Monday, January 11th 2021 - Issue #904

The deplatforming will continue until our systems improve

The big news over the weekend was the banning of Donald J. Trump from Twitter. Something many had been expecting for quite awhile but, nonetheless, was still shocking to see happen in real time.

Trump's ban was quickly followed up by Amazon and Apple moving in loose coordination to ban the social media company Parler from leveraging their services. Preventing the app from operating due to lack of access to servers and one of the most popular app stores in the world.

Facebook banned Ron Paul from accessing and posting to his public page on the social media platform. His support for a foreign policy that prioritizes non-intervention and peace via fair trade was inciting too many domestic terrorists. I'm also hearing reports that he has exhibited wrong think when commenting on COVID-19 in the past.

Before banning Trump, Twitter suspended the account of Sci-Hub at a crucial time for the platform. Sci-Hub a digital library that allows individuals to access scientific papers and textbooks for free. Sci-Hub's founder was in the process of collecting comments on Twitter to prepare for a court case in India brought against the digital library by a band of publishers. The account suspension may prove to be a coincidence that pays dividends for the litigious bunch.

If you look around, it is evident that the big tech companies are feeling emboldened at the moment. Using the leverage they have over their users to remove individuals and whole companies from accessing their services. Cutting off whole swaths of people from the increasingly important social and economic networks that have been built in the digital world. Your Uncle Marty thinks these actions are going to lead to externalities that the big tech companies aren't counting on as they currently pat themselves on the back for saving the sanctity of our Republic. Actions have reactions and the big tech companies may not like the results of the reactions that are inevitably on their way.

Again, these moves come as no surprise to people who have been paying attention to the growing trend of people getting booted from social media platforms and payment processors. Woke Capital has been eating the world for the better part of a decade. Even though these actions were expected, they should be taken very seriously. If this trend continues as it has, Bitcoin will eventually find itself in the crosshairs.

The playbook will be the same and they have already tested out narratives against Bitcoin throughout the years. Bitcoin's early years were filled with individuals being warned about associating themselves with the network because it was used by drug dealers on the Silk Road. A new archetype is emerging as the most likely candidate to join drug dealers on the list of "evil bitcoin users" in the near future; the "domestic terrorist".

Those who have been de-platformed and deemed "the other" by the mainstream elite will turn to Bitcoin for its inherent utility in times of desperation and Bitcoin will be labeled "the currency of the domestic terrorists". They'll sprinkle some "Bitcoin is literally boiling the oceans" on top of that entree and force feed it into people's minds on repeat.

If you freaks have been reading this rag for long enough you'll understand that this is nonsense. Bitcoin is a distributed messaging protocol that doesn't understand who is using it or what they are using it for. And the miners producing blocks for the network do use a lot of energy, but if you take some time to understand the most common energy sources used to mine bitcoin you'll come to find that the network is slowly but surely making the world more energy efficient.

The value created for society by that distributed messaging protocol coupled with the efficiency gains being created by miners in the energy sector should be enough to justify Bitcoin's existence. This seems like something that should be pretty cut and dry. However, we live in a world that is driven more by fear than objective truth at the moment. Things aren't so cut and dry in this reality.

With that in mind, nothing should be taken for granted. Complacency isn't an option. As jb55 points out, we are one internal uprising away from a world in which Amazon has banned users from running the code that allows individuals to enter the Bitcoin economy on its servers. This is why running your own node on hardware you control is so important. If Bitcoin wants to be resilient in the face of social attacks, it needs as many people as possible running nodes. It needs to survive "The Mass Unplugging".

Uncle Marty hopes it doesn't get to that point. I'm hoping for sensible and earnest conversations about the benefits Bitcoin is providing today and can potentially provide society in the future. But that's not something I'm going to count on. Especially taking into consideration the way things are trending at the moment.

Who knows? Maybe this type of confrontation is needed to further solidify Bitcoin's resiliency in the eyes of the market. If the network and those building on it survive a mass unplugging by the big tech companies and world governments, it would prove the network is sufficiently secure for global adoption.

Final thought...

We used to crawl through long dirt tunnels when I lived in South Carolina. Very insecure tunnels with tons of dirt on top of them. Not the brightest idea.

Looking to buy bitcoin with ease? Download the Cash App, use the code "stackingsats", get $10 and Cash App will send $10 to our friends at OWLS Lacrosse.

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Marty's Ƀent - January 11th, 2021 - Issue #904

The deplatforming will continue until our systems improve

Older messages

The Sat Standard - Bitcoin Weekly - Jan 9 2021

Marty's Ƀent - January 8th, 2021 - Issue #903

Marty's Ƀent - January 7th, 2021 - Issue #902

Marty's Ƀent - January 6th, 2021 - Issue #901

Marty's Ƀent - January 5th, 2021 - Issue #900

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