From the Bottom, Up

Written by beautyon_ | Published 2017/06/15
Tech Story Tags: bitcoin | economics | austrian-economics | math | psychology

TLDRvia the TL;DR App

Bitcoin is not about your opinion. It doesn't rely on your feelings or “point of view” for it to work. Bitcoin is about facts. We can get to this conclusion in several steps.

We know that there are facts, and not everything is a matter of opinion. Here is an example of two facts. The speed of light is 299,792,458m/s. This is a fact. Potential Energy PE = mgh. This is a fact.

I've just listed a natural constant, and an equation that tells you the potential energy of a mass moving at a velocity. The potential energy equation always works to produce a correct result. The speed of light never changes; that’s what it means to say it is a natural constant.

There are many rules expressed in math that we can use to predict how natural phenomena behave. The potential energy equation is just one of them. We know that if you multiply the mass of an object by the gravitational constant “g” and multiply those by the object’s height above the ground, you get a number that represents the masse’s potential energy. This is true, and a fact. It never changes, just like the speed of light in a vacuum is always the same.

Math never changes. 1+1 always equals 2. It is an immutable part of nature, and everything in nature can be related to it. The speed of light never changes. No rational man expects to have his own opinion about math, its nature or how it works, or natural constants.

Software is made up of rules that are math. Binary math. When programmers write software, it conforms exactly to the rules laid out by the person who wrote it. This is always true, even if the software is designed to produce output that is unpredictable, like a random number generator, a function to calculate Pi, or a Lorenz attractor.

Money is a tool whose properties are no different to any other system of math. People call it “accounting” but it is in fact math. We know that in math and nature there are constants, and we rely on these every instant of every day, whether we are making those calculations consciously or not. You are held down by F = Gm1m2/r² whether you understand it or not. Your genes replicate and self repair with mathematical precision whether you know about it or not.

We know that if the money supply is not constant, you can’t address the market correctly. This isn't a problem of market information; if the supply of money is unknown, then any accurate market calculation is literally impossible. The best you can do is make a guess. It would be impossible to send a spacecraft to Jupiter or plot an orbit if the gravitational constant was controlled by the Federal Reserve. This is a real problem, and Bitcoin solves this problem. Completely.

Bitcoin is made of software, which is math. It is only software, all the time. It is built on immutable natural constants to provide an artificial constant, that everyone can use to measure the value of goods in a predictable way. It is no different to the British Imperial System of Measurement. This is the fundamental breakthrough that is impossible to see if you don’t understand what a fact is, and you think your opinion, belief or “thesis” literally creates the structure of reality.

Immediately, people will say this idea is false; that money serves a social function, that it is a “shared illusion”, that it really is based on belief, that its supply must increase with the increase of the size of the market (Keynesianism), that its form and supply should be the sole responsibility of government, there are other factors affecting price that are the ones that count, and every other Pavlovian reaction they’re trained to respond with when confronted with fundamental questions about the nature of money and facts about Bitcoin. The problem for them, is that math can’t care about their opinions and beliefs.

No matter what these people believe, math doesn't change depending on your point of view or opinion. No florid, prosaic explanation of any theory of money can stand up to math. The geocentric model of the solar system fell to observation of the facts. Epicycles and all the complex, totally false explanations of the motion of the planets were destroyed by putting the sun at the center of the solar system. This is what Bitcoin does with money. It replaces untruths with fact.

Once Bitcoin is at the centre of the solar system, replacing fiat currency, then everything in economics will suddenly stop making no sense, and will become totally rational and predictable. The entire economy will be run not on fantastic Epicycles and Epicyclets — Keynesian loops within Keynesian loops — but on simple, fundamental facts. E=mc². Money will be a natural constant, like the speed of light or gravity, and from this foundation, a rational, orderly and incredibly stable civilization can and will be built, because it will be possible to make economic calculations with a tool based on a system that is fixed. The future will be totally predictable with reference to the money supply, because it will have its foundation irrevocably rooted in math; not only as a means of measurement, but as the source of its nature AND a means of measurement. For the first time, these two functions will be expressed in one thing.

Given the above, clearly the transition from fiat to Bitcoin is one of the biggest events in the history of man, equal in consequences to the introduction of fiat as the synthetic reserve currency of the world. This event can only happen once. The gold standard, which lasted for thousands of years was a natural constant. The fiat era was an anomaly, a blip. Money will return to being a natural constant, only this time, it will be based on math, and not mass.

The transition to Bitcoin is not going to be clean. There will be fighting over it and against it. If a single entity manages to gain control over Bitcoin, they will seize control of the entire world, just as the Federal Reserve and its owners control all the foundation of money on Earth, and can wreak havoc through that control. It is well within the realms of possibility (and the proper goal) that no one ends up controlling Bitcoin, and that it acts like a synthetic natural constant. This would be the ideal outcome. But I digress.

Bitcoin is not about your opinion. It is about facts. Your feelings about it, and what you learned about money and the State in school are irrelevant. Nature doesn't obey your perceptions, opinions or perspective. Nature and math are separate from you and your parochial thinking, and now there is a tool that makes money inextricably wedded to math, running on top of a distribution tool that itself cannot be stopped — the internet.

The days of your opinion being indulged are over. The days of mass delusion and deception about the form and nature of money are over. The consumer society is going to come to an end. This is “The Transformation”, where the rigid discipline of math and the laws of nature are superimposed on economics in an irrevocable way, that cannot be refuted or refused. The Transformation will cause pain to many people, as their long held superstitions, assumptions and personal beliefs are shown to be totally false and are smashed to pieces. The world will cease to work for them, as reality re-asserts itself.

This is a very good thing.

Jug of Pimm’s with wild fruit, pub treats, jug of Sangria, chorizo slices.↴


Published by HackerNoon on 2017/06/15