Bitcoin taught us that the only sustainable way to filter “spam” is Proof-of-Work. Look at all the communication protocols (SMS, email, etc.) being slowly destroyed without a PoW mechanism. Look at all the PoS “L1 blockchains” that sprang up and died, or are dying. Look at the reCAPTCHA mechanism, which works only because it’s a PoW variant—albeit an impure one; Bitcoin PoW is the purest since it’s backed by quantifiable energy expenditure. I don’t think even Bitcoiners have internalized this lesson well enough. Using SOFTWARE ALONE to fight “spam”, to separate signal from noise, is a losing proposition. That’s the biggest lesson of Nakamoto Consensus. Proof-of-Work is a true innovation that underpins the whole network. JPEGs on the blockchain are not a long-term problem because they inherently lack PoW. Just because you call a JPEG-attached sat “rare” under arbitrary rules, doesn’t mean it’s actually rare. It’s fake scarcity. Fake scarcity is not PoW. One sat will always equal one sat for 99.99% of sats. You only waste transaction fees by playing pretend that 1 sat > 1 sat. That’s not sustainable. The only reason inscriptions have any relevance is because of the market being temporarily irrational, and people chasing pumps and dumps for quick gains. You can call out the hype, but Bitcoin has much bigger fish to fry. JPEGs are pure distractions. Don’t get lost in the distractions.

I don’t think people fully grok the risk of KYC in Bitcoin. KYC honeypots & data leaks are already dangerous in the analog world. But zoom out and fast-forward 20 years into a hyper-digitized, hyper-bitcoinized future, and that risk 10x’s. In the analog, pre-hyperbitcoinized world, if someone gets your family’s name, SSN, and address, what’s the worst the can happen? Maybe they impersonate you. Maybe they sell your data to ad companies. It’s bad, but not end-of-the-world bad. But with Bitcoin — a digital bearer asset — it’s different. Once someone knows your family holds a large stack, you’re a forever target. You don’t get spammed. You get hunted. By North Korean hacker teams and ransomware crews from every corner of the world. Forever. You do not want a target on your family’s back for eternity. Zoom out & think long-term. KYC isn’t just a risk. It’s a ticking time bomb. P.S. Some historical context: KYC was invented before the Internet. Not only has it failed its objectives, its creators NEVER anticipated a world shaped by the Internet & Bitcoin. The ramifications of this outdated policy will be insane in the years to come. A lot of people will get hurt. View quoted note →