Block Height: #844591

Hey, Homies! Welcome back to the 4th edition of The HODL. I have a good amount of things to cover on this one, but first, I want to remind you that "The HODL" is released twice a month, exact days TBD but you can expect at least two editions each calendar month. One edition is for subscribers only and the other is available to everyone.

Ok got it? Cool. Let's proceed.

Pause...Do you ever stop and think just how inefficient this is for global trade? Insanity.

The Bitcoiners' Stack

“That is to say, we should be aiming to build in layers, rather than to solve everything all at once. Separate layers can aim to solve separate problems... A successful layer two makes layer one more valuable; layer three makes layer two more valuable, and so on...Hence even the prospect of a successful higher layer ought to make all layers below it more valuable also.” - Excerpt, The Bitcoin Stack

Inspired by one of the articles in the below section - The Bitcoin Stack - I began to take seriously this hypothesis that, when thinking in layers, the most important layer is the lowest one, and that this base layer benefits as higher layers that are developed on top of it become more valuable.

I thought, if this applies to Bitcoin, then why not to Bitcoiners?

• Layer 0: The Bitcoiner - her health, her wealth (balance sheet & PnL), her relationships, and overall well-being and quality of life.
• Layer 1: The Bitcoiner's environment - physically and digitally. and how they all interact with the base layer for the Bitcoiner. Imagine the quality impact or upgrade of living in a cramped city apartment with no close friends & family to living in a sunny paradise with your closest loved ones. Life quality go up.
• Layer 2: The Bitcoiner’s future - aspirations, goals, etc. - This application layer is related to the opportunities available and actively being capitalized on by the Bitcoiner. The Bitcoiner is solving the problem of how they will or continue using their skills and environment to build and engage in bigger and better opportunities: family, friends, organizations etc. Environment quality go up.

“It will be harder at first, as building in layers always is…”

What I Found Valuable or Interesting

• Most Investments Are Bad: Lyn does it again. A sobering but great piece on the realities of investment classes and their performance in our current financial system. A look at the “fiat currency short” strategy deployed by "investors" over the past 4+ decades and how it is unlikely to yield the same positive returns, especially for passive investors in the next 4 decades.
• Block’s Bitcoin blueprint is an all-around interesting announcement on several Bitcoin-related topics. But I found their concept of “Our Bitcoin Ecosystem” most interesting. They have plenty of products & services available in the market but viewing them as a garden is a great way of looking at it. We all should be developing our own Bitcoin Ecosystem.
• The Bitcoin Stack: A thoroughly written piece by some of my favorite Bitcoin educators. This article dives deep into the layers of the Bitcoin stack and gives a compelling methodology on how to think about building the secure, scalable, decentralized systems of the future.
• The Aristocracy of Action: "Instead of embracing individualism, liberty and economic freedom the world is turning to the next fix of self-induced problems. Instead of doing away with harmful Corporatism the call is out to create a more "social” world, a world were the blessing of democratic control enters into even more areas of life. Where government is seen again as the blesser of the many and the protector of the weak. As if history has never taught us any lesson. Like the fundamental lesson that only a productive lifestyle - and not a parasitic one - can advance the lot of humanity.”
• Fiscal Dominance and the Return of Zero-Interest Bank Reserve Requirements: Inflation is explicitly referred to as "taxation" in this piece. If "saying the quiet part out loud" was a document, this would be it. These people know what is coming. It's an unsolvable problem in the fiat universe. Luckily we have the Orange Coin.
• El Salvador Mining Dashboard: Probably the most dope thing I've seen over the last few weeks. El Salvador is light-years ahead of the game and it's so beautiful to watch them continue to grow their lead compared to all the other countries out there.

What I’m up to

• [Not sponsored] BUT, I recently set up an IRA account with Unchained. Smooth process overall. The dirty secret is that I've never set up a multi-sig wallet, so I was apprehensive about doing it. But shout out to the good plebs at Unchained for holding my hand throughout the process.
• Salesforce CPQ Consumption Products: My most recent piece for HyperBit Labs on how Bitcoin companies can use Usage Based products in Salesforce CPQ to enable a flexible pricing structure for their customers.
• I'm diving deeper into random Bitcoin topics I don't thoroughly understand. I might write something out with more details, so follow me on X to stay in the loop.

What I’m Promoting

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Thank you for reading

HODL T.