What Does Bitcoin Actually Fix with George Kaloudis - WBD628
The Peter McCormack Show
Peter McCormack
4.7 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2023
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
George Kaloudis is a senior research analyst and columnist for CoinDesk. In this interview, we discuss the validity of Bitcoin ideology. Can it replace governments? Does it promote individualism? Is Bitcoin's distribution fair? Can Bitcoin fix the world? We unpick popular Bitcoin maxims to sift genuine slogans of change from the hyperbolic froth.
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Bitcoin maxims are powerful, persuasive and effective: "vires in numeris", "don't trust, verify", "not your keys, not your coins". These slogans have been the maximalist rallying cries used to champion and defend sound investment principles through many cycles. They have been, are, and will continue to be the bedrock supporting Bitcoin's ongoing resilience. Meme theory works.
However, there are some maximalist mantras that are counterproductive. The "Bitcoin fixes this" slogan is perhaps the one that is more lazily applied than any other. Bitcoiners know that the genius of its design is that it can rectify long-standing weaknesses within the current fiat system. It can make banking fairer for all. Bitcoin, therefore, has the power to fix a lot within our society. But, it does not fix everything. Far from it.
The problem is that "Bitcoin fixes this" has been applied to all manner of issues, which are manifestly not fixed by the presence of Bitcoin. This causes the power of the original slogan to wane, and, calls people to question the validity of other maximalist propositions. Rather than act as an effective rallying cry, this slogan has become a signpost of hyperbolic froth.
It is therefore productive to go back to first principles and query what it is that Bitcoin actually fixes, or, helps to fix. And then, question the other assumptions that people make about Bitcoin. Whilst Bitcoin has tremendous potential to help create a new and fairer system, real change still requires human agency. Bitcoin will fix very little unless we all learn to work, interact and collaborate in new and sustainable ways. Bitcoin helps us fix this.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I think money is an instrument for change, but it's not to change itself. |
| 0:08.0 | And it's a very powerful tool and it depends on who wields it and what kind of change gets implemented. |
| 0:15.6 | If a bad person has good money to make change, they're going to make bad changes. |
| 0:21.2 | Throwing good money at bad doesn't do a damn thing. |
| 0:24.0 | Hello there, how are you all? |
| 0:26.0 | I hope you're having a great week. |
| 0:28.0 | Just want to let you know we're going to be doing a whole bunch of activities in the UK in April. |
| 0:32.0 | We're going to tell you about that shortly. |
| 0:34.0 | But welcome to the What Bitcoin did podcast, which is brought to you by Gemini, |
| 0:37.0 | the only place I'm using for buying Bitcoin. |
| 0:39.0 | I'm your host Peter McCormack, and today I've got George Kaludis on the show. Now George works at |
| 0:43.9 | Coin Desk and recently when we're out in Nashville and we were with Harry |
| 0:47.1 | Sardak he said to us we've got to get George on the show as soon as possible. |
| 0:50.6 | So when we're in New York we did exactly that and we kind of made a bit of a |
| 0:54.9 | reality check show for Bitcoin. As what actually Bitcoin can fix, we got into a bunch of subjects |
| 0:59.8 | from the Fed to politics to governance and democracy. |
| 1:03.0 | So I hope you enjoy this. |
| 1:04.4 | And if you've got any questions about this show, |
| 1:05.4 | anything else, you can get in touch is |
| 1:06.7 | hello what Bitcoin did.com. |
| 1:08.5 | I also want to tell you about a bunch of things |
| 1:10.6 | that are going to be happening in the UK in April. |
... |
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