Information Asymmetry

“Money is a collective illusion”

FFS…

Is this guy serious?

I couldn’t help myself…

“No. Wrong. Money as defined by the Austrian School is the market’s most saleable good. It’s a tool. What makes a good money is dependent on a set of characteristics…”

It was time to hammer home some truth.

I’d had enough.

Frankly, it was getting late, and I’d grown impatient with a constant stream of miss-informed Bitcoin criticisms.

Shout out to Richard.

We met on the steps of RMIT Building 97, at 6pm last night, heading into the Melbourne BitDevs Meetup.

It was his first time.

It was mine as well.

Throughout the evening, clearly a smart guy, he had continuously tried to pick holes in the debate that was being had.

Initially I was happy to answer, or others around me, with calm, detailed, and reasoned conversation.

Everyone’s been there.

What if the block size is too small?

How can adoption truly scale?

Why won’t transaction fee’s balloon?

Quite rightly, there are lots of stones to turn…

Some reasonable.

Some unreasonable.

As I said to Richard: “keep asking these questions, it’s the most intellectually engaging Rabbit Hole I’ve ever found.”

Is that the case for you as well?

From my experience, many Bitcoiners have had a similar journey, in that Bitcoin grows, grows, and grows some more, in terms of one’s attention capacity.

You just can’t help but get drawn in.

Like an insect to a light bulb…

I had a friend admit “I think I am addicted to Bitcoin podcasts!”

Haha.

What’s struck me here though, is I must endeavour to have more compassion, people must be met where they’re at.

Apologies Richard for being so direct.

It’s not my usual demeanour.

You eventually triggered me…

Study Bitcoin long enough, and the same old FUD appears, re-dressed in all sorts of different formats.

It can be frustrating at times.

Indeed, Richard represented a classic phase of the Bitcoin path.

Incredulity.

I remember it well…

“This thing can’t actually be real… Can it?”

One has a gazillion reasons why it can’t possibly work…

The only way to move through this, is continued curiosity, combined with a healthy dose of time.

So questions.

Lots of questions.

And information.

Lots of information.

Which brings me to the point of today.

Information doesn’t spread fairly through a market.

It’s path to common knowledge is asymmetric.

Of course, in a sense I am happy about this, as it’s a key ingredient to the outrageous risk-reward opportunity Bitcoin represents.

I am going to get paid for the hard work I’ve put in to figuring out what this thing is.

Price action to the upside inbound!

But to be more candid, I am just extremely lucky that I had a number of life experiences that enabled me to see value in Bitcoin, at this stage in its nascent development.

Indeed, over the 80 episodes of Bitcoin With Jake I hosted, I would say on average people need 3 to 4 specific skill sets to grok Bitcoin.

In my case it was a blend of energy tech, inheritance planning, and long-term investing.

Richard will get there.

It’s just a matter of time.

Whilst I hope he really delves into the most important question: “what is money?”

You can have all the technical worries in the world, and that’s ok, but until you have a grasp of the fundamentals of what makes a good money, seeing value in Bitcoin is hard.

Money is not a collective illusion.

Money is what the market defines as the most saleable good.

The best money will be:

• Divisible
• Durable
• Fungible
• Portable
• Scarce
• Verifiable

Chuck into the mix an established history and censorship-resistance, then you might just have found the perfect money, ripe for the digital renaissance.

I truly believe that Bitcoin is going to help everyone lead a happier, healthier, and wealthier life, so let’s get to work closing that information gap.

Stay humble.

Stack sats.

Best, Jake.

Ps - as much as I will try my best to continue to be open to people’s miss-givings, explain in detail where they might be missing knowledge, and point them towards resources that helped me, there are some moments when it is just too much. I get frustrated. Enough! This Bitcoin thing, it’s the real deal, get on board, or don’t… The choice is yours.

Pps - this was the first morning that both kids woke up only 20 mins in to my morning writing. Before you know it they’re hitting the keyboard, jumping around, and totally distracting me. It was so annoying! I know I was talking recently of how “zenhouse” I’ve been about their interruptions of this newfound sacred part of my day… Today I admit I wasn’t… Must either 1) find a better way to manage this or 2) get up earlier!