pull down to refresh
Nikola Tesla dreamed of planetary-scale harnessing of the electromagnetic spectrum, although broadcasting power that was deployed within his lifetime was only enough for polite whispers along the atmospheric coastline... these days, not only does humanity wield the power of shaping these spectra with ludicrous granularity, but also a world of digital communications has emerged far beyond the baby steps of information theory taken by Samuel Morse.
The loudest digital channel is Bitcoin, and as you may have noticed, it has finite capacity, sidebands, and many more educational parallels to the non-digital world; however, unlike destructive interference of electromagnetic waves, the digital channel requires discrete units for cohering its internal conflict resolutions, and those digital units are called sats on this site, short for "satoshis" in honor of the humble programmer who never even bothered naming so small a denomination.
Stack soft, stack often, and remember: the sats can't leave the planet.
Thanks for the comment. Your detour through Tesla made me think of something about Bitcoin.
I tend to look at the whole thing pretty broadly. To me, Bitcoin isn’t just an asset, a protocol or a piece of tech. There’s money, information, energy, incentives, human behaviour… and eventually all of those things start running into each other.
And in a way, what we’re seeing today is just the next chapter in a very old story. Someone comes up with a new way of moving energy, information or value. Then something else comes along and pushes back. One current creates a counter-current, which changes the first one, and things keep moving from there.
There’s something pretty dialectical about that. It makes me think of Hegel, without dragging the full philosophical artillery into the room.
Because sooner or later, reality gets a vote.
I can come up with the most brilliant theory in the world explaining why I should be able to fly. If I jump off the 100th floor without a parachute, I’m still going to hit the ground pretty damn hard. Gravity doesn’t care much about my theory.
And that’s one of the things I find interesting about Bitcoin.
Once we’re done with the theories, the convictions and the big narratives: what actually works when we try to use the damn thing?
Thanks again. You gave me something to think about.
trust, risk, cognitive biases, group behaviour and our relationship with money.
Boy, did you ever choose a great time to dive in!
New here from France. I’m learning Bitcoin hands-on and recently moved my first BTC into self-custody.
I’m especially interested in the psychology around Bitcoin: trust, risk, cognitive biases, group behaviour and our relationship with money. Looking forward to learning from the community.