Where else will you find someone telling a billionaire to “have fun staying poor!” or someone telling a legend of Wall Street “Ok, boomer!” https://pomp.substack.com/p/bitcoins-information-insurgency To investors, There has been a lot of discussion recently about the bitcoin community’s communication tactics. Insiders believe that bitcoiners are some of the most educated minds on finance, technology, and innovation. They literally can’t believe that so much information is available for free to be consumed by anyone on the internet. Outsiders see something very different. They see a group of people who appear to be religious zealots that only know how to communicate via memes, laser eyes, and aggressive tweeting. Here is the funny thing — both are correct. The bitcoin community is filled with people who have dedicated years to understanding the intersection of multiple disciplines, including economics, finance, technology, cryptography, geopolitics, game theory, and many more. Not only have they acquired the knowledge, but they have had those ideas tested in the intellectual arenas of Twitter, Reddit, Telegram, etc. Simply, bitcoiners have done their homework and they come prepared. But bitcoiners also have a very unique way of communicating with people. While there are podcasts and email newsletters, much of the information is actually shared through internet culture. Where else will you find someone telling a billionaire to “have fun staying poor!” or someone telling a legend of Wall Street “Ok, boomer!” To the outsider, this appears to be disrespectful, non-constructive, and a misstep for a group of people who are hoping to gain widespread adoption. These outsiders are put off by the bitcoiner antics at times, while believing the community will be the single point of failure in other situations. The outsiders don’t understand the genius of the bitcoin community though. Bitcoin, and by proxy the bitcoin community, is competing with the most respected establishments in our society. Whether we are talking about the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, the US government, or large financial institutions, these organizations pride themselves on being the elite. They wear their suits and ties with an air of arrogance that is only acquired after an education at an Ivy League school and enough cocktail parties to fill a lifetime. So why would bitcoin try to out class the elites? Well, it shouldn’t. Just as an insurgency increases the odds of prevailing on a combat battlefield by employing non-traditional tactics, the bitcoin community has chosen to play a game that the elite can’t participate in. Bitcoiners are conducting an information insurgency. They are quite literally controlling the public narrative through an overwhelming amount of content that has no reliance on traditional distribution methods. Up until recently, the only time that journalists or television shows wanted to speak with bitcoiners was to ridicule, mock, and attack them. The bitcoin community ignored those short term challenges and instead built a direct relationship with the mass population. Twitter. Reddit. Telegram. Podcasts. Instagram. Facebook. Email. You can’t exist on the internet for 24 hours without coming in contact with content that is created by this community. So why are things like laser eyes so important? Easy — the memes are the message. You are watching information warfare conducted in a way that can’t be responded to by the elite and the establishment. What is the Federal Reserve going to do? Start firing off memes, gifs, and ALL CAPS BULLISH USD TWEETS?? No chance. The incumbents, from the government to the Fed to the banks, can only sit by passively and get bombarded day in and day out with the content. If they choose to acknowledge it and respond, they will only legitimize bitcoin and the surrounding community. If they continue to ignore it, bitcoiners will control the public narrative and continue recruiting more and more people to see their world view. This is fascinating to watch because this information insurgency will likely be analyzed in retrospect as one of the most important psychological operations in human history. Millions of strangers on the internet are coordinating to meme a financial asset into retail investors’ portfolios, corporate balance sheets, financial institutions’ product roadmaps, and eventually central bank reserves. Wait, what? Yes, read that again. The bitcoin community is using internet culture and speaking the language of digital natives to gain traction against the stuffy elites. Half the people running these establishments don’t know what a meme is, let alone have a coherent response on how to deal with what is happening. In fact, many of the older folks in the bitcoin community are against these tactics as well. They constantly tell bitcoiners that they will have to wear suits and ties to meetings. They explain that bitcoin won’t be accepted until the laser eyes and memes go away. The alleged toxicity is seen as a bug, not a feature. But regardless of what insiders or outsiders say, bitcoin continues to gain traction through the information insurgency. This is because ultimately institutions, regardless of how elite or traditional they are, will always be made up of humans. Those humans are susceptible to human psychology. Everyone wants to be accepted by the cool kids. They want to have fun. It pains them to see young people running laps around them, while their bosses are telling them to remain calm and stay above it all. That isn’t how the internet works. The young people inside these organizations and establishments know that. Go talk to the interns and entry level positions at Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, the Federal Reserve, or any political office. They’ll all tell you the same thing when the door closes — they’re bitcoiners and they have a pseudonymous account on Twitter. They’ll explain how they are trying to get their bosses or older colleagues to see the future. To see the bitcoin way. So what the institutions don’t understand is that the bitcoin community has already won. Bitcoiners have infiltrated their ranks. They are the trojan horse. Each bitcoiner is rising in the ranks. They’re gaining power and influence. The institution may not know it, but there are wolves in the hen house and the institutions let them in! We have bitcoiners who have infiltrated the Senate. We have bitcoiners who have infiltrated Congress. We have bitcoiners everywhere. Regardless of their role, they are participants in the information insurgency. For example, we have Senators and Congressmen who have laser eyes on their Twitter profile pictures. We have people reading the terminology “shitcoin” into the Congressional record. Have fun staying poor. Drop gold, buy bitcoin. Pay me in bitcoin. No keys, no cheese. Long Bitcoin, Short the Bankers. The virus is spreading. Each meme carries a psychological impact that continues to recruit new bitcoiners. The establishment can’t respond. They can only complain, which makes them look even more archaic and out of touch. Who cares what they say, right? If they step out of line and take an anti-bitcoin stance, there are millions of bitcoiners there ready to pounce with a barrage of information, examples, memes, and gifs. Frankly, it is unfair. No one should be asked to fight against this insurgency. Bitcoiners are too powerful. They don’t rely on gatekeepers. They don’t need the media’s permission to speak. Bitcoiners control the narrative. Bitcoiners have bigger audiences. Bitcoiners grow bigger, stronger, and more decentralized every day. You can’t kill an idea, especially one who’s time has come. The information insurgency is upon us and the legacy institutions, and their leadership, are outmatched on the battlefield. Good luck to them. They’re going to need every ounce of it as they continue to be beaten down by the intellectually and creatively superior challengers. Nobody has more fun than bitcoiners on the internet. I’m just proud to be a small part of this amazing community. Hope each of you has a great weekend. Talk to you on Monday. -Pomp
Well done Johnarb. This is everything I have ever wanted to say to everyone that thinks I'm crazy for my investments. It's been a long journey, and it hasn't been easy with everyone including family telling me "i'm on a road to failure." But I embrace it. It's been a very rewarding experience these last 6 months and not because of the profit, but because of sticking with what we believe in. I welcome all the newbies in this space, the maximalists who have been here a while, the short and long term traders, and even the haters that, "Care about my own good," lol. Cheers
The revolutionary zeal of youth is what defines every generation, for good and for bad. The French Revolution ended royal entitlements and murdered thousands. The 60s ushered in the Peace movement in reaction to America's wars in far off lands, while the 70s morphed it to its simplest form, sex and drugs and rocknroll. I'm not sophisticated enough to understand Bitcoin, although I thought the underlying ledger system was what revolutionary, not so much the coin. Certainly, it feels like things are about to change, maybe spurred on by the Bitcoin community, or maybe by those who are threatened by its consequences. I don't mean personally threatened, but threatened by the ramification to the global financial system. We do have to consider a couple facts that may just be a side hindrance to the advent of this great revolution. One is, we may not like them all, but our politicians (at least in democracies) are elected; by the people. In effect, they represent our plurality of opinions. I don't see anything to even remotely address democracy in your pamphlet. It's important, because democracy is what allows the system to evolve according to all, not just those who believe they're smarter than everyone else and know better. Our global financial system needs review, I guess. Because... because why? It doesn't protect the wealth of the wealthy, with inflation and all? Or is I because it's inefficient and Bitcoin will reduce the number of pecking at asset transfers? Or is currency exchange the inefficiency culprit? I'm still not sure what Bitcoin seeks to optimize that isn't just in the interest of the wealthy or those getting wealthy mining it. The energy demand to make bitcoins! Wow! No joke... Now I can see the cost, just not the value. Except for the speculative value of course. I just don't see the transformative proposition that Bitcoin et al. brings to making the world a better place for all. I see people getting insanely rich and spending insane amounts of money on NFTs because, why not. It reminds me of the new rich Chinese and Russians buying the world's properties because, why not. I'm hoping that somewhere down the road someone will provide a simple explanation to help me and others understand what brilliant evolution Bitcoin is, and how it will change the world without throwing us all in another war.
Oh I get the original point, that something has value because someone is willing to pay for it. I dont get the other, that something has value just cuz I say so, dumb shit. The irony is that the same people who shit on Tsla day in, day out can turn around and find no cognitive dissonance in the BTC argument!