The Ol’ Switcheroo

Every passage, on the record.

1. 00:00Reference

   Get yourself a copy of the story of Civilization. This is the book series, I think there's 11 volumes in total, 13,500 pages written by Will Durant and Ariel Durant.

2. 01:00Analogy

   It's like if you didn't think that The Matrix was real and you just stumbled onto this book, The Matrix is absolutely real. The same story over and over, the same shit happens all the time, the same consequences every single time.

3. 01:38Claim

   The universal constants, they are the immovable objects that force others to adapt to them.

4. 02:49Claim

   Prior to Bitcoin, the most difficult thing to do was to switch teams in the middle of any of these confrontations, like one side that is great and channeling generally better than the former.

5. 03:20Analogy

   In physical disputes where trust is required to channel the energy necessary to become the dominant energy wielder, it didn't make any sense. You couldn't risk the negative possibilities of allowing deserters into your camp. And if you are Genghis Khan and you are roaming the plains of the Far East and you're looking to dominate the world, is it worth the effort to take on deserters from previous camps?

6. 03:20Reference

   If you are Genghis Khan and you are roaming the plains of the Far East and you're looking to dominate the world, is it worth the effort to take on deserters from previous camps?

7. 03:55Quote

   Imagine if you could just say, "I'm going to switch teams." I think it would be good if I could just tap out now and immediately join the other side.

8. 04:26Claim

   If I could easily, if I saw 99% of the battles take place, I could recognize 99% of the way through the battle that I could switch and I could pick the winning team.

9. 05:02Claim

   Individual entities inside of an economy, they couldn't easily shield themselves from the negative repercussions of an ill-advised policy or political choices made by their overlords. They fucked up, you fucked up. You were subject to it.

10. 05:34Claim

    Bitcoin has its doors permanently open. It doesn't matter how many times you defy it, it doesn't matter how many times you call it a Ponzi or you call it Tulips or you tell your friends it's going to zero. None of that matters. It's not going to dislike you any more than it already does.

11. 05:34Idea

    Bitcoin has its doors permanently open. It will back you with 100% of its energy. All you have to do is simply plug it into the system.

12. 06:36Claim

    For the system that is able to channel energy more effective than the previous system, it doesn't matter what it is, what the names are, those are abstractions. The bet is, can this thing channel energy more efficiently than the previous system?

13. 06:36Idea

    For the system that is able to channel energy more effective than the previous system... the bet is, can this thing channel energy more efficiently than the previous system?

14. 07:11Claim

    Every single time they've won. It's happened 5,000 times. And that's just the part that's written down. It's happened 100,000 times. Everywhere you look, anything that can channel energy more efficiently than anything else wins. It takes all the energy from everything else.

15. 07:43Claim

    So if I'm life, I don't give a fuck about the weaklings. I want the weaklings out. I want to take all of their energy that they've managed to bag up... I want to give to the winners. Why? Because the winners are going to create more order. They're going to generate more information. And that's all we're doing here, is creating more information.

16. 08:45Analogy

    Imagine an army where every battle won, it actually increases the size of the loyal population. You aren't making lifelong enemies with every single stroke of the sword. But they're unwavering supporters. That's what you're accumulating. Who will not defect unless their trust is violated.

17. 09:46Claim

    Every single story in history, what happens? Trust is violated, we defect. Somebody said something, didn't turn out to be true, they didn't follow through with their word. Whatever it is, it all goes to shit. People lose trust.

18. 10:49Analogy

    You've got an army, it's in the middle of the Pacific, you're on an island that hasn't been contacted for 10,000 years. The most advanced weaponry, the most advanced energy delivery system is what? Sticks and stones. Who shows up? The US Navy... Do you want to switch teams? No, no, I'm not going to switch... except for one dude. You're like, can I get any chance of a revote?

19. 11:24Quote

    Can we get a recount of the votes? Because I'm going to change mine. I'm going to be on team ass-kicking energy distribution networks.

20. 11:55Claim

    It's a fixed supply of the amount that I contribute is what I get in return. So, I'm basically laying the foundation of the pyramid of value that comes on top. And every single level that is added on top of mine I benefit from.

21. 12:26Claim

    It might get a little sticky and uncomfortable for everybody that thinks that Bitcoin fixes everything. In the long run, it just might. Right? Maybe. Maybe it does.

22. 12:26Claim

    We haven't had a story play out like this where you had a new universal constant that couldn't be broken. That you could agree to a set of rules. And those rules can't be changed.

23. 12:59Claim

    The kingdom is code-based. And everyone that joins can audit the code. Even people that don't join can audit the code. You can see the rules that are in place at all times, by all people, inside of the system. It can't be broken.

24. 14:02Quote

    They will work all their lives for a tiny fraction of the Bitcoin that you have managed to accumulate. A tiny tiny tiny tiny fraction.

25. 14:02Prediction

    As information grows, the Bitcoin haves will have more than any haves class ever before it. And the Bitcoin have nots? Well, they'll have more than they do now. But nowhere near as much as the haves. And that divide will explode in the near term.

26. 14:35Claim

    As information grows, what grows alongside it is the burden of knowledge. To get up to the same level, to understand all of the information necessary, to be able to compute that information, that gets more and more burdensome. That requires more and more energy.

27. 15:08Claim

    Unlike past versions of this matrix, where if you didn't have canons or some other way to channel energy in a novel manner, it took decades for those people to face the consequences of that choice. But as information velocity increases, so too do the result of that information, the spread will become so immediate.

28. 15:42Event

    Look at something like the banking collapse. Last year, Silicon Valley, $42 billion pulled in a day. Why? Because the friction is being removed from the system.

29. 16:02Reference

    Information is getting faster and faster, and the spread getting further and further out into the extended order.

30. 16:30Claim

    Each one of those energy networks improve the future prosperity of those who chose to embrace it. And the early adopters gain the most by taking from those that had the most to offer in the first place.

31. 16:30Analogy

    What does a network of rivers get you? You can do more with less because you can harness the gravitational energy of pushing boats along the streams. What would I do with that excess energy? I would look to the fattest, dumbest target I could possibly find. That's been other people. It's a honeypot, those people.

32. 17:35Reference

    This is something that Jason Lowery, space boy talks about in his thesis, which is it's that benefit of cost to attack ratio. If you want to get ahead quickly in the game of scarce resource control, what are you going to do?

33. 17:35Quote

    What's the best tactic? You look for the slowest prey, with the weakest defense that also happens to have the largest energy reserves.

34. 18:12Analogy

    If I've got a rifle and everyone else has spears, what's the strategic play that makes sense for me? I could walk into the town square, let everybody know there's a new way to channel energy, and start picking off a few of the peasants one by one. Or I could not tell anybody that I've got this thing, and I could just take one well placed shot at the top dog.

35. 18:44Claim

    With Bitcoin, it doesn't look like the traditional energy networks that we are used to. If it did look like what has come before it, it wouldn't actually work. It has to be unrecognizable. The spoils go to those that recognize the power before anyone else.

36. 19:19Quote

    One of the greatest characteristics of Bitcoin is that it can turn an enemy into a friend in a split second.

37. 19:53Claim

    This is the first chance to be able to switch teams with near zero friction.

38. 20:26Analogy

    Now that we know that this thing exists, the genie isn't going back in the bottle. If the genie isn't going back in the bottle and it can't be killed, it's going to win.

39. 20:57Quote

    You shouldn't be listening to this podcast. I have no fucking idea what I'm talking about.

40. 21:28Reference

    Can I get myself one of those little, what do they call those shields in the Dune series? Like the little personal protectors. You just beam it up and all of a sudden you have this impenetrable shield around you.

41. 21:28Analogy

    There are times where you can get in your own head and Bitcoin seems super complicated and you got to think of all the nuts and bolts. You have to take it apart, examine, break it down. Does this thing work? Yes it does. Okay, put it right back where I found it. Now let's do the next one.

42. 22:08Reference

    Or you could just left side of the bell curve this whole thing. Just go whole hog into Bitcoin and forget about it.

43. 22:08Claim

    Every single time that a new energy network comes online or is discovered, guess what? It doesn't win by a little. It takes all of the resources, everything, all of it. There's no more for the people that embrace the old technology. They get zero. They get washed away.

44. 23:09Claim

    If we could just find a way to not screw anybody, that would be fantastic.

45. 23:43Claim

    Anytime anything comes along that channels energy better than everybody else, the easy way to do that is to just find out what's going on. If you're not going to do that, you're going to have to be able to get on that side and wait until it outcompetes everything.

46. 23:43Prediction

    We're so far down the line that information travels so much faster that you might actually get to see that change in your life.

47. 24:16Analogy

    Even something like oil. It took a minute and a lot of hard work to be able to benefit if you were right on the oil game from the very first, let's say year 15 of the oil revolution. You couldn't get any of the upside with no work.

48. 24:47Quote

    All we need is your energy. We don't even need you. We just need the energy.