Juicy topic! I've always loved the proactive, solution-oriented nature of this community. This could have overlaps in some of the main headers but I'm always thinking about how change lands in our bodies, how we deepen our sense of safety in ourselves, how we move through fear quicker when it arises, how we emotionally regulate to focus on what we want faster, how to reclaim our attention and put it where we want. Some of these things can come through the someone developing the skills already in the list--someone might feel safer once they learn to prepare food for example, but regulation is a skill in and if itself. When I see people shut down and become close minded, fear and safety concerns are usually lurking somewhere nearby.
In a different lane, history often boils down to a (skewed) narrative, so how can we encourage documentation of what is being built that includes multiple perspectives?
I also think in some instances people fall into the trap of playing follow the leader when they are scared to embrace their own fullest expression. Then when a big personality comes along who they resonate with, they end up admiring that someone else is willing to speak their mind. They mistake admiration of a quality/skill and authority, giving up their own authority because they don't want to risk rejection of being fully themselves out in the open. I think certain creative practices or gatherings designed to encourage soul expression help people develop their own sense of self instead of misplacing it in someone else.
Lastly, the words we use hold weight and connotation that is not easily forgotten and given that we have grown up in a very authority/hierarchy focused system at large, how can we create a shared lexicon that helps break some of the spells of language? How can we use language to aid in the process of deconditioning by way of paying attention to the words we use? One example of this is already how you mentioned not using the term "founding father."
As you can probably see, I'm just a tad interested in the dynamics of communication--with ourselves, our bodies, others, and the stories we tell that end up shaping reality and the possibility of a new way forward. 😂
It's funny—just five mins ago, I was talking about the terminology used to address fellow community members. Certain groups say "brother/sister." The Quakers and some others say "friend." "Comrade" obviously has too much baggage. But this question is probably gonna come up at some point…
I find the terminology for community members and interesting challenge. Humans love to belong and to feel a part of something but that need can also lead to some of the challenges we see with identity politics and in-group power dynamics. “Brother/sister” has always felt very strongly tied to religion for me when it’s not a direct family member. When I think about Rotary Clubs, people are known as Rotarians, but they don’t need another sub level of name for each other like “friend” or “brother or sister.” Someone might just say, “My fellow Rotarian, so and so…”
"Humans love to belong and to feel a part of something but that need can also lead to some of the challenges we see with identity politics and in-group power dynamics."
Both of those statements are quite true. It's a hard needle to thread, but one that must be threaded.
"'Brother/sister' has always felt very strongly tied to religion for me when it’s not a direct family member."
—I dunno. After just a small amount of talking with commenters—people who are, but for our connection here, strangers—"brother" and "sister" are pretty easy to slide into. We don't do it right away, but once it's clear we're mostly on the same page, it feels kinda nice. 🤷🏻 (Then again, if it is *standard*, that does feel more like a religious sect.)
"Someone might just say, 'My fellow Rotarian, so and so…'"
—So we don't have a name for our "nation" yet. But "Freehold" is the leading candidate at the moment. You would be a freeholder (the sole owner of your own person, identity, and agency, and the architect of your own life). Your property would be a freehold. Our nation would be Freehold. In a speech, I might refer to the audience as Freeholders of Earth (or of a particular area). This is not the only candidate, but it is the leading one ATM.
So you would, in that parlance, be a "fellow freeholder." However, that is not the warmest of vocatives/terms of endearment. It'd be nice if we had something warm.
I don't have a strong opinion on it at the moment. On one hand, I like that it says something about what it stands for right away and I like how it breaks out into person = freeholder and property = freehold.
On the other hand, I don't love that it's already a word with an established definition and presence because it feels limiting to the overall culture creation and a bit too on the nose.
That feels about right. I might clarify the first as “Mental and emotional awareness and resilience.” Related to the second bullet, I’ve found confidence to be a tricky word at times, people tend to think they are confident but still censor themselves. Maybe there’s a broad arm of skill development & personal growth as it relates to sovereignty? I think a person’s internal journey with sovereignty and alignment directly impacts how they are able to interact and contribute to the larger group. I could also see it as “Skill Development for Expression and Authentic Alignment.” I love the term historical hygiene. Substack is not letting me hit enter and line break at the moment which is very annoying for separating thought, so I’ll comment on the naming in a separate comment…
If you were to write in more detail on these subjects, what would you say?
For example, what does "skill development & personal growth as it relates to sovereignty" mean to you? (I wish Substack allowed tagging in comments; I bet Hat Bailey would love this discussion.)
You got that right Christopher. When you asked about what topic I might find of particular interest this is one of them. I will certainly put in my two cents as topics arise. I have for so long been withdrawn and working on self reliance and inner development that some important things have been neglected. I have been one who is very focused on building personal skills and innovative thinking outside the established "box." I hope at some point in my progression I will feel more like getting socially involved. Seeing through the artificial programmed identity that most people suffer from, and making a change of consciousness that bring out one's true and enormous subtle power to influence events is very important to me. Building a personal "reality tunnel" that keeps you safe and attracting the kind of experiences you truly want is one of the most important and under appreciated abilities you can develop. That is my focus. The growth of individuals is what builds a great comity or nation and a better world.
Sure. It has to do with my understanding of the nature of reality and how it is affected by consciousness. You can follow the "reality tunnel" built for you by the mass manipulators or you can build your own. You have the power to do so but it involves a change of mind and consciousness which is how reality is created. In my view the experiences you have are the result of how aware you are of your own subtle power to shift what you are experiencing. This is what I want to fully explore in my Xandara substack essays. In that viewpoint there is only one real "time" and it is Now. Linear time is an illusion that results from people projecting their mostly unconscious expectations into the informed field that is always forming out ahead of us in the event stream. What you experience in essence is what you and many others have projected and which continually move towards the "now" point which is the only place you eternally reside. In a mostly fear based society what they fear is real to them and they are creating experiences that will verify what they imagine. When you create your own reality tunnel with understanding of your own power you begin to create a reality tunnel that will diverge from the mass reality tunnel. Your own "personal reality tunnel" You in essence begin to program a personalized reality and quality of experiences that will eventually become very wonderful. Your own Because the event stream is being formed in a stack "ahead" of you in the perceived future what you are experiencing in what you think of as now is of things that you placed out there in the past. Therefore there is a lag between when you create the new experiences and when they seem to arrive. This tends to discourage those who do not understand what is happening and can derail the steps you are taking to create these new experiences. It will effect you and those close to you but you are limited in using this to change the nature of this world. It has its own default programming which the mass of humanity does not even realize they have the power to alter. Of course there are also principles that you must begin to understand not to abuse this and end up with just another way of misusing your incredible personal power.
To embrace sovereignty we have to grow up in a way that we are not encouraged to by the mainstream, which results in many people remaining children. So personal growth and skill development here are tools, resources, practices, conversations to encourage and practice behavior and values alignment. While it seems like people coming to this will have the tools to operate in the community, the fact is we are all human and works in progress coming to something new with varying amounts of baggage in different shapes and sizes. For example, we all have an inner child, one person's may be more developed than another's. At some point, it behooves us to learn how we can give that child what it needs so that we are not hindered by it looking for someone/some institution to replace mommy and daddy. Or, maybe someone had a controlling parent and even though they believe in consent over coercion, there is a part of them that defaults to wanting to exert control through persuasion.
Current versions of the system love to shame people into ideology (which is yet another form of coercion). Resources to support authentic expression and to practice new ways of being when something else might feel more familiar are a few things jumping to mind for what this category means to me.
Maybe it helps to share a few skills that have helped me get to where I am comfortable with exploring these ideas: Nervous system regulation, emotional resilience, learning how to be an observer of my life, coping skills for dealing with uncertainty, rewriting limiting beliefs, communication tools, learning to value conflict and how to repair after conflict, parts work, emotional awareness, how to listen, asking better questions, + more.
One thing I have appreciated about your approach is you focus on what you want the solution to be instead of just focusing on the problem. I have found that rare and a skill people often have to learn. It can be easier to focus on what we don't want at times instead of what we want. Sovereignty requires us knowing what we want and diving into radical responsibility--something that can feel less safe without personal mastery tools alongside the practical ones.
I agree with Christopher Alyssa, this is good stuff, and the very kind of thing that turns me on. I can see that you have really put some thought and effort into the very area that I think is vastly underrated. So glad to know that people of such quality are interested and willing to be a part of our wonderful movement.
Thank you and yes. I've written and spoken about personal growth topics like these off and on for years in a few different forms. I haven't written about them in a way where it is targeted to an audience explicitly interested in voluntaryism.
Up to this point, I've approached it from the lens that these skills are good for any human relationship and I feel that anyone working towards greater self-accountability and agency has the potential to make ripple effects in their individual world that can end up impacting their community. I'm starting to see a good fit for pieces with specifics for people interested in freedom/voluntaryism.
This certainly resonates with me. So much terminology carries baggage of one sort or another, coining new ones often is a sign of a new way of thinking and seeing things.
It's a great set of ideas. Some of these ring a chord with me. For example, I am working in Colorado with a group of parents who want to provide homeschool and day school facilities for kids in the 50 mile radius around Nucla where a corrupt town council put a huge cell tower next to the schoolhouse. Also working on a social media platform, Axiom, which uses a system that is impervious to censorship. Secure Perimeter Institute is the name I have been using for teaching communications and privacy and data security. Freedom Renaissance film studios is the working name for a freedom oriented production company based far from Hollywood. Since 2011 I've been actively building mutual aid response teams. Happy to help.
Interesting story. They didn't. They refuse to release the records relating to their perfidy even under the open records act. The town clerk who got the big bribe (in my opinion) has left town along with her family for less irradiated places. Fifty year contract, so the grift goes on a very long time. Story on it here: https://l5news.substack.com/p/in-from-the
First steps must be taken even if second or final steps are not known. If we learn to face uncertainty then rigged offers of security will be less alluring. You mention a need to carefully disengage from current systems.
One approach is to stop demanding solutions, but instead demand only two things. To stop causing problems and an end to all privileges of secrecy for any office or institution claiming authority. This Empire of Chaos is built on failure. It will evaporate when it no longer creates despair.
We must make introspection popular then approach each other honestly with humility.
Have challenging conversation with doctors, pharmacist, and policemen. Ask them to consider what limits their own conscious will allow. Challenge them to draw personal lines in the sand.
People who have a higher tolerance for uncertainty require less of a plan spelled out from A-Z and can tap into the creativity of shaping the next step. In conversations around this topic I can sometimes end up feeling put in the position of needing to know everything about tomorrow, today but I've realized that's when I have to step back and reorient or get curious about the person in front of me because at the point they are asking for a complete plan, they are already wanting us to offer them safety. I love your point about introspection too.
I'm using the words interchangeably, so the mnemonic applies to both the seed phrase or the password. And we won't stop our badgering. We'll keep you posted as to how this thing transpires over the next six or so months, so you've got some time to undertake some research.
So it's satoshis that you hold at the moment, rather than bitcoin. That's okay, it's still early days, and hopefully these written exchanges might interest you to swim out of the shallow end.
RIght now as Robert has mentioned Bitcoin is in a slump due to the fact that as world fiat currencies are dying the dollar has been manipulated to be the "cleanest dirty shirt in the laundry basket of currencies" and weak hands misinterpret this fluctuation, even gold is down because of it. These are the weak hands that are dumping because they think they may be safer in cash. The smart money is buying on this dip. Look at this:
Sitting in cash is not "safety." It is a guaranteed mathematical loss of value. Bitcoin is the only asset fast enough to outpace the debasement of the dollar.
- The S&P 500 took 17 years to do a 10x.
- Bitcoin has done a 60,000x in 14 years.
Supply Shock: In the last century, the money supply has increased by roughly 1900x.
Since 1913: The US Dollar has lost over 96% of its purchasing power and it is accelerating. It is shocking how much in purchasing power it has lost just in the last 20 years.
Don't let the headlines scare you out of the only exit door.
I doubt that it will stay down long. There are those who are taking advantage of this dip which reached as low as 60,000 per BTC at the height of the recent panic. Because of these large purchases it has already recovered to $69,468 as of Saturday night and will probably range higher by Monday. What will really bring it back up strongly is when one of more of the big banks go bust which could happen by the end of March, a decision by the FED to ease rates and increase liquidity, or a big surge in price inflation. Anything that makes it clear that the dollar is in trouble and having all your assets in it is actually riskier than bitcoin despite its periodic volatility. What most do not realize is that we are still in the early stages of adoption, much as the internet was, but there will come a time when a flood of fiat and even gold will be flooding into it.
I think you'll both watch it when the time is right. There's a saying in Bitcoin - in keeping with its mysterious and enigmatic nature: 'People get into Bitcoin at the price they deserve.'
Great question. The biggest hurdle is taking the plunge into a wholly new and initially frightening way to carry out transactions. Other than that, all anyone needs to do is, first, learn a bit about how it works, and then set themselves up with a bitcoin account - something that can be done for free - which can then generate a bitcoin address for anyone who also uses bitcoin to send the BTC to. Like anything new it requires some work to learn about it - both conceptually and technically - and it can be imposing to start with because it involves learning an entirely new vocabulary and having a modicum of elementary proficiency in IT or computer stuff. But it's well worth the investment, can become totally engrossing, and even better, you'd be watching your holdings increase in value, unlike watching the purchasing power of your bank account go down with the rate of inflation.
Just to supplement my comment: Software wallets are great for everyday transactions, such as via a mobile app, but they shouldn't involve more than a hundred bucks or so - an amount that would be bearable to lose. Any more than that - i.e. your bitcoin holdings - need to be kept (or rather the keys need to be kept), on a hardware wallet. The wallet stores the keys - the keys to the BTC stored on the 'Blockchain'.
I would say keep it in a drawer or cupboard. Even if someone stole your wallet they wouldn't have access to your keys - your password - unless you were silly enough to put your password next to your wallet.
The best place is in your head. The second best place is through the use of 12 mnemonic words: words which can be written down and kept somewhere safe - i.e. out of the public eye - because only you know what each mnemonic word represents.
Good advice! I carelessly put too much in my software Exodus account on my computer and had quite a bit stolen despite having a pretty secure setup on my computer. My larger accounts were supported by a hardware wallet and weren't touched.
That's right. As soon as someone's holdings reach an amount that would be very painful to lose, that is the time to get the keys to them onto a hardware wallet.
Do you see this starting as one settlement in one location or people coming together in multiple sites? There is a group doing this, Return to the Land, who have of course already been labeled racists. A problem I forsee when thinking about like minded folks moving near each other or sharing a piece of land is the the people who are interested in this are the types who value independence to a point where cooperation in different endeavors is a hard sell. How wiil we establish cooperative relationships without it turning into a comune? I figure this will be entirely unacceptable to most free thinking freedom lovers.
Our particular project is not looking to form territorial enclaves. It is a “distributed nation”—a diaspora of people who have chosen to loosely cohere around a set of shared principles. In the early going at least, there will be no territory, save each individual person’s property or sovereign space. And that ought to belong solely to that person.
You are right that people in the freedom movement tend to be more independent by nature. But that’s okay—people can form larger projects organically, as they wish. No central control. Just emergent order.
I lived for a time in "Consciousness Village" in the Sierras that was owned at the time by Leonard Orr the father of rebirthing. There was much I really loved about being around people who were open minded, spiritually oriented and cooperative. It was also a beautiful environment and lifestyle. However at some point I had to move on because of the fact that it was missing one element, personal space and what I would call "sovereign space." I also was still working on my own personal responsibility and self reliance issues.
What I think might help the conversation and promote understanding would be for you or any other interested people to state any reservations you might have in respect of Bitcoin. There are so many misconceptions around Bitcoin - for instance that its just one 'cryptocurrency' among all the other 'cryptos' out there - and plenty of these can be quite straightforwardly addressed.
I stated my big one already—something about purely electronic money gives me the heebie-jeebies. I am not anti Bitcoin by any means. And I know that I already use mostly electronic money. But the thought of not having something tangible as an option feels odd.
But since we’re on the subject, did you address the energy usage question (which I did not actually ask, but am curious about).
Hi. 1/ Your first comment reminds of people who started out saying about communicating online or through emails that there was something that gave them the heebie-jeebies about not corresponding in actual hand writing. Times change, and we either move with them or get left behind. 2/ Tangible - there are plenty of people who say that they prefer gold because it can be held in the hand, whereas bitcoin is ultimately just a series of ones and zeros. That feeling is understandable, but I'd ask anyone who owns stocks or shares, or for that matter who has an online bank account what's tangible about it? 3/ As for energy, yes, mining bitcoin uses a lot of energy - although not in fact a great deal more than a lot of other things - but unless you're involved in mining bitcoin - something which is now confined to dedicated companies - you use no more energy than using the internet. I'm not aware of anyone who objected to the internet when it came out and started to be used on the grounds that it used a great deal of electrical energy, just like the telephone. Like fire, we humans were blessed to be able to use our reasoning and experimental skills to utilize natural sources of power. And if bitcoin - the neutral, ethical money for the world - gains worldwide adoption then the energy used in this process will be far less than that used by governments funding endless wars with infinitely printable fiat money.
You do have a gift of getting to the core issues Robert! You have a high frequency mind able to see so much more than those on a cruder lower mental frequency and so are able to "see" things that are invisible to their current consciousness. This is actively promoted by the dark powers to what they see as their advantage over us peons. You have also obviously taken the time to gain an understanding of this issue. I am sooo glad that you have connected with us here on the Freedom Scale!
This something that I am vitally interested in as well. I have had no bank account now for 23 years and if it were not for bitcoin these years would not be nearly as abundant and easy for me as they were after I got into it. For a distribited nation like ours all over the world wanting to support and exchange with each other digital currencies are vital as they are permissionless, international, uncensorable and inflation proof. Not that bitcoin will be the best for us, a privacy oriented coin like Monero which also ensures anonymity may be much better. As it can be moved around almost instantly anywhere in the world means that black markets and ways of moving them in and out of the main stream financial system as needed will exist. If the world wide web goes down then the ability of our distributed nation will find it very hard but probably not impossible to communicate and exchange with our distributed participants around the globe. The Goldback is a very promising innovation in that each "bill" contains a valuable amount of gold giving it intrinsic value. As for the energy question that is a scare meme that has been thoroughly debunked and with a bit of research I can find several articles that demolish that argument against bitcoin. I don't recommend having all one's assets in one form. Goldbacks, silver coins and bars, even non perishable tools and materials, developed material skills are also recommended to the self sufficient person.
I agree with most of what you say here, Hat, apart from your comment about Monero. It's true that Monero is more private than BTC, but the benefit of that is offset for me by two things: 1/ BTC is tricky enough to use already, and Monero adds another layer of difficulty; 2/ The most valuable thing about bitcoin (like Monero) is not so much its privacy - governments usually always find ways to find out who's involved in something - but rather its unconfiscatability. Add to that that the BTC network is far larger than Monero's and for me that makes BTC the winner.
You are quite correct Robert, it is why I don't presently hold any Monero, although at one point I had thought to have some laid away there as it has proven to be so resistant to hack or track. However what you said about the size of BTC is what gives it so much intrinsic value in a way. Spread across so many jurisdictions and competing entities makes it much more stable, and highly distributed. I never have done KYC on my holdings and do not use exchanges only distributed services to use it for my needs. Those who want to control us can discover we use it, but they are not all seeing, at least yet. I seem to have a screen of invisibility that has served me well over the last thirty years or so.
Yes, Goldback is making a product - a product which presents itself as a store of value, a unit of account, and a medium of exchange. That's 3 things right there that make it a currency, even though someone might choose just to buy one of those beautiful notes in order to save it, for its beauty and/or as a store of value. The only way banks would start to treat them as cash - i.e. as currency - would be if Goldback became the new standard currency, which would necessarily involve a return to the gold standard. Why the gold standard worked so much better than anything that had gone before was that any currency issued had to be backed by an equivalent in real physical gold. This constrained governments to spend within their means - like the rest of us try to do, if we're sensible. Bitcoin works so much better than gold though, because it has a fixed supply (far more fixed than gold or any precious metal has), does not rely on any external custodian to look after it, and can be transported anywhere in the world along with you (unlike property) by the mere fact of having twelve English words memorized in your head. It's a free, open source gift.
Absolutely, bitcoin doesn't need to become deflationary it is. I have watched it grow quite predictably to many hundreds of times in value against fiat, and you can buy as little as one "satoshi" which is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin. Of course at present that is even less than a tiny amount of one worthless penny. Goldbacks will always have some intrinsic value until a large possibly hidden quantity is found or mined or made by nuclear powered transmutation using free energy from the zero point which again I think actually exists but suppressed knowledge.
Just to piggyback on what Hat says here - yes, bitcoin is deflationary because only 21 million bitcoin can ever be issued. That limit was built into the program created by Satoshi. This is the opposite of fiat currencies - i.e. all world central bank currencies - because there is no limit to the amount of currency that governments and central banks can print out of thin air. This infinite printing is inherently inflationary.
It makes sense to avoid the pitfalls of fiat, for sure!
But I guess there is something I am still fuzzy on. There is a degree to which a currency supply needs to expand. If the whole money supply is 10,000 seashells and the population and economic activity grow beyond the ability of that currency to serve as an effective medium of exchange, more seashells are needed. How does Bitcoin solve this problem?
If it is a matter of people using ever-smaller fractions of Bitcoin to buy a loaf of bread, then the currency is infinite, in a sense, isn't it? Infinitely divisible into smaller fractions?
Also, while we're at it—if the currency is limited to 21 million, then what exactly is being mined? I would have thought that whole 21 million would already be owned by someone…
Not at all - you ask away, and you pose great questions. I'll take them going backwards. What are being mined are new bitcoin, and the amount that can be mined by miners halves every four to five years - an event known as the 'halving'. At this rate the last bitcoin is projected to be mined in about 2130, i.e. in a hundred plus years time. You actually have the right idea as to what would need to happen if or when, say, 1 BTC equals 10 million dollars. On that calculation one satoshi will be worth a dime. How could you then buy something that cost less than a dime? Remember that the total amount of BTC that can be issued is 21 million. This limit is vital in order to maintain its standard of value. So what can be done? Just as you suggested - you BTC natural - satoshis will then be subdivided: into 'microsatoshis' or whatever it will be called.
Another very reasonable question to ask. It isn't like fiat because fiat is like a cake that expands in order to create or produce more cake. Whereas in the bitcoin analogy the cake remains the same size but is divided into smaller slices. In the second case no more cake is being created.
You're right, I do love bitcoin - I love the promise of it, the promise of 'freedom money for 8 billion people'. Also, I don't blame you or anyone else for seeing the value - literally the 'store of value' - involved in Goldback. Moreover, I give credit to the people at ‘Goldback’ for having the courage and fortitude to start up a new company, and I wish them the best. As far as I can see, the set up involves holders of the Goldback currency using actual physical notes to transact with other people who are also in the network, particularly vendors. This places severe limitations on the use of Goldback as far as forming a new currency system is concerned. If Goldback aims to move over to a digital form at some point – so that people can transact in it at a distance – then that effectively means that Goldback will be a digital currency backed by gold. What happens then to the company? Do they presume to oversee this entire monetary network? Won’t a government want to intervene at that point? Also, what happens to the gold that backs the currency? Surely it ends up where it always does - in centralized vaults, controlled by those who control those vaults, and once again another vital aspect of people’s lives is outside of their control. Gold ultimately failed as a global monetary network because it is difficult to transport and difficult to verify. All in then, I commend Goldback for trying something new, and a Goldback currency note would indeed function as a store of value – unlike fiat currency – but it could only work as a new monetary network if it became digitized, otherwise it could only work within localized communities that elect to participate in it. Why there has to be an ‘either-or’ is for the same reason that each country uses only one currency to get paid in and buy things with, and it wouldn’t work any other way. For the same reason, there cannot be a 'free market' in currencies.
Seems to me that there are other ways it can work, though. Valaurum and Goldback don’t seem to be trying to run a currency. (As far as I know…) They are just making a physical product. People buy them.
So then maybe banks start treating them just like they would cash. You can deposit them. You can have a checking account (or perhaps a credit card) based on them. I mean, that certainly could be an alternative way it could work (even if you do not think it is ideal).
Thanks for replying. Yes, it's true - bitcoin relies on the internet and ultimately on electricity in order to work. Of course, the same limitation, such as it is, applies to 'goldback'. The problems for me are that: 1/ Gold-backed currencies have been tried before - in the UK and the US for example - and they didn't work because the countries involved found that they were constrained in the amount of currency they could issue. This is no doubt a good thing, because it prevents countries getting into unmanageable debt and financing endless wars. 2/ Gold has to be stored somewhere, either in one's own home, which is obviously a security concern, or a bank vault, which means that it can in theory be confiscated - which is what FDR did in 1933. 3/ Gold has to be assayed to check on its purity. 4/ Gold is very difficult and costly to move around. Bitcoin has none of these limitations. The other important thing to bear in mind is that Bitcoin is the ONLY cryptocurrency that is decentralized - all the others have a founder, and a company behind them. The fact that Bitcoin is decentralized is PROOF that it cannot be a Ponzi scheme - there is no Mr Ponzi - there is no company, no CEO, no registered address, no shareholders, unlike 'goldback'. Bitcoin - the most democratic form of money ever created - is maintained by all the individual users of the network, and no one, unless they have your 12 word password, or can scam you into parting with it, can take your Bitcoin from you.
RIght on Robert, you really get it! I was an early user of a now defunct electronic money called egold. It was backed by physical precious metal in an audited off shore account. And for awhile there was a way to easily convert it to dollars or other fiat. There were vendors who sprang up by which you could send money by Western Union with egold. I had a money making website where I could accept egold for content. Unfortunately like poor Mr. Nothaus there was a physical address, person and metal for so called "governments" to confiscate, sue, jail and destroy with some pretext which of course at which they excel. Bitcoin solved that problem making it much more resilient and resistant to any specific jurisdiction to control. WIth Nothaus' Liberty Dollars they were scared that this might become an actual currency and they jumped all over it. Confiscated the silver backing even from people who had already sent their fiat to order LDs and put Mr. Nothaus in jail. All on a flimsy pretense that a ten year old should see through.
Amen Robert! It takes someone who appreciates taking personal responsibility for the things most people lay off on second and third parties and never bother to do their own research on. Vital things that matter, like their health and their finances and who they should trust and those they should not. We trust in the math which never lies not in men we don't even know from Adam. We trust because we verify which is the way bitcoin works and the control is always in our own hands. The lazy and distracted will never take the time to learn how to do this safely and securely and they will pay and are paying the price as the dollar melts away to nothing. Bitcoin has more than held its value and thus I through only converting what I need in the moment and careful management have more than kept ahead and beating the inflation tax as well as most of the others. If there are people who can appreciate the real meaning of bitcoin and how it relates to the real meaning of "money" it should be the people drawn to this cause of liberty. Nothing has done more to destroy both liberty, peace and prosperity than the crooked financial scam most people live under.
Thank you Robert. It has always seemed to me to be a perfect match and a necessity for a worldwide distributed "nation." If we are ever seen as a threat to the ptbs you know what one of the main means of attack will be financial, and if you are involved in the establishment financial system you are very vulnerable.
I'll let Robert tackle that one for now. I don't want to write about how I personally shop and use my bitcoin without divulging personal identifying information (kyc aml) on this open forum. Suffice it to say that there are a growing number of major retailers that you can buy from presently using certain methods, and most of the items I order, especially the more expensive ones I purchase with bitcoin or litecoin. I keep some in litecoin when I am ready to purchase because it is faster and cheaper to use for this than bitcoin.
Yes, they can be deflationary. Though you can also do silver and other metals, which reduces that effect.
The Valaurum process makes Goldbacks even harder to counterfeit than cash—I do not think assays would be required any more than we start pulling apart dollar bills now.
Goldbacks can also be represented digitally, through credit and checking, so it is not necessary to carry and store lots of them.
Ultimately, I do not think it should be either-or. A free market in currency can only help.
I'm glad that you're aware of Satoshi, but I'm not sure if you appreciate 'him' or 'her' or 'them' enough. And that's the first clue as to what makes Bitcoin fundamentally different and more valuable than 'goldbacks'. Goldbacks is not a decentralized currency, if you go on the Goldbacks website - which should itself sound the alarm - you will see that they talk about 'who we are'. Only if and only once that absolute difference is grasped will it become apparent that there has to be an 'either-or', and that a 'free market in currency' - what we have at the moment with disastrous fiat currencies - can only hurt.
And looking at the history of Bernard Von Nothaus' Liberty Dollar you know what is going to happen if Goldbacks ever start to threaten being used as currency or "money" because there is a readily identified "we are" to attack, intimidate or destroy. I know it really burns the controllers where it hurts that they can't take this easy approach to destroying bitcoin, as it has gotten past the vulnerable early stage. It must be very frustrating for the control freaks that there is no central authority or vulnerable point of attack.
The fact that someone has to manufacture goldbacks is okay, in the sense that once they are purchased and out in the wild. Valaurum, Goldback.com, whoever else, have no control over them. I get that it's a failure point (they could stop manufacturing them, for example). But electronic currency has failure points too. Everything does. I personally would love to use gold/silverbacks for everyday cash transactions.
Here's my suggestion for something that's missing, and which might help. What's missing is the monetary dimension - the way that people can transact with each other in a manner that bypasses government control. There is only one currency that holds out this promise, though it's one that may prompt many to came back with some dogmatic assertion such as: 'It's a Ponzi or pyramid scheme'; 'It's a psyop'; 'it utilizes an inordinate amount of energy'; or 'the government will end up banning it'. I guess some will have cottoned on to what I'm referring to, but just to clarify: I am NOT talking about 'cryptocurrency' - I am talking about the original cryptocurrency, the only decentralised cryptocurrency, and which is hence 'unconfiscatable' - I am talking about Bitcoin. It's very surprising to me that people who actually know nothing about Bitcoin will hold forth as though they've got the whole thing worked out. I can decisively refute all the objections I listed above, but it will depend on how open-minded people round here actually are. Anyone?
One thing that makes me uneasy about all electronic currencies is that they are electronic. They are internet and power-dependent.
I fully grant that if the internet or power goes down, we’re gonna have other big problems besides a lack of access to our currency. However, it is one problem.
I like the idea of goldbacks (https://www.goldback.com/). That does not mean I am opposed to others, Bitcoin, crypto, etc. But something about goldbacks appeals to the old-school in me.
Even if the internet goes down bitcoin will still be there on the computers and hardware wallets worldwide. It either will not stay down, will be restored in some places, (almost certainly) or we will descend into a point where we will be exchanging shells (wampum anyone?) or haunches. Losing our bitcoin will be meaningless as there will be no financial system remaining as well. It will all go away Christopher and we will have other problems. If it comes back up even if spotty at first there will be a way to exchange and use it. It is a global currency.
Always welcome Christopher. I hope to do more to support our movement in the future, but at present I love the opportunity to share my thoughts and experience that might be of some help in empowering our people.
Christopher, I liked your post. It would be great if there would be a meaningful network of truly productive and dedicated people.
Six years ago, during the plandemic, I identified those individuals who had the guts to go against the stampede. I still patronize those businesses and communicate at the least with those individuals. Those who went along with the nonsense lost me forever; I no longer patronize their stores, offices, products and restaurants.
May I bring some things out:
1. In order to have productive relationships with productive people, one needs to develop constructive relationship skills. He needs parents, family and friends willing to dedicate themselves to that task. That is something not learned in a classroom.
Furthermore, this concept applies all forms of life, not just human beings. For example, it is not good to separate a kitten from its mother. A newborn kitten undergoes basic training as if it were a Marine recruit. Momcat is a drill sergeant, and if a kitten misbehaves, she says "If you do this again, I will kill you!" Thirteen weeks of this, the kitten is finally qualifed for cathood and adoption.
So, the first qualifiaction is to identify and connect with real people with spirit. Good luck in the United States, as the USA tends to produce zeroes.
2. It is necessary to examine other organizations and societies that have survived over centuries to millennia. This includes Jews and Freemasons. It also includes societies like those in the Orient and Persia.
The goal is to understand what works. How did, for example, Jews and Freemasons start? What type of people do these groups attract? What is the purpose of gatherings, meetings and rituals? What are they trying to accomplish?
3. There is nothing wrong with leadership. Everyone has his area of expertise and some have developed their talents into a profession.
There are times when one leads and times when one follows. There is no permanent position in a flock of geese. One goose has the task of leading the flight for a while, then others lead.
I would guess that the leader of the canine pack in some ways possesses organizational and management skills superior to the others. Leadership also requires awareness of the group's intents and goals.
When it comes to human beings, leadership requires having an operating conscience. Generally, an operating conscience is a severe, disabling handicap in the United States.
Thank you for these very useful thoughts. We must indeed continue to reward people who resist tyranny. (Few and far between here in NY state.)
Do you have any thoughts, or historical knowledge, on question #2?
One thing I can think of: Diasporzied groups (Jews, Armenians, etc.), are good about trying to do business with "their own" whenever possible. This is something we should try to emulate.
When it comes to ritual, I am cautious. We will have people from many different traditions, religions, ethnicities, etc. We mustn't attempt to supplant their own customs. And anything we offer as an overlay (a shared meta-spirituality, e.g.) should probably develop organically.
On #3, yes. Leaders, for a time and purpose, but we must avoid the leader-centric approach, if that makes sense.
2A. First define what we individually value and what our personal interests are. If you cannot do that, relationships are impossible. (It's time for me to do my own essays; stand by, please.)
3A. Leadership is for specific tasks towards specific goals. George Washington wanted nothing to do with rulership. He regarded the Presidency as the cost, and a heavy one at that, of not just doing but also keeping his business.
His resignation in 1783 was so remarkable that numerous coins and tokens commemorated that. In this example, he demonstrated superior management and organizational skills, even if a considerable number of battles and other projects fell short.
Mail / personal delivery systems will need to be addressed. They likely won't ship (or will drastically limit services) to sovereign "addresses". Technically similar to the way the government doesn't recognize people that have renounced their citizenship and not established citizenship under a recognized government. On second thought, larger scale physical logistics for storage and distribution would need to be hammered out as well.
Yeah, proto-fascist Woodrow Wilson denied mail service to media operations critical of WWI.
That said, I do not suggest renouncing citizenship, sending in announcements of sovereignty, or in any other way poking the dragon in the eye with flimsy sticks. Especially not in the early going. It's a feel-good gesture that accomplishes nothing but raising the likelihood of negative consequences.
Now, if there were four million of us, that's a different matter. At that point, we have leverage. But in the meantime, we build a new civilization slowly and quietly, in the cracks of the old.
Think of the Amish. By 2050, they will be 50% or greater in many rural counties. They just live their lives as far away from the system as they can, have lots of babies, and slowly grow. We need to think generationally. We need to start building. One day—even if it's our children's day—we will have the leverage we need.
And that all said, I do like the way you think. Please tell me what you mean by "larger scale physical logistics for storage and distribution."
After establishing a like-minded/ voluntary community I believe that there would be a “sifting” of people within the community as they established ties to the rest of the world. Some people would gravitate towards being a representative for buying necessary goods that would not be accessible (diesel fuel, paracord, glass windows, cookware, olive oil, steel barrels, etc.) In addition, things produced locally in abundance would require being warehoused in ideal conditions to maximize their potential use. This “sifting” of folks towards this planning and execution would happen (I hope) as it would be doing “the LORDS work” of expanding the capability of the community to expand, not just sustain, as conditions evolve. Haha-sort of like the guys that drive the Amish / Mennonites around and assist with the business dealings between people outside of their community, and as a byproduct of that exposure know all of the right people to make mutually beneficial deals in the future.
I have long had a faith in the market and its ability to organically handle such things through emergent processes. That said, I do not rule out trying to provide helpful guidance in this regard. Or to encourage people to take up vital roles in such a new ecosystem.
I also think we would benefit by trying to do business with each other whenever possible, the way other diasporized groups do.
Certainly one of my pet peeves. I would love to have no mailbox yet all the online orders need to be given an "official" postal address to receive their purchases. Where I live the USPS is a miserable dysfunctional system. I have so many times had to travel the 17 or so round trip miles to our highway contract mailboxes four times to get my packages because their tracking system is so bad and mostly wrong. UPS delivers right to my door. It will be a happy day of celebration when the Postal "Service" is sold off to UPS or some such. They even try to claim that having a US postal address is an indication that you consent to being a "citizen" who has contracted to be their slave. (in a sense)
Seems chat can be set up so anyone can start a chat on your site, I just clicked that link on mine, not sure if it'll work the way I think or not.
Those of you over eighty (OK, I exaggerate a wee bit.) might remember the bulletin boards from the early days of the net; freewheeling almost anything goes interesting, delightful discussions, seems such could fit in the substack chats.
Just for giggles I searched AIH, to see if and how the acronym was already in use. The first hit was AIH, Alaska Industrial Hardware, a firm I've does a lot of business with over the years. The next nine hits all referenced Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) .
Juicy topic! I've always loved the proactive, solution-oriented nature of this community. This could have overlaps in some of the main headers but I'm always thinking about how change lands in our bodies, how we deepen our sense of safety in ourselves, how we move through fear quicker when it arises, how we emotionally regulate to focus on what we want faster, how to reclaim our attention and put it where we want. Some of these things can come through the someone developing the skills already in the list--someone might feel safer once they learn to prepare food for example, but regulation is a skill in and if itself. When I see people shut down and become close minded, fear and safety concerns are usually lurking somewhere nearby.
In a different lane, history often boils down to a (skewed) narrative, so how can we encourage documentation of what is being built that includes multiple perspectives?
I also think in some instances people fall into the trap of playing follow the leader when they are scared to embrace their own fullest expression. Then when a big personality comes along who they resonate with, they end up admiring that someone else is willing to speak their mind. They mistake admiration of a quality/skill and authority, giving up their own authority because they don't want to risk rejection of being fully themselves out in the open. I think certain creative practices or gatherings designed to encourage soul expression help people develop their own sense of self instead of misplacing it in someone else.
Lastly, the words we use hold weight and connotation that is not easily forgotten and given that we have grown up in a very authority/hierarchy focused system at large, how can we create a shared lexicon that helps break some of the spells of language? How can we use language to aid in the process of deconditioning by way of paying attention to the words we use? One example of this is already how you mentioned not using the term "founding father."
As you can probably see, I'm just a tad interested in the dynamics of communication--with ourselves, our bodies, others, and the stories we tell that end up shaping reality and the possibility of a new way forward. 😂
I love it!
Let's try to summarize:
—Mental and emotional resilience
—Skill development and confidence-building
—Information preservation and historical hygiene
—Lexicon of freedom/non-bondage
Is that about right?
It's funny—just five mins ago, I was talking about the terminology used to address fellow community members. Certain groups say "brother/sister." The Quakers and some others say "friend." "Comrade" obviously has too much baggage. But this question is probably gonna come up at some point…
I find the terminology for community members and interesting challenge. Humans love to belong and to feel a part of something but that need can also lead to some of the challenges we see with identity politics and in-group power dynamics. “Brother/sister” has always felt very strongly tied to religion for me when it’s not a direct family member. When I think about Rotary Clubs, people are known as Rotarians, but they don’t need another sub level of name for each other like “friend” or “brother or sister.” Someone might just say, “My fellow Rotarian, so and so…”
"Humans love to belong and to feel a part of something but that need can also lead to some of the challenges we see with identity politics and in-group power dynamics."
Both of those statements are quite true. It's a hard needle to thread, but one that must be threaded.
"'Brother/sister' has always felt very strongly tied to religion for me when it’s not a direct family member."
—I dunno. After just a small amount of talking with commenters—people who are, but for our connection here, strangers—"brother" and "sister" are pretty easy to slide into. We don't do it right away, but once it's clear we're mostly on the same page, it feels kinda nice. 🤷🏻 (Then again, if it is *standard*, that does feel more like a religious sect.)
"Someone might just say, 'My fellow Rotarian, so and so…'"
—So we don't have a name for our "nation" yet. But "Freehold" is the leading candidate at the moment. You would be a freeholder (the sole owner of your own person, identity, and agency, and the architect of your own life). Your property would be a freehold. Our nation would be Freehold. In a speech, I might refer to the audience as Freeholders of Earth (or of a particular area). This is not the only candidate, but it is the leading one ATM.
So you would, in that parlance, be a "fellow freeholder." However, that is not the warmest of vocatives/terms of endearment. It'd be nice if we had something warm.
I agree “fellow Freeholder” does not sound very warm. I’m letting this one percolate and will pop back in if other ideas come to mind.
What about "Freehold" for the other purposes mentioned?
I don't have a strong opinion on it at the moment. On one hand, I like that it says something about what it stands for right away and I like how it breaks out into person = freeholder and property = freehold.
On the other hand, I don't love that it's already a word with an established definition and presence because it feels limiting to the overall culture creation and a bit too on the nose.
That feels about right. I might clarify the first as “Mental and emotional awareness and resilience.” Related to the second bullet, I’ve found confidence to be a tricky word at times, people tend to think they are confident but still censor themselves. Maybe there’s a broad arm of skill development & personal growth as it relates to sovereignty? I think a person’s internal journey with sovereignty and alignment directly impacts how they are able to interact and contribute to the larger group. I could also see it as “Skill Development for Expression and Authentic Alignment.” I love the term historical hygiene. Substack is not letting me hit enter and line break at the moment which is very annoying for separating thought, so I’ll comment on the naming in a separate comment…
If you were to write in more detail on these subjects, what would you say?
For example, what does "skill development & personal growth as it relates to sovereignty" mean to you? (I wish Substack allowed tagging in comments; I bet Hat Bailey would love this discussion.)
You got that right Christopher. When you asked about what topic I might find of particular interest this is one of them. I will certainly put in my two cents as topics arise. I have for so long been withdrawn and working on self reliance and inner development that some important things have been neglected. I have been one who is very focused on building personal skills and innovative thinking outside the established "box." I hope at some point in my progression I will feel more like getting socially involved. Seeing through the artificial programmed identity that most people suffer from, and making a change of consciousness that bring out one's true and enormous subtle power to influence events is very important to me. Building a personal "reality tunnel" that keeps you safe and attracting the kind of experiences you truly want is one of the most important and under appreciated abilities you can develop. That is my focus. The growth of individuals is what builds a great comity or nation and a better world.
"Building a personal "reality tunnel" that keeps you safe and attracting the kind of experiences you truly want"
—Can you elaborate?
Sure. It has to do with my understanding of the nature of reality and how it is affected by consciousness. You can follow the "reality tunnel" built for you by the mass manipulators or you can build your own. You have the power to do so but it involves a change of mind and consciousness which is how reality is created. In my view the experiences you have are the result of how aware you are of your own subtle power to shift what you are experiencing. This is what I want to fully explore in my Xandara substack essays. In that viewpoint there is only one real "time" and it is Now. Linear time is an illusion that results from people projecting their mostly unconscious expectations into the informed field that is always forming out ahead of us in the event stream. What you experience in essence is what you and many others have projected and which continually move towards the "now" point which is the only place you eternally reside. In a mostly fear based society what they fear is real to them and they are creating experiences that will verify what they imagine. When you create your own reality tunnel with understanding of your own power you begin to create a reality tunnel that will diverge from the mass reality tunnel. Your own "personal reality tunnel" You in essence begin to program a personalized reality and quality of experiences that will eventually become very wonderful. Your own Because the event stream is being formed in a stack "ahead" of you in the perceived future what you are experiencing in what you think of as now is of things that you placed out there in the past. Therefore there is a lag between when you create the new experiences and when they seem to arrive. This tends to discourage those who do not understand what is happening and can derail the steps you are taking to create these new experiences. It will effect you and those close to you but you are limited in using this to change the nature of this world. It has its own default programming which the mass of humanity does not even realize they have the power to alter. Of course there are also principles that you must begin to understand not to abuse this and end up with just another way of misusing your incredible personal power.
To embrace sovereignty we have to grow up in a way that we are not encouraged to by the mainstream, which results in many people remaining children. So personal growth and skill development here are tools, resources, practices, conversations to encourage and practice behavior and values alignment. While it seems like people coming to this will have the tools to operate in the community, the fact is we are all human and works in progress coming to something new with varying amounts of baggage in different shapes and sizes. For example, we all have an inner child, one person's may be more developed than another's. At some point, it behooves us to learn how we can give that child what it needs so that we are not hindered by it looking for someone/some institution to replace mommy and daddy. Or, maybe someone had a controlling parent and even though they believe in consent over coercion, there is a part of them that defaults to wanting to exert control through persuasion.
Current versions of the system love to shame people into ideology (which is yet another form of coercion). Resources to support authentic expression and to practice new ways of being when something else might feel more familiar are a few things jumping to mind for what this category means to me.
Maybe it helps to share a few skills that have helped me get to where I am comfortable with exploring these ideas: Nervous system regulation, emotional resilience, learning how to be an observer of my life, coping skills for dealing with uncertainty, rewriting limiting beliefs, communication tools, learning to value conflict and how to repair after conflict, parts work, emotional awareness, how to listen, asking better questions, + more.
One thing I have appreciated about your approach is you focus on what you want the solution to be instead of just focusing on the problem. I have found that rare and a skill people often have to learn. It can be easier to focus on what we don't want at times instead of what we want. Sovereignty requires us knowing what we want and diving into radical responsibility--something that can feel less safe without personal mastery tools alongside the practical ones.
I agree with Christopher Alyssa, this is good stuff, and the very kind of thing that turns me on. I can see that you have really put some thought and effort into the very area that I think is vastly underrated. So glad to know that people of such quality are interested and willing to be a part of our wonderful movement.
This is good stuff. Have you written about it, or are you planning to?
Thank you and yes. I've written and spoken about personal growth topics like these off and on for years in a few different forms. I haven't written about them in a way where it is targeted to an audience explicitly interested in voluntaryism.
Up to this point, I've approached it from the lens that these skills are good for any human relationship and I feel that anyone working towards greater self-accountability and agency has the potential to make ripple effects in their individual world that can end up impacting their community. I'm starting to see a good fit for pieces with specifics for people interested in freedom/voluntaryism.
This certainly resonates with me. So much terminology carries baggage of one sort or another, coining new ones often is a sign of a new way of thinking and seeing things.
It's a great set of ideas. Some of these ring a chord with me. For example, I am working in Colorado with a group of parents who want to provide homeschool and day school facilities for kids in the 50 mile radius around Nucla where a corrupt town council put a huge cell tower next to the schoolhouse. Also working on a social media platform, Axiom, which uses a system that is impervious to censorship. Secure Perimeter Institute is the name I have been using for teaching communications and privacy and data security. Freedom Renaissance film studios is the working name for a freedom oriented production company based far from Hollywood. Since 2011 I've been actively building mutual aid response teams. Happy to help.
Very impressive! This kind of thing makes such a difference. It is an inspiration.
Thank you for your kind words
True and well deserved words in my view.
This is exactly the sort of stuff!
What excuse did they use for the cell tower?
Interesting story. They didn't. They refuse to release the records relating to their perfidy even under the open records act. The town clerk who got the big bribe (in my opinion) has left town along with her family for less irradiated places. Fifty year contract, so the grift goes on a very long time. Story on it here: https://l5news.substack.com/p/in-from-the
So gross!
First steps must be taken even if second or final steps are not known. If we learn to face uncertainty then rigged offers of security will be less alluring. You mention a need to carefully disengage from current systems.
One approach is to stop demanding solutions, but instead demand only two things. To stop causing problems and an end to all privileges of secrecy for any office or institution claiming authority. This Empire of Chaos is built on failure. It will evaporate when it no longer creates despair.
We must make introspection popular then approach each other honestly with humility.
Have challenging conversation with doctors, pharmacist, and policemen. Ask them to consider what limits their own conscious will allow. Challenge them to draw personal lines in the sand.
Order will emerge by satisfying human needs.
"Order will emerge by satisfying human needs."
—That's all people really want.
"First steps must be taken even if second or final steps are not known."
—Right on. A good plan now is better than a perfect plan next week.
Agreed!
I like this Mark, great thoughts and approach.
People who have a higher tolerance for uncertainty require less of a plan spelled out from A-Z and can tap into the creativity of shaping the next step. In conversations around this topic I can sometimes end up feeling put in the position of needing to know everything about tomorrow, today but I've realized that's when I have to step back and reorient or get curious about the person in front of me because at the point they are asking for a complete plan, they are already wanting us to offer them safety. I love your point about introspection too.
Right on!
🔥
I'm using the words interchangeably, so the mnemonic applies to both the seed phrase or the password. And we won't stop our badgering. We'll keep you posted as to how this thing transpires over the next six or so months, so you've got some time to undertake some research.
😎🙏🔥💪
So it's satoshis that you hold at the moment, rather than bitcoin. That's okay, it's still early days, and hopefully these written exchanges might interest you to swim out of the shallow end.
Next stop on that train ride: convincing my wife.
RIght now as Robert has mentioned Bitcoin is in a slump due to the fact that as world fiat currencies are dying the dollar has been manipulated to be the "cleanest dirty shirt in the laundry basket of currencies" and weak hands misinterpret this fluctuation, even gold is down because of it. These are the weak hands that are dumping because they think they may be safer in cash. The smart money is buying on this dip. Look at this:
Some facts from my friends at LearningCrypto.com
Sitting in cash is not "safety." It is a guaranteed mathematical loss of value. Bitcoin is the only asset fast enough to outpace the debasement of the dollar.
- The S&P 500 took 17 years to do a 10x.
- Bitcoin has done a 60,000x in 14 years.
Supply Shock: In the last century, the money supply has increased by roughly 1900x.
Since 1913: The US Dollar has lost over 96% of its purchasing power and it is accelerating. It is shocking how much in purchasing power it has lost just in the last 20 years.
Don't let the headlines scare you out of the only exit door.
What structural event should we watch for that will cause Bitcoin’s recent dip to bottom out and it to start climbing again?
I doubt that it will stay down long. There are those who are taking advantage of this dip which reached as low as 60,000 per BTC at the height of the recent panic. Because of these large purchases it has already recovered to $69,468 as of Saturday night and will probably range higher by Monday. What will really bring it back up strongly is when one of more of the big banks go bust which could happen by the end of March, a decision by the FED to ease rates and increase liquidity, or a big surge in price inflation. Anything that makes it clear that the dollar is in trouble and having all your assets in it is actually riskier than bitcoin despite its periodic volatility. What most do not realize is that we are still in the early stages of adoption, much as the internet was, but there will come a time when a flood of fiat and even gold will be flooding into it.
This is useful info; thank you 🙏
Welcome, as always. Glad to give back whenever I can.
Good idea - maybe ask her to watch this 3 minute video:
https://youtu.be/jLAHnNdqJMk?si=_8A6w_ViF2_8wjlN
All the best
I tried to watch it with my wife twice, but we are visiting her parents, and even three minutes of quiet have not happened yet 🤣
I think you'll both watch it when the time is right. There's a saying in Bitcoin - in keeping with its mysterious and enigmatic nature: 'People get into Bitcoin at the price they deserve.'
Great question. The biggest hurdle is taking the plunge into a wholly new and initially frightening way to carry out transactions. Other than that, all anyone needs to do is, first, learn a bit about how it works, and then set themselves up with a bitcoin account - something that can be done for free - which can then generate a bitcoin address for anyone who also uses bitcoin to send the BTC to. Like anything new it requires some work to learn about it - both conceptually and technically - and it can be imposing to start with because it involves learning an entirely new vocabulary and having a modicum of elementary proficiency in IT or computer stuff. But it's well worth the investment, can become totally engrossing, and even better, you'd be watching your holdings increase in value, unlike watching the purchasing power of your bank account go down with the rate of inflation.
Do you like hardware or software wallets?
Just to supplement my comment: Software wallets are great for everyday transactions, such as via a mobile app, but they shouldn't involve more than a hundred bucks or so - an amount that would be bearable to lose. Any more than that - i.e. your bitcoin holdings - need to be kept (or rather the keys need to be kept), on a hardware wallet. The wallet stores the keys - the keys to the BTC stored on the 'Blockchain'.
Where should one keep one's wallet? In a safe? A safety deposit box? Under a dragon?
I would say keep it in a drawer or cupboard. Even if someone stole your wallet they wouldn't have access to your keys - your password - unless you were silly enough to put your password next to your wallet.
So where is best to store one's password?
The best place is in your head. The second best place is through the use of 12 mnemonic words: words which can be written down and kept somewhere safe - i.e. out of the public eye - because only you know what each mnemonic word represents.
Good advice! I carelessly put too much in my software Exodus account on my computer and had quite a bit stolen despite having a pretty secure setup on my computer. My larger accounts were supported by a hardware wallet and weren't touched.
That's right. As soon as someone's holdings reach an amount that would be very painful to lose, that is the time to get the keys to them onto a hardware wallet.
Has to be a hardware wallet - one that stores your private keys. Software wallets are all potentially hackable.
Beautiful! Right along with my thinking.
Do you see this starting as one settlement in one location or people coming together in multiple sites? There is a group doing this, Return to the Land, who have of course already been labeled racists. A problem I forsee when thinking about like minded folks moving near each other or sharing a piece of land is the the people who are interested in this are the types who value independence to a point where cooperation in different endeavors is a hard sell. How wiil we establish cooperative relationships without it turning into a comune? I figure this will be entirely unacceptable to most free thinking freedom lovers.
Our particular project is not looking to form territorial enclaves. It is a “distributed nation”—a diaspora of people who have chosen to loosely cohere around a set of shared principles. In the early going at least, there will be no territory, save each individual person’s property or sovereign space. And that ought to belong solely to that person.
You are right that people in the freedom movement tend to be more independent by nature. But that’s okay—people can form larger projects organically, as they wish. No central control. Just emergent order.
I lived for a time in "Consciousness Village" in the Sierras that was owned at the time by Leonard Orr the father of rebirthing. There was much I really loved about being around people who were open minded, spiritually oriented and cooperative. It was also a beautiful environment and lifestyle. However at some point I had to move on because of the fact that it was missing one element, personal space and what I would call "sovereign space." I also was still working on my own personal responsibility and self reliance issues.
What I think might help the conversation and promote understanding would be for you or any other interested people to state any reservations you might have in respect of Bitcoin. There are so many misconceptions around Bitcoin - for instance that its just one 'cryptocurrency' among all the other 'cryptos' out there - and plenty of these can be quite straightforwardly addressed.
I stated my big one already—something about purely electronic money gives me the heebie-jeebies. I am not anti Bitcoin by any means. And I know that I already use mostly electronic money. But the thought of not having something tangible as an option feels odd.
But since we’re on the subject, did you address the energy usage question (which I did not actually ask, but am curious about).
Hi. 1/ Your first comment reminds of people who started out saying about communicating online or through emails that there was something that gave them the heebie-jeebies about not corresponding in actual hand writing. Times change, and we either move with them or get left behind. 2/ Tangible - there are plenty of people who say that they prefer gold because it can be held in the hand, whereas bitcoin is ultimately just a series of ones and zeros. That feeling is understandable, but I'd ask anyone who owns stocks or shares, or for that matter who has an online bank account what's tangible about it? 3/ As for energy, yes, mining bitcoin uses a lot of energy - although not in fact a great deal more than a lot of other things - but unless you're involved in mining bitcoin - something which is now confined to dedicated companies - you use no more energy than using the internet. I'm not aware of anyone who objected to the internet when it came out and started to be used on the grounds that it used a great deal of electrical energy, just like the telephone. Like fire, we humans were blessed to be able to use our reasoning and experimental skills to utilize natural sources of power. And if bitcoin - the neutral, ethical money for the world - gains worldwide adoption then the energy used in this process will be far less than that used by governments funding endless wars with infinitely printable fiat money.
You do have a gift of getting to the core issues Robert! You have a high frequency mind able to see so much more than those on a cruder lower mental frequency and so are able to "see" things that are invisible to their current consciousness. This is actively promoted by the dark powers to what they see as their advantage over us peons. You have also obviously taken the time to gain an understanding of this issue. I am sooo glad that you have connected with us here on the Freedom Scale!
Thanks Hat. You know what they say: Takes one to know one.
Yeah, I gotta say, you do make a strong advocate for BTC!
I wish I had gotten in earlier!
Believe it or not, it's still very early
Absolutely! However I can see I've met my match regarding this very important area. Thanks.
This something that I am vitally interested in as well. I have had no bank account now for 23 years and if it were not for bitcoin these years would not be nearly as abundant and easy for me as they were after I got into it. For a distribited nation like ours all over the world wanting to support and exchange with each other digital currencies are vital as they are permissionless, international, uncensorable and inflation proof. Not that bitcoin will be the best for us, a privacy oriented coin like Monero which also ensures anonymity may be much better. As it can be moved around almost instantly anywhere in the world means that black markets and ways of moving them in and out of the main stream financial system as needed will exist. If the world wide web goes down then the ability of our distributed nation will find it very hard but probably not impossible to communicate and exchange with our distributed participants around the globe. The Goldback is a very promising innovation in that each "bill" contains a valuable amount of gold giving it intrinsic value. As for the energy question that is a scare meme that has been thoroughly debunked and with a bit of research I can find several articles that demolish that argument against bitcoin. I don't recommend having all one's assets in one form. Goldbacks, silver coins and bars, even non perishable tools and materials, developed material skills are also recommended to the self sufficient person.
I agree with most of what you say here, Hat, apart from your comment about Monero. It's true that Monero is more private than BTC, but the benefit of that is offset for me by two things: 1/ BTC is tricky enough to use already, and Monero adds another layer of difficulty; 2/ The most valuable thing about bitcoin (like Monero) is not so much its privacy - governments usually always find ways to find out who's involved in something - but rather its unconfiscatability. Add to that that the BTC network is far larger than Monero's and for me that makes BTC the winner.
You are quite correct Robert, it is why I don't presently hold any Monero, although at one point I had thought to have some laid away there as it has proven to be so resistant to hack or track. However what you said about the size of BTC is what gives it so much intrinsic value in a way. Spread across so many jurisdictions and competing entities makes it much more stable, and highly distributed. I never have done KYC on my holdings and do not use exchanges only distributed services to use it for my needs. Those who want to control us can discover we use it, but they are not all seeing, at least yet. I seem to have a screen of invisibility that has served me well over the last thirty years or so.
So Bitcoin is not an energy hog? What about AI?
Yes, Goldback is making a product - a product which presents itself as a store of value, a unit of account, and a medium of exchange. That's 3 things right there that make it a currency, even though someone might choose just to buy one of those beautiful notes in order to save it, for its beauty and/or as a store of value. The only way banks would start to treat them as cash - i.e. as currency - would be if Goldback became the new standard currency, which would necessarily involve a return to the gold standard. Why the gold standard worked so much better than anything that had gone before was that any currency issued had to be backed by an equivalent in real physical gold. This constrained governments to spend within their means - like the rest of us try to do, if we're sensible. Bitcoin works so much better than gold though, because it has a fixed supply (far more fixed than gold or any precious metal has), does not rely on any external custodian to look after it, and can be transported anywhere in the world along with you (unlike property) by the mere fact of having twelve English words memorized in your head. It's a free, open source gift.
Yep, all of that is pretty groovy. And if it becomes deflationary, it can split, right? Is that how that works?
Absolutely, bitcoin doesn't need to become deflationary it is. I have watched it grow quite predictably to many hundreds of times in value against fiat, and you can buy as little as one "satoshi" which is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin. Of course at present that is even less than a tiny amount of one worthless penny. Goldbacks will always have some intrinsic value until a large possibly hidden quantity is found or mined or made by nuclear powered transmutation using free energy from the zero point which again I think actually exists but suppressed knowledge.
Just to piggyback on what Hat says here - yes, bitcoin is deflationary because only 21 million bitcoin can ever be issued. That limit was built into the program created by Satoshi. This is the opposite of fiat currencies - i.e. all world central bank currencies - because there is no limit to the amount of currency that governments and central banks can print out of thin air. This infinite printing is inherently inflationary.
It makes sense to avoid the pitfalls of fiat, for sure!
But I guess there is something I am still fuzzy on. There is a degree to which a currency supply needs to expand. If the whole money supply is 10,000 seashells and the population and economic activity grow beyond the ability of that currency to serve as an effective medium of exchange, more seashells are needed. How does Bitcoin solve this problem?
If it is a matter of people using ever-smaller fractions of Bitcoin to buy a loaf of bread, then the currency is infinite, in a sense, isn't it? Infinitely divisible into smaller fractions?
Also, while we're at it—if the currency is limited to 21 million, then what exactly is being mined? I would have thought that whole 21 million would already be owned by someone…
Sorry for making you give me the 101s!
Not at all - you ask away, and you pose great questions. I'll take them going backwards. What are being mined are new bitcoin, and the amount that can be mined by miners halves every four to five years - an event known as the 'halving'. At this rate the last bitcoin is projected to be mined in about 2130, i.e. in a hundred plus years time. You actually have the right idea as to what would need to happen if or when, say, 1 BTC equals 10 million dollars. On that calculation one satoshi will be worth a dime. How could you then buy something that cost less than a dime? Remember that the total amount of BTC that can be issued is 21 million. This limit is vital in order to maintain its standard of value. So what can be done? Just as you suggested - you BTC natural - satoshis will then be subdivided: into 'microsatoshis' or whatever it will be called.
Thank you 🙏🏻
But does not not, in a sense, make BTC like fiat? More cannot be created, but it can kind of be created by subdividing it infinitely…
Another very reasonable question to ask. It isn't like fiat because fiat is like a cake that expands in order to create or produce more cake. Whereas in the bitcoin analogy the cake remains the same size but is divided into smaller slices. In the second case no more cake is being created.
Exactly!!
You're right, I do love bitcoin - I love the promise of it, the promise of 'freedom money for 8 billion people'. Also, I don't blame you or anyone else for seeing the value - literally the 'store of value' - involved in Goldback. Moreover, I give credit to the people at ‘Goldback’ for having the courage and fortitude to start up a new company, and I wish them the best. As far as I can see, the set up involves holders of the Goldback currency using actual physical notes to transact with other people who are also in the network, particularly vendors. This places severe limitations on the use of Goldback as far as forming a new currency system is concerned. If Goldback aims to move over to a digital form at some point – so that people can transact in it at a distance – then that effectively means that Goldback will be a digital currency backed by gold. What happens then to the company? Do they presume to oversee this entire monetary network? Won’t a government want to intervene at that point? Also, what happens to the gold that backs the currency? Surely it ends up where it always does - in centralized vaults, controlled by those who control those vaults, and once again another vital aspect of people’s lives is outside of their control. Gold ultimately failed as a global monetary network because it is difficult to transport and difficult to verify. All in then, I commend Goldback for trying something new, and a Goldback currency note would indeed function as a store of value – unlike fiat currency – but it could only work as a new monetary network if it became digitized, otherwise it could only work within localized communities that elect to participate in it. Why there has to be an ‘either-or’ is for the same reason that each country uses only one currency to get paid in and buy things with, and it wouldn’t work any other way. For the same reason, there cannot be a 'free market' in currencies.
Seems to me that there are other ways it can work, though. Valaurum and Goldback don’t seem to be trying to run a currency. (As far as I know…) They are just making a physical product. People buy them.
So then maybe banks start treating them just like they would cash. You can deposit them. You can have a checking account (or perhaps a credit card) based on them. I mean, that certainly could be an alternative way it could work (even if you do not think it is ideal).
Thanks for replying. Yes, it's true - bitcoin relies on the internet and ultimately on electricity in order to work. Of course, the same limitation, such as it is, applies to 'goldback'. The problems for me are that: 1/ Gold-backed currencies have been tried before - in the UK and the US for example - and they didn't work because the countries involved found that they were constrained in the amount of currency they could issue. This is no doubt a good thing, because it prevents countries getting into unmanageable debt and financing endless wars. 2/ Gold has to be stored somewhere, either in one's own home, which is obviously a security concern, or a bank vault, which means that it can in theory be confiscated - which is what FDR did in 1933. 3/ Gold has to be assayed to check on its purity. 4/ Gold is very difficult and costly to move around. Bitcoin has none of these limitations. The other important thing to bear in mind is that Bitcoin is the ONLY cryptocurrency that is decentralized - all the others have a founder, and a company behind them. The fact that Bitcoin is decentralized is PROOF that it cannot be a Ponzi scheme - there is no Mr Ponzi - there is no company, no CEO, no registered address, no shareholders, unlike 'goldback'. Bitcoin - the most democratic form of money ever created - is maintained by all the individual users of the network, and no one, unless they have your 12 word password, or can scam you into parting with it, can take your Bitcoin from you.
RIght on Robert, you really get it! I was an early user of a now defunct electronic money called egold. It was backed by physical precious metal in an audited off shore account. And for awhile there was a way to easily convert it to dollars or other fiat. There were vendors who sprang up by which you could send money by Western Union with egold. I had a money making website where I could accept egold for content. Unfortunately like poor Mr. Nothaus there was a physical address, person and metal for so called "governments" to confiscate, sue, jail and destroy with some pretext which of course at which they excel. Bitcoin solved that problem making it much more resilient and resistant to any specific jurisdiction to control. WIth Nothaus' Liberty Dollars they were scared that this might become an actual currency and they jumped all over it. Confiscated the silver backing even from people who had already sent their fiat to order LDs and put Mr. Nothaus in jail. All on a flimsy pretense that a ten year old should see through.
Hi Hat. Great to see someone else agreeing with me about this. Let's see if perhaps together we can gain some more converts.
Amen Robert! It takes someone who appreciates taking personal responsibility for the things most people lay off on second and third parties and never bother to do their own research on. Vital things that matter, like their health and their finances and who they should trust and those they should not. We trust in the math which never lies not in men we don't even know from Adam. We trust because we verify which is the way bitcoin works and the control is always in our own hands. The lazy and distracted will never take the time to learn how to do this safely and securely and they will pay and are paying the price as the dollar melts away to nothing. Bitcoin has more than held its value and thus I through only converting what I need in the moment and careful management have more than kept ahead and beating the inflation tax as well as most of the others. If there are people who can appreciate the real meaning of bitcoin and how it relates to the real meaning of "money" it should be the people drawn to this cause of liberty. Nothing has done more to destroy both liberty, peace and prosperity than the crooked financial scam most people live under.
Exactly Hat. That's why bitcoin fits in very well with the society that Christopher is trying to delineate in his work.
Thank you Robert. It has always seemed to me to be a perfect match and a necessity for a worldwide distributed "nation." If we are ever seen as a threat to the ptbs you know what one of the main means of attack will be financial, and if you are involved in the establishment financial system you are very vulnerable.
Thank you too Hat
What are the hurdles associated with businesses choosing to accept Bitcoin for their goods and services?
I'll let Robert tackle that one for now. I don't want to write about how I personally shop and use my bitcoin without divulging personal identifying information (kyc aml) on this open forum. Suffice it to say that there are a growing number of major retailers that you can buy from presently using certain methods, and most of the items I order, especially the more expensive ones I purchase with bitcoin or litecoin. I keep some in litecoin when I am ready to purchase because it is faster and cheaper to use for this than bitcoin.
I definitely appreciate what Satoshi did for us!
Re: Goldbacks.
Yes, they can be deflationary. Though you can also do silver and other metals, which reduces that effect.
The Valaurum process makes Goldbacks even harder to counterfeit than cash—I do not think assays would be required any more than we start pulling apart dollar bills now.
Goldbacks can also be represented digitally, through credit and checking, so it is not necessary to carry and store lots of them.
Ultimately, I do not think it should be either-or. A free market in currency can only help.
I'm glad that you're aware of Satoshi, but I'm not sure if you appreciate 'him' or 'her' or 'them' enough. And that's the first clue as to what makes Bitcoin fundamentally different and more valuable than 'goldbacks'. Goldbacks is not a decentralized currency, if you go on the Goldbacks website - which should itself sound the alarm - you will see that they talk about 'who we are'. Only if and only once that absolute difference is grasped will it become apparent that there has to be an 'either-or', and that a 'free market in currency' - what we have at the moment with disastrous fiat currencies - can only hurt.
And looking at the history of Bernard Von Nothaus' Liberty Dollar you know what is going to happen if Goldbacks ever start to threaten being used as currency or "money" because there is a readily identified "we are" to attack, intimidate or destroy. I know it really burns the controllers where it hurts that they can't take this easy approach to destroying bitcoin, as it has gotten past the vulnerable early stage. It must be very frustrating for the control freaks that there is no central authority or vulnerable point of attack.
Institutions are now buying it up in large quantities, though, or so I have heard …
100%!!
I get it. (And I get that you love Bitcoin!)
The fact that someone has to manufacture goldbacks is okay, in the sense that once they are purchased and out in the wild. Valaurum, Goldback.com, whoever else, have no control over them. I get that it's a failure point (they could stop manufacturing them, for example). But electronic currency has failure points too. Everything does. I personally would love to use gold/silverbacks for everyday cash transactions.
Here's my suggestion for something that's missing, and which might help. What's missing is the monetary dimension - the way that people can transact with each other in a manner that bypasses government control. There is only one currency that holds out this promise, though it's one that may prompt many to came back with some dogmatic assertion such as: 'It's a Ponzi or pyramid scheme'; 'It's a psyop'; 'it utilizes an inordinate amount of energy'; or 'the government will end up banning it'. I guess some will have cottoned on to what I'm referring to, but just to clarify: I am NOT talking about 'cryptocurrency' - I am talking about the original cryptocurrency, the only decentralised cryptocurrency, and which is hence 'unconfiscatable' - I am talking about Bitcoin. It's very surprising to me that people who actually know nothing about Bitcoin will hold forth as though they've got the whole thing worked out. I can decisively refute all the objections I listed above, but it will depend on how open-minded people round here actually are. Anyone?
I hear you.
One thing that makes me uneasy about all electronic currencies is that they are electronic. They are internet and power-dependent.
I fully grant that if the internet or power goes down, we’re gonna have other big problems besides a lack of access to our currency. However, it is one problem.
I like the idea of goldbacks (https://www.goldback.com/). That does not mean I am opposed to others, Bitcoin, crypto, etc. But something about goldbacks appeals to the old-school in me.
Even if the internet goes down bitcoin will still be there on the computers and hardware wallets worldwide. It either will not stay down, will be restored in some places, (almost certainly) or we will descend into a point where we will be exchanging shells (wampum anyone?) or haunches. Losing our bitcoin will be meaningless as there will be no financial system remaining as well. It will all go away Christopher and we will have other problems. If it comes back up even if spotty at first there will be a way to exchange and use it. It is a global currency.
Good thoughts; thank you.
Always welcome Christopher. I hope to do more to support our movement in the future, but at present I love the opportunity to share my thoughts and experience that might be of some help in empowering our people.
Well said Hat, you covered just about everything there.
Thanks Robert.
You have one here already Robert.
Christopher, I liked your post. It would be great if there would be a meaningful network of truly productive and dedicated people.
Six years ago, during the plandemic, I identified those individuals who had the guts to go against the stampede. I still patronize those businesses and communicate at the least with those individuals. Those who went along with the nonsense lost me forever; I no longer patronize their stores, offices, products and restaurants.
May I bring some things out:
1. In order to have productive relationships with productive people, one needs to develop constructive relationship skills. He needs parents, family and friends willing to dedicate themselves to that task. That is something not learned in a classroom.
Furthermore, this concept applies all forms of life, not just human beings. For example, it is not good to separate a kitten from its mother. A newborn kitten undergoes basic training as if it were a Marine recruit. Momcat is a drill sergeant, and if a kitten misbehaves, she says "If you do this again, I will kill you!" Thirteen weeks of this, the kitten is finally qualifed for cathood and adoption.
So, the first qualifiaction is to identify and connect with real people with spirit. Good luck in the United States, as the USA tends to produce zeroes.
2. It is necessary to examine other organizations and societies that have survived over centuries to millennia. This includes Jews and Freemasons. It also includes societies like those in the Orient and Persia.
The goal is to understand what works. How did, for example, Jews and Freemasons start? What type of people do these groups attract? What is the purpose of gatherings, meetings and rituals? What are they trying to accomplish?
3. There is nothing wrong with leadership. Everyone has his area of expertise and some have developed their talents into a profession.
There are times when one leads and times when one follows. There is no permanent position in a flock of geese. One goose has the task of leading the flight for a while, then others lead.
I would guess that the leader of the canine pack in some ways possesses organizational and management skills superior to the others. Leadership also requires awareness of the group's intents and goals.
When it comes to human beings, leadership requires having an operating conscience. Generally, an operating conscience is a severe, disabling handicap in the United States.
Thank you for these very useful thoughts. We must indeed continue to reward people who resist tyranny. (Few and far between here in NY state.)
Do you have any thoughts, or historical knowledge, on question #2?
One thing I can think of: Diasporzied groups (Jews, Armenians, etc.), are good about trying to do business with "their own" whenever possible. This is something we should try to emulate.
When it comes to ritual, I am cautious. We will have people from many different traditions, religions, ethnicities, etc. We mustn't attempt to supplant their own customs. And anything we offer as an overlay (a shared meta-spirituality, e.g.) should probably develop organically.
On #3, yes. Leaders, for a time and purpose, but we must avoid the leader-centric approach, if that makes sense.
Please keep your thoughts coming!
I forgot to add and emphasize that we need to:
2A. First define what we individually value and what our personal interests are. If you cannot do that, relationships are impossible. (It's time for me to do my own essays; stand by, please.)
3A. Leadership is for specific tasks towards specific goals. George Washington wanted nothing to do with rulership. He regarded the Presidency as the cost, and a heavy one at that, of not just doing but also keeping his business.
His resignation in 1783 was so remarkable that numerous coins and tokens commemorated that. In this example, he demonstrated superior management and organizational skills, even if a considerable number of battles and other projects fell short.
His resignation in 1783 was arguably his greatest act, other than his solid military leadership.
That always impressed me. I know he was human and had flaws as we all do, but his courage and integrity was never at issue.
Mail / personal delivery systems will need to be addressed. They likely won't ship (or will drastically limit services) to sovereign "addresses". Technically similar to the way the government doesn't recognize people that have renounced their citizenship and not established citizenship under a recognized government. On second thought, larger scale physical logistics for storage and distribution would need to be hammered out as well.
Yeah, proto-fascist Woodrow Wilson denied mail service to media operations critical of WWI.
That said, I do not suggest renouncing citizenship, sending in announcements of sovereignty, or in any other way poking the dragon in the eye with flimsy sticks. Especially not in the early going. It's a feel-good gesture that accomplishes nothing but raising the likelihood of negative consequences.
Now, if there were four million of us, that's a different matter. At that point, we have leverage. But in the meantime, we build a new civilization slowly and quietly, in the cracks of the old.
Think of the Amish. By 2050, they will be 50% or greater in many rural counties. They just live their lives as far away from the system as they can, have lots of babies, and slowly grow. We need to think generationally. We need to start building. One day—even if it's our children's day—we will have the leverage we need.
And that all said, I do like the way you think. Please tell me what you mean by "larger scale physical logistics for storage and distribution."
After establishing a like-minded/ voluntary community I believe that there would be a “sifting” of people within the community as they established ties to the rest of the world. Some people would gravitate towards being a representative for buying necessary goods that would not be accessible (diesel fuel, paracord, glass windows, cookware, olive oil, steel barrels, etc.) In addition, things produced locally in abundance would require being warehoused in ideal conditions to maximize their potential use. This “sifting” of folks towards this planning and execution would happen (I hope) as it would be doing “the LORDS work” of expanding the capability of the community to expand, not just sustain, as conditions evolve. Haha-sort of like the guys that drive the Amish / Mennonites around and assist with the business dealings between people outside of their community, and as a byproduct of that exposure know all of the right people to make mutually beneficial deals in the future.
I have long had a faith in the market and its ability to organically handle such things through emergent processes. That said, I do not rule out trying to provide helpful guidance in this regard. Or to encourage people to take up vital roles in such a new ecosystem.
I also think we would benefit by trying to do business with each other whenever possible, the way other diasporized groups do.
Yep, some kind of courier or package delivery service will be a primary objective at some point for our people so we can do business peer to peer.
Wow! I do like the way you think outside the box Patch. That is real problem solving that would never occur to most unaware programmed sheep.
Certainly one of my pet peeves. I would love to have no mailbox yet all the online orders need to be given an "official" postal address to receive their purchases. Where I live the USPS is a miserable dysfunctional system. I have so many times had to travel the 17 or so round trip miles to our highway contract mailboxes four times to get my packages because their tracking system is so bad and mostly wrong. UPS delivers right to my door. It will be a happy day of celebration when the Postal "Service" is sold off to UPS or some such. They even try to claim that having a US postal address is an indication that you consent to being a "citizen" who has contracted to be their slave. (in a sense)
I wonder how effective substack's chat system might be as a line of communication: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/019b7cea-e52d-45f6-9b1f-69841d59e31a
Seems chat can be set up so anyone can start a chat on your site, I just clicked that link on mine, not sure if it'll work the way I think or not.
Those of you over eighty (OK, I exaggerate a wee bit.) might remember the bulletin boards from the early days of the net; freewheeling almost anything goes interesting, delightful discussions, seems such could fit in the substack chats.
Just for giggles I searched AIH, to see if and how the acronym was already in use. The first hit was AIH, Alaska Industrial Hardware, a firm I've does a lot of business with over the years. The next nine hits all referenced Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) .
I was just saying to Amaterasu Solar that I really dislike that old BB forum software!
Substack chat's threading is just so-so. Might be a short-term solution, though.
Thanks for checking on the acronym. AHI, though, is what we would really need.
https://www.thebrockovichreport.com/p/why-is-a-showerhead-company-telling
us our water is poisoned?
There you have it, serendipity again. Dr. Geoff Pain just reposted this article.
Horrible!
We have a hardcore filtration system under our sink for this very sort of thing. But I want a well!