When the bitcoiner you were becoming is no longer the person you need to be

Given how quickly time flies in the bitcoin space, weeks quickly become months, months become years, and years quickly become epochs, and before we realise it, everything has progressed and what we absolutely thought was the most important thing is no long even on the radar. This process could also be viewed in a similar way as that theoretical frog in the cold pot of water, focusing on the everyday, likely fiat demands sucking our time, the world, particularly the bitcoin world can move very rapidly. This has been the case for me, looking back 6 years, to a time when my ankle had been newly fused into a poor facsimile of its former self, I struggled with a limp prone 5k run during lockdown, and I was forever being told that we would once again reach the highs of 2019, maybe even returning to 20k that we reached in 2017. This was a wild time, if I could just reach ‘X’ bitcoin, or depending who I listened, maybe even ‘X/3’, I’d be a millionaire some day, and this asset was the answer to all my prayers that my fiat financial advisor could never dream of answering.

This was the early phases of my bitcoin journey, I was still very much fiat minded, even if I was beginning to learn this new word, “fiat”, but it was the asset, with all sorts of complex shenanigans going on behind the scenes, where computers were doing “something”. Given at the time, I was continually being distracted by the siren’s song of the 20X gain of shitcoins, with their associated snake oil utility, even if bitcoin was always the major holdings, I simply didn’t have the bandwidth to explore what bitcoin was and why it was still as big as more than 40% of the rest of the “crypto eco-system” combined. Fortunately, in the depths of the 2022 bear market, I finally read the bitcoin white paper, and with the coincidence of its content, the background of my own studies and potentially some sole searching as bitcoin hovered around $15k, for months, I began to answer the ‘why’ bitcoin questions myself. While others may have had rug pulls, the podcast from the gods or just a stern talking to from someone they respect, I imagine this is not a unique route into the world of being bitcoin only, even if not a bitcoin maximalist (whatever that may actually mean).

For me, this process started a journey straight down the bitcoin rabbit hole, that began with preparing a conference paper (which was rejected), before finding some other outlets, that while in no way “peer reviewed”, did allow some feedback, and avenues for me to find my voice (holy crap that sounds lame). Either way, through the process I went from the ‘bitcoin is the only digital asset’ definition of maximalist, to the bitcoin is ‘the only money and what I save in’. Unfortunately, at the time, I had no realisation of the position I had arrived upon; bitcoin was the asset, I was saving in this asset, and maybe one day, I’d have enough and maybe begin to sell/spend it. I explicitly thought, I’m not a criminal, I’m not a cypher punk, I’m not a dissident, I’m just a normal guy looking to save the value of my time and effort in a money no one else can debase. In hindsight, all I can see it someone very pleased with themselves that they have “discovered”, maybe from first principles as least, something many have already come to the realisation of, bitcoin is gold, 2.0, great to store value, and move into the future.

Interestingly, while the initial revelation of what Bitcoin (the network) was, including mining, the protocol and nodes helped me understand how bitcoin was different from every other “coin”, where I had arrived upon was all about bitcoin the asset. However, while the bitcoin price was in the gutter at this time, and this was the type of support I likely needed, since this carefree, sort of post covid era, the world as a whole was gradually moving, in a concerted effort towards a drain. Things around the world, with the onward march of digital IDs, oh sorry, for the safety of the children (who can simply have their phones taken away from them and made to surf the internet in the kitchen), and forever more ID being taken from parties when I ask to withdraw “my assets” from an exchange (DAC8, cheers Francis Pouliot). While extreme cases, these are two emerging issues that highlight that it doesn’t matter how much bitcoin might be worth in fiat terms, there will be so many restrictions and surveillance that, to paraphrase Thomas Pacchio , we may well be rich, but we’ll also be depressed.

Again, hindsight is a wonder thing, if it is possible to remain clear headed, but looking back, the path we have taken to this point has had so many markers that should have raised alarms and disturbed the store of value maxis. Whether it was the clamping down in the distribution of Covid-19 ‘misinformation’ or the willingness to both invoke and then class as terrorists those who did not align with the broader mandate (e.g. Canadian Truckers), the bitcoin’s and information sovereignty’s (Nostr) value proposition, outside a fiat exchange rate, became glearingly obvious. Alongside this continued march of moves that made the room 101 rat cage feel like Orwell didn’t go far enough, the attention of so many of the more “fiat inclined” bitcoiners was actually on the fiatization of bitcoin. While the Alt season of 2020 and 2021 did not return, the lure of the bitcoin treasury companies emerged with MSTR in 2020, with the promises of “out-performing” bitcoin, that reached its very temporary peak in 2025. In combination with this distraction from the bitcoin message, the much anticipated ETF approval in 2024 allowed access to the asset of “trad-fi”, where all those accounts that had been locked out of bitcoin could suddenly “gain price exposure”, as a store of value. 

Michael Saylor, love him, hate him, or as I am now, just a little disappointed, has worked hard to fiatize bitcoin, allowing fiat to gain access to bitcoin exposure and use every tool in his arsenal to crank this up to 11. In a similar way to the ETF allowing pensions and 401K’s to access bitcoin, so has MSTR, but it has only provided access to price exposure to the store of value, not Bitcoin the network. MSTR and the ETF have meant that when someone has learnt about bitcoin, they have reached for these products, without asking the question of “what is money” and “what is bitcoin”, they have simply been provided the answer, “yes, I own bitcoin”. From an overly naïve perspective, one might say that so much buying pressure has been “good for the price” (fiat store of value), without providing holders all the benefits one can realise from actually holding your own keys. If this was not enough of a morning chorus to wake you from your slumber, Michael Saylor, someone who may still own the originally purchased 10k bitcoin (maybe 17k now), may hold them on a Trezor and hopefully run his own node, but has definitely not bought an ice cream* with them and then worked out his capital gains bill (to my understanding). While his intentions are appear absolutely related to maximising his fiat company’s value and its fiat gains, he may believe he’s in the right, supporting individuals’ in their fiat lives, working within the fiat system that supports MSTR. However, when he mocks the cypherpunk origins of the bitcoin community, labelling them as “Paranoid Crypto Anarchists”, he may have crossed a line and shown his true colours.

For the boomer with the healthy retirement account, ready to blindly plough a solid 5 figure sum into a stock they have no understanding of, such labels couldn’t be further from their realms of their understanding. Bitcoin might as well have been sold as “investing in distributed ledger technology, enabled by a hashing algorithm, secured by SHA-256 cryptography”, whichever way, the boomer would have looked like a deer in headlights, ready to return to their comfortable S&P 500 ETF once they heard Michael Saylor’s phrase. Please prove me wrong, but MSTR and the ETF have not been a gateway drug into bitcoin, just an unfortunate distraction. To answer the simplest question, would the adoption of bitcoin in self-custody be higher or lower without these entities, and if it was higher, would more people be in a better position than they currently are? But also, is being a paranoid, crypto (well, let’s instead say bitcoin) anarchist be such a bad this?

A lot more of a bitcoiner that an “MSTR head”

Following the previous 4 years where I have hopefully progressed from “bitcoin is the best store of value”, I feel ever increasing affinity with other burgeoning paranoid bitcoin anarchists. What has the past 4 years done to me? I no longer believe anything “the science” says (show me the studies), I have grown increasingly contemptuous of all things political, alas, they are simply gangsters in suits, and now, unless I anonymously post something on a peer-to-peer communication protocol, transmitted by relays, I feel I’m headed for the gulags (being UK based). I am paranoid, there is no two ways about it, there always has to be a voice in the back of my head when I venture onto Twitter and write a reply, to say, “think before you post”. And then, more than once I year I get letters from HMRC (I feel a twinge from my stomach) telling me I’m in the wrong, I owe something, even though I’ve done everything I thought I should, again, I’m paranoid. Now let’s look at the third word, I think I’m fine with the abolishing of all forms of involuntary authority and the state. I did not agree to pay taxes for benefits and wars that make my world less functional, I do not agree for them changing what types of courts can operate or what constitutes a gender, when they simply placate their lowest common denominate electorate (Thank you @theguyswann).

Finally, it is the second word, bitcoin, that brings these two together. I no longer have to be paranoid about how the next raft of “support” for which ever bullshit cause the government is borrowing for will crush my savings though inflation. I also no longer have to be paranoid about whether they will start extracting taxes directly from my bank or whether they’ll turn off access to my bank all together, because I spoke the truth a little too clearly. I’m then fine with being an anarchist, which is not total, arch-anarchism as discussed by the extropians (note, I had to change my VPN location to access this), but simply a direction towards more anarchism and less involuntary authority and state. If I have money outside the state, I no longer need identification to access my money and I no longer need state infrastructure (central bank and banking rails) to facilitate all this tomfoolery (please feel free to replace tomfoolery with theft). 

So, I’m not going to say I was wrong when I discovered bitcoin was simply a form of better saving, but viewing this as a starting point. Being able to save can provide assurance and ability to have a lower time preference, and so start to look around a little more and see/comprehend what is happening. Over the last 4 years, this has not been an enjoyable process, but rather than being ever more terminally black piled into a life of hedonism and nihilism, opportunities for action can be identified. While previously, I may not have seen myself as a cypherpunk, I now message, post and communicate with greater levels of privacy, so I’m more cypherpunk. I may also not have seen myself as a criminal, but as my view of the world continues to development, I realise I’m not the one who may make this classification (HMRC always wants to fine me), I may one day be deemed criminal for the thoughts I have, the money I use and the people I choose to communicate with. These are choices I’ve made, and decisions I’ll continue to live by, there are risks, but as long as I use the technology available and remain in cypherpunk mode, with my store of value secured in a way that even a full on assault cannot put at risk, I can remain unfazed, on THE HARD PATH.

So, in 2022, I saw myself as the saver bitcoiner, putting the value of his time and energy away for some point in the future. Now, this is not enough, what will I spend my savings on, if all too soon, the only bitcoin that can be spent will be that stored in the government approved account, that limits everyone to 0.01btc, but denominated as 100k Britcoins? In 2026, I need to be paranoid for their next move to remove my liberties, privacies and rights as an individual, by using technologies to continue operating as a sovereign individual, supporting voluntary exchange wherever possible, outside of the purview of the state. Today, I am a paranoid bitcoin anarchist, but I’m not going to retreat into myself, tearing myself apart with worry about what may happen in the future, but working to prepare my sovereign technologies and an exit plan, that will allow me to continue making my choices. Whether it is living within a digital citadel, with minimal “tax/state cross section” (no HMRC, I will not share amounts with you) within the oppression of a nation state dungeon, or moving to pastures new, the choices are still available, but I will have to keep them available.

Stay frosty, stay alert, look for and notice the next attack vector, build your stack with minimum exposure and wherever possible, remove anything you have from the fiat, legacy system. If Saylor wants to insult you by calling you a Paranoid Crypto Anarchist, repay the favour by dumping his shitcoin and ploughing whatever remains into cold storage bitcoin, verified on your own node. If he believes digital credit (and an ever-expanding fiat balance sheet) is a great innovation, leave him to it. You’ll be able to buy your pupusa with your real money that you have been able to remove from the crumbling system that wants to fat, medicated, unhappy and sick, enjoying a real world, with real people, eating real food, away from all things fiat. Maybe we only think Anarchism is such a dangerous thing because it’s dangerous for THEM if we understand it’s not.