Build The Bitcoin Economy on Nostr

In my last blogI wrote about how Bitcoin is not a belief, but applied elliptical curve cryptography. It is not a circle, but keys are like a half circle with squiggly lines. Nevertheless, it is common to hear the Bitcoin economy described as a circular economy. One of my favorite writers of bitcoin philosophy, Knut Svanholm, does not like this term. He says there's nothing circular about it. He knows much more about math than me, so he's probably correct, but I like the term because it creates a nice visual.

The Casino Economy

We will first use the shitcoin casino economy to contrast this Bitcoin circular economy. The shitcoin gamblers don't care much about the second sentence of the Bitcoin White Paper:

"Digital signatures are part of the solution, but the main benefits are lost if a trusted third party is still required for spending."

The majority of bitcoin traders are gamblers who treat bitcoin like a casino chip. They deposit their money with the casino like Coinbase. This casino doesn't have some old lady wears a vest and a visor. They automatically deposit casino chips in your account. it's not a revolution. It's accounting. They gamble like someone betting 100 bucks on hard eights. These chips, the coins they shill only have value in the coinbase casino. Chips from the Bellagio have value at the Bellagio. Therefore, you can use to play blackjack at the Bellagio. Shitcoins can be used to bet on a line going up or down like red or black on a roulette wheel. Try and use these same chips at Cesar's palace, and you'll probably receive a wellness check.

Assuming you have all your facilities, you would never try to buy an energy drink at Walgreen's in Las Vegas with a Bellagio chip.. Walgreens accepts credit cards, debit cards, and paper portrits of presidents and the guy who invented spectacles. The casino chips are a token not money or accepted for payments anywhere except for the casino.

How Most People Use Bitcoin

As much as I hate to admit it, most people with an account at a cryptocurrency casino treat Bitcoin like a casino chip at the Bellagio. They do not sell fiat like the ride or die freaks and computer geeks who know the difference between hexadecimal and binary, how many days until the halving what the total supply of bitcoin will be in the year 2032, or how to live on zero fiat.

People who do not take custody of their bitcoin do not own Bitcoin. They trade BTC for USD like a game of chance. Instead of drawing a card at poker, they draw the Bolinger band and bet on whatever this computerized oracle supposedly tells them. Bitcoin is not a revolution for these people. It is late stage fiat. If their currency collapsed, they would think they got rich until they realize the USD they were trading for is not a very good store of value.

As celebrated as the Bitcoin ETF's in the US were, they are not peer to peer electronic cash, but merely chips at a bigger Casino. Like the Bellagio chip, this Bitcoin cannot be spent at Walgreen's. They never consider buying a Walgreen's gift card from Bitrefill or Visa gift card from The Bitcoin Company. They think nostr is a boring, decentralized version of Twitter. They do not recognize it as a Galt's Gulch Online with an online marketplace, and an Internet which is not controlled by corporations--corporations that are controlled by government.

gold/real estate

They don't see bitcoin as a new system. They use it in the old system. They want real estate built with fake money. They buy bitcoin or the thousands of other cryptocurrencies in the hopes of obtaining more dollars because the American dream is dead. They never think to price homes in gold since 1971. Stay proud, gamble sats.

Gambling is nothing new under the moon. In the Bible, Jonah was on a ship in a big storm. The sailors thought they could calm the storm by throwing a man overboard. They chose the man to throw by throwing lots, an ancient dice game. Jonah drew the short end of the stick so to speak. As the story goes, he ended up in the belly of the whale. He was saved by the grace of god. Maybe the story is true, maybe it isn't, but that's not the point. The point is to teach us ancient wisdom from ancient people. As Jordan Peterson says, Pinocchio is a different version of the same archetype. Maybe you don't believe in Jordan Peterson because he doesn't recognize your preferred pronoun. Maybe you are pro pronoun, maybe you are anti-pronoun. Who cares? You are focusing on the current thing, the thing the media wants you to focus on. It's the fiat matrix, "the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth." You are told bitcoin is for criminals and money launderers. You are told real estate goes up in value, but you are not told houses cost less ounces of gold then they did in 1971. You argue about whether or not we need to decrease the gender wage gap, but forget one person needed one job to afford a house, a car, and food when money was backed by gold.

The point of the story is gambling can get you into trouble. The wisdom of the ancient people tell us gambling is a bad idea, you're better off saving your money. The problem with fiat is that it forces you to gamble because you can't save it. Sure, you can keep your bullshit pay in a savings account that pays 0.01% interest, but that's not going to help you save for a house. The price of housing goes up faster than the price of wages. You either gamble or you are guaranteed to lose.

Much of my youth was misspent gambling. I was profitable, but it came with great opportunity cost. I could have spent that time learning to code, writing a book, or starting a family. I bought poker chips instead and constantly tried to turn them into more fiat.

I understand why people gamble on crypto. I understand why they get scared when crypto casinos like FTX steal their money. It has to do with that second sentence of the Bitcoin white paper again. The one thing I would like to tell these people is Bitcoin makes it possible to save again. It makes long term saving more profitable than gambling.

The Bitcoin Circular Economy

![nostr market(https://i.nostr.build/V387.png)]

The bitcoin circular economy is using bitcoin as peer-to-peer electronic cash instead of bitcoin. It is an economy of people who no longer price bitcoin in fiat, but price everything else in bitcoin. If more people thought this way, there would never be a need for so many people to keep their bitcoin on casinos. They could just save it and watch their ability to buy more stuff over time sans any crazy casino blow-ups. That means there is no honey pot for unscrupulous dorks like SBF to steal.

Bitcoin becomes something you use to buy things with. You buy beef with Bitcoin because everyone needs to eat. You buy pins from BTC Pins because the look cool, and hats from Bitcoin Hat guy to cover your bald spot. I believe Bitcoin needs to get off the exchanges and into the hands of the people. Not only will this be the best possible outcome for the BTC/fake_money charts, but it will be better for humanity.

You don't need to buy dollars to “take profits”. You can just spend your bitcoin to buy things you want and need. As the value increases, you can buy more thins, but you'll find you don't want many of those things anymore. The question is, how do we do that?

Shop With Sats

It is now possible to get paid in Bitcoin and never send it back to an exchange, but much of this is sending your sats to a middle man. I'm certain they need to sell these sats for dollars to convert them into ars to pay your mortgage. I don't have a problem with this. I belive using services like bitrefill are still good for Bitcoin because they keep their profits in bitcoin, but that's not what this blog post is about.

There are Groupon like apps like Oshi that are awesome, It's a good spot to find Business like the Bitcoin beef initiative that accept Bitcoin for everyday goods and services. You can buy coffee and beef with it online, even if no shops around you accept Bitcoin. You can find brick and mortar Bitcoin accepting business by downloading BTCMaps on F-Droid, the App Store or Google Play. The Orange Pill App now has a similar feature on the site. Sell collectibles on scarce city, or sell junk on sats crap. I'm sure there are more places that accept Bitcoin as payment, but they're scattered throughout the Internet and not easy to find.

These services and apps are great, but what we really need is a decentralized marketplace. I am aware that darknet markets exist, but that's not what I mean. We need a bitcoin version of Facebook Marketplace. A place where you can find a wide variety of goods and services.

Nostr Marketplace

It just so happens such a market place exists on nostr. There are three options I am aware of:

plebian.market
shopstr
LNbits Nostr Marketplace(requires the nostr extension)
The Amethyst App.

Say you have some used underwear to sell. Post it on plebian marketplace. That was supposed to be a joke, but now that I think of it, I bet there's good money in selling used underwear. Nevertheless, it's this really cool corner of the Internet where people can sell stuff for Bitcoin on nostr, an emerging marketplace. We are so early. There is not much stuff on there yet, but we need to promote it. Look. Here's the thing. People are tired of you telling them to buy Bitcoin. Use my link so i can get a few thousand sats. Go to this exchange, Watch the fiat news to see the BTC/fake_money charts and the next exchange collapse. Panic sell your sats. Rinse and Repeat.

I have some bad news for you. That's not helping bitcoin adoption. That's giving most people who don't have the ability to save another option to gamble. Some small percentage of these people will realize they are slaves like Neo in the Matrix and follow us down the rabbit hole, but most neurotypical people will get scared and sell their Bitcoin before experiencing their first halving. So stop telling people to buy bitcoin.

Teach them how to earn, spend, and save bitcoin instead. Have them download the Fountain app. Have them listen to your favorite Bitcoin podcast and earn sats while they listen. Send them a few thousand sats Get them used to the idea that Bitcoin is no a poker chip, but electronic cash. Warn them of the risks of trusted third parties. Teach them this is not their Bitcoin until they send it to a wallet in which they control the keys.

Help them create nostr keys. Have them write down the 12 words and keep them somewhere safe( I use amethyst, I don't know how you back your keys up). This also good practice for learning how to use BIP39 words when they eventually buy a Cold Card too. Now they are on nostr, If they have something to sell, they also have a way to accept Bitcoin without being an IT wizard , getting a business license, or taking a selfie.🤳Android users can use Amethyst to add stuff to the nostr marketplace. Now they have the ability to earn Bitcoin as they learn Bitcoin.

Shop Nostr Marketplace

It's very early, but I want to see less complainy-pants Bitcoiners comparing nostr to X-Twitter and more Bitcoiners using nostr to sell stuff for sats. You should also encourage others to do the same. Most of the stuff people sell will kinda suck at first, but as we progress, it will get better. There's already some quality stuff like socks or LeatherMint belts

Let's work to increase Bitcoin adoption by shopping and selling on nostr. Have a wife who's really into arts and crafts, but tired of hearing you talk about how Bitcoin is going to the moon? Why not have her sell some of her Cricut creations on nostr? We can't wait for hyperbitcoinization to happen by encouraging Bitcoin gambling. We will get more Bitcoin off the exchanges if we get it into the hands of The People by bootstrapping a robust bitcoin marketplace.

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This blog is sponsor free, but I created some v4v ads to promote the use of bitcoin as a payment solution. These are word of mouth ads designed to promote the bitcoin economy.