Units of Trust vs. Units of Work

We have concepts of money, currency, store of value, credit, IOU, commodity, etc. Each is an abstraction of how we measure value together, and the tools we use to express that value.

In hindsight, fiat mostly functions as a unit of trust. It is centrally issued and its issuance and rules are defined from within. Much like credit, basically anyone can issue fiat or tokens or gift cards, denominated in dollars or Bitcoin or hamburgers or boozlewhatsits.

The users generally do not enforce or define the rules of such trusted monies, but they can typically influence it in some way.

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We’re a stealth-mode company, focused on researching, designing, and developing applications that leverage Bitcoin and P2P networks to create a new digital economy.

We are creating platforms to incentivize and facilitate Bitcoin adoption, self-custody, digital autonomy, and circular economy by providing new utility to Bitcoin users.

Front End Developer

• Contract type: Full-time
• Location: Remote

We are a remote team, working with a coalition of independent engineers and businesses to bring new integrated products to Bitcoin, the Lightning Network, and other Bitcoin layers and blockchain-agnostic P2P technologies.

Requirements

You will be a part of a team that works on the development of a web product…

We’re a stealth-mode company, focused on researching, designing, and developing applications that leverage Bitcoin and P2P networks to create a new digital economy.

We are creating platforms to incentivize and facilitate Bitcoin adoption, self-custody, digital autonomy, and circular economy by providing new utility to Bitcoin users.

We are a remote team, working with a coalition of independent engineers and businesses to bring new integrated products to Bitcoin, the Lightning Network, and other Bitcoin layers and blockchain-agnostic P2P technologies.

UX/UI Designer

• Contract type: Full-time or Part-time
• Location: Remote

We are looking for an exceptional designer to help solve new UI challenges for our…

Last week was my final week at Bitrefill. Throughout the past year, I did my very best to help grow their brand, product, partners, team, and revenue.

Bitrefill, and I as well, had our best year so far:

• We added literally thousands of new brands of gift cards and refills for people to live on crypto.
• We demonstrated the first version of what an “LSP” could look like with the Thor suite of Lightning Network connectivity services.
• We added platform support for many new countries with native languages and local brand catalogs.
• So many new features in the website/app…
• We…

This was originally posted at Bitcoin Magazine on May 21, 2019.

To Bitcoin or Not to Bitcoin

During the “scaling debate” before the SegWit2X user-activated soft fork (UASF), Bitcoin businesses were getting their first bitter taste of Bitcoin’s censorship resistance. They wanted change to be easier. They wanted their influence to be effective. They wanted to take shortcuts. Unfortunately for them, Bitcoin was created to resist control. Entities that seek to position themselves against Bitcoin are choosing a path of perpetual hypocrisy and frustration.

Those who follow me in interviews might be tired of hearing this, but each Bitcoin business has the choice of making Bitcoin…

When a person receives rare information, he may utilize it, curate it, arbitrage it, or discard it. Those wishing to arbitrage ignorance about Bitcoin are assuming the role of The Greatest Fool.

The Greatest Fool is racing against the propagation of best-information & understanding in hopes of selling counterfeit opportunities. He is the greatest fool in that he is using insider information to manufacture greater fools by designing and manifesting a facsimile of the truth to relieve the ignorant of their money.

The Pied Pipers with Peter Pan Syndrome

In The Greatest Fool’s ultimate form, he himself is an actual fool, in that he misinterpreted the rare…

The Gates of Bitcoin don’t actually exist. They are an imaginary construction that exists only in the minds of those that are a slave to those that imagined it.

As a permissionless, censorship-resistant system anyone is welcome to come and go as they please, no matter which role they choose to play: saver, spender, earner, etc. It is the “black” market, in that it is separate, but “white” in that only sanctioned protocol can be enacted within.

Your external incentives to enter the Gates cannot enter, as only your agency can represent them within.

Who will greet you at the Gates of Bitcoin?

It is no secret that Vitalik Buterin likes complexity. While I am surely not qualified to get into the crypto-nitty-gritty, I have a certain knack for distilling concepts into digestible morsels. In this post, I will attempt to break down his most recent offering: Base Layers And Functionality Escape Velocity

This is surely a waste of time to some degree, but I like a challenge and need to keep my chops up. I’d also like to demonstrate the value of speaking in plain English, particularly when lobbying for disruption of multi-billion-dollar networks.

“Base Layers and Functionality Escape Velocity”

This is a fancy way of saying “Blockchains…