Anarcast! Bitcoin is a weapon of self defense

So Niko, would you maybe talk a little bit more about anarchy in open source companies and what that actually means?

Well, anarchy is often misunderstood, especially by the— or misconstrued by the mainstream media as vandalism, more or less. But what it actually means is being leaderless. At least for me, that's what it means. Like, it doesn't mean that everything is chaotic. Well, sometimes it is. Sometimes it is hard to get a meeting or get everybody on a video call and stuff like that, it can be chaotic, but it's not really a bother. It's okay. We lead by example. So you do something awesome, you throw in some idea, you inspire people. And that's like, I always, like you mentioned the book Starfish and the Spider, there's a great case example of how the Apache Indians fought the conquistadors a long time ago. And they had these leaders, Nantans, And the Spanish thought that by killing the leaders, they will simply just yield like the others so far, hierarchical systems. But what they didn't realize is that the Nantans were just part of the decentralized tribe, and they were leading by example, and people were following them because they wanted to follow them, not because they decided, hey, now I'm the boss, I'm the strongest, and you guys got to follow me. And this is how normally leaders lead. in a traditional system. What they did, they were leading the people in charge, and then once they were killed, another Nantang would raise up, and then they would scatter and decentralize further, and they could never beat them. I think that's a great metaphor for actually Bitcoin. I think the book was released maybe 1 or 2 years before Bitcoin, but it pretty much tells the— Bitcoin is the perfect case example of a decentralized starfish organization.

It really is. People talk about, wow, now with Bitcoin we can have decentralized autonomous organizations. Yeah, we can. Now it's possible. But I think the best example of a decentralized autonomous organization is Bitcoin. That's what it is— a bunch of individuals coming together in a decentralized fashion to create an autonomous organization that is not controlled by one individual but is completely autonomous in the rules that were set in stone early, you know, before Bitcoin started. And that means that Bitcoin itself is a DAO. Bitcoin itself is this thing of the internet, this collective, but it's a collective that is not higher than the individual because the individual can always enter, use, and exit the system without any censorship, without any resistance, without any resistance of the network itself. Nobody can stop you from entering Bitcoin. Nobody can stop you from using Bitcoin. But most importantly, nobody can stop you from walking the fuck away. Because if you no longer want to use Bitcoin, don't use it. If you want to use Btrash— uh, Bcash— Bitcoin Cash, use it. If you want to support Ethereum, do it. If you want to go to Dash, do it. But the beautiful thing is, if you want to stay in Bitcoin, you stay in Bitcoin, and nobody can stop you from doing that. Nobody can stop you from actually using Bitcoin, and that is super amazing and nice. And that is the first time that this ever happened, because gold actually pretty much is censorable, because gold is almost never used in barter exchange, like in direct exchange for one gold coin versus versus the good? No, uh, because gold is not a useful medium of exchange. It's heavy, it's hard to carry, it's not easily divisible. Um, so most of the time you use paper currency, a money certificate. But as soon as you put your gold coin into a bank vault, the bank controls the gold and you give up your ownership over that gold. And that means that it is censorable, that they can deny you access to And so therefore, you know, it's, it's just super difficult to, to build a system that is decentralized, that is a starfish, that does not give up, that is relentless, and that is not being controlled by anyone other than the individuals using it. And that is the beauty of Bitcoin. Niko, you do have a bat in the background. And why is that? Well, I for sure hope it's not for aggressing against other people of hitting them with the money and taking away their Bitcoin. That would be horrible of you. But I would applaud you if this is used for self-defense, because self-defense is not just a thing that is nice, but it is a thing that is your right. If someone is aggressing against you, if someone's trying to steal from you, hurt your body, or trying to kill you, you have a right. You should defend yourself in order to preserve your life, liberty, and property. Mm-hmm. And that is, well, of course, amazing. And I would argue, and maybe we can finish up with this point, is that Bitcoin is a weapon. And it is a weapon that is of immense impact and it has incredible power. But it is not a weapon that you can use in aggression. It is not a weapon that you can use to hurt others. It is only a weapon that you can use for self-defense. Self-defense is important because your rights are being violated 24/7. It's called the government. They do it all the time. Especially with the banking system. Inflation is theft. It's taxation without representation. Fractional reserve banking is theft because it is inflation. Know-your-customer rules are immoral and exclude billions of people from that system. And bring them not prosperity, but the opposite. They destroy wealth. So we are being attacked. We are in a war. We are in financial warfare. And Bitcoin is a weapon, and it's lying just there on the table. And you can use it for self-defense, or you can ignore it. But to be honest, I have no idea how you are going to defend yourself. From this war that is happening right now, other than with gold, silver, but most importantly, Bitcoin. So Niko, what are your thoughts on Bitcoin being a weapon of self-defense?