Happy Birthday, Bitcoin!
Why do I do this to myself?
After a bit of December 2020 rest and reflection, we’re kicking off 2021 with #31daysofSD.
It’d be more accurate to use the hashtag #31consecutivedaysofSDinJanuary, but that’s too long.
I’ve already messed up by forgetting to post the hashtag (yes, the one I made up) on Day 1 and Day 2. A bit awkward, but no big deal to re-post, with hashtag. It’s one of the first mistakes I’ve made this year.
Are hashtags even a thing these days? I’m guessing hashtags have become a convenient way to get censored. I can’t imagine that Twitter promotes #BSV or #BitcoinSV, for instance, amongst the garbage feed of suggested “cryptocurrency” lists or accounts to follow.
So here we are. I’ll be making many more mistakes this year, as has been the tradition in every other year. I hope you make loads of mistakes too. That means you’re being, doing, and growing. A decline in the ability to deal with normal discomfort and uncertainty is one reason that humans are stuck at the moment.
Ideas I’m currently trying to communicate to my teenage sons:
100% comfort is dangerous. Comfort does not equal happiness.
Life does not present you with optimal conditions.
Learn to assess the costs and benefits of taking risks.
The risk of doing nothing is greater than the risk of trying and failing, only to get up and try again.
Humans did not evolve to achieve great things by being in a perpetual state of creature comfort, wearing soft, micro-fleecy pajamas to binge watch Netflix (or worse) whilst eating your favourite snacks and whatever else food delivery services can provide to your heart’s content, as a distraction from living with risk.
Yesterday I went for a walk in the pouring rain. The wind was blowing sideways. Local ski mountains were closed due to increased avalanche risk. Objectively, the weather was horrid, but if you’re dressed for the conditions, it’s fine. Purposefully seeking out temporary discomfort is a necessary aspect of cultivating resilience, if your life does not provide enough of it organically.
I almost forgot to talk about the main topic.
Bitcoin is gonna get awkward. It’s almost a teenager!
Everything is in proof-of-concept phase, alpha or beta. Bugs and hiccups abound. There are some hideous user interfaces, which is both charming and frustrating.
Let’s just expect to continue experiencing the technical and social equivalent of pimples and hormonal mood swings.
Thus far, probably zero of my real-life problems have been solved by Bitcoin. Except for satisfying a thirst for learning.
Actually, one benefit has been to connect with a community of people who are currently working together in an audacious attempt to create conditions for a better world for future generations.
One of the costs of trying to keep up with Bitcoin is increased exposure to the toxicity of today’s internet and social media scene. How else to learn about this stuff than to listen in on where people are exchanging ideas and presenting their contributions? This mostly happens online, with fewer face to face opportunities these days. I prefer the latter but it’s not practical unless you enjoy the jet-lagged executive life. (Thank you, Jimmy Nguyen! You really take one for the team.)
I hope that the new version of the internet gets built properly, to address pain points and their consequences that are experienced by billions of people.
Every case of my previous hassles with petty cash has already been addressed by entrepreneurs who’ve built things during the entire existence of Bitcoin such as:
-online payment systems for filling out school forms and paying school fees, including random small payments for field trips which are linked to student identities on a family account (since about five years ago?)
-online parking apps
-Square app
Recently I deleted Evernote app, which sent me an email about their latest data breach/hacking incident. I prefer analogue note-taking anyways.
This might be a good place to save the rest for another blog post.
p.s. How many people get any value out of reading my writing? Who knows? I was going to do a Twitter poll but decided against it.
p.p.s. The Emperor of Bitcoin did mention that people who have valuable information about Bitcoin don’t really have a huge incentive to share what they know. So there’s that. Maybe I should just dump my writing into a journal.
p.p.p.s. Since I’ve been the beneficiary of people who habitually learn in public, I might disregard the Emperor’s advice. However, I’m pretty sure that some of my most faithful readers are “troll” accounts reporting back to the narrative-shapers of BTC, lol.
signed: satoshidoodles@moneybutton.com encoded as a Bitcoin transaction: c54bf86a646a472cce7d75cb5337d7ca6b544aa70d9e74282ed3f4dcd4f676b4