Good Morning Everyone,
Alex Gladstein popularized this concept of Bitcoin as a trojan horse based on the story from greek mythology.
According to Wikipedia:
“The Trojan Horse refers to a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks, during the Trojan War, to enter the city of Troy and win the war.
The Greeks at the behest of Odysseus constructed a huge wooden horse and hid a select force of men inside, including Odysseus himself. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city of Troy, ending the war.”
The idea here is that bitcoin as the trojan horse is not what you think it is.
Most people have been lured into Bitcoin through greed, and the desire to obtain more than what they have; as an investment and a way of making money. Many have viewed it as some kind of get rich quick scheme.
This is a profound design feature - and not a bug. Bitcoiners refer to this as number go up (NgU) technology. The fact that the price of the asset continues to go up and to the right over time, is the bitcoin protocol’s marketing strategy, completely baked in from the beginning. It’s a design feature based around the predictability of human behavior. Based on our dopaminergic biological and neurological systems that drive us to seek reward and gratification, to accumulate resources for our survival and in an almost preprogrammed way in an effort to rise in the dominance hierarchy.
It is this NgU tech that in most cases lures a person in, to acquire the asset, like a bee to honey or a moth to a flame.
Once you have been sufficiently motivated and acquire the asset, you continue to learn more about the technology as it appreciates in value and you become more attached to the phenomenal investment you made, and pat yourself on the back for your sound decision making.
Meanwhile, inside this trojan horse of bitcoin and this beautiful NgU tech built upon the foundation of true ultimate scarcity, is a hidden feature, that is ‘freedom go up technology’ (FgU). This FgU tech is the greek army on the inside of the mythological trojan horse, and the greek army outside the city of troy on their way back to be let in the gate under the cover of night by their men.
This FgU tech is insanely complex and multifaceted.
Fundamentally, it is an emergent technology to enable and support societal organisation and cooperation. A tool to align human beings based on our highest values in a completely bottom-up way, and a catalyst to stop power from concentrating in the center and to allow it to be redistributed back toward to the edges. To empower the individual.
It is the decoupling of money and state. A completely pure and pristine vision of money. It is the ability to express value and transact with anyone you wish, for whatever good or service you wish, on a completely neutral and open protocol that has no interest in your political views, your ethnicity or the color of your skin. A protocol available to anyone with a smart phone and an internet connection. That is borderless and does not care about the arbitrary lines on a map drawn by humans. A protocol where no entity has the ability to get in the middle of your expression and censor your transaction, that is your speech, because you have an opposing view, because of who you are or because of who you are associated with.
This NgU tech is not only appealing to individuals however. There is a complex game theoretic element to the design of this trojan horse that has already begun to propagate in the form of corporations and nation states. Obviously these are simply structural frameworks in which to organise human capital and facilitate cooperation, so the psychological tendencies are the same as above. The difference with this layer is that over time, it will become an imperative for these entities to lead the trojan horse into their city as well, to acquire bitcoin, and the ones that do it soonest benefit disproportionately, gaining an advantage over those that wait.
Fidelity Digital Assets team wrote this on the subject in a 2021 wrap up:
“We also think there is very high stakes game theory at play here, whereby if bitcoin adoption increases, the countries that secure some bitcoin today will be better off competitively than their peers. Therefore, even if other countries do not believe in the investment thesis or adoption of bitcoin, they will be forced to acquire some as a form of insurance. In other words, a small cost can be paid today as a hedge compared to a potentially much larger cost years in the future. We therefore wouldn't be surprised to see other sovereign nation states acquire bitcoin in 2022 and perhaps even see a central bank make an acquisition.”
Powerful stuff. One thing to highlight from this quote is that they don’t say anything about a central bank buying it, rather that they may “acquire” it. It is not clear to me if they believe this would be by purchasing, mining or some kind of value creation, and in support of the network or by theft, or some attempt at confiscation or some other means.
Most importantly, this means that regardless of whether or not the nation state operates based on a set of values; a set of ethical and moral standards in support of, and in the best interest of the population, or is an oppressive and tyrannical dictatorship, the game theory of this beautifully designed trojan horse incentivizes them to lead the wooden horse into their city, and by doing so, they will usher in the ‘freedom go up’ tech baked in to the core of this incredible emergent protocol.
Over time, as this technology is better understood by the citizens, it will enable the most incredible ground swell of bottom-up innovation on a scale that is likely to dwarf anything we have ever seen before.
As always, wishing you well.
I hope you have a great day, and i’ll speak to everyone tomorrow.
AK
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