My fellow retards,
Those who have been around the bitcoin space for a while have probably heard of Ryan Selkis. His real time reports on the collapse of Mt. Gox arguably make him one of the first crypto-journalists. He was very much, and for a very long time, a bitcoin maximalist. That changed over recent years as he acknowledged that some exposure to alts was probably a good investment strategy, but by and large he is still of the belief that bitcoin is where you should park your wealth.
He’s not necessarily wrong, but until recently he shared the same flawed view that is pervasive in the sweaty bitcoin-maximalist crowds. If you spend time with them, before long they will try to sell you on hyperbitcoinization. If you really want a headache, reach Saifedean’s “The Bitcoin Standard”—rather, don’t…the only valuable aspect of that book is his determination that modern art is a Ponzi scheme. Phon/ongod agrees.
Hyperbitcoinization is something lots of individuals uninformed of long standing human history and economics try to rationalize as a logical end state for the monetary system. These individuals are naïve. It will not happen. Even Mr. Selkis has come around to the conclusion. It only took Vladimir big-dick Putin to invade Ukraine for Ryan to update his mental state of bitcoin.
There is no peaceful end state of bitcoin. It is not feasible to slowly and seamlessly transfer settlement systems from those built with fiat ramps such as SWIFT onto the bitcoin network. There is way too much entrenched power and money tied up into these legacy systems. This power is not just in the hands of the oligopoly, it is in the hands of nation states. They will not readily relinquish control to a new system they have no ability to direct. We expect instead for them to slowly co-opt these new systems and steer them away from ever being a true threat of global settlement adoption.
If you take this to a logical conclusion and imagine some smaller countries stating they will no longer settle international transactions with USD on the SWIFT system, but rather only with bitcoin, you’re going to see a very predictable reaction from the United States.
If you try to create a system to replace the USD as a global settlement engine, you’ll probably end up dead. Smartest thing Sza…Satoshi, ever did was to stay hidden. Bitcoin is not the future end state of settlements. If it ever gets anywhere near that, the tyranny will reign down upon us all more than we can imagine. Just look at Justin Castro this past week…
In response to a peaceful protest, he gave himself emergency powers and now the government has attempted to confiscate crypto-values from sovereign individuals. They even reached out to major exchanges to stop withdrawals to these individuals and to stop the promotion of self-custody solutions.
So what have we learned here?
At even a modicum of threat, the powers that be will wield their power to squash you, to call you a terrorist, and to restrict your access to *your own value*. Now you think they’d somehow let entire nation states move away from USD and onto a new system? Especially one they cannot control?
What else did we learn? Global turmoil and the potential of a new world war did not result in skyrocketing bitcoin prices. Instead, there was a massive selling of bitcoin and all crypto as the flight to safety, aka greenbacks, took place. This essentially *always* happens when there is global turmoil. You sell your risk on assets, and move to safe assets. Gold rallied here. Gold is viewed as safety. It is boring, but it is a hedge. Bitcoin is not safe and is not a hedge. If anything bitcoin and crypto are leveraged assets that magnify current global sentiment. When the world feels safe and Powell is printing all the monies, bitcoin goes up. When the world seems on the brink of total war, it’s time to dump bitcoin and all crypto and move to your safe assets.
What does this tell us about Phonon? Well phonon is a protocol. It functions in times of happiness or distress. It also doesn’t get clogged, it is always available for you to move your funds. It cannot be stopped by Justin Castro or any other global leader. It is not a L1 asset, but it ensures you’re always able to move your L1 assets, a huge benefit if this is the route we’re going on. Phonon is an ancillary helper in times of uncertainty. The only true hedges though; land, community, family and goats.
The best community on the internet is the official phonon DAO discord.
Tips to phonongod.eth will be invested in bounties that advance the Phonon project.
Hatemail to phonongod@protonmail.com will be scathingly considered.
Targets for the marketcap of PHONON DAO remain:
$1b by Q2 2022, $12b by EOY.
On the high end, $300b marketcap in 3 years.