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Freedomain with Stefan Molyneux

5508 How to Explain Bitcoin!

Freedomain with Stefan Molyneux

Stefan Molyneux

Pacifism, Freedom, Philosophy, Liberal, Atheism, Objectivist, Conservative, Objectivism, Democrat, Libertarian, Anarchy, Joe-rogan, Politics, Republican, News & Politics, Atheist, Freedomainradio

4.72.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2024

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"I have trouble explaining to people why the genuinely decentralized nature of Bitcoin along with it's totally anonymous conception (in the sense that we do not know who made it) are central to it's superiority not only as a cryptocurrency but as a means of exchange and as a savings technology. Can you go over why those two aspects are so unique and important?"

"Stef in a recent question you answered you said that a person should stick to principles. My question is to what extent should a person value principles over virtuous goals? For example you would agree as you have previously stated that it would be immoral for a man to impregnate a prostitute as a prostitute would needless to say be a terrible mother. You would also say that it would be immoral to date a heroin addict single mom for similar reasons, now to clarify I don't want to strawman you so I don't necessarily believe these scenario's are all immoral or if they are just major red flags of dysfunction and that if such dysfunction were to occur you couldn't necessarily ascribe any innocence to such a man that puts himself in such a situation, see your prior answer to the heroin drug addict mother for example. This backdrop leads me to my main question, now I'm arguably in the top 1% of looks and I'm probably also in the top 1% of IQ, so the following question I am going to ask you is completely hypothetical, that said as you are a philosopher I believe you see tremendous value in hypothetical questions. My question is how much do principles matter in a scenario like this: if a man is below average looking, let's say as well he also has below average income and below average salary. For the sake of argument let's just say the man is an elephant man, if you are unaware an elephant man is a seriously disfigured man, see the David Lynch movie 'The Elephant Man' if you are not familiar with the term(a deeply philosophical movie by the way). Anyway back to my question if a man is well below average or for example you can take the extreme example, an elephant man, such a man would understandably find it extremely hard to get a wife, my question is should a man in such a position choose principles over the most important goal of man and arguably everyone's life regardless of whether they admit it or not, which is to have children. Such a man would have very limited choices in regards to women, especially in the 21st century where even good looking guys struggle to get women, such a man may very likely be presented with a choice to have children with a single mom or a take an extreme but in this case a very realistic alternative a prostitute. No men desire to date or especially marry and have kids with a prostitute but at the same time no women want to date men at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, especially if he is also physically unattractive, short and/or in an extreme example disfigured as the result of war or genetic defects. My question is should such a man choose to follow principles and remain lonely and childless or reject principles by having children with a prostitute? This is why I said this question is hypothetical because it is easy as a guy who is good looking like me or a successful guy like you Stef to follow principals in choosing spouses but can we blame a man in such circumstances for not following principles?"

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Good morning everybody hope you're doing well

0:01.5

Stefan mollany free domain questions from free domain dot locals dot com great community come on by

0:07.5

join the conversation at free domain dot locals dot com

0:10.7

somebody rats i have trouble explaining to people why the genuinely decentralized nature of

0:15.9

Bitcoin, along with its totally anonymous conception in the sense that we do not know

0:21.8

who made it,

0:22.6

are central to its superiority,

0:24.6

and not only as a cryptocurrency, but as a means of exchange

0:28.0

and as a savings technology,

0:30.2

can you go over why those two aspects are so unique and important?

0:37.0

Well, the decentralized nature of Bitcoin is something that I'm not sure why it would need to be explained to people, but if I had to explain it,

0:47.0

I would say that decentralization is impervious to centralized control.

0:55.0

Decentralization is centralized, is impervious to centralized control.

1:02.0

So what I would say... centralized control.

1:03.0

So what I would say is use the analogy of two scuba divers.

1:10.1

Now when you're scuba diving, there's centralized control over your air, right, has to come

1:16.6

from your self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, your scuba tank.

1:22.0

So if there are two guys 200 feet underwater, one guy wants to

1:26.5

kill the other guy, he just cuts the air or wrecks the tank or like then he's out of water like you got centralized

1:34.7

there's only one place you get the air from is a scuba you disable the

1:37.4

scuba the guy's gonna gonna die right he can't get to the surface quick

1:41.4

enough we'll get the bend so he's going to die down there in the water.

...

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