market

99% of the people posting their trades are gaslighting you for engagement. They don't post their losing trades for a reason. For most people, simply buying and holding is the best strategy
You will read stories about how XYZcoin did 1000x and someone made generational wealth from $50. Perhaps they did, but it was luck not skill. If you must look for 1000x opportunities, do so with a tiny % of your net worth
Don't try to trade unless you're experienced and know what you're doing in terms of analysis and risk management. Do not copy trades you see on social media. Keep your leverage low unless you're OK with blowing up your entire account
Time in the market > timing the market. Invest and wait
Do not talk about how much you have invested in Bitcoin, etc.. Ensure you are never walking around with your keys. Ideally it should take you >24hrs to be able to move more than a fraction of your stack
Be suspicious of any old 'friends' who suddenly appear when Bitcoin, etc. is hitting the headlines. Be even more suspicious of any strangers contacting you out of the blue
Anyone telling you not to be invested in Bitcoin is shilling you something more risky that they own and want to appreciate or sell to you. Do. Your. Own. Research.
You will not sell the top. If you still have debts or other financial goals like a new home, set a target price where you can sell a % and set yourself up for life ... the future you will thank you and your HODL'ing will become stronger
As the prices go higher, you will become more sensitive to FUD as fear of loss grows. Never trade with emotion. 20-30% corrections are normal. If you must sell, do so when people are euphoric, not when they are depressed
People will hate you, especially if you told them they should look at investing. Lie. Tell them you sold too soon, lost your keys, or whatever seems realistic to minimise your gains in peoples' minds
If shitcoins in general are dramatically outperforming Bitcoin, we are at the late stage of a bull market and you should start thinking about taking money off the table
Hide your wealth, be prudent - invest, don't spend ... & do not neglect your health (e.g. not sleeping or exercising enough). There's always someone with a faster car, bigger boat / house / jet, etc.. Resist the temptation to compete / show off
Find good causes to support and tell no-one about it. Giving for the right reasons will reward you more than any 'thing' you can buy. Change some lives for the better instead of buying another depreciating asset
Never sell it all - Bitcoin is a financial Noah's Ark and hyperinflation risks are non-zero

Bitcoin philosopy

Ossificationists: Literally want to end all protocol development outside of critical maintenance.
Conservatives: Monetary maximalists that prioritise protocol integrity and network consensus over innovation. Still want innovation, just slow and steady.
Progressives: Monetary maximalists that are willing to take more risks with protocol integrity to speed up bitcoin innovation.
Shitcoiners: Protocol maximalists that will make any excuse to operate or engage in token scams that compromise bitcoin's monetary utility.

Bitcoin development by Nic

bitcoin observations, ranked by most impactful to least

ETF flows are beyond the wildest dreams of even most bullish analysts - and asset managers have barely activated their sales orgs. hottest ETF launch in history
BitVM appears to be a fundamental step change in Bitcoin tech, enabling Optimistic Rollups without a soft fork, ORs on Bitcoin will likely be live in '24
explosion of VC dollars allocated to Bitcoin startups, in particular L2s (even from historically non-bitcoin crypto funds, or non-crypto generalist funds). new Bitcoin infra is well funded
Ordinals and BRC20 frenzy created a hot ball of money / bitcoin meta, in particular in Asia
CSW, whose legal harassment forced several core devs into retirement, is being eviscerated in a UK court right now. end of CSW era is nigh
forced selling associated with crypto credit crunch of 2022 is basically over
unlikely (imo) that other crypto ETFs are approved this year. will drive home a sense among allocators that Bitcoin is fundamentally different / in a class of its own
explosion in soft fork proposals in particular covenants and op_cat; no clear timeline on these but still lots of enthusiasm
new asset issuance protocols emerging on Bitcoin in the next 2 Qs, in particular taproot assets and runes
the halving is a thing I guess

Comedy

-Relatable setups -Unexpected twists -Self-deprecation -Call backs -Vivid details.