Bitcoin is Bullet-Proof Property - Jason Lowery, US Space Force Major
Summary of 3 hour SmartPeopleShit episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mbS-F42M84
U.S. Space Force Major and long time Bitcoiner, Jason Lowery1 is interviewed by Dennis Porter2 to discuss his views on Bitcoin, government, power projection, and the military. Jason has been studying Bitcoin at M.I.T.. He is developing a thesis on securing property rights with kinetic vs eclectic power projection.
Jason was chosen by the US Space Force to study Bitcoin at MIT as part of his career training. He believes it is a revolutionary defense technology that will change the landscape of warfare and wants to help the US understand it before adversaries do.
Evolutionary pressures drive warfare, and consequently forces everybody to invest in defense. If a community does not invest in defense, it entices enemies to simply take undefended resources. Property is only property in so far it can be defended as property.
Using first principles, Jason defines power as joules per second (energy transferred per unit time). Nature employs various power projection strategies such as photosynthesis and colonization in the case of plants, or consumption and metabolism in the case of animals. Humans have evolved to use power projection in the form of technology, primarily in the form of kinetic energy.
Humans have two options to protect property; subscribe to somebody else to project power to protect it, or project sufficient power themselves such that no third party is required. Not requiring any third party for property protection is permissionless power projection. Due to how nature operates, there is no option to opt out of either having somebody employing force to protect your property, you employing force to protect your property, or somebody taking your property by force. If we employ somebody else to protect our property rights, we will need to pay a fee to the third party, typically in the form of taxes.
With the advent of nuclear warfare, any form of kinetic power projection would eventually end up with a nuclear stalemate or mutually self assured destruction. Bitcoin gives humanity the option of moving from kinetic power projection to protect property rights to electric power projection to protect property rights. Bitcoin is literally bullet proof in that it cannot be shot, bombed, or nuked in an attempt to stop it, unlike current forms of kinetic power (soldiers, planes, tanks, drones, etc). As with kinetic power, the more energy (joules/second or Watts) that is used in the Bitcoin network, the greater the power projection and stronger the defense of property rights.
In Bitcoin’s proof of work3 system, any control authority can be countervailed by setting up one’s own mining operation. In a proof of stake4 system like Ethereum, there is no option to countervail the control authority because the top stakers will always receive the most rewards, thereby cementing their position as the control authority.
The most valuable property of money is unit of account (which requires the underlying properties of store of value and medium of exchange), and if any alt coin is measuring their value in BTC, then they are tacitly implying that BTC is the most valuable money. Although the USD is currently the defacto unit of account, it is not optimal because the measuring stick is constantly moving due to fluctuating money supply.
If value is held in Bitcoin, which is resistant to kinetic force, then it would disincentivize kinetic war, thereby saving lives and physical destruction. Although other proof of work cryptocurrencies are also resistant to kinetic force, they have a small fraction of the energy protecting it compared to Bitcoin. The Schelling Point5 for digital property protection would thus converge on Bitcoin, which has the most energy defending the network.
It is inefficient to have a standing military, however an unengaged standing military is proof that it works. Similarly, if a country were to attack the Bitcoin network, it would be valuable and important to have the US protect the Bitcoin network with excess “war time” hash power in order to protect sovereign wealth, especially if Bitcoin were to replace the treasury bond.
Major Lowry predicts the US Government will get involved in Bitcoin within 4 years and looks to actively help politicians understand it. It is important for Bitcoiners to support Major Jason Lowry and his efforts to get the US Government educated and involved if we want to see Bitcoin and the US succeed on a global scale.
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A proof of work system rewards users that invest computational power, which requires energy and and ASICs (application specific integrated circuits), in the case of Bitcoin.
Proof of stake rewards users that stake their crypto as collateral with more crypto.
In game theory, a focal point (or Schelling point) is a solution that people tend to choose by default in the absence of communication.