Well done, fellow hodlers, we're almost at ATH. That's where the real fun starts.

All the pieces are in place, what we are about to witness in the following months is going to be glorious.

 

Thank you for doing your part, Charlie.

Thanks for the links!

turns out Loaded made his fortune by double-clicking Silk Road's withdraw button a bunch. That's hilarious! He comes out looking like quite the loser in that article. Spent his wealth trying to buy people's affection until getting busted by making a stupid-ass basic mistake.

Also how come the Feds get to call dibs on his coins? He stole them from Silk Road, what do they care? It's not like it was a business they legally recognized. Bunch of bandits!

Overall fun story, 9/10 would recommend to a friend.

The only article about this is at WSJ and that's behind a paywall (fuck you, Bezos!)

I remember Loaded from back in the day, now I'm curious to find out wtf happened with him.

It's a hilarious mystery. I think he's been trolling us for so long that most people think he's serious. I don't. I think he's a pope and he's sitting on fat stacks of sats.

The longer the Bitcoin network is able to grow while the legacy financial system is still working (such as it is), the smoother the transition may be. It is essential for the alternative to be more or less ready when the old system collapses, otherwise the ensuing chaos will scare us into appointing strongmen promising to rebuild what was before.

Atheism doesn't arise after you burn down all the churches. In the same way, monetary freedom doesn't arise after the legacy financial system is destroyed. In both cases, we first have to change peoples' minds by showing them that alternatives not only exist, but are far more preferable to what is now. For that, the alternatives have to cross a threshold of accessibility and in Bitcoin's case also scalability.

Sometimes I think back to times before Bitcoin and how difficult it was to be in a position of criticising the status quo. Inevitably the question would come, delivered by a smug normie driven to use their last best fool-proof "gotcha": "if you are so smart then what is your proposed system? What is your solution?" *cricket noises*

Today I can point them to the white paper and depending on how charitable I'm feeling that day, either help them get on their way of understanding, or simply wishing them the best of luck within the old system & HFSP.

It might be instructive, indeed. They rose to power on the back of a frustrated population devastated by decades of economic turmoil by promising them to fight against traditional banking elites and an all-powerful Jewish conspiracy threatening to destroy their nation from within through Marxism and decadent gender ideology. While campaigning, they portrayed themselves as the sole defenders of free speech, under attack for speaking truth to power.  Sounds exactly like the people pushing vaccine passports, amirite?

In Nuremberg, Germany, there is a massive building called the "Congress Hall". This intimidating, colosseum-inspired Nazi building stands next to the former Party rally grounds, where the Nazis held their massive 100K+ people gatherings before WWII. It was to be used just once a year, for one speech delivered by Hitler standing in a precise spot where the sunlight would illuminate him in a way that would appear to be divine. Due to the outbreak of WWII it wasn't finished.



Today it houses a museum with a permanent exhibition called "fascination and terror" which documents the Nazis' rise to power from their humble beginnings in the early 20s to the brink of WWII. A visit to this museum is mandatory to all German school children and all German soldiers. Because the Germans understand full well that to fight ideologies such as Nazism, it is vital to combat historical illiteracy which is fucking rampant in this goddamn thread! A vocal minority in this thread would do well to go see the reality of how Nazis rose to power and what they did with that power instead of parroting talking points about how vaccine passports are literally stars of David. You can always change your vaccine status. To the Nazis, you could never stop being a Jew. I can't believe I have to explain this.

Just because you are criticising the government, doesn't mean you are a free thinker or correct. What a colossal waste of intellectual capacity on full display.

Triggered boomer threatening to shoot the gays in order to prove himself still relevant.  This is why an increasing number of people can't even be bothered to engage with the self-righteous, entitled brain farts of a lead-poisoned generation. Hence: OK, boomer.

But don't take it from millennial whippersnappers. Silent generation agrees with us

Outdated poll. How about this?

Would you support a protocol change which would allow "lost coins" to re-enter the ecosystem via mining after a certain period of time? If so, what period of time?

Also, ants are dumping. Ho-hum.

 Observing 66 666USD/BTC.

Gonna pour one out for all my dear friends still waiting for 20K because this bull run is over. Guess what. Take another look at the April highs. That's not how a top looks like. You're going to see how a real top looks like in the following months.

I hear there are special "rich people therapists" which help people come to terms with their absurd levels of wealth. Every day, more of the WO gang needs one of these and it's only going to get worse from here on out.

1. How did you find yourself on the forum?


I didn't find myself on the forum. I found myself while deep in transcendental meditation on the nature of human stupidity, high up in the Tibetan mountains. The forum - I simply registered when it was time to find out more about Bitcoin. Which was immediately once I read the white paper.

2.  In one word, sum up your personality.

Goddess


3. What is the underlying message of your personal text?


It is one of the basic tenets of Discordianism. The basic insight that the more you hold on to control and order, the more disorder you create. Like clutching a stream of water or trying to hold your breath. The disorder is a result of our insistence to impose man-made mental maps onto the chaotic nature of reality. The main offenders are of course all governments - but it's broader than that. ALL institutions do this, including the corporations so uncritically beloved by many of our resident "libertarian" posters. Adorable. Another notable group of offenders are the conspiracy theorist who have come to believe their own Belief Systems (BS) a bit too much.

4. Aside from personal text, what other methods do you use to motivate people on this forum?


None. The people on this forum could use a bit less motivations. You show me a lazy junkie and I'll show you someone not causing any obstructions in the natural flow of things.

5. Do you think you'll still be a member of the forum in the next five years? (If not, what are the reasons?)


Yes

6. On the forum, who inspires you the most and why?


Proudhon. His utter dedication to the art of the long troll is admirable. Sometimes I even start believing he really turned into a bear and is doing an elaborate double bluff. But then I remember that discordians are forbidden from believing what they read and/or think. So I stop believing it and just enjoy his show!

7. What are three of your favorite bitcointalk topics?


Wall Observer...and that's it. I don't go anywhere else. Why bother?

8. Some experts predict that the price of bitcoin will reach $100,000 before the next halving. What are your thoughts on this, and do you believe this will happen before the next halving?

9. One message to theymos

Enjoy the fnords while you can still see them!

10. One piece of advice to the OP?
Enjoy the little things and don't forget to shave your balls!

Oh how I loved to troll that pompous prick!

"The financial system is going to collapse in 2015.75. Grand Maester Armstrong's magic number model predicts it!"
"Bitcoin will fail due to government censorship"
"I will create a true anonymous currency because I am very smart!"

None of his predictions came true, of course. How fitting he now writes for Zero Hedge! 

My gut tells me social media propaganda is worse at the moment: compared to MS Media propaganda, fewer people seem to be able to identify it as such. Social media Propaganda can also be customized towards individual users, something the one-to-many broadcasting of the old media (TV, Radio etc.) simply can not do. As such it is much more flexible and adaptable.

I think social media has created a second layer of propaganda around us - one to catch us if we manage to break through the first layer of legacy MS Media Propaganda. It works pretty well, as evidenced by many of posters in this thread  


Proudhon has been trolling for so long, most people don't realize he's a troll. And those of us who do...we wonder with each passing day if he isn't serious after all! What dedication!

It's because all the Independent Thinkers^TM, do their own research^TM by listening to the same propaganda.

It works really well, because by telling them to criticize the government, they can feel like the rebellious underdog, standing up for suppressed truth.

Unfortunately, their guaranteed predictions never come true, so the next narrative is always ready to be released once defending the previous version of The Truth^TM has become untenable. That's why all the Independent Thinkers^TM switch narratives at the same time - they're ultimately getting them from just a few sources.

At first we were all going to die from the vax - the narrative just fit too well with the classic "depopulation agenda". Once that didn't materialize, they tried the "be afraid of side effects" route. That one wasn't working too well, since it's too easy to realize that side effects (even excluding death) from COVID are orders of magnitude more likely & more severe than from any of the vax.

Now we shifted to "we will die from the vax later" and "infertility" - narratives which are sufficiently long term that they can be milked for a while before they have to be replaced due to actual reality disproving them.

Hey but on the bright side, with lockdowns and travel restrictions in place, it's really difficult to push the "scary brown migrants will invade and outbreed us" narrative at the moment. But I'm sure it is just standing by to take over once all covid narratives have been exhausted.

We also have the "muh freedom" narrative, which works really well in places such as this forum, extensively populated by self-proclaimed "Libertarians". Because muh freedom is only important when it comes to my personal convenience of not having to wear a mask when shopping or not getting a flu shot. It's always freedom from government, never freedom from corporations. Best represented by the humble grocery store clerk. Fuck that guy's health if it means a mild inconvenience for me. It's his fault for being born poor and unable to find a job that would provide him with basic human dignity. It's not like our system has been deliberately designed to create a Precariat so that a handful of capitalists can exploit it. And you bootlickers will stand up in false class solidarity and defend the right of these villains to exploit the shit out of the world and its people...because hey, maybe one day...YOU will be able to do it, too! Imagine all the bitches & blow!

Besides, if Libertarians were consistent, they'd be Ancaps. If Ancaps had a soul, they'd be Actual Anarchists..

Imagine doing the opposite of what the gov tells you and calling yourself a free thinker based on that. It's fucking embarrassing. There is no plandemic. There are oligarchs exploiting your gullible pride for profit and laughing all the way to the bank (which they own).

On a BTC forum, one would expect to find people questioning all authority. But apparently not.

Normally, I would laugh this off and ignore it but this particular type of idiocy has become so pervasive, so widespread that I now have to cope with idiots talking about 1984 (which they haven't read, nor understood) on a daily basis with no end in sight.

More like



I started out by putting 5% of my fiat into BTC. Now Fiat is 5% of my portfolio. If that. As it should be. Just enough to cover expenses with providers who don't accept anything else and provide liquidity for when it might be needed. Besides, as per Gresham's Law I'm happy to spend all my crappy money, before I touch any of my shiny, good money.

It's not 2013 anymore. We've all had plenty of time to get this shit figured out...

Just goes to show how faulty human memory is. Thanks for digging this up, Jimbo!

I like this analogy. I feel like reminiscing.

It's October 2013 and Bitcoin died again. This time from 266$ down to 50$ and now hovering around 100$.

There was a poster here in the WO who kept going on and on with the tired narrative of how Bitcoin has value only because of darknet markets like Silk Road. Paid troll? Deluded nocoiner? Trader spreading FUD? Who knows. But it was a common sentiment and not easily disproven at the time. What else could you buy with BTC? Alpaca socks, maybe a VPN, some gambling and some food in one of the perhaps dozen establishments around the world run by Bitcoiner owners. Without Silk Road, there was no point in having Bitcoin.

Then the news hits: Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, has been arrested. Hundreds of thousands of BTC seized by the US gov. Instant flash crash in BTC price. Surely, this was going to be the end...

...except it wasn't. The price rebounded from its almost 40% crash - within 2-3 days it was hovering around the 100$ mark again. Just like that, the narrative of "Bitcoin has only value because of drugs" was relegated to the dustbin of history. Many more narratives would emerge to challenge Bitcoin over the years. It's too volatile. Governments will ban it. It's blockchain, not Bitcoin. But what about muh environment? What if daddy rich guy Musk doesn't like Bitcoin anymore? Many, many more - they tend to blend into incoherent noise after some time.

Within a few weeks of the Silk Road flash crash Bitcoin hit 1000$ and the world started going properly nuts over Bitcoin for the first time. It had proven its anti-fragility because that's what the Honey Badger does. We also know what it doesn't do: give a shit.

Daddy Elon will eventually learn as well. That all the money and narcissistic energy in the world won't help you control Bitcoin. And we will look back on the Elon dump as we do on the Silk Road crash. As the signal for having defeated yet another hostile narrative.

Al Gore Rhythm?

It does seem like a novel way of generating true randomness. Is this this the new way of environmentally friendly mining without PoW?

I think if you scratch the surface, you will find that Ariemoller is concerned about the lack of growth of one particular kind of population...

Yes.

Our financial system depends on perpetual growth. Since all money is debt-based, we are always creating more of it to service the interest from having borrowed it into existence. If all debts were to be paid off simultaneously, there wouldn't be enough money in the world to actually do it. So we keep creating more. This is monetary inflation, which eventually leads to price inflation unless you monetize more goods, meaning you make more things available for purchase for the newly created money, thereby balancing out supply & demand and preventing price inflation.

We are being driven towards endless consumption in order to perpetuate the status quo. We are always to be two missed paychecks from destitution so we will latch onto any false form of material happiness marketed towards our fears and frustrations.

Remember this the next time some smug douchebag pulls the "muh EnErGy cOnSumpTIon" card against Bitcoin. Deflationary crypto may yet be the biggest boon for the environment. It turns people from consumers into hodlers.