Finding Bitcoin Signal with Jeff Booth

“Theft in money will divide us all, and that theft in money will take us likely to war and maybe the end of human species… or it will concentrate all control in very few super overlords. And the rest of us, it’ll look like modern day slavery, it’ll look like China’s social credit system on steroids.” — Jeff Booth Jeff Booth is the Author of The Price of Tomorrow and CEO/Chairman of Ego Death Capital. In this interview, we discuss how Bitcoin fundamentals (such as its approach to the blockchain trilemma, centring on truth, and its deflationary effects) run counter to current economic theories, making Bitcoin’s signal harder for some to find. - - - -  A common refrain whilst we live through unprecedented global economic turmoil and massive failures within DeFi is “why aren’t people flocking to Bitcoin”. Obviously, Bitcoin’s signal is being lost: the fundamentals that are designed to better protect people against incompetent, corrupt and fraudulent behaviour aren’t readily apparent to many. Why is this? As Jeff Booth asserted in a recent article: “protocols create value in the form of a new foundation that emerges slowly & methodically”. However, capitalist societies have been conditioned to accept and expect rapid change: ‘work fast and break things’ has been taken as a given. Systems that run counter to this are viewed as being ripe for disruption.  Bitcoin has widely been seen as slow. It’s development was famously the subject of a crisis centred on scaling arguments. The outcome was an affirmation of some core principles: Bitcoin would be predicated on decentralization and security. This spurned a tsunami of altcoins that proliferated on the pitch that they improved on Bitcoin by being able to scale. This meant many dismissed it. Bitcoin was old tech. But, as we have seen over the past few months, speed and scale come at a cost. A real-world cost counted in billions of dollars. The blockchain trilemma means that scale means making material tradeoffs in terms of decentralization and security. The result: hacks and fraud. If there is any silver lining to the FTX collapse is that the conflation of crypto and Bitcoin now has more than a theoretical critique.  The importance of making the case for Bitcoin, of amplifying the signal, is that it offers a transition to a new system where we can benefit from deflation. A system that protects people. A system based on a layer of truth. - - - - This episode’s sponsors: Gemini - Buy Bitcoin instantly Ledn - Financial services for Bitcoin hodlers Bitcasino - The Future of Gaming is here Fidelity - Careers in crypto Ledger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware wallet Wasabi Wallet - Privacy by default BCB Group - Global digital financial Services ----- WBD584 - Show Notes ----- If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show by doing the following: Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contribute Make a tip: Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2S QR Codes: Bitcoin If you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank you Subscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS Feed Leave a review on iTunes Share the show and episodes with your friends and family Subscribe to the newsletter on my website Follow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTube If you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.