Bitcoin, Responsibility Goes Up Technology – Bitcoin Magazine
This is an opinion editorial by Aleks Svetski, author of “The Uncommunist Manifesto,” founder of The Bitcoin Times and host of the “Wake Up Podcast with Svetski.”
Bitcoin is a combination of many innovations – technological, mathematical and scientific. It of course includes cryptography, timestamping, hashing and proof of work, the combination of which has given rise to new forms of technology, namely the time chain, the tallgo opp technology (NGU) and what I think is perhaps the most important of all: responsibility go up (RGU) technology.
Responsibility and freedom
I came to Bitcoin for the “money” and I stayed “The money.” The money being the most important social invention/discovery/tool known to the greatest social beast of all, i.e. man.
I have always been a Freedom Maximalist. This attitude led me on quite a journey in life with more than my fair share of ups and downs. I have won and lost big, more times than I can count – in business, finance, relationships and just about every other area of life. Looking back over the years, one thing stands out:
The experiences that felt most obedient, just and true were the ones where I was maximally free and maximum responsibility for the result. Whether it’s good or bad, and for better or for worse.
I don’t think I appreciated the latter, at least consciously, when I was younger. The circumstances of my life generally positioned me to be mostly in charge anyway, but to be honest, I spent most of my time focusing on the freedom aspect and as a result gave up my share of responsibility along the way.
The older and more mature I’ve gotten, the more I’ve come to respect, desire, and ultimately seek responsibility.
Jordan Peterson planted a significant seed. I remember listening to short clips of him while working out at the gym. One period in particular I think of was 2020. Some important events happened that derailed my life, so I lifted heavy and punished myself in the gym while listening to this man drum doctrines of responsibility, truth and integrity into my head.
It was a profound and transformative period in my life.
Investing time and effort in understanding Bitcoin, Austrian economy, history and masculine framework (tip of the hat, Jerr), has also significantly deepened my attitude to “responsibility”. Who has seen the injustice and sheer madness of the clown world.
Here I am now at the end of 2022, newly married, wanting to take the most responsible step of my life so far: to have children and build a dynasty with my beautiful wife.
As this new chapter unfolds, I’ve found that responsibility has taken a front row seat in terms of importance. Perhaps even more than freedom. This is something I never thought I’d say, but here I am.
Alongside this personal transformation, I have realized that Bitcoin itself is even more important than I thought, because it embodies, radiates and symbolizes responsibility.
A new meme for 2022 and beyond
If Bitcoin is responsible money, it is the RGU technology that powers it.
Of course it’s a meme. And we should treat it as such. In this day and age we meme things into existence. NGU was the perfect example, as were laser eyes. But now let’s add a new one to the lexicon.
NGU was great, is great and will always be great. Bitcoin’s NGU works on so many levels: relative exchange rate (aka, price), block height, node count, hashrate, users and more, although we know most people focus primarily on price.
This is where things can fall apart.
If the exchange rate is the main focus, periods of non-NGU price action make you look stupid or feel a little empty. Bitcoiners are ready to put up with looking stupid. It’s a price worth paying, of course. Not to mention that these rites of passage are both a purification and a forging. They throw away the weak, while sharpening the true believers.
But it is in the sharpening that we have the opportunity to discover a more moral aspiration. And here’s my suggestion: Getting rich is cool and all, winning is great. We’re going to do that anyway. But let’s also rediscover what made our civilizations great in the first place:
Responsibility.
I have come to believe that it is the most mature and developed of human characteristics. With great freedom comes moral demands for great responsibility. This is the challenge faced by all boys who must become men. This is when you transcend the child and enter the adult.
In this sense, Bitcoin is a sign of civilizational maturity. And perhaps on a more macro scale, the tumultuous period we are in is a sign of humanity in the violence of youth. As a species, we are coming to terms with what it means to live in accordance with truth and natural order. We’re in the middle of the rite of passage, and the infantile part of us wants to keep playing like he’s throwing tantrums, kicking, biting and screaming because it knows time is up.
The Fiat era is coming to an end and like a hysterical child it is in a state of panic. But never fear, for this too shall pass. Bitcoin will mature us, because it will not only make freedom great again, but make responsibility great again.
Responsibility Go Up Technology
You will find RGU technology embedded in every element of Bitcoin. From radical custody and storage methods, to the fact that there is no “helpline” you can call if you’ve lost your keys or sent bitcoin to the wrong address.
Those same powerful property rights leave you free to do whatever you choose with your wealth, but they also place the duty on you to secure your wealth in such a way that it is not taken, lost, or squandered.
Knowing that Bitcoin is a one-way function, and that there is no “rewind button” (as there is in the fiat fantasy game), forces you to think twice, no, three times, about what you do. This is maturity. This is what it means to be an adult.
When running a node, you is Bitcoin. You is the bank. You is responsible for maintaining a copy of the entire ledger.
And it goes further!
Beyond the inherent responsibility for utility and function found in Bitcoin is the effect it has on transforming the user into a more responsible human being. As the owner of your own wealth, you become the steward, the bearer and guardian. This is power, and we all know what Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker:
Source
What this does in a social sense is profound.
Bitcoin makes the financial game fair. No one can win by virtue of printing money or state monopoly. Such fancy methods of cheating become impotent.
This cuts to the heart of the irresponsible and myopic fiat world we live in. Cheating is irresponsible behavior. Of course, when you can play a game and never lose, you are free of responsibility!
When you are the nation state or the central bank and do that, this behavior will spread, until the whole civilization is infected with it. People will simultaneously be stripped of individual responsibility and at the same time be responsible for anything and everything.
That’s where we are now. A big, mindless mass of serfs playing a strange game of responsibility, hot potato.
RGU technology means that consequence is localized. There may be little or no socialization of bad decisions. It is the individual’s duty to climb and prosper, within the framework of a fair economic game, done through a radical ownership of one’s wealth.
This is the magic of RGU and what actually makes it similar to NGU. It is embedded in the thing that is Bitcoin, and it also manifests itself in the external world as what it is.
And the proof is in the pudding.
Bitcoin has inspired research into many other areas of life, from one’s level of ownership and skills (or lack thereof) in domains such as food, framework, family, self-defense, knowledge, energy, shelter, health and much more, it has fundamentally transformed the people who have come into contact with it.
This incredible side effect of responsible money is staggering.
What do I mean by “responsible money”?
I mean honest money, real money, money whose ledger is accurate and whose custody requires responsibility of the bearer.
Bitcoin, as the force of nature that it is, puts the onus on you as an individual to make responsible choices with your time, energy and intention, from custody, to how you trade the product of your labor, in an interconnected society and economy.
You adapt to the reality of gravity by not jumping off random cliffs, and if you do, at least (when you intend to preserve yourself) use a parachute. The same also applies when your intention is to end the journey. You can jump off the cliff the same way you can burn your keys.
There is no rewind button. There is no replay. It is done.
Bitcoin marches forward like the procession of time. It does not turn back. It does not forgive, nor does it forget. Errors are paid in full and there are no second chances. Bitcoin is just that. You adapt to it. The result is a scorecard and ledger with the greatest responsibility.
You adapt to the radical freedom of Bitcoin, or you can adapt to the radical slavery of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and the like.
A quick note on adaptation: It may well be humanity’s greatest strength and weakness. People will either adapt to freedom by taking on more responsibility, or they will adapt to slavery by giving it up in exchange for (what is often only the illusion or promise of) security.
The slow, consistent abdication of responsibility leads inexorably to the erosion of freedom. But it’s very hard to notice it early because the comfort and safety feel so good. The movie “Wall-E” comes to mind when I think of this, as does the 2020 phase of the clown world.
This infantilization of individuals is a regression and de-sophistication of civilization. It is a disease. Responsible money is the cure.
Responsible money is real money. Responsible money is mature money. Responsible money leads to responsible action. Responsible action leads to a more mature, just, real and functional world.
Bitcoin is the ultimate form of responsible money, and RGU technology is the antidote to the fantasy of fiat and the purported prosperity of politics.
Embrace it, not just because the numbers are going up. Do it because responsibility, the highest of virtues, rises in you and the world around you.
This is a guest post by Alex Svetskyauthor of “The Uncommunist Manifesto“, founder of Bitcoin Times and hosted by The Wake Up Podcast. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
