Bitcoin Truth Beauty Love – Bitcoin Magazine
This is an opinion piece by Tomer Strolight, editor-in-chief of Swan Bitcoin and author of “Why Bitcoin.”
I dropped into a Twitter Spaces the other afternoon focusing on Bitcoin. In it were at least a dozen grown men talking about how much they loved, appreciated and admired everything about Bitcoin. Over a hundred others listened. The speakers compared Bitcoin to the greatest discoveries and inventions in all of history – some even said it was clearly the greatest. Their gratitude for being alive at this time in history was something they took the time to express explicitly. I wasn’t able to jump into the conversation, but if I had joined I would have shared similar sentiments. There was enormous respect and brotherhood in the discussion. And while there were no women speaking there today as I listened, I have been with that group on other days and it welcomes women as well. It is a space of welcoming love for people who love Bitcoin. Ironically, it’s called “Toxic Happy Hour.” But it is anything but poisonous.
Later, in the early evening, I spent time with one of my children who just finished a math degree and wanted to share his love of math with me. We went through a textbook that was very advanced. (Please forgive this next terminology-heavy sentence): The last exercise we completed was a proof of a one-to-one reversible relationship (known as a bijective function) between all possible polynomials with integer coefficients and all the positive rational numbers—a proof that involved using exponents of prime numbers to translate between one and the other. I have neither the skill nor the time to explain exactly what that means, but when I finally understood this relationship, I was brought to my knees. This equivalence between two seemingly very different things struck me very deeply. I realized that what I was seeing was not just a timeless relationship, but an eternal one. Whether the universe existed as it is now or in a different configuration, this relationship would still be true. It exists even if the physical universe itself does not. It exists outside of time and space. So do all mathematical relationships, I realized. They are all eternal – the universe exists in them, not the other way around. And everything that exists in space and time cannot violate the truth of these conditions.
I point out this latter, mathematical experience because it was a metaphysically pure distillation of what the people in Twitter Spaces themselves were trying to express. There are truths so deep that they transcend everything. They transcend each of us, all of humanity, and even space and time—and they happen to be beautiful.
This love of beautiful, timeless truth is what got everyone in the Twitter Spaces discussion about Bitcoin so excited. They see in various facets and aspects of Bitcoin some deep truths that are so beautiful that they are awakened to a kind of spiritual ecstasy – they appreciate Bitcoin. They value it not only because it produces a potentially huge monetary tax, although it does. They appreciate the beauty of design—how it harnesses nature to mathematical truths, basic human wants and needs, physical realities of matter and energy, and a host of other delightful, elegant, and beautiful truths.
Until that moment, I did not appreciate or understand the beauty of the mathematical proof I was shown. But once it was seen, understood and appreciated, it was impossible to watch and not have some sense of reverence for it – at least it was for me.
And so it is for many people as they begin to study, understand and appreciate Bitcoin. For outsiders who hear these expressions of reverence, some may be interested in studying it for themselves. But others react with concern, believing Bitcoin’s admirers to be crazy, fanatical, cult-like and zealous. If they ask questions about Bitcoin to these admirers – Bitcoiners – Bitcoiners will usually bend over backwards and try to explain what it is they are seeing. But if these outsiders reject Bitcoin, or worse, declare that they understand it and consider it foolish, ugly or fake, at least today they will provoke an angry backlash from Bitcoiners.
Bitcoiners are trying to share with the world one big, beautiful truth that is actually made up of many smaller, beautiful truths. Bitcoin is this truth-verifying and truth-generating process that spans many realms of truth – the mathematical, the human, the financial, and many more. Emotionally, Bitcoiners are happy when they succeed in sharing this with others, and they are often deeply disappointed when they fail. And again today, they get angry when others try to do the opposite, which is to suggest that Bitcoin is not deeply and uniquely connected to the beautiful truths it reveals. Many Bitcoiners may have first heard of and been attracted to Bitcoin through claims that it was a “get-rich-quick” scheme, but they have since rejected this frantic and superficial goal and replaced it with a deeper goal of “fixing the world ” and share truth and beauty.
This transformation from anxious money shiners to whatever they have become, or are becoming, does not happen overnight, nor does it happen to everyone. Some people pass by and miss Bitcoin’s truth messages the first or second time they hear about it. Some explore and encounter something that frightens them and drives them into fear where they not only run away from Bitcoin, but loudly warn others away with panicked zeal. Others reject its truths and see get-rich-quick opportunities, typically at the expense of other newcomers, and most often by creating knock-offs of Bitcoin that do not share the truths. These people seem well aware of this and cover up these shortcomings with lies about these imitations, false and exaggerated claims about themselves, lies about Bitcoin or lies about Bitcoiners. Sometimes the mistakes are innocent, driven by a misunderstanding of why Bitcoin is designed the way it is. Regardless, over 20,000 Bitcoin imitators are now in operation, and about as many have come and gone, many leaving victims in their wake.
Unsurprisingly, all of these things tend to elicit not only criticism from, but often anger among many Bitcoiners, as they are attracted to honesty and fairness, and these imitators lack the truth and fairness of Bitcoin. This angry reaction has been labeled as “toxic” behavior of Bitcoiners. Their commitment to Bitcoin as a truth, and their efforts to point out the inadequacy and needlessness of imitators have hit them with a derogatory statement: “Bitcoin Maximalist” – a term that suggests that they only care about their project and are unfairly closed and closed . dismissive of others. Instead of rejecting these terms outright, many Bitcoiners have embraced them and turned them into “badges of honor” in a sarcastic, ironic twist intended to demonstrate that name-calling and insults do nothing to change the actual truth.
However, all this has led to much confusion, especially for outside observers and newcomers. While that has helped some people distinguish between Bitcoin and its imitators, it has also scared others. It is used as ammunition against Bitcoin by its most dishonest enemies. And it is also frightening for the most sensitive and fragile newcomers – individuals who desperately need real truths that will strengthen them through the knowledge that there are beautiful, incorruptible, inviolable truths that no one can harm.
But this article is not for the newcomers. It’s for Bitcoiners. What I want to point out is that this hurts us – not Bitcoin – Bitcoiners. I am not talking about our reputation as it is perceived by others. I am not talking about any financial costs we may have incurred. I’m talking about the fact that it has taken away time from our lives that we would otherwise have spent in love, appreciation, admiration, friendship, productive endeavors, and other activities that are far more spiritually satisfying than the deeply unsatisfying experience of arguing with people who have willfully rejected the truth.
When Bitcoin eventually succeeds and no longer needs to be explained or defended as much as it does today, this “toxicity” will evaporate (in much the same way that no one today needs to defend the usefulness of the internet or smartphones, even though it needed defense when it were many who claim that these were useless, slow and expensive).
But for now, having pointed out that explanations and defenses are still required, I would suggest that I think we can take a different tack than the one many of us find ourselves on – because it is in our individual interest to do so.
That path is one of simply not succumbing to the temptation of anger when the truth and beauty of Bitcoin is denied by others. Truth, as I have said, transcends all. Lies eventually wither in a struggle not only with the reality of the universe, but with the eternal and inviolable truths deeper than existence itself. If you believe in, or better yet understand the truths that Bitcoin is built on and operates under, you will realize that you don’t need to get angry – even if you hear someone who is a very skilled liar and you know they are lying and telling horrible lies to the detriment of others. Instead of getting angry, you can stay calm, knowing that you don’t have to give in to the lies yourself, and that you can maintain your calm by offering to speak calmly to your listeners at a separate place or time.
This path of refusing to engage in negative emotional debates is far more rewarding. Spending time with interested students instead of curious charlatans allows you to spend time discussing truth, beauty, and love instead of wasting time counteracting irrational or deceitful ugliness that stirs anger and hatred in you. In such settings, you can take your time and be completely honest, even admitting what it is that we don’t know, don’t understand and can’t explain.
Bitcoiners are lovers of truth, and also of fairness, justice and honesty – and while I tell the unvarnished truth, we are also lovers of success, friendship and love itself. And we are also human. So we are able to take actions that do not give us what we love. We must be aware that we have a choice and be aware of what actions will put us on the path that is not the best for us. Our enemies want us on the wrong path. That’s where they enjoy the home field advantage. But we never have to meet them there. And we don’t need to give them free rein on our home turf either – the field of truth-telling. To the extent that we entertain them in our space and time, they must not be allowed to either draw us away from truth-telling or draw us toward anger—for that takes us away from truth and love and into anger and hatred.
One truth Bitcoin shows us is that we are sovereign – not only over our monetary wealth, but also over our emotions; not only over where we spend our money, but also over where and how we spend our time. So use it wisely, with those you love and with whom you may come to love what you love, and with those who can teach you. Don’t waste your time with those who want to argue for the sake of argument, or worse, to waste your precious time and use your presence to mislead others. Take the high road. Point to truths. Guard others against untruths when you have to. But don’t sink to your opponents’ low vibrational energy. Be a role model yourself for them. In the end, it may be the only way to make them see the light of truth.
This is a guest post by Tomer Strolight, editor-in-chief of Swan Bitcoin and author of “Why Bitcoin.” Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
