It has been suggested recently that bitcoin needs a philosophy. All money has natural ties to the culture that it was developed in. That’s why money is almost always stamped or printed with presidents, kings, and queens from the past or in some cases, the present. Even commemorative coins are stamped with an image of a location or national figure, like Amelia Earhart or Mozart. That in turn ties them in a way to the philosophy of whatever nation they come from.
Bitcoin of course is different. It has no nation that it is tied to. Nor does it have a physical form. It’s utterly intangible in that way. However, does that mean it doesn’t have a philosophy?
When Satoshi Nakamoto first invented Bitcoin and blockchain back in the early 2000s he started a revolution. Deploying a decentralized and anonymized financial system allows people to operate independently of governments and central banks. Like many revolutions it began with the idea of putting power back in the hands of the people, of letting them look after themselves.
The Bitcoin revolution differs quite a bit from other revolutions of the past though. While most revolutions at least began with the notion of securing rights for the people, all too quickly that revolution becomes something else. It often happens that the would-be revolutionaries turn the power they just won over to the government they just toppled. Or, even more common, they forget their own principles when they become the ones in charge. Instead of using their new power and freedom to secure rights for everyone, they use it to punish their enemies. So, how is bitcoin different?
Bitcoin does have a philosophy and it is that philosophy that differentiates from most revolutions. That philosophy is to encourage individuals to take responsibility for themselves and their own well-being. Bitcoin and blockchain give people the tools they need to break away from the manipulated and volatile currencies controlled by the FED and other central banks. What’s more, it is a lot harder to corrupt the Bitcoin system. That’s because it has no real leader, no centralized power structure. Because its transactions are verified by separate nodes around the globe, it can’t really be co-opted either. Its philosophy of encouraging personal responsibility remains intact regardless of what is going on in the rest of the world.
A skeptic might be thinking “yeah, that’s great, but Bitcoin is still very volatile”. That depends on your measure. When people point that out, they are usually referring to Bitcoin’s value against the US dollar. That has definitely gone up and down but it only really matters to people who are interested in getting rich by buying and selling currencies. Well, good for them but the point of Bitcoin and blockchain isn’t to get rich. It’s to make the world better by empowering individuals and giving them the tools to improve their own lives.
That’s why TARTLE uses Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency’s philosophy of encourage personal responsibility is fully compatible with our own. While we focus on empowering people by giving them control over their own data to sell or not based on what they think is best for them, Bitcoin gives people the chance to buy, sell, and trade without being tracked and taxed for everything. By putting these too different systems with similar philosophies together in our marketplace, we are doing more than just creating a new data management tool. We, TARTLE and those who join us, are joining a revolution, one that promises to change the way we look at data, money, and our own responsibility over ourselves.
What’s your data worth?
It has been suggested recently that bitcoin needs a philosophy. All money has natural ties to the culture that it was developed in. That’s why money is almost always stamped or printed with presidents, kings, and queens from the past or in some cases, the present.
Jason Rigby (00:00):
You get on fire rolls.
Alexander McCaig (00:09):
Yeah.
Jason Rigby (00:09):
So, I don't want to interrupt you.
Alexander McCaig (00:09):
No. Interrupt me.
Jason Rigby (00:09):
I'm actually listening. I'm like, oh yeah.
Alexander McCaig (00:09):
No. Interrupt.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Welcome to TARTLEcast with your hosts Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby. Where humanity steps into the future and source data defines the path.
Jason Rigby (00:19):
Alex.
Alexander McCaig (00:27):
We're back.
Jason Rigby (00:29):
I've read this really interesting article and I wanted us to talk about it because I know when you exchange your data on TARTLE, there's Bitcoin, and there was this article and it was done by Andrew Bailey, shout out to him, and it is why Bitcoin needs philosophy.
Alexander McCaig (00:45):
Wow.
Jason Rigby (00:48):
And something that he says that I want you to speak to, he says, "When computer scientists research Bitcoin, Bitcoin is software after all. And because Bitcoin uses incentives to shape human favor, it also makes sense that economists should study it too." And so he gets into where there should be a philosophy behind it and understanding... We have a philosophy on money, hard currency. A lot of us have different philosophies. In fact, it's points that's led to us to where, if you look at, I collect silver dollars from Vienna, so it has Mozart on there. Of course, we put our culture and our heritage on those. I just bought some silver coins from the U.S. Mint from World War II. And so now we've got fighter jets on there and all that. So why doesn't Bitcoin have a philosophy? I know it's just a software, but-
Alexander McCaig (01:35):
Actually if you read the original paper by Satoshi Nakamoto, whatever his last name is, it was almost designed first with philosophy. You got to remember, before we do anything, even you or me, we have a general idea about how we want to live our life. Right?
Jason Rigby (01:58):
Right.
Alexander McCaig (01:58):
We have values hopefully, that we want to live by, that would help shape and define us as a human being and also how we're seen by others. And when someone goes to design a piece of software, it needs that sort of philosophy because if it lacks a philosophy, if it lacks a testing idea of life in general, about how we should live, then what's the point of actually creating this thing. If there's no philosophy behind actually trying to better our evolution, then there's no point of using this sort of tool. And Bitcoin, even the idea of blockchain was designed with a philosophy. A philosophy where someone felt that it was more important for us as individuals to take responsibility over what we value rather than to let a small few decide for us what that value is.
Alexander McCaig (03:02):
And that philosophy gets tested every single day. It gets tested in how many people actually adopt the use of Bitcoin to use it in transactions for everyday purchases, for an exchange of value. It is looked at for how we use it and actually philosophically push it into our current financial system, and uses it as an adjutant to actually change the model of finance into a decentralized financial model. It's saying, do we, you and me, Jason, recognize value that we can interact with and share upon and not have to have a third party come in and moderate it for us? Can you and I, do we philosophically, are we good enough people with our morals and values to say, this is what I think it is. You've agreed upon that value. No one else has to come in and do it for us. We're willing through this system of trustless transaction, can we roll with that? Is it possible for society to function with a store of value like that?
Alexander McCaig (04:09):
And so when you're looking at the design of Bitcoin and its fundamental base, which is blockchain, that trustless decentralized ledger, just think Bitcoin is just another piece on top to say, okay, here's a value on top of that ledger. But it's really a philosophy of removing the middleman. That is the total philosophy of Bitcoin.
Jason Rigby (04:35):
I liken Bitcoin and blockchain to the French revolution. So you had Voltaire and then you had the guillotines. And what were the guillotines for?
Alexander McCaig (04:43):
The guillotines were for... or guillotine.
Jason Rigby (04:46):
Yeah.
Alexander McCaig (04:48):
It's at a nice angle, probably 60 degrees. It's got a lot of weight and is for just cutting heads off very quickly. It's an efficient form of execution. If you didn't drop it fast enough, you'd have to drop it twice. And I know that the Vatican use these. There's quite interesting photos of them... What's the plaza in front of the Vatican?
Jason Rigby (05:08):
Oh, yes, yes. I've been there.
Alexander McCaig (05:10):
It was the Vatican guard. You can see him just cutting people's heads off. They have photos. So it couldn't be that long ago.
Jason Rigby (05:17):
Oh, that's funny. But when you look at this revolution and I believe that's what's happening with de-centralization and chopping the heads off of these ancient control mechanisms-
Alexander McCaig (05:30):
The French Revolution is interesting and I'm glad you brought that up. The French Revolution was about, these are the values of us as human beings. We demand that the government recognize those values and the government protect those values for us.
Jason Rigby (05:48):
I'm an individual.
Alexander McCaig (05:49):
I'm an individual, but there's a key difference here. I'm going to show you the key difference between the French Revolution what's happening now, and what that defining line is. The philosophy is that this is me. These are my natural human rights. You need to protect them. Do you see where I'm pointing the finger?
Jason Rigby (06:08):
Yes, yes.
Alexander McCaig (06:08):
So what am I doing? Where does the responsibility fall on?
Jason Rigby (06:11):
The government.
Alexander McCaig (06:11):
The government. Okay. We're not following your rules. I don't want to be responsible for managing this. I'm going to give it to you, but I'm going to tell you what I want. And I'm going to create an uprising and I'm going to do all this stuff. That's your French Revolution. Bastille Falls.
Alexander McCaig (06:25):
Let's look at Bitcoin. These are the values we want to cherish. Values that, the same ones that were seen in the French Revolution. I'm a human being. I want balance, equanimity, sovereignty over these things. But the government's not responsible. I'm responsible.
Jason Rigby (06:44):
Yes. Yeah.
Alexander McCaig (06:45):
So the defining difference is responsibility. Who's going to care for that responsibility? And again, that's the philosophical line for using Bitcoin.
Jason Rigby (06:54):
Yeah. And I love what he said here. He said, "Well, philosophically often deals... [inaudible 00:06:58] I had too much... I'm drinking a monster, some mango monster thing somebody gave me. "While philosophy often deals with normative questions. Questions, not just about what is," And this is great, "but also questions about what should or ought to be, what is good or bad just or unjust."
Alexander McCaig (07:17):
Yeah. So it's just, philosophy is like how do you live the best possible life? And if we look at what Bitcoin is doing, it's asking, "Hey, are you willing to be responsible?"
Jason Rigby (07:32):
Yes. A hundred percent.
Alexander McCaig (07:34):
For so long, you've passed off your responsibility to these third parties, this few. And you've given them great power. And you've complained that you've lacked power and fairness and things are unjust, and there's no equitability in the financial system and all these other things. Now it's saying, "Are you willing to take that responsibility? Here is a tool."
Jason Rigby (08:00):
Yeah. You're not fighting Brad Pitt in Troy. The minute you step out of line, he's just going to kill you in two seconds.
Alexander McCaig (08:06):
The question is-
Jason Rigby (08:07):
Everything has been put on a level playing field.
Alexander McCaig (08:09):
It's a level playing field.
Jason Rigby (08:10):
Because if you take responsibility, the board all around you, that chess board that you want to play on all around you has already been set up to the best of its ability at this time.
Alexander McCaig (08:23):
Yeah. And it's completely fair.
Jason Rigby (08:25):
It's completely fair.
Alexander McCaig (08:26):
And now you have the ability to choose if you want to interact with it.
Jason Rigby (08:29):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (08:30):
But you have to be responsible. The only person you're fighting now is yourself. You fight your own habits. It's interesting, when you look at the value of Bitcoin, not against the U.S. dollar, but Bitcoin itself and its adoption, it's almost like a barometer for how we as human beings are evolving.
Jason Rigby (08:48):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (08:49):
And I hope that takes to people. That the intrinsic value of it is a barometer of our growth as a decentralized society. So philosophically, the more we use it, the underlying technology of blockchain and adopting Bitcoin into our everyday services, that's a barometer of our own growth and us taking responsibility back for what we should have had responsibility on in the first place.
Jason Rigby (09:14):
Yeah. And he said something here, "You might worry that philosophy is more about questions than answers. And I like that statement because I like when a new technology comes out and we begin to question it and that whole process of, like right now, you have a lot of hedge funds and stuff like that trying to get returns, and we had talked about this before, but so they're buying Bitcoin and riding this wave. There was an article that came out today, "It's going to be at 150,000." So I think it's at [crosstalk 00:09:44].
Alexander McCaig (09:45):
Who cares?
Jason Rigby (09:45):
Yeah. But it's like you said, are we willing and are government's willing to step in and say, "Let's do this for the people."
Alexander McCaig (09:57):
That's the real deal. That's the sauce. No one cares if it's worth 150,000 U.S. dollars. Who cares? All you're doing is moving your Bitcoin back and forth from how I'd say, Bitcoin is the Ferrari and now you're going back to the horse and buggy working with the U.S. dollar, this debt loaded, nasty, useless thing.
Jason Rigby (10:20):
To me, Bitcoin will be the standard like gold is.
Alexander McCaig (10:24):
It will be the standard. It's just how we perceive value. And, Jason, do you value yourself enough to use Bitcoin? Because when you use the U.S. dollar, you're valuing your government and you're asking your government to be responsible for what is a natural human right. And we've seen governments all over the world that skip that responsibility anyway, and completely step on human rights. So it's an economic stance. It's a philosophical stance of your own moral and characteristic development. It's an evolutionary stance of who we are as a society. And it's a stance on saying, "I just want to be responsible."
Jason Rigby (11:11):
Yeah. And he goes in and he gives a good analogy and conclusion to this, he says, "It secures your financial privacy and financial privacy is good." He said, "It's the same thing as if you're talking to a friend or you're talking to your doctor." Now you may share some things with your doctor, but when you're with your friend, you're going to share the most intimate things.
Alexander McCaig (11:33):
Yeah. And you'll share information about how shitty your doctor is.
Jason Rigby (11:36):
Exactly. But whenever you look at Bitcoiners and he says this, and I love this, it's like right here, "Bitcoiners want more than just to get rich. They also want to make the world better."
Alexander McCaig (11:51):
That's what I'm saying. People that want to get rich, will exchange it for Forex. They'll do their swaps.
Jason Rigby (11:58):
But how long has it been about getting rich?
Alexander McCaig (12:02):
Has getting rich ever benefited anybody?
Jason Rigby (12:05):
No. We're seeing it now.
Alexander McCaig (12:07):
No. Does winning the lottery benefit lottery winners?
Jason Rigby (12:09):
No.
Alexander McCaig (12:10):
99% of the time it doesn't. But if you can elevate everybody, half a percent, one percent elevation, you have dramatically changed 7.5 billion lives or 8.1, whatever the number is. That's something quite substantial. And now everybody has the ability to interact. Everyone has the ability to be responsible. We're trying to elevate the world by making it inclusive, but not a forced inclusion. It's an inclusivity of choice. Do you want to be a part of this? No one's forcing you to use the tool. You're forced to use the U.S. dollar by our government. You're forced to do it. You're forced to pay your taxes in it. You have no choice in the matter. And now something's come along that is, frankly, something that is a better mirror of what it means to be human being, even in the financial aspect, as a function of measurement. Do you want to go use that? And the choice is now here for you to do so.
Jason Rigby (13:05):
Even blockchain alone, if we devoted with our phones, with facial recognition-
Alexander McCaig (13:10):
I'm sitting right here now with TARTLE. We'll get verified identities on here. I'll tie it in with all the DMVs, whatever it might be. And you're just going to vote instantaneously through your phone.
Jason Rigby (13:20):
And you wouldn't have had the issues that we had.
Alexander McCaig (13:24):
There would be no issues. Everybody can vote from home. You don't have to go to a voting center. Why do we have to be so archaic?
Jason Rigby (13:30):
Why do we have to send in a paper ballot and then have people count paper ballots. It was like the other day I saw, what was there? We had 5 million votes in Georgia and there's 3.5 million people. Look it up on Wikipedia. There's 3.5 million people.
Alexander McCaig (13:46):
No, listen, that stuff is just nonsense.
Jason Rigby (13:49):
And I have no care whether it's Trump or Biden. I'm not saying that.
Alexander McCaig (13:52):
I don't care. I'm just talking about the system in general, how things operate. That's what I look at. I look out for efficiencies and making humans efficient and good people.
Jason Rigby (14:00):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (14:01):
What's so hard about that? People use Twitter for polling.
Jason Rigby (14:05):
I know. Yeah.
Alexander McCaig (14:07):
What the heck? But that's the gig. But I think from a philosophic... I don't want to beat a dead horse because I like horses and wouldn't want to beat their dead body because that's not good either.
Jason Rigby (14:20):
Yeah, you were just on one.
Alexander McCaig (14:20):
Yeah. I was riding a horse recently. Just to get into that, I think it's an English thing, to have the riding crop and I don't know if that's called, that bar. I wouldn't do that to my dog. I'll put a gentle lead around the dog to help guide its face. The dog's still going to make a choice where it wants to go. I'm not going to [inaudible 00:14:39] I'm not going to be like the U.S. government forcing me to [crosstalk 00:14:41]
Jason Rigby (14:41):
Do they have something besides that? I've never-
Alexander McCaig (14:43):
There's a couple different options for riding a horse, depending on how you want to actually gate the face to move it, for control.
Jason Rigby (14:51):
But didn't they just used to use their legs? I know Native Americans-
Alexander McCaig (14:53):
Yeah. Of course.
Jason Rigby (14:54):
They would just kind of guide them with a little pressure here.
Alexander McCaig (14:58):
We're getting philosophical here.
Jason Rigby (14:59):
It's the show.
Alexander McCaig (15:02):
If we look at over time, how society has changed and how we try to get mother nature to bend to our will. I think just looking at how the English changed horse riding.
Jason Rigby (15:12):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (15:14):
Look at the Mongolians.
Jason Rigby (15:16):
Yes.
Alexander McCaig (15:17):
And how Genghis Khan, with a bow and arrow and these very wild horses, managed to rule a very large body of land in Asia. And they didn't have those things just ripping through the horse's mouth. No, they were grabbing the hair, push them with the legs, skinny at the turn. It was more of a relationship with nature. And I think we're skipping that relationship even with ourselves, by not adopting a technology like Bitcoin.
Jason Rigby (15:42):
Yeah. I agree. A hundred percent. Shout out to Hardcore History, the Genghis Khan episodes are one of the best things I've ever heard in my life.
Alexander McCaig (15:50):
I didn't even know this.
Jason Rigby (15:50):
They're one of the... Hardcore History, have you ever heard of this?
Alexander McCaig (15:54):
No.
Jason Rigby (15:54):
This guy, I want to say his name is Dan... everybody's got-
Alexander McCaig (15:57):
Well, we've got to give him a big shout out, right now.
Jason Rigby (15:58):
Oh, he gets millions of downloads. It's Dan Carlin, I think. Let me make sure. Yeah. Dan Carlin, it's called the Hardcore History. These are three and a half, four hour episodes.
Alexander McCaig (16:12):
Oh wow.
Jason Rigby (16:12):
And he'll have four or five of them, like on Genghis Khan. So that's 12, 15 hours. And you will think you listened for 30 minutes.
Alexander McCaig (16:19):
That's amazing.
Jason Rigby (16:20):
And it's him.
Alexander McCaig (16:20):
Wow.
Jason Rigby (16:21):
It's him talking. He mesmerizes you with all the facts that he brings to life.
Alexander McCaig (16:29):
Love that.
Jason Rigby (16:32):
Yeah. I've never learned so much in such a short period of time. This podcasting, what we're doing, decentralization-
Alexander McCaig (16:39):
Yeah. What we're doing is akin to Bitcoin of the mouth.
Jason Rigby (16:43):
Yes. It's the same.
Alexander McCaig (16:44):
Mouth coin.
Jason Rigby (16:46):
You could start a new coin.
Alexander McCaig (16:51):
[crosstalk 00:16:48].
Jason Rigby (16:51):
We should start TARTLEcoin.
Alexander McCaig (16:51):
Yeah. TARTLEcoin. That's what we need, we need another ICL.
Jason Rigby (16:56):
Well, we've bored you guys long enough. We'll peace out.
Alexander McCaig (16:59):
Thank you everybody.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Thank you for listening to TARTLEcast with your hosts, Alexander McCaig and Jason Rigby, where humanity steps into the future and source data defines the path. What's your data worth?
