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# System prepended metadata

title: 'Is Bitcoin, Bitcoin?'

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# Is Bitcoin, Bitcoin?

*For those of us who don't care about prices: is there still hope for a departure from the fiat world?*

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Most of the real (i.e. experienced daily) problems of the "fiat world" can be summed up in a few words: it makes the human being _less_ safe. As pointed out in the [Unabomber Manifesto](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.text.htm), paragraphs 68 and 69:

> 68. It may be objected that primitive man is physically less secure than modern man[...]; hence modern man suffers from less, not more than the amount of insecurity that is normal for human beings. But psychological security does not closely correspond with physical security. What makes us FEEL secure is not so much objective security as a sense of confidence in our ability to take care of ourselves. Primitive man [...] can fight in self-defense or travel in search of food. He has no certainty of success in these efforts, but he is by no means helpless against the things that threaten him. The modern individual on the other hand is threatened by many things against which he is helpless: nuclear accidents, carcinogens in food, environmental pollution, war, increasing taxes, invasion of his privacy by large organizations, nationwide social or economic phenomena that may disrupt his way of life. 
> 69. It is true that primitive man is powerless against some of the things that threaten him; disease for example. But [...] it is no one’s fault, unless it is the fault of some imaginary, impersonal demon. But threats to the modern individual tend to be MAN-MADE. They are not the results of chance but are IMPOSED on him by other persons whose decisions he, as an individual, is unable to influence. Consequently he feels frustrated, humiliated and angry.

I wouldn't care if my chances were slim, I would fight fiercely. But I can't stand helplessness. The supposed "power" of Bitcoin is that it brings power into the hands of the individual, thanks to its design and its community that surrounds it. In other words, it changes the situation from "helpless" to "slim chances".[^4][^5]

[^4]: Incidentally this is why I don't care if Bitcoin is a [derivative work from a 1997 NSA paper](https://archive.org/download/CryptographyOfAnonymousElectronicCash/How%20to%20Make%20a%20Mint_%20The%20Cryptography%20of%20Anonymous%20Electronic%20Cash.pdf), since the real power of bitcoin nowadays derives from its culture

[^5]: Of course it still has problem (no, energy expenditure ain't one of them), but if the set of values continue to hold I am confident we will mitigate them


Ethereum is the opposite: all the choices made are aimed at giving power to the community, abstracting the concept of power and *de facto* giving it to a few people, increasingly becoming  part of (or overlapping with) the political elite. To date, nearly 50% of Ethereum blocks are currently censored (see <https://mevwatch.info>): how is it possible to argue that the crypto ethos is expanding? Is it still living or do we have just an inefficient AWS-cloud competitor? 

And yet *I will die before I give up my hope for crypto because that’s the only thing I am living for*[^3] seems to be a good summary of what I do believe and what I feel right now.

[^3]: See [this George Hotz post](https://geohot.github.io/blog/jekyll/update/2022/10/13/a-hope.html), where he argues about technology instead of crypto

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One of the most recurring themes in my life is: should I use macOS or Linux? Which is the choice respectively between:  [utilitarianism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism) or personal values (autonomy and privacy above all). Because (new) Apple devices obviously work well and it can be argued that they relatively have the user at heart (e.g. some privacy by default, less ads, focus on security (but not really [privacy-related security](http://www.cs.umd.edu/~gasarch/COURSES/198/Su16/moralcrypto.pdf)[^2])), but they have attached so much baggage that it is difficult to use them: For example it is widely known that [an Apple computer is not yours](https://sneak.berlin/20201112/your-computer-isnt-yours/), this time *really* so[^1], and similar arguments can be made for iThings in general. 

Yet, is ObsucureLinuxDistro the answer? *what's your threat model bro?*

If MacOS and Windows are fiat (the first a functional monarchy, the latter a disfunctional and corrupted democracy), then Debian/Arch linux is Bitcoin[^7] and Ubuntu is Ethereum. *is it true?*  

[^7]: Or should we say Devuan/Artix linux, because *soystemd*?

Note that my question isn't whether Apple is fiat or not, I know it is. My question here is: Is Arch Linux, bitcoin? I'm terrified of going a long way to find an answer and finding out it is the bad one. 

Because, at the end of the journey, I may have find out the answer to the real question: is Bitcoin *Bitcoin*?


[^1]: Stallman for years has decreed the end of personal freedoms with an apple computer, but *de facto* it could not be perceived as true. Only _now_ there are real problems. So can regard him either as crying wolf for too much time or as a seer. 

[^2]: Although I am convinced that "ethical" motivations advanced by others are only one of the possible persuasive methods, and therefore a tactic to exercise power on me, the moral questions of the linked PDF are interesting, especially for (aspiring) cryptographers working in cryptocurrency related field.




