KMA

What if the EU built GitHub?

SAN FRANCISCO 7th & Market st

A video game I played at age 14 helped me learn how money actually works. Here is what I discovered: When I was in my early teens, I spent most of my free time playing Diablo II. Like most games it had its own in-game currency, but the currency was so easy to come by that it didn’t have much value in trade. So players did what humans have always done when their money fails them and found something else to use as money. There was a rare ring in the game called the ''Stone of Jordan'' Ring (the SOJ) that was hard to find and useful enough that people valued it. Although the game designers never intended this, the entire economy of Diablo II started using the SOJ as money. Players started trading gear for SOJs, quoting prices in SOJs, and storing wealth by accumulating them. The in-game currency was all but worthless because it was so easy to come by, but the SOJ was scarce and people recognized it. Although I didn’t have these words at the time: I had just watched a free market select the SOJ as its own money. Witnessing this monetization process left a lasting imprint on my mind that decades later would give me an early appreciation of Bitcoin. Once I understood what was happening I stopped dungeon slaying and started trading, instinctively following the basic principles of buy low and sell high until I had accumulated a wealth of rare items. Then eBay became popular and I realized I could convert all that in-game wealth into actual dollars, and that was the moment something cracked open because people were spending “real money” to acquire valuable items inside a world that did not actually exist. That was the first time the penny dropped for me. I followed that intuition for the next two decades without knowing where it was going and it took one book to give it a name. At 21 I read “The Creature from Jekyll Island” and learned what central banking actually was and the realization was so heavy I put it down, went back to work, and told myself there was nothing anyone could do about it. Without knowing any other path I continued working inside the financial system despite understanding its corrupt core. Then in 2018 I read “The Bitcoin Standard” and the two threads finally connected. The free market digital money I watched emerge spontaneously inside a video game (the SOJ) and the free market digital money I was watching emerge spontaneously in the real world (Bitcoin) were both built on similar principles. The common denominator? People always seek out the best tool for the job. When their money doesn’t work right, people find a better monetary tool. Since the money people choose to hold is a matter of survival in the social world, it is extremely difficult to force people to use an inferior money when a better money is within reach. My philosophical journey into the nature of money started with a video game and ended with a Bitcoin tattoo (my first and only tattoo to this day). To me, this Bitcoin tattoo represents my “skin in the game”: which is a principle of alignment between people and the consequences of their actions. The problem with central bankers and their fiat currencies? They have zero skin in the game. When they print money, you lose value. Their actions, your consequence: this is the misalignment. Bitcoin is the reverse. Bitcoin is a system secured by miners and holders. These incentives n Bitcoin ensure that each person bears the consequences of his own actions. The net result of Bitcoin being a monetary network with skin in the game is that it is money that can never be printed. This is because to create more than 21M Bitcoin would require a majority of users to act against their own self interest. By giving people an incorruptible option in a world running on corrupt money, Bitcoin is one of the most important humanitarian missions in the world. My Bitcoin tattoo is my “skin in the game”: a visual metaphor for my commitment to this humanitarian mission. If actions and their consequences are misaligned, it is only a matter of time before the system blows up. Bitcoin fixes this.

SITUATION DETECTED: GameStop is preparing to make an offer to buy eBay after quietly amassing a major stake in the online retailer. eBay shares rose 10% after hours on the news.