The Two Crypto Economies
Bitcoin has always been hard to understand. Even Satoshi, its author, complained about that. The problem isn’t so much its complexity, but its newness – there’s really almost nothing to compare it to. Having nothing to compare to is also a problem related to the prices of Bitcoin and the other cryptos. We’ve never seen currencies start from nothing and grow into serious players. We’ve always had silver and gold, …
Return Engagements (Book One) PART 8… in which I learn why I was pulled through time, and in which my companion dies
Picking up from Part 7, in which I learned that this was not actually time travel, even though it seemed precisely that. Within an hour Michael was past Madison and making good time on I-90. He ate one of the sandwiches he had purchased earlier. But he also knew that he lacked the energy to drive through the night, which was now falling. He determined to drive to La Crosse …
The Untold Story of the Greatest Crypto Project Ever
INTRODUCTION: I’m about to tell you the true story of the greatest of the crypto projects… a story you’ve never heard. It took place in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was a massive experiment and one that had a serious impact on what came after. I almost wish I still had my donors list, because I’d love to see if my favorite Satoshi candidates were on it. (I …
Compulsory Sexual Ethics, In Reverse
Once upon a time gay people… homosexuals… were shunned, punished, and even beaten by the police. Horrible things to be sure, but they happened quite a lot. Likewise women were locked into societal roles. If you wanted to be a housewife, that was fine, but most any other avenue was closed to you, or at least barricaded fairly well. That’s awfully nasty too, but it also happened a lot and …
Return Engagements (Book One) PART 7… in which I learn how I’ve been pulled across time
Picking up from Part 6, in which we learned how Michael came to this moment. “I’m ready if you are.” I turned to see her sitting up. I surveyed the road and all the pertinent conditions. I was satisfied that we were in excellent shape. “I’m ready,” I said, opening my thoughts to the possibilities I had held back earlier. “As I said, this is not time travel, and it …
Our Moment at the Crossroads
Earlier this year I wrote an email to several friends, describing my feelings upon arriving at a crossroads for myself and my work. Surprisingly, nearly all of them wrote back that they were feeling the same thing. And so I think a lot of us have arrived at some type of crossroads lately. Why Now? How and why we feel to be at a crossroads is a very personal thing …
Return Engagements (Book One) PART 6… in which my companion rouses herself
Picking up from Part 5, in which my guide prepared to die. From 4:24 AM until sunup, Michael Burroughs lay in his bed, replaying the experience, slowly and repetitively. For a good portion of that time he was half asleep, but his examinations of the brief experience didn’t stop. It’s funny how these things work, he reasoned with himself. They take time to unfold themselves. And it did take time. …
The Necessity of Being a Well-Rounded Person… and How to Pull It Off
I regularly go on about the necessity of forming your own opinions and making stands upon them. And while I’m quite certain about that, there’s another side to such things. We are complicated creatures, after all. The more we express and defend our own opinions, the more we tend to get locked into them. And that part can be a problem, because none of us – not even the best …
Return Engagements (Book One) PART 5… in which Michael begins his pursuit
Picking up from Part 4, in which my strange companion revealed my purpose. To every generation a handful of saints are born. Not Church-recognized Saints, but saints all the same, people who are of a cleaner and less damaged character than their fellows. Michael Burroughs was one such person. He was, by accident of birth, somewhat more whole than the bulk of humanity. It was easier for him to be …
Call Me Pisher
“Call me pisher” is a Yiddish phrase from my youth, and it was used to instruct me in a very important lesson. (Though I hardly realized it at the time.) And since Yiddish speakers were often not particularly delicate persons, I’ll have to be a bit less than delicate today. In Yiddish, pisher properly means pisser, and by implication a pisher is someone who is still pissing their pants as …
Return Engagements (Book One) PART 4… in which my pursuers orient themselves
Picking up from Part 3, in which I was being hunted by two strange men who appeared in in Los Angeles. The lighter man at the diner had gone through five cups of Sanka, a Denver omelette, and a slice of pie while waiting for his friend, who still wasn’t back after four hours. Between the newspapers and a bit of studying he had done before the two of them …
Why I’m Committed to Something that Doesn’t Yet Exist
It’s a strange thing that so many people unquestioningly doubt, even oppose, anything that they can’t see, that they can’t count on with absolute certainty, or especially, that lacks the approval of authority. New and useful things, as we’ve all observed, begin as things that can’t be seen… things with no evidence, no substance, and usually no pedigree. Name your convenience and it probably began that way. But let’s move …
Return Engagements (Book One) PART 3… in which I orient myself
Picking up from Part 2, in which I was being pursued across southern Wisconsin… although I didn’t yet know it. Now my examinations came to the outer world: July 10, 1963… what’s happening just now? And why would someone bring me here, with this woman as a companion? The second question was unanswerable, save that there seemed to be no malice involved. The woman seemed to be doing her best …
It’s Heretics Who Save the World
The people who have kept the world from a slide into darkness and pulled it forward have, to a shocking extent, been heretics of one form or another. I’m using “heretic” more broadly than in just a religious context, but please consider this: It’s the punisher who makes the heretic. Without punishers, heretics would be nothing more than people with different ideas. And in our time, the punishers (at least …
Return Engagements (Book One) PART 2… in which my pursuers arrive
An hour later we were on Highway 50 in southern Wisconsin, heading west through farmland. It appeared that the Interstate Highway System was pretty well in place, and being away from people seemed to be helping my companion. She had fallen asleep before hitting the end of the Edens at Clavey Road, and she seemed to be resting more comfortably in farmland than even the sparsely populated suburbs of 1963. …
An Interview on Crypto, Fiat, and the Mid-terms
Here’s an interview Paul did with the Wealth Research Group last week on cryptocurrencies, government money, financial predictions, and the US mid-term elections.
It runs about 21 minutes. (And the YouTube title doesn’t match the content.)
The ECB and the Feds Are Treating Bitcoin Very Differently
Having been involved with digital currencies for quite a long time, I get more information on the subject than most people, and that includes information on what regulators are doing. I’ve been seeing differing strategies among the central banks for some time. But some information I obtained recently made the Euro–American difference very plain to me, and I think I should pass it along. The US Model It seems to …
Return Engagements (Book One) PART 1… in which I arrive
It was mid-June of 2016, the night between the 19th and the 20th. It had been a very normal evening. My wife went to bed a little before 10, leaving me at the kitchen table playing with papers. I went through my pre-bed routine, slid between the sheets, kissed her good-night, and rolled over.
An Interview on Technology and Choice
Here’s an interview Paul did with John Ferguson of Technology & Choice last week, carried on the Let’s Talk Bitcoin network.
Are You Doers of the Word?
There’s a memorable line in the New Testament that adjures the readers to be “doers of the word and not hearers only.” And that’s what I’m urging today. But this isn’t about the Bible; this is about whatever you believe. If you’re a libertarian, be a libertarian. If you’re an objectivist, be an objectivist. If you’re a voluntaryist, be a voluntaryist. If you’re a Christian, be a Christian. If you’re …
