@pre@boing.world2025-11-22 10:39:50
Despite much opinion to the contrary, the government money we use is crappy.
I'm at bitfest in Manchester to find out if Bitcoin could be a better money.
It could hardly be worse.
The mood is still good, people are joking about recent devaluation rather than crying. Those who aren't all in are trying to buy more at the discount.
After an introduction by Mad Bitcoins, Joe Bryan explains the problem with government money.
He imagines an island on which two types of money are tried, with a dividing wall between them.
When economic problems hit, government can just print more money on the fiat side. Everyone now using money which is worth less. Distorting prices, inflating asset prices, making the rich (who hold assets) richer and the poor (who have to pay inflated prices) poorer. Driving wealth inequality.
On the hard money side, government must tax properly. Take in more from the rich rather than inflating to take it from the poor. Reducing wealth inequality.
On the government money side, the wealthy monitize houses, stocks, resources. Saving in money is impossible, its inflated away. So they save in assets and hording resources. Capital is misallocated. The youth can't afford houses. Poverty traps are caused. The only way out is printing more for benefits. Making it all worse. More economic crises, more printing. More government debt.
Eventually, the wall is broken. Government money people can save in the hard money instead. It reduces the value of government money further. More printing. More inflation.
Eventually, war. Funded by printed money.
The dollar is the best of a bad bunch all other government money is falling in value even faster.
I wonder, is bitcoin really this better money though? It's limited, hard, and can't be printed without energy investment.
I'm still unsure that fixing money fixes the world.
--
Note: "crypto" is mostly more like government money than bitcoin. It can be printed indefinitely by it's makers, does not cost it's makers to print. Crypto is usually just a scam people to get more bitcoin. Bitcoin is not crypto.
#bitfest #bitcoin
@gscherer2@social.linux.pizza2025-11-22 22:57:05
Brown Pelican flying low over the waves. Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, Cambria, California, USA. October, 2025. OM System OM-1 M.Zuiko 300mm F4 MC14. #fiscaliniranchpreserve #cambriacalifornia
@anildash@me.dm2025-12-12 19:07:11
lol it’s so genuinely fun seeing Cory take decades of fluency in how these systems are broken and serve it up for a mainstream audiences. Even if you know “enshittification” well, this is worth the watch. And love to @…! https://
@cdarwin@c.im2025-10-04 19:49:01
Senator Murphy:
It’s pretty wild that the corruption is so brazen, is so transparent.
Vought sent out this tweet yesterday saying, I’m canceling energy projects in the following states, and listed the states.
And every single one of them is a state represented by two Democratic senators.
And the one Democratic senator who voted for the Republican continuing resolution
—that senator’s state wasn’t on the list.
So, you know, it’s just there for everybody to s…
@benb@osintua.eu2025-09-24 02:21:42
Breaking: 'Ukraine is in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back' — Trump says following meeting with Zelensky: https://benborges.xyz/2025/09/23/breaking-ukraine-is-in-a.html
@floheinstein@chaos.social2025-12-14 09:13:48
@gray17@mastodon.social2025-11-11 21:15:42
... stupid thing I'm stuck on: in order to make the type of personal website I want, I think I need to do server-side line breaking. I know this is carving against the grain of html, but I'm failing to see any good alternative. all the options are bad
@anildash@me.dm2025-12-12 19:07:10
lol it’s so genuinely fun seeing Cory take decades of fluency in how these systems are broken and serve it up for a mainstream audiences. Even if you know “enshittification” well, this is worth the watch. And love to @…! https://
@floheinstein@chaos.social2025-12-07 14:25:12
Merch-Shop ist da. Ich habe bestellt, also erzähl ich es euch nun 😜
#39c3
@cdarwin@c.im2025-10-06 04:41:32
Increasingly combative tactics used by federal immigration agents are sparking violence and fueling neighborhood tensionsin the nation’s third-largest city.
“They are the ones that are making it a war zone,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Sunday on CNN.
“They fire tear gas and smoke grenades, and they make it look like it’s a war zone.”
U.S. citizens, immigrants with legal status and children have been among those detained
in increasingly brazen and aggressive encounter…
