The further I get into my bitcoin journey, the more I look back on the 2018-19 bear as the high-point of bitcoiner culture. Bitcoin felt punk back then. We’d just emerged victorious from the block size wars, price had crashed to sub-$4k, lightning was just getting going, regulators were trying crush us...good times. And, while on one hand, bitcoin has been substantially de-rerisked, open source funding has improved dramatically, the political environment has become more favourable…the culture feels like it has rotted (except for here on Nostr). When I look at the empty mempools and lack of retail interest/search volume for bitcoin (despite basically being at ATHs), I can’t help but think it is because bitcoin has lost its counter-culture appeal in the eyes of most people. Between hyping MSTR and its myriad of clones, simping for politicians and cronyism, ‘strategic’ reserve bs, we’ve gone from suits not wanting to associate us because bitcoin is just used for drugs and terrorism dontcha know, to regular people not wanting to associate with us because of all the suits. Feels like a kinda shitty timeline tbh.

Listening to this 1979 talk by the late psychologist, Nathaniel Branden. Though the topic is how libertarians can unwittingly work to undermine their own movement, it all equally applies to bitcoiners. What starts as earnest and principled can so easily become performative if we don't engage in constant self-reflection.

Bitcoiners make fun of goldbugs a lot (and often for good reason). However, gold is still the only other asset that it really makes sense to own. The kind of asset you would feel comfortable holding if you knew you were about to go into a coma for a decade. Gold is the perfect compliment to bitcoin in a portfolio. The tail risks that could make bitcoin go to zero are twofold: political and technological. The tail risk that could make gold fall is that bitcoin's tail risks don't materialize.