Founder, Involve Digital. Founder, The Bitcoin Transition. Focused on sound money, incentives, and systems. Bitcoin as a monetary protocol, not a speculative asset. Exploring how hard money shapes technology, productivity, and long-term human progress.
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2026-01-05T04:15:40Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins I remember buying mine. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins You don’t price Bitcoin you price things with Bitcoin npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Most people still think in fiat terms. They look at Bitcoin’s price in dollars and try to anchor it to today’s global asset market, which is also measured in dollars. That framing assumes the dollar remains the dominant unit of account indefinitely. If Bitcoin were to reach the final stage of monetary adoption, becoming a widely used unit of account, valuation would invert. Assets would no longer be priced primarily in dollars and then translated into Bitcoin. They would be natively priced in sats. That means every asset and every liability would have a Bitcoin price. Property. Equity. Debt. Commodities. Luxury goods. Intellectual property. Everything that carries economic value. At the same time, global productivity does not stand still. Technology, automation, and innovation continue to expand the quantity and quality of goods and services. The stock of valuable things in the world grows over time. In that scenario, a fixed-supply monetary base measuring a growing pool of productive assets will naturally reflect that expansion in its purchasing power relative to weaker monetary units. The common objection comes from projecting a future Bitcoin-denominated world onto today’s fiat-denominated balance sheets. It assumes today’s dollar aggregates are a hard ceiling. They are not. They are contingent on the monetary system currently in place. If a transition were to occur, the relevant question would not be “how high can Bitcoin go in dollars,” but rather “what happens to the dollar’s purchasing power relative to a fixed monetary supply in a world of expanding output.” Those are two very different analytical frames. #Bitcoin npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Brilliant npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins He says at the end the only thing which creates actual prosperity is private property and capitalism. I would add sound money to that. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins The fiat experiment will go down in history as one of the greatest economic failures of the modern era. For over 50 years, the global monetary system has been built on debt expansion, currency debasement and the belief that inflation is “healthy.” That belief comes straight out of Keynesian thinking. The problem? Inflation is not growth. Debt is not productivity. Money printing is not prosperity. Technology, AI, robotics and automation are inherently deflationary forces. They increase productivity. They reduce real costs. They make abundance possible. In a free market with sound money, life should get cheaper over time. Instead, what do we see? • Housing further out of reach • Healthcare more expensive • Education inflated beyond reason • Asset prices distorted • Savings punished • Debt normalised Even when life improves for some, it costs exponentially more than it should relative to productivity gains. Why? Because the system requires inflation to survive. Debt must grow. Currencies must weaken. Savings must be diluted. When money itself is unstable, everything built on top of it becomes unstable. This is not a political statement. It’s a monetary one. History will not judge the fiat era kindly. Sound money disciplines governments. Unsound money disciplines citizens. And we are living through the consequences. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Honestly I think Switzerland is the closest country to running a proper democracy. Everyone else pretends they have democracy but they don’t. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins I’m jealous, looks like you guys are getting some snow at the moment. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Exactly and here is an example An avg sirloin in 2016 $8.40 Today it’s ~ $14.00 But the sats you trade for a sirloin today are significantly less then 2016 https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqsdgze2nr4dt0jnfsvngsfwatqmjvnlsnd5nqzumvdxzjxgpr77khg0y05ac npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins I’m tired of scrolling LinkedIn and seeing the same posts on repeat: “Bitcoin is down $66k.” “Bitcoin is down 50%.” “Bitcoin is failing.” Every speculator has an opinion. Everyone pretends they know what’s happening. Almost none of it matters. Because nothing fundamental about Bitcoin has changed. Bitcoin is not a stock. It is not a tech company. It is not a yield product. It is not a macro trade. Bitcoin is a monetary protocol. Here’s what hasn’t changed: The supply is still fixed at 21 million Blocks are still produced roughly every 10 minutes Nodes still independently verify every rule Miners still secure the network via proof-of-work Difficulty still adjusts automatically No central party can change the rules That’s Bitcoin. The only thing that’s moved is the fiat exchange rate people use to talk about it. When people say “Bitcoin is down,” what they actually mean is: One unit of Bitcoin currently exchanges for fewer dollars. That tells you something about dollars, not about Bitcoin. Bitcoin doesn’t promise price stability in fiat terms. It promises monetary integrity. It removes discretionary money creation. It removes counterparty risk. It removes the need to speculate just to preserve purchasing power. That’s why so many people misunderstand it. Most people don’t want money. They want more fiat. So they trade Bitcoin instead of using it. They time tops and bottoms. They chase narratives. They panic when the unit of account they don’t trust moves against them. But when you stop pricing your life in fiat and start pricing it in Bitcoin, the picture flips: Goods get cheaper over time. Savings stop evaporating. Long-term planning becomes possible again. That’s the point. Bitcoin doesn’t need defending during drawdowns. It needs understanding. Price noise will come and go. The protocol remains consistent. Tick tock. Next Block That’s #Bitcoin npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins I was just researching this. I’d only use it with a brand new machine, with no access to keychain or any other private data. The skills and add on ecosystem is ripe for security threats. Many of which are targeting crypto wallets. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins We are so early. How is this guy in finance #Bitcoin https://blossom.primal.net/698043f7f373a45c55f8b5df4cf24b80883833602ea29b1e21a9b2c792ef14ea.jpg npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins In February 2016 an average sirloin from the butcher cost. 2230596 sats Today it costs 21065 This is what living on a Bitcoin Standard is like. Prices drop long term. Life gets better. Retirement comes earlier. That’s #Bitcoin npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins #Bitcoin is not something you price. #Bitcoin is something you price things in. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Most debates about #Bitcoin still anchor on the wrong unit of account. Fiat. Bitcoin does not become valuable because its fiat price rises. Its fiat price rises because fiat currencies lose purchasing power over time, while Bitcoin’s supply remains fixed. Today, approximately 19.99 million bitcoin exist. That supply will increase slowly and predictably until it asymptotically approaches 21 million by 2140. No policy decision, emergency, or demand shock can change this issuance schedule. At the same time, global production of goods and services continues to expand. Technology, automation, energy efficiency, and capital accumulation increase output faster than new bitcoin are created. This is not speculative — it is observable economic reality. When productive output grows faster than the monetary base, prices fall in real terms. That is deflation driven by productivity, not collapse. Under a hard money standard, money gains purchasing power because more value is produced per unit of money — not because the money itself changes. Bitcoin was designed for this environment. If Bitcoin were the unit of account, the total value of global production would be expressed across a fixed monetary denominator, rather than an expanding one. Value would not disappear through dilution; it would be redistributed through prices. This does not require Bitcoin’s fiat price to rise for the protocol to function. Even at lower fiat prices: Nodes continue to verify transactions. Proof of work continues. Difficulty adjusts. The rules remain unchanged. Bitcoin does not fail when its fiat price falls. The protocol has no awareness of dollars. What fails is the assumption that Bitcoin’s success is measured by fiat valuation. The debate between #Bitcoin and #Gold — or between different Bitcoin advocates — often misses this point entirely. When arguments hinge on dollar thresholds or “price invalidation levels,” they remain trapped in a fiat unit-of-account framework. A transition to a Bitcoin standard requires a mental shift: From measuring Bitcoin in dollars To measuring goods, services, and time in bitcoin Under such a system: Saving does not require yield Retirement does not depend on perpetual growth or government promises Productivity is rewarded directly through purchasing power This is not speculation. It is the consequence of combining a fixed-supply monetary protocol with rising global productivity. Bitcoin is not an investment vehicle designed to produce more fiat. It is a monetary protocol designed to preserve value across time. Most people are yet to realise this. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins I have noticed a growing number of Monero supporters lately. After several debates, a pattern becomes clear. Most arguments rest on Keynesian assumptions. This matters. Keynesian economics treats money as a tool to manage outcomes. Issuance is flexible. Inflation is acceptable. Stability is prioritised over constraint. Scarcity is viewed as a problem. Not a requirement. This framework dominates modern finance. It is also why the world looks the way it does today. Persistent inflation. Rising asset prices. Falling purchasing power. Increasing dependence on subsidies and intervention. These outcomes are not accidents. They are features of the model. Monero mirrors this thinking at the protocol level. Supply is not capped. Issuance never reaches zero. Security is subsidised through ongoing dilution. Fees are assumed to be insufficient on their own. This is Keynesian logic expressed in code. The argument is familiar. Some inflation is necessary. The system must be supported. Hard limits are unrealistic. Bitcoin rejects these assumptions. Supply is fixed. Issuance trends to zero. Security must be paid explicitly by users. Scarcity is enforced, not managed. This is a hard money framework. Monero is not fraudulent. It is ideological. It encodes the belief that inflation is functional and necessary. That belief is Keynesian. So the distinction is simple. Bitcoin is sound money. Monero is Keynesian digital cash. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Price volatility doesn’t invalidate Bitcoin. It exposes who still measures value in fiat. Fear shows up when Bitcoin is treated as an investment instead of money. If your unit of account is dollars, every drawdown feels existential. If your unit of account is sats, nothing fundamental has changed. Bitcoin doesn’t fix retirement by “number go up.” It fixes retirement by restoring saving, time preference, and sovereignty. I’ve lived on a Bitcoin standard for over a decade. No debt. Lower cost of living over time. Not because price was smooth — but because my productivity was stored in sound money instead of melting currency. The problem Bitcoin solves hasn’t gone away. But neither has the confusion between price and value. Short-term volatility is the cost of exiting a broken system early. Long-term stability comes from holding money that can’t be debased. Zoom out. Stack sats. Self-custody. Produce value. The rest is noise. Especially the fiat price. #Bitcoin #SoundMoney #LiveOnSats #PriceInSats npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins I never sell. But more than happy to exchange sats for value…. Fiat is not value npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins So good… anyone who has been understands why this is a huge win. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins #Bitcoin is down ~6% today. Emotions are up. This is normal in a fiat-priced world. Short-term price moves are noise created by leveraged markets, traders, and liquidity flows. They do not change what Bitcoin is. If you price your life in Bitcoin terms, something important becomes clear: Over the last10 years, life has become cheaper, not more expensive when living on a Bitcoin standard. While people living entirely in fiat struggle with rising rents, food, energy, and debt, those saving in Bitcoin have seen their purchasing power increase over time. I’ve have personally lived on a Bitcoin standard for over a decade. My cost of living has gone down. My savings have strengthened. I carry no fiat clown world debt. Not because I speculate. But because I focus on producing value in the economy, I get paid for that productivity, and store it in Bitcoin. This is Austrian economics in practice: • Create real value • Avoid debt • Save in hard money • Let time work for you The fiat price of Bitcoin means nothing long term. What matters is: • How many sats you hold • Whether you self-custody • Whether you can earn, save, and eventually spend sats Bitcoin doesn’t need to “go up.” Fiat needs to keep falling — and it always does long term. When measured against an infinite, debasing currency, Bitcoin’s upside is asymmetrical by design. Most people haven’t figured this out yet. Stay calm. Ignore the charts. Be productive. Stack sats. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins First tracks always. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Don’t trust verify. This is why we Bitcoin and run our own nodes. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins You don’t buy Bitcoin. You sell fiat to acquire sats. The price is just an exchange rate between two units. One expands by design. The other does not. Fiat loses purchasing power over time. Bitcoin preserves it. When viewed correctly, timing matters less than direction. You are exchanging a melting asset for a scarce one. People fixate on entry price because they still think in fiat terms. But the goal is not to “get rich.” It is to stop getting poorer. Each sat acquired is stored time and energy. Verified. Portable. Final. Over the long term, the exchange rate will fluctuate. The monetary properties will not. Acquire sats. Hold your keys. Measure wealth in what you keep, not what you trade. #Bitcoin npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Too many people are focused on legislation, headlines, and timelines that don’t actually matter. Bitcoin does not require regulatory clarity to function. It already works. The protocol does not change based on who signs what bill, or when. Blocks are produced. Nodes verify. Supply remains fixed. Market structure laws mainly affect intermediaries: exchanges, custodians, ETFs, and brokers. They do not affect: – self custody – running a node – permissionless transactions – the monetary policy Waiting for governments to legitimise Bitcoin misunderstands what Bitcoin is. Bitcoin gains adoption bottom-up, not top-down. By individuals choosing to hold and verify their own money. Whether a bill passes in 2026 or not is noise. The signal is unchanged. Bitcoin does not need approval. It needs users who treat it like the monetary protocol it is. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Accurate npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Love Norway 🇳🇴 npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins In 1945, the UK ran the Ten Pound Poms programme. £10 covered assisted passage to Australia or New Zealand. It enabled relocation across the world. The unit of account was the same currency. The purchasing power was not. Compare that to £30 today buying a short train ride out of Heathrow. Distance travelled is not the point. Value transferred is. This is the long arc of currency debasement. It shows up when past mobility becomes present-day inconvenience. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Arrived back in London today. At Heathrow, I overheard someone say their Heathrow Express ticket was £30. £30 to take a train from the airport into the city. This is not a transport story. It is a currency story. Purchasing power is what money can buy. When everyday services absorb larger portions of income, purchasing power has declined. Not long ago, £30 represented meaningful optionality. Today, it is consumed by a short, unavoidable trip. The number stayed the same. The value did not. This is how currency decline presents itself. Quietly. Through routine transactions. Most people notice prices. Few notice the unit of account failing. #GBP #Inflation #PurchasingPower #SoundMoney #Bitcoin npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins The price barely moved. It proves where price discovery now lives. Bitcoin’s fiat price is set mostly off-chain: derivatives, ETFs, netting, leverage, and internal settlement. Large purchases can be absorbed without touching the base layer. That is not Bitcoin failing. That is financialisation reappearing on top of it. There is no public proof that institutional holdings are unbacked. There is also no cryptographic proof that they are self-custodied. Both statements matter. The risk is not institutions owning bitcoin. The risk is bitcoin becoming something people hold claims on instead of verify. Paperisation does not break Bitcoin. It breaks people’s relationship with it. The protocol remains unchanged. 21 million still exists. Nodes still enforce the rules. The only defence is participation: – self custody – node verification – earning and spending sats Price does not secure Bitcoin. Users do. #Bitcoin https://blossom.primal.net/09f41916ffcb657979e558ef58e0b1f2cba305fd8d8de0bd92f294620c94cf6c.jpg npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Most so-called “crypto educators” are not teaching you how to make money. They don’t even understand the definition of money. They are teaching speculation. Usually in the shitcoin casino. Trading systems, indicators, cycles, narratives. All framed around one goal: increasing a fiat balance. That is not making money. That is chasing units of account that lose purchasing power. Speculation is a zero-sum game. For every winner, there is a loser. No new value is created. No productivity is improved. Only risk is redistributed. Bitcoin was not designed for this. Bitcoin is a monetary protocol, not a trading instrument. It does not generate yield. It does not compound. It does not promise returns. Its function is simple: – fixed supply – predictable issuance – final settlement – ownership without permission When Bitcoin is treated as a vehicle for fiat gains, it becomes misunderstood. When it is treated as money, its purpose becomes clear. Educating people to trade Bitcoin keeps them trapped in the same system Bitcoin was designed to exit. Educating people to earn, save, self-custody, and spend Bitcoin changes behaviour. That distinction matters. If your framework requires charts, leverage, or timing to “win,” you are not teaching money. You are teaching speculation. Bitcoin is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is a tool for preserving the value of human time and energy over long horizons. Anything else is noise. #Bitcoin #Trading #Speculation npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Accurate npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins That’s one hell of a line npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Involve Digital’s recruitment model is built on value creation, not activity or job title. The VCM model aligns incentives directly with outcomes. If you create value, you are paid. If you don’t, you aren’t. That’s Austrian economics in practice. No central planning. No guaranteed salaries divorced from productivity. Just voluntary exchange and clear signals. We pay in Bitcoin because hard money matters. It rewards long-term thinking, accountability, and real contribution with significantly more upside for employees. #Bitcoin #AustrianEconomics #HardMoney #ValueCreation #BitcoinStandard #VCM #nevent1q…p922 npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Recent headlines about BlackRock allocating billions to Bitcoin often miss a critical detail. It is not BlackRock buying Bitcoin. It is BlackRock’s customers buying and selling exposure through an ETF. BlackRock acts as the issuer, custodian coordinator, and fee collector. They clip the ticket regardless of direction. This matters because ETFs are not Bitcoin ownership. They are financial products that track Bitcoin’s price while reintroducing intermediaries, custody, legal reliance, and counterparty risk. As capital flows through ETFs: • Users gain price exposure, not settlement finality • Bitcoin becomes abstracted into shares and claims • Ownership shifts from keys to paperwork This is how paperisation begins. Not through malice, but through structure. Self-custody exists to prevent this outcome. When you self-custody Bitcoin: • You hold the private keys • You do not rely on audits, custodians, or legal promises • Your Bitcoin cannot be rehypothecated or frozen ETFs increase liquidity and visibility. That is not inherently bad. But they do not strengthen Bitcoin as money. Bitcoin’s purpose is not to sit inside financial wrappers. It is to enable sovereign ownership and final settlement without permission. Institutions will always choose custody and abstraction. Individuals still have a choice. As institutional exposure grows, self-custody becomes more important, not less. Bitcoin remains trustless. Whether you use it that way is up to you. https://www.perplexity.ai/page/blackrock-pours-1-24b-into-cry-0ds_Y1WLTeuSALw3xB2R5A #Bitcoin #SelfCustody #BitcoinPaperisation npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Freezing Prices Is Not Fixing Costs Freezing rail fares does not tackle the cost of living. It freezes a symptom while the cause continues. The cost of living rises when the unit of account loses purchasing power. Transport, food, housing and energy do not become expensive in isolation. They rise together because money is diluted. A price freeze shifts costs, it does not remove them. If fares are held below market clearing levels, the difference is paid elsewhere: – higher taxes – higher debt – lower service quality – deferred maintenance Nothing is made cheaper. The bill is simply hidden. Real cost reduction comes from productivity and sound capital allocation. That requires stable money. Without it, governments are forced into constant intervention to mask decline. Temporary controls create the appearance of relief. They do not restore purchasing power. The cost of living crisis is not a rail problem. It is a monetary problem. Until the currency stops losing value, freezes and subsidies will continue — and they will continue to fail. https://blossom.primal.net/d97d8cf463c7b381ebc420160b55c8bf6204a8cb5b4bae91f938a8a444095b62.jpg npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Pensioners losing free travel isn’t an isolated policy failure. It’s a downstream effect of a fiat system under strain. Under fiat, long-term promises are funded with short-term purchasing power. Pensions and public benefits aren’t backed by saved capital, but by future taxation and future money creation. As the currency weakens, costs rise faster than revenues. Transport, energy, and labour all become more expensive. Tax receipts grow nominally, but shrink in real terms. At the same time, the cost of living suppresses birth rates. Raising children becomes financially risky. Fewer workers enter the system. The dependency ratio worsens. Fewer contributors. More dependents. Weaker money. The result is predictable: Benefits are reduced. Eligibility is tightened. Promises are quietly rewritten. This isn’t about pensioners becoming “too expensive.” It’s arithmetic asserting itself. Fiat systems mask decline through inflation. When that fails, austerity follows. A currency that cannot store value cannot sustain long-term social contracts. #nevent1q…a5qt npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins That’s a fair clarification, and I largely agree with the framing. It’s important to separate cause from outcome. States did not wake up one day and decide to “print money.” They emerged to enforce debt contracts, taxation, and interest obligations at scale. Monetary monopoly was an outcome of that process, not the original goal. Credit and interest pre-date fiat. What fiat did was abstract and centralise enforcement, making debt expansion easier, less visible, and politically survivable. Interest itself isn’t inherently evil. It’s a price for time and risk. The problem arises when interest is layered on top of money that can be created without constraint, requiring perpetual expansion to service past obligations. That feedback loop is what drives: • growing state power • permanent deficits • coercive enforcement • financialisation over production Sound money doesn’t eliminate cooperation, contracts, or credit. It re-anchors them to reality. With hard constraints: • credit becomes selective • capital allocation tightens • growth must come from productivity, not dilution You still get civil order. You still get contracts. You just get far less leverage over society through monetary abstraction. The goal isn’t utopia or anarchism. It’s reducing the surface area for systemic abuse. Bitcoin doesn’t solve human nature. It limits how much damage monetary systems can amplify it. That’s a meaningful distinction. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins After 10+ years and 30,000+ hours of studying the history of money, monetary failures, hard money systems, Austrian economics, and Bitcoin, a few conclusions become unavoidable. Money is not created by decree. It emerges as a coordination tool. Societies converge on the hardest available money because it best preserves time, labour, and energy. Throughout history, money has followed a pattern: • Collectible goods become media of exchange. • The most durable, scarce, and verifiable forms outcompete the rest. • States later monopolise issuance. • Debasement follows. • Trust erodes. • The system resets. This cycle has repeated for thousands of years. Gold was not chosen because it was shiny. It was chosen because it was hard to produce, difficult to counterfeit, and costly to debase. Those properties constrained rulers and protected savers. The abandonment of hard money did not happen because it “failed.” It happened because it limited political spending. Fiat currency is not money in the historical sense. It is a credit instrument backed by future taxation and enforced by law. Its supply must expand to service the debt it creates. This is not a flaw. It is the design. Credit creation changes behaviour. New money enters the economy through specific channels: • Governments • Banks • Asset markets Those closest to issuance benefit first. Those furthest away pay through rising prices and declining purchasing power. Productivity gains no longer flow primarily to savers or workers. They are absorbed by asset inflation. This is why wages lag prices. This is why savings no longer work. This is why speculation outcompetes production. Austrian economics does not oppose growth. It explains growth. Real growth comes from: • Capital accumulation • Productivity improvements • Time preference discipline Hard money forces growth to appear as falling prices and rising purchasing power, not monetary expansion. Under sound money, progress benefits everyone. Under fiat money, progress is unevenly distributed. Bitcoin is not an innovation in finance. It is an innovation in monetary integrity. Bitcoin did not invent scarcity. It enforced it digitally, without trust. Bitcoin is: • Fixed in supply • Permissionless • Verifiable by anyone • Independent of political systems It does not promise yield. It does not promise returns. It does not guarantee adoption. It simply removes monetary discretion. Bitcoin does not succeed because its fiat price rises. Its fiat price rises because fiat units lose purchasing power and more fiat flows into a fixed system. Price is not value. Value is preserved purchasing power over time. Bitcoin exposes this distinction. Most confusion comes from mixing frameworks: • Treating Bitcoin as an investment instead of money • Measuring success in fiat terms • Expecting monetary neutrality from a debt-based system Paper Bitcoin, custodial claims, ETFs, and derivatives reintroduce the very trust Bitcoin was designed to remove. They may increase liquidity and price discovery, but they weaken monetary sovereignty. Self-custody matters. Running a node matters. Using Bitcoin matters. Money that is not used eventually becomes controlled. The long arc is clear: • Fiat systems require perpetual expansion. • Expansion erodes trust. • Trust loss drives capital toward harder money. This is not ideological. It is structural. Bitcoin is not a revolution. It is a reversion. A return to money that cannot be altered, censored, or debased. Whether it succeeds depends not on price, institutions, or narratives, but on whether people choose to use it as money. Hard constraints produce honest systems. Honest systems produce long-term progress. That is the conclusion. #Bitcoin #AustrianEconomics #HistoryOfMoney #Money npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins I’m speaking about this a lot at the moment because an increasing amount of people are fixated on price, exposure, ETFs and treasury companies and not the monetary protocol that Bitcoin is. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Bitcoin’s design assumes personal responsibility. Self-custody is not a preference. It is a requirement of the system. When Bitcoin is held through an intermediary, ownership becomes conditional. Access depends on policy, solvency, and permission. The holder no longer controls settlement. They hold a claim, not the asset itself. This recreates the structure Bitcoin was designed to remove. Self-custody restores finality. If you control the keys, you control the bitcoin. No counterparty is required to approve, reverse, or honour the transaction. Running a node completes this. A node does not create Bitcoin. It verifies it. By running a node, you independently enforce the rules you rely on. You decide what is valid. You do not outsource consensus to miners, exchanges, ETFs, or developers. Without nodes, Bitcoin becomes a set of promises rather than a protocol. Verification is the separation of Bitcoin from trust. Paper Bitcoin emerges when verification is abandoned. ETFs, custodial accounts, treasury vehicles, and synthetic exposure all increase price exposure while reducing monetary integrity. They concentrate coins, fragment ownership, and introduce leverage. More claims are created than bitcoin available for settlement. This is how gold was neutralised. It is how fiat systems are maintained. Paper markets suppress volatility until they fail. When confidence breaks, claims exceed reserves and settlement becomes impossible. The underlying asset survives. The claims do not. Bitcoin resists this only if users do. Self-custody prevents rehypothecation. Nodes prevent rule changes by decree. Usage prevents capture. Bitcoin does not need institutional endorsement to function. It needs individuals who verify and settle honestly. Hard money only works if it is used as hard money. Everything else is convenience layered on top of risk. The protocol is simple. The responsibility is not optional. #Bitcoin #SelfCustody #NodeRunner npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Britain’s national debt is approaching £3 trillion and is projected to rise well beyond that in the coming years. Debt interest alone is expected to rival or exceed core public services such as defence and education. This is not an accident. It is the predictable outcome of a debt-based monetary system. In fiat systems, deficits are not treated as constraints. They are treated as tools. When spending exceeds revenue, governments borrow. When borrowing grows too large, currencies are expanded to service the debt. The cost is shifted from the balance sheet to the currency. Austrian economics explains this clearly. Debt does not create growth. It reallocates future purchasing power to the present. When borrowing becomes structural rather than temporary, it distorts incentives. Capital flows toward politically favoured spending rather than productive investment. Real wages stagnate. Asset prices rise. Living costs increase faster than incomes. Rising debt interest is the signal that the system is tightening. More resources are required just to maintain past promises. Less capital is available for innovation, productivity, and real growth. The result is higher taxes, higher inflation, or both. This is why unemployment rises even as governments spend more. This is why living standards fall despite record budgets. Hard money systems behave differently. When money cannot be expanded at will, debt must be justified by real returns. Bad investments fail quickly. Capital is allocated more carefully. Growth comes from productivity, not leverage. Bitcoin exists outside this framework. It has no issuer. It cannot be borrowed into existence. Its supply does not expand to service political promises. #Bitcoin does not fix government debt. It exposes it. As sovereign debt grows, the demand for money that cannot be debased increases. That demand is not ideological. It is economic. This is the function of hard money. Not to create growth, but to measure it honestly. When the measuring stick stops shrinking, the problem becomes visible. https://www.perplexity.ai/page/britain-s-national-debt-set-to-9M2jPgf9QKakBxT16d3KYQ npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Real life pup? https://blossom.primal.net/2fda4f6e3f917b04e28f7160b21e4f9293cb0275e14d76b2d80c09e1c9e490a3.jpg npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Price is not value. Price is an expression in a unit of account. Value is purchasing power over time. When the unit of account weakens, prices rise even if nothing real has changed. This is not growth. It is dilution. Fiat currencies expand by design. As supply increases, each unit represents less claim on real goods and services. Prices adjust upward to reflect this loss. Wages lag prices because wages are reactive, not instant. They are renegotiated periodically. Prices reprice continuously. The gap is the hidden tax paid by labour. This is why people feel poorer even when GDP rises and salaries increase. The measuring stick is shrinking faster than income adjusts. Hard money exposes this reality. When the monetary unit does not expand, value shows up as: • Falling prices • Higher quality • Increased purchasing power Productivity is no longer masked by monetary debasement. Progress becomes visible instead of distorted. Bitcoin does not make things more expensive. It makes the currency honest. Price fluctuates. Value is preserved. Confusing the two leads to false conclusions. #Bitcoin #HardMoney #Finance #Value #FiatCurrencies npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins A new year is a natural reset. People set goals. They reassess what matters. They decide where to direct their time, energy, and effort. This makes it a good moment to think about money. Money is not wealth. It is a tool for measuring and storing the value you create. When the measuring stick is unstable, effort is distorted. Productivity is punished. Long-term thinking becomes difficult. For decades, most people have been forced to trade their time for a currency that loses purchasing power by design. The result is predictable: higher risk, more speculation, less saving, and constant pressure to chase returns just to stand still. Hard money changes the incentive structure. When money holds its value: • Saving becomes rational. • Long-term planning becomes possible. • Productivity is rewarded instead of diluted. Bitcoin represents this shift. Not as a get-rich-quick scheme. Not as a trade. Not as a yield product. But as a fixed-supply monetary system with no issuer, no discretion, and no need for trust. In a Bitcoin standard, progress shows up differently. Not primarily through rising prices, but through: • Falling costs • Better tools • Higher quality • More efficient coordination The goal isn’t to “number go up.” The goal is to produce more value with less waste, and store that value honestly. As this year begins, the question isn’t: “How do I make more money?” It’s: “What am I building?” “What value am I creating?” “And what money do I store that value in?” Hard money rewards patience. It rewards discipline. It rewards real work. That is a good foundation for any year ahead. #Bitcoin #NewYear #Productivity #ValueCreation npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Last time I got to Mossell bay but this time I won’t be able get that far east. So good to see Bitcoin being used as it was intended. Hard money, within circular economies so people can earn, save and spend Bitcoin. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins I love this, I’m in SA at the moment and always on the hunt for places to spend sats and support businesses accepting bitcoin. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins All the time. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Where is this? It’s perfect 👌 npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Agreed. A lot of these disagreements come down to how we define “growth.” GDP measures monetary throughput, not lived outcomes. It rises with debt expansion, asset inflation, and government spending, even when productivity, purchasing power, and quality of life stagnate or decline. Increased productivity should result in lower prices, higher real wages, and more leisure. In fiat systems, those gains are often absorbed by currency dilution and asset holders instead. So the real question isn’t “is the economy growing?” but who benefits from that growth, and in what unit is it measured? npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Over the past few days, I’ve been involved in a long debate about #Bitcoin, #money, and #economic growth. Below summarises the debate outside of the comments we have had back and forth. What became clear is that most disagreements about Bitcoin are not really about Bitcoin. They are about which economic framework you start from. Two schools of thought Most modern economics taught in universities today is derived from Keynesian and neo-Keynesian models. In this framework: • Money is a policy tool. • Credit expansion is necessary for growth. • Debt is not a problem if it funds activity. • Inflation is tolerated, even encouraged, to stimulate spending. • Economic health is measured primarily through GDP. Within this model, a fixed supply monetary system looks dangerous. If money cannot expand, the assumption is that growth will stall, liquidity will dry up, and the system will collapse under its own weight. This is why many people instinctively conclude that Bitcoin “cannot work” as money. There is another school of thought, often referred to as classical or Austrian economics, which starts from different assumptions. This is where Bitcoiners sit. In this framework: • Money is a measuring tool, not a control mechanism. •Growth comes from productivity, innovation, and efficient coordination of capital. • Credit should emerge from real savings, not monetary expansion. • Inflation distorts price signals and transfers wealth. • Falling prices due to productivity are a feature, not a failure. From this perspective, a fixed or hard monetary base is not a limitation. It is a discipline. Why universities teach what they teach Modern states operate on debt-based monetary systems. Governments, banks, and institutions depend on the ability to expand the money supply. It is therefore not surprising that: • Economic models that justify managed money dominate academia. • Models that limit state discretion are treated as historical or impractical. • Monetary failure is usually framed as “policy error,” not systemic design. This doesn’t require malice or conspiracy. Systems tend to teach what sustains them. Historical evidence is often misread Empires did not collapse because money was “too hard.” They collapsed because money was debased. • Rome did not fall under a fixed monetary system. It progressively reduced silver content in its coinage to fund military and state spending. Trust eroded, prices rose, and economic coordination broke down. • Weimar Germany did not fail due to hard money, but due to rapid monetary expansion to service war debts. • Zimbabwe did not collapse because of sanctions alone. Monetary issuance was used to paper over structural collapse, destroying the currency. • Time and again, monetary expansion is used as a short-term solution that creates long-term instability. Hard money systems did not “fail.” They were abandoned when political constraints became inconvenient. Where Bitcoin fits Bitcoin does not ban credit. It bans base-layer monetary manipulation. Its base layer is slow by design because it prioritises final settlement, not throughput. This is not new. Gold functioned the same way for centuries. Higher layers always emerged on top of sound settlement layers. Bitcoin separates: • Money from policy • Settlement from payments • Value storage from discretionary issuance When people argue that Bitcoin must adopt inflation, tail emissions, or permanent issuance to “support growth,” they are assuming growth must come from monetary expansion. Bitcoin challenges that assumption. It forces growth to come from: • Better coordination • Better incentives • Better productivity Why the disagreement persists If you believe: • Money must be managed • Growth requires issuance • Stability comes from flexibility Bitcoin looks flawed. If you believe: • Money should constrain power • Growth should reflect reality • Stability comes from rules Bitcoin looks inevitable. This is not a debate about intelligence, credentials, or good intentions. It is a debate about what money is allowed to do. Bitcoin did not create this disagreement. It simply made it impossible to ignore. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins This is the core distinction many miss and I’m glad you’re calling this out. A custodial balance or ETF share is a claim on Bitcoin, not Bitcoin itself. The protocol recognises only UTXOs controlled by private keys, not brokerage statements or fund disclosures. Centralised custody concentrates risk, shifts price discovery to paper instruments, and recreates the same trust assumptions Bitcoin was designed to remove. ETFs and treasury companies may increase exposure, but they do not strengthen the network’s monetary properties. Sovereignty, censorship resistance, and verifiability exist only at the protocol layer. Bitcoin works best when custody, verification, and settlement remain distributed. Everything else is convenience layered on top, with trade-offs. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Most of the world prices goods, services, and labour in fiat terms. As the currency supply expands, prices rise. Wages lag behind. The gap widens over time. This distorts the concept of fair value. People trade finite time and energy for a unit that steadily loses purchasing power. The loss is not always visible, but it is cumulative. Productivity improves, technology advances, yet the currency measures less of both. Price inflation is often blamed on greed or shortages. In reality, much of it is a reflection of the measuring unit deteriorating. #Bitcoin exposes this distortion. When Bitcoin is used purely as a store of value after converting from fiat, it is treated as an investment. That is a rational response within a fiat system, but it is not the full design intent. Bitcoin was not created to be a speculative asset. It was created to be a stable monetary unit. When value is stored in a unit that does not dilute, prices fall as productivity improves. Purchasing power rises without requiring higher nominal wages. Fair value re-emerges because the measuring stick remains constant. The distinction matters. If Bitcoin is only bought with fiat and never earned or spent, it behaves like an asset. If Bitcoin is earned, saved, and spent, it functions as money. This is why circular economies matter. Not for ideology, but for measurement. Fair value cannot exist when the unit of account is unstable. Sound money is not about getting rich. It is about preserving time, energy, and truth in pricing. Bitcoin makes that possible. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins I agree. Bitcoin was not designed to be a passive investment or a vehicle for fiat gains. It was designed to be earned, saved, and spent, without intermediaries. The reason many don’t spend Bitcoin today isn’t ideology, it’s structure. Most people still buy Bitcoin with fiat rather than earn it. When Bitcoin is acquired as an asset, it’s treated like one. When it’s earned, it functions as money. That’s why circular economies matter. They enable: Earning in Bitcoin Saving in Bitcoin Spending in Bitcoin I’ve paid staff in Bitcoin since 2016. Where Bitcoin income exists, spending follows naturally. Platforms like Bitrefill, Fold, BitPay, Strike, and Living Room of Satoshi reduce friction by bridging Bitcoin into a fiat-priced world, though adoption remains region-specific. Education and merchant participation are still critical, especially paying wages in Bitcoin. Treasury companies and ETFs increase price exposure, but they don’t create monetary circulation. Adoption as money comes from usage, not balance sheets. Both phases can coexist. But Bitcoin’s long-term strength comes from being used, not watched through a fiat price lens. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Bitcoin is slow by design because it prioritises final settlement and verification, not retail throughput. That does not make it “just an underlying asset.” It makes it base-layer money. Lightning is not a third-party chain in the custodial sense, it’s an optional second layer that inherits Bitcoin’s security and can be used non-custodially. Optional layers don’t negate sound money; they’re how sound money scales. Sound money is defined by scarcity, verifiability, and resistance to discretionary issuance, not transaction speed. Tail emission is a policy choice, not a requirement. Permanent inflation does not make money sound; it makes dilution perpetual. Anyway, I’ll end this debate here. It’s clear we have different views, which is perfectly fine. These kinds of discussions are necessary for progress, even when there’s no agreement. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins You’re conflating credit with growth. Debt can fund growth, but it does not create it. Productivity creates growth; debt merely pulls future output forward and prices it today. When the productivity fails to materialise, the debt still remains. China is a perfect example of this distinction, not a rebuttal. Suppressed currency + credit expansion produced output and massive malinvestment, demographic collapse, ghost cities, and an unserviceable debt overhang. That is not proof of sustainability. Fixed-supply money did not “fail since Babylon.” Credit systems failed when claims exceeded real output. Sound money exposes those failures instead of masking them with issuance. Inflation is not growth. It is a signal that monetary claims have grown faster than real goods and services. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Debt issuance does not create growth. It reallocates purchasing power forward in time. Real growth comes from productivity gains, better coordination of capital, labour, and technology. Under sound money, growth shows up as falling prices and rising real purchasing power. Construction sites are not proof of growth. Malinvestment builds things too, until the cash flows fail and the debt must be rolled, inflated away, or defaulted on. Issuance expands claims, not resources. Eventually the claims exceed what the real economy can support. That is the bottleneck you’re describing, and it’s caused by debt, not fixed supply. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Economic growth does not come from issuing more units of money. It comes from productivity, innovation, and better coordination of capital. A fixed supply monetary base does not prevent growth — it forces growth to express itself through falling prices and rising purchasing power, not monetary debasement. Issuance creates the illusion of growth by diluting the unit. Bitcoin measures growth honestly. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Let’s add @npub1wzr…pmh9 🇳🇿 to the list npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins #Bitcoin was not designed to be an IOU. It was designed to remove the need for trusted intermediaries in money. When you hold Bitcoin through: – ETFs – custodial exchanges – broker apps – derivatives and paper claims you do not hold Bitcoin. You hold a promise denominated in Bitcoin. That distinction matters. Paper Bitcoin recreates the exact system Bitcoin was built to escape: • custodians control access • regulators control custodians • price discovery moves off-chain • users lose sovereignty If most “Bitcoin ownership” exists as paper claims, then Bitcoin becomes: – easy to freeze – easy to censor – easy to rehypothecate – easy to politically capture The protocol still works. The rules don’t change. But the people stop using it as designed. Bitcoin’s security model assumes: – users self-custody – nodes independently verify – transactions settle on the base layer (or trust-minimised layers) ETFs do none of this. They increase price exposure while reducing network participation. That is why ETFs strengthen fiat markets, not Bitcoin. Bitcoin does not gain strength from number go up. It gains strength from: – self-custody – real settlement – node verification – voluntary use If you don’t run a node, you trust someone else’s rules. If you don’t self-custody, you don’t control your money. If you never transact, you don’t participate in the system. Bitcoin survives paperization. But it does not benefit from it. If Bitcoin is treated only as a speculative asset, it will be absorbed into the system it was meant to replace. If it is used as money, it remains outside that system. The choice is not institutional vs retail. The choice is custody vs sovereignty. Use Bitcoin. Verify Bitcoin. Hold your own keys. That is how Bitcoin stays Bitcoin. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins #Bitcoin’s protocol still works. The risk is not in the code. It is in how people use it. Bitcoin is increasingly held through ETFs, custodians, and treasury vehicles. That gives exposure, but it reduces participation. Price discovery moves off-chain. Coins consolidate into regulated pools. Users stop verifying. This does not break Bitcoin. But it weakens its sovereign properties. Bitcoin was designed to be self-custodied money, settled peer-to-peer, enforced by users running nodes. That is what makes the rules hard to change and capture expensive. When convenience replaces verification, enforcement thins. When exposure replaces ownership, sovereignty erodes. Institutions will always prefer paper claims and intermediated control. That is rational for them. It is not neutral for the network. As a Bitcoiner, the responsibility is to be honest about this trade-off. If you want Bitcoin to remain hard money: • Hold your own keys • Run a node if you can • Use Bitcoin as money, not just as a price ticker Bitcoin does not need belief or protection. It needs users who participate. The protocol survives only if sovereignty is practiced, not outsourced. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins For the world to run on hard money 😉#Bitcoin npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Completely agree. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Credit is not savings. It is a claim created against the future. In modern systems, credit is issued first and funded later. Banks do not lend deposits. They create new money when they issue loans. The borrower receives purchasing power that did not previously exist. The liability is pushed forward in time. This process expands the money supply without increasing real goods or productivity. At small scale, credit coordinates investment. At large scale, it distorts prices. When credit is cheap and abundant: • Asset prices rise before wages • Risk is mispriced • Debt grows faster than income • Consumption is pulled forward • Future output is assumed, not earned This is not growth. It is temporal displacement. The system requires continual expansion to remain solvent. Old debt is serviced by new credit. If expansion slows, defaults appear. If expansion stops, the system contracts. There is no equilibrium. Only acceleration or collapse. Because credit is created without hard limits, it concentrates power in institutions that can issue it. Those closest to issuance benefit first. Those furthest away pay later through inflation and higher taxes. This is why inflation is described as a “mystery.” Its cause is structural. Sound money constrains credit. Fiat money amplifies it. Bitcoin does not prohibit lending. It prohibits credit creation from nothing. Loans must come from saved capital. Risk must be priced. Time preference must be real. This is the difference between money that measures value and money that manufactures claims. One preserves reality. The other replaces it with promises. #Bitcoin #Credit #Finance #CentralBanking npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Taxation Was Never Meant to Be Permanent Income tax was introduced as a temporary emergency measure. In the UK, income tax first appeared in 1799 to fund the Napoleonic Wars. It was repealed, reinstated, and only made permanent in 1842. In the US, income tax emerged during the Civil War, was repealed, then reintroduced in 1913, sold as a tax on the wealthy, not the population at large. Before permanent income taxation, societies still functioned. Cities had roads, bridges, ports, universities, water systems, and trade infrastructure, all built without perpetual taxation of labour and savings. So what changed? Modern taxation didn’t expand because governments suddenly became more efficient. It expanded because governments stopped running surplus budgets. Under Keynesian economics, deficits are not a failure, they are a policy tool. When growth slows, governments borrow. When debt compounds, they inflate. When inflation bites, they tax more. Not to improve services, but to keep the system solvent. This is why politicians fail time and time again. They overpromise and underdeliver, not because they are uniquely incompetent, but because the system is structurally designed to fail. You can see the consequences everywhere: Cost of living crises Pension crises Housing affordability breakdowns Declining public services despite rising tax burdens From an Austrian economics perspective, this outcome is inevitable. When money can be created without constraint, fiscal discipline disappears. Taxation becomes a mechanism to offset monetary mismanagement, not a means of funding productive public goods. This is not a left vs right issue. It doesn’t matter who is in power. Until the underlying system changes, until Keynesian assumptions are challenged, politicians will continue to fail, budgets will remain permanently in deficit, and citizens will continue to carry the cost. Broken money produces broken incentives. Broken incentives produce broken governance. History is clear on this. And it’s repeating, again. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Brilliant npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins A recurring pattern I see in Bitcoin discussions is the conflation of the protocol with the market built around it. Bitcoin is a monetary protocol. TradFi exchanges, market makers, ETFs, custodians, oracles, and fiat on-ramps are optional market infrastructure layered on top of it. When people critique Bitcoin by pointing to exchange failures, liquidity providers, pricing oracles, or custodial risk, they are not critiquing Bitcoin. They are critiquing fiat-era intermediaries interacting with Bitcoin. That distinction matters. Within the protocol: • No miner can censor a valid transaction • No market maker can change the rules • No exchange can prevent settlement between self-custodied users • No institution controls issuance or supply • No authority can override consensus Bitcoin does not eliminate intermediaries by force. It makes them optional by design. The confusion arises when people treat: • price discovery as governance • custody as control • liquidity as authority • markets as protocol That framing imports TradFi assumptions into a system that was explicitly designed to remove them. My aim has always been to evaluate Bitcoin on its own terms — at the protocol layer — not through the lens of fiat market behaviour built around it. When you separate those layers, most of the common criticisms collapse. Bitcoin is not perfect. But it is precise. And precision is what most debates are missing. #Bitcoin #FiatMoney #TradFi npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins The stock-to-flow ratio explains why some forms of money endure and others fail. Stock is the existing supply of an asset. Flow is the amount added each year. When flow is small relative to stock, supply is stable. When flow is large, value is diluted. This ratio matters for money. Gold functioned as money for centuries because its stock-to-flow was high. New supply could not be produced quickly, even when demand increased. That constraint protected purchasing power over time. Fiat currency has a stock-to-flow problem by design. Flow responds to policy, not scarcity. When demand for money rises or debt becomes unmanageable, supply expands. Purchasing power declines as a result. Bitcoin was designed with this distinction in mind. Its total stock is capped. Its flow is known in advance. Issuance decreases on a fixed schedule. Every four years, Bitcoin’s flow is cut in half. Its stock-to-flow rises automatically, without discretion or intervention. This is not a pricing model. It is a description of supply mechanics. Hard money does not depend on restraint. It depends on constraint. Bitcoin’s stock-to-flow is enforced by rules, not promises. That makes it the first digitally native form of hard money with predictable scarcity. Over time, assets with stable supply are used to preserve value. Assets with elastic supply are used to spend. That pattern has repeated throughout history. Bitcoin fits the former category by design. #Bitcoin #HardMoney #Money #Economics #Inflation #Finance npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins The Bank of England cutting rates to 3.75% is not a sign of strength. It is a response to economic contraction, not confidence. Rate cuts happen for two reasons: either productivity is accelerating, or demand is weakening. This is the latter. Falling inflation here is not driven by abundance or efficiency. It is driven by slowing consumption, tightening household budgets, and a fragile economy that cannot tolerate higher borrowing costs. The so-called “mortgage war” confirms this. Banks are not cutting rates out of generosity — they are competing for scarce creditworthy borrowers. When lending demand weakens, price competition follows. Yes, lower rates may reduce monthly payments in nominal terms. But history shows what usually comes next: house prices reprice upward, absorbing the benefit. Cheaper money does not make housing more affordable. It makes housing more expensive in larger units of debased currency. An average £270 monthly saving sounds meaningful — until prices rise 5–10% and first-time buyers are pushed further out. Lower rates help existing asset holders first. That is the Cantillon effect, not prosperity. This is the deeper pattern: • Rates rise → households strain • Rates fall → assets inflate • Purchasing power continues to erode in both cases Monetary easing is not a solution. It is a delay mechanism. Real recovery does not come from cheaper credit. It comes from sound money, productivity, and capital formation without distortion. When central banks cut rates during contraction, they are not fixing the system. They are signalling that it can no longer function without intervention. That is not stability. It is dependency. https://www.perplexity.ai/page/bank-of-england-cuts-rates-as-jhJuKhX8Su2x0X.F8ELx5g #UK #UKEconomy #BankOfEngland #Economy npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Correct, and that’s precisely the distinction. Gold could be debased because its supply constraints were physical and political. Once custody, minting, or discovery could be influenced, debasement followed. Bitcoin removes that vector entirely. Its scarcity is enforced by rules, not trust. Its issuance is verifiable, not assumed. Its debasement is not a policy choice, it’s computationally forbidden. Bitcoin isn’t better because gold failed. It’s better because it eliminates the failure mode. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Money is not a social construct decided by vote. It is a tool that emerges through use. Across history, societies have repeatedly discovered that certain properties are required for money to function over time: scarcity, durability, divisibility, verifiability, and resistance to manipulation. The forms of money that lacked these properties were eventually abandoned. The ones that possessed them endured. Gold became money not because it was declared so, but because it was difficult to produce, easy to verify, and could not be created at will. These constraints mattered. They limited the ability of rulers to dilute value and forced economic growth to come from productivity rather than monetary expansion. Fiat currency began as a claim on hard money. Over time, that constraint was removed. In 1971, money became fully elastic, issued by policy rather than bound by scarcity. From that point on, money ceased to function as a reliable store of value and became a tool for managing debt, growth targets, and short-term stability. The consequences are structural, not accidental: purchasing power erosion, asset inflation, rising debt, and increasing reliance on financialisation rather than production. Bitcoin was not designed to optimise payments, speculation, or short-term returns. It was designed to reintroduce monetary discipline in a digital world. Its supply is fixed. Its issuance is predictable. Its rules are enforced by a network, not by discretion or authority. This makes Bitcoin different from currencies, equities, or commodities. It is a monetary system governed by rules rather than trust. Bitcoin does not promise economic equality or volatility-free markets. It simply restores a property money once had: the inability to be debased. Throughout history, harder forms of money have eventually replaced softer ones, not through force or persuasion, but through reliability over time. Bitcoin represents the first digitally native attempt at hard money. It is not a rebellion against the system. It is a response to the limits of the current one. Understanding Bitcoin begins with understanding money. #Bitcoin #Money #HistoryOfMoney #Economics #Finance npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Thank you for the kind words. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins #Bitcoin is widely misunderstood because it is evaluated using the wrong framework. Most financial advisors and wealth managers analyse Bitcoin as if it were an equity, a commodity, or a speculative risk asset. It is none of those. Bitcoin is a monetary system. Equities are claims on future cash flows. Commodities are inputs to production. Currencies are liabilities issued by states and managed through policy. Bitcoin is different. It has no issuer, no balance sheet, no management team, and no cash flow because money is not supposed to produce yield. Its function is to store value, measure value, and transfer value without reliance on trust or discretion. This is where the confusion starts. When advisors ask: – “Where is the income?” – “What’s the intrinsic value?” – “How does it compound?” They are asking questions appropriate for businesses, not for money. Bitcoin’s value comes from its rules: – Fixed supply – Predictable issuance – Verifiable scarcity – Censorship resistance These properties remove dilution risk and counterparty risk. Over time, that matters more than narratives, models, or opinions. Bitcoin does not replace productive assets. It replaces the measuring stick used to evaluate them. Until Bitcoin is understood as money rather than an investment product, it will continue to be misunderstood — even by professionals paid to allocate capital. That misunderstanding is not a flaw in Bitcoin. It is evidence that the transition is still early. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Endless war sustains weak money. Weak money sustains endless war. The question is not whether this is intentional. The question is who can afford peace. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Agreed. This is the institutional discovery phase. Access comes first through proxies, then through experience. Over time, they learn that substituting ownership introduces counterparty risk, leverage, governance risk and forced liquidity events that do not exist with spot Bitcoin. Proxies behave like financial instruments. Bitcoin behaves like money. The difference becomes clear under stress. Volatility is the mechanism through which that lesson is learned. Spot holders should understand this dynamic and be prepared. As intermediated structures unwind, coins tend to move toward holders with no liabilities attached. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins When direct ownership is restricted, capital seeks substitutes. Large institutions and sovereign funds operate within regulatory and custodial limits that often prevent them from holding spot Bitcoin. In those conditions, exposure shifts to proxies that fit existing frameworks. Equity vehicles become stand-ins for an asset they cannot yet hold directly. MicroStrategy has filled this role by converting its balance sheet into a large Bitcoin position wrapped in a publicly traded structure. For institutions, this offers liquidity, reporting standards, and regulatory familiarity. The trade-off is that exposure now includes equity risk, management decisions, and capital structure, none of which exist with direct ownership. This behaviour does not reflect preference for proxies. It reflects constraint. When access to the underlying asset is limited, intermediated exposure becomes the next best option. As a result, demand concentrates in vehicles that can be traded within current rules, even if those vehicles introduce additional risks. Allegations of manipulation around proxy instruments highlight the difference between holding Bitcoin and holding claims on Bitcoin exposure. Equities can be influenced by sentiment, leverage, and market structure. Bitcoin itself cannot be diluted, rehypothecated, or altered through commentary. The proxy absorbs those dynamics. The asset does not. Over time, these pressures tend to resolve in one direction. Either access to spot ownership expands, or reliance on proxies grows more fragile. History suggests that capital ultimately moves toward the asset with fewer intermediaries and fewer points of failure. Bitcoin was designed to remove the need for proxies. Until that access is widely available at institutional scale, substitutes will continue to form. Their existence is not a signal of preference. It is evidence of demand constrained by structure. https://www.perplexity.ai/page/norway-s-sovereign-wealth-fund-0H26rx2KScW_OBdMH1C_kg npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Short-term price moves are secondary and hard to predict accurately. Markets tend to revisit areas of high participation before extending trends, hype and euphoria need to be ironed out. A retrace toward anchored VWAP (red plot around $60k) from the prior cycles high, would not be unusual and would reset positioning rather than signal failure. Every prior cycle this has been the case. This could take the next ~12 months before starting to appreciate in value further against fiat currencies. When viewed over short intervals, Bitcoin appears volatile. When viewed over long intervals, the pattern is consistent. On multi-month timeframes, including three-month candles like in the screenshot below, Bitcoin has never entered a true bear market. Each period of consolidation or drawdown has been followed by repricing driven by fixed supply and declining issuance. This is not accidental. Scarcity is enforced through the halving schedule, while demand expands unevenly over time. Fiat currencies, by contrast, expand by design. The result is a persistent divergence when the timeframe is long enough. Outcomes therefore depend less on prediction and more on horizon. Bitcoin’s behaviour changes with perspective, but its monetary mechanics do not. https://blossom.primal.net/c95c3a1df7a6dd762dd283fe77ea51b83f6df62f967d3cad34c76d1a2b5aa73a.png https://blossom.primal.net/bee1404c6b6e0736a48304006661ddd0d0a1bf125075cfe22990c137af700583.png npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Gold’s sharp move reflects a familiar response to monetary conditions. When interest rates are reduced and the currency weakens, assets with limited supply tend to reprice upward. The rise is not a statement about growth. It is a statement about confidence in the unit of account. The increase in jobless claims reinforces this dynamic. As labour markets soften, central banks face pressure to ease even when inflation remains elevated. The result is a narrow policy range where rates are lowered to support activity, while currency strength is sacrificed in the process. Gold responds because it has no issuer and no counterparty risk. Powell’s emphasis on waiting reflects this constraint. Further cuts risk inflation persistence. Holding steady risks deeper economic slowdown. Markets interpret this uncertainty as a reason to seek assets that are not managed through discretion. Bitcoin was designed for the same environment. Gold preserves value by physical scarcity. Bitcoin preserves value by verifiable digital scarcity. Both respond when monetary policy becomes reactive rather than rule-based. The difference is that Bitcoin’s supply is not only limited, it is fully predictable. Movements in gold and Bitcoin are often described as price rallies. In practice, they are measurements of currency weakness. When the denominator changes, assets that cannot be expanded adjust accordingly. This is not a signal about short-term direction. It is a reminder that when policy must balance inflation, employment and debt simultaneously, confidence shifts toward money that does not require intervention to function. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Headline revenue growth does not necessarily indicate real growth. When the unit of account weakens, nominal figures rise even if underlying output does not. A seven percent increase measured in a depreciating currency can coexist with flat or declining real profitability. Rising labour, energy and input costs suggest that margins are under pressure. In that environment, higher revenues often reflect price increases rather than higher volumes or productivity gains. The business may be working harder to stand still. This distinction matters. Real growth comes from producing more value with the same or fewer resources. Nominal growth can be achieved by adjusting prices in response to currency debasement. The latter creates the appearance of progress while purchasing power erodes. Bitcoin exposes this difference. When measured in a unit with fixed supply, growth must be real. Revenues cannot rise unless more value is created. This is why comparisons made solely in fiat terms increasingly mislead. The problem is not the business. It is the measuring stick. https://www.perplexity.ai/page/burger-king-uk-revenue-climbs-R9MglHqWRQKPNhou23NSTQ npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Claims that Bitcoin’s four-year cycle is ending reflect changes in market composition rather than changes in the protocol. The halving schedule remains fixed. Issuance still declines at predictable intervals. What has changed is the type of participant interacting with that supply. Earlier cycles were dominated by marginal buyers and sellers with limited balance sheets. Large price swings followed because liquidity was thin and leverage was unstable. As institutional participation increases, more capital absorbs volatility. Spot ETFs and custodial products introduce steady inflows that smooth short-term dislocations, but they do not alter the underlying scarcity. This does not mean cycles disappear. It means they express differently. The amplitude may compress, and the timing may drift, but the cause remains the same. New supply continues to fall while demand adjusts. Markets still reprice scarcity over time. They simply do so through deeper pools of capital and longer decision horizons. Price targets and declarations of cycle death are attempts to simplify a complex adaptive system. Bitcoin does not follow narratives. It follows incentives. When supply is fixed and issuance is known, participants eventually adjust their behaviour around those constraints. Whether volatility is high or low in a given period does not change that process. Institutional adoption changes who holds Bitcoin and how it trades. It does not change why it exists. The halving remains a structural feature, not a trading signal. As the market matures, focus naturally shifts away from short-term patterns and toward the long-term implications of fixed supply in a system that continues to grow. Bitcoin does not need cycles to function. It only requires that the rules remain enforceable. The rest is market discovery. https://www.perplexity.ai/page/wood-says-bitcoin-s-four-year-6r6bPS2WRIqcROxGR0Uopg npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Michael Burry’s remarks point to a recurring feature of modern banking systems. When reserves decline and liquidity must be restored through central bank asset purchases, it indicates that stability depends on continuous intervention rather than balance sheet strength. Banks that require trillions in excess reserves are not demonstrating resilience. They are demonstrating sensitivity to funding conditions. The Federal Reserve’s decision to purchase short-term Treasury securities to replenish reserves follows a familiar pattern. Liquidity is withdrawn during tightening phases, stress appears in funding markets, and balance sheet expansion resumes to prevent dislocation. Each cycle leaves the system larger and more dependent on central bank support than before. This is not temporary. It becomes structural. The growth of the Fed’s balance sheet from under one trillion dollars before 2008 to nearly seven trillion today reflects this trajectory. After each crisis, the level of reserves required to maintain stability increases. What is described as “ample” today would have been considered excessive in earlier periods. The definition shifts because the system adapts to higher leverage and lower tolerance for volatility. Bitcoin was designed in response to this fragility. It does not rely on reserves, lenders of last resort, or discretionary liquidity injections. Settlement does not depend on confidence in counterparties remaining solvent overnight. The supply cannot be expanded to backstop losses or smooth funding gaps. Participants either hold valid coins or they do not. In fiat banking systems, stability is achieved through balance sheet growth and policy intervention. In Bitcoin, stability is achieved through fixed rules and independent verification. One system requires constant maintenance to avoid failure. The other operates continuously without adjustment. Warnings about fragility are not predictions of imminent collapse. They are observations about incentives. When survival depends on permanent expansion of central bank balance sheets, the monetary base becomes a tool for crisis management rather than a stable foundation. Bitcoin exists to remove that dependency. https://www.perplexity.ai/page/big-short-investor-michael-bur-eTlWTnBXTka_nFRazhHM4A npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Agreed. The issue is not companies holding Bitcoin. It is leverage. Firms and individuals that stack with no debt remove the failure mode entirely. Bitcoin works best when it is earned and held, not accelerated through borrowing. We do not use leverage to accumulate Bitcoin. We do not plan on selling to service liabilities. We are happy to exchange sats for real value when it makes sense, but not under obligation. That distinction matters. Hard money rewards patience and productivity. Debt reintroduces fragility the system was designed to remove. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins The rise in UK youth unemployment reflects long-standing structural pressures rather than a short-term fluctuation. When employer costs increase faster than productivity, hiring becomes more difficult. Recent changes to National Insurance and minimum wage rules have added several thousand pounds to the cost of employing a young worker. In an economy already experiencing weak growth, these additional burdens reduce opportunities at the margin. The result is predictable: fewer entry-level jobs and a larger share of young people not participating in the workforce. The broader data reinforces this trend. Youth unemployment has risen from 11 percent to 15.3 percent in three years, the fastest deterioration in the G7. Nearly one million people aged 16 to 24 are now classified as NEET. At the same time, automation has reduced demand for junior roles in technology sectors by nearly twenty percent. When economic conditions weaken, firms automate earlier in the employment pipeline and hire later in the cycle. These adjustments are a consequence of incentives, not policy statements. Underlying these symptoms is a monetary system that makes long-term planning difficult. When money loses purchasing power over time, governments rely on increasing taxation, higher borrowing and continual intervention to maintain services. These pressures fall disproportionately on younger workers, who face rising living costs and fewer opportunities to acquire skills. Employers respond by limiting new hires and reducing training investment. The cycle reinforces itself. Bitcoin was created to avoid these distortions. A monetary base with fixed supply does not require continual expansion of taxes or credit. It removes the inflationary pressure that erodes wages and forces households and firms into short-term decisions. In an economy built on predictable money, saving becomes viable, investment horizons lengthen and employment grows from productivity rather than from stimulus. Youth unemployment on this scale signals deeper issues in the foundation of the system. Adjustments to tax rates or wage rules may influence outcomes temporarily, but they do not address the cause. A more stable economic environment arises when the currency itself does not require perpetual manipulation to sustain activity. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Satsuma Technology’s decision to sell a significant portion of its Bitcoin holdings to cover an upcoming convertible loan repayment reflects a structural issue common to many corporate treasuries. When companies acquire Bitcoin using debt or issue convertible instruments to expand their positions, they introduce fixed liabilities that do not adjust to market conditions. If prices fall or remain flat, servicing these obligations requires liquidation of the asset they intended to hold. This behaviour shows a misunderstanding of Bitcoin’s role. Bitcoin was created as a monetary base that removes counterparty risk and maintains purchasing power over long horizons. It was not designed to support leveraged strategies or to replace operational revenue. When firms treat Bitcoin as a substitute for future productivity, they expose themselves to the same liquidity pressures that affect any leveraged asset. The broader trend is becoming clear. A majority of corporate Bitcoin treasuries are now in unrealised loss positions. These entities relied on appreciation to justify their strategies, but appreciation cannot be guaranteed in the short term. If their liabilities mature faster than their assets recover, forced selling becomes unavoidable. This outcome results from the leverage, not from Bitcoin itself. As long as companies attempt to use debt to accelerate accumulation, similar situations will appear. The incentive to grow holdings quickly conflicts with the discipline that hard money requires. A system based on fixed supply rewards long-term saving and productive output. It does not reward attempts to compress that process through financial engineering. Bitcoin remains neutral. It enforces no leverage and provides no protection to those who assume it. When firms borrow to acquire a monetary asset, they turn a stable store of value into a speculative position that must outperform the cost of capital. If the position fails, the coins are redistributed to holders without such constraints. One bitcoin remains one bitcoin. Its design does not accommodate the pressures that arise from debt cycles or market expectations. Companies that align with these principles will be more resilient. Those that ignore them will continue to discover the limits of using leverage to accumulate hard money. https://www.perplexity.ai/page/uk-firm-sells-half-its-bitcoin-BEzvfehhRaCtNUYmHnW5Ag npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins The Federal Reserve has reduced interest rates again while simultaneously announcing a new round of Treasury bill purchases. These actions indicate that the financial system is becoming dependent on continuous liquidity support. When the underlying economy weakens and inflation remains above target, central banks face conflicting incentives. Lowering rates risks further inflation. Maintaining high rates risks liquidity stress. The response is usually a partial adjustment in both directions, which is what we are seeing now. Purchasing forty billion dollars of Treasury bills is a form of balance-sheet expansion. It increases demand for government debt and helps stabilise funding markets. At the same time, the cut in policy rates lowers borrowing costs across the economy. This combination typically appears when growth is slowing, inflation is persistent and the government requires reliable financing. The description of the labour market “cooling” with inflation “somewhat elevated” is a straightforward definition of stagflation. These interventions reflect the design of the system. When money is created elastically, economic stability depends on adjusting interest rates and expanding the central bank balance sheet. Over time, each cycle requires larger interventions to offset the effects of previous ones. The result is an economy increasingly driven by policy signals rather than genuine productivity. Bitcoin was created to avoid this dynamic. Its supply cannot be expanded to support government borrowing or to manage short-term fluctuations. Verification is decentralised, and issuance is predictable. The unit of account does not change as policymakers respond to the constraints of the debt cycle. This removes the need for stimulus and the distortions that follow. In fiat systems, interest rates and asset purchases are tools used to maintain liquidity and preserve confidence. In Bitcoin, no such tools exist. The rules are fixed, and participants adjust to them rather than the other way around. This difference becomes clearer each time central banks attempt to manage outcomes produced by a flexible monetary base. One bitcoin remains one bitcoin. Its value does not depend on policy announcements, balance-sheet adjustments or electoral cycles. It is a monetary system designed to operate without the interventions that characterise the present environment. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Is there any possibility to ship this to the UK? npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Mallorca is a great spot npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Never selling, happily exchange sats for value. Fiat is not value. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins History shows a consistent pattern in monetary evolution. Communities begin with forms of money that are easy to produce. As trade expands, the weaknesses of these units become apparent. When supply can be increased with little effort, the unit cannot store value. People seek alternatives that are harder to create, because hardness protects the results of their work. This pattern appears in every era. Societies moved from shells to metals, from soft metals to gold, and later from paper claims to systems backed by scarce reserves. The preference is not ideological. It is an economic response. Hard money reduces uncertainty. It allows saving without requiring speculation. It encourages production rather than endless attempts to outrun debasement. When governments removed convertibility and adopted fully elastic monetary systems, the long-term effects were predictable. Purchasing power declined. Debt expanded. Asset prices rose faster than wages. Individuals were pushed toward risk-taking simply to preserve living standards. This is not a flaw of individuals. It is a consequence of the properties of the money they use. Bitcoin extends the historical trend. It provides a monetary unit with a fixed issuance schedule and decentralised verification. No authority can dilute it, and no institution controls access to it. The hardness is enforced by code and consensus, not by trust in custodians. As more people recognise these properties, economic activity shifts toward the system with the strongest guarantees. The movement toward hard money is not driven by sentiment. It is driven by incentives. When the alternative is a currency designed to lose value, the hardest form of money becomes the rational choice. One bitcoin remains one bitcoin. Over time, systems built on predictable rules outperform those dependent on discretionary policy. This is why monetary history continues to converge on hardness, and why Bitcoin represents the next step in that progression. #Bitcoin #HardMoney npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Strategy Inc.’s continued accumulation now totals 660,624 bitcoin. The company has financed these acquisitions through repeated issuance of equity and debt, exchanging future claims on the firm for present access to a scarce monetary asset. This approach converts the balance sheet into a leveraged position on Bitcoin rather than a traditional operating enterprise. The numbers are large, but the economic principle remains simple. Bitcoin has a fixed supply and a predictable issuance schedule. Any entity that accumulates coins faster than they are created increases its exposure to volatility and to the constraints of its capital structure. Shareholders absorb dilution, preferred dividends and debt obligations that do not exist for ordinary holders. The asset is neutral. The liabilities are not. The recent purchase of 10,624 BTC at an average price near ninety thousand dollars raises the aggregate cost basis to around seventy four thousand six hundred ninety six dollars per coin. These figures matter less than the structure behind them. A system built on external financing must continually maintain market confidence. If that confidence weakens, funding becomes more expensive and the premium over net asset value can reverse, which is what has occurred through much of 2025. From Bitcoin’s perspective, Strategy is one participant securing a large share of the supply. If its strategy succeeds, the coins remain off the market under a long-term holder. If it fails, the holdings disperse to others without affecting the protocol or its monetary rules. This asymmetry is intentional. No single actor, regardless of scale, can alter the design or the economic incentives that govern the network. Bitcoin’s resilience comes from decentralised verification and fixed issuance, not from corporate treasuries or public endorsements. Entities may choose to accumulate at any pace they wish, but the long-term outcome still depends on prudent management of liabilities. The protocol imposes no requirements and offers no guarantees. It simply continues producing blocks at the expected rate. It is also important to separate Bitcoin’s utility from its fiat price. One bitcoin is always one bitcoin. The unit does not change as external currencies fluctuate. Price is a temporary expression of how the fiat system values scarcity at a given moment. The success of Bitcoin is measured by its integrity and predictable monetary policy, not by the number it trades at in depreciating currency. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Bitcoin’s liveliness rising to cycle highs shows a clear shift in how participants are using the network. Older coins are moving in volumes far larger than any previous cycle, yet spot prices remain stable. This suggests a demand floor strong enough to absorb renewed supply without breaking structure. In systems with fixed issuance, these transitions often mark deeper liquidity and redistribution rather than exhaustion. The market will eventually price the change in behaviour. https://www.perplexity.ai/page/bitcoin-network-demand-surges-KSayNEshS3ud6PrWAi5aMA npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins The recent decline of companies that adopted “digital asset treasury” strategies highlights a basic misunderstanding of how balance sheets and monetary assets function. A scarce asset can protect purchasing power, but it does not remove the need for productive cash flow. When firms borrow against future income that does not exist, they become vulnerable to even small price movements. Bitcoin was never intended to replace business fundamentals. It offers a predictable monetary base, not a substitute for revenue. Companies that issued debt to purchase volatile assets introduced a structural mismatch. Their liabilities were fixed, while their ability to service those liabilities depended on market appreciation rather than operational output. This is the same pattern seen in speculative bubbles throughout economic history. The error was not in holding Bitcoin. The error was in assuming that appreciation would cover the absence of a sustainable business model. Hard money principles require discipline. Saving is most effective when liabilities are limited and debt levels are modest. Without these constraints, a balance sheet can become unstable regardless of the asset held. A decentralised monetary system does not guarantee success for any individual firm. It simply provides a neutral unit of account and store of value. The market will always discount companies that rely on price speculation rather than productive activity. If forced selling becomes widespread, it will be a reflection of excessive leverage, not a failure of the underlying asset. Bitcoin’s design removes the need for trust in monetary issuance. It does not remove the need for prudent capital allocation. Companies that treat hard money as a speculative instrument instead of a foundation for long-term planning will continue to experience these predictable outcomes. https://www.perplexity.ai/page/from-2600-gains-to-86-wipeouts-tDCE6F7pRGe1NbNQzLuRLg npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Most economic problems trace back to the use of money that can be expanded at will. When supply is elastic, the unit cannot reliably store value. People are pushed toward speculation to offset the loss, which diverts attention from productive activity. Hard money avoids this. A fixed or tightly constrained supply forces economic growth to come from real output rather than monetary expansion. Individuals can save without needing to predict policy decisions. Prices adjust naturally to changes in productivity, creating long-term stability. #Bitcoin applies these principles in digital form. The supply schedule is predetermined, and enforcement comes from independent node verification rather than trusted authorities. No participant can change the rules for their own gain. As adoption increases, the network becomes more resistant to manipulation. The result is a monetary system that aligns incentives. Value is earned through work, stored without dilution and exchanged without intermediaries. In a world built on uncertain policies and expanding balance sheets, a system based on hard money principles is not just an alternative. It is a necessary correction. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Why #Bitcoin Matters Most people do not realise how dependent the current economy is on the continuous expansion of credit. When money can be issued without constraint, its value becomes a function of political decisions rather than economic productivity. This creates cycles where individuals must take on more risk simply to maintain their standard of living. Bitcoin was designed to remove this dependency. The fixed supply and predictable issuance schedule prevent arbitrary dilution. This allows participants to store the results of their work without needing to speculate to offset monetary debasement. Over time, a system with these properties encourages saving, long-term planning and productive investment rather than short-term extraction. The network continues to operate without central authority. Nodes verify independently and reach consensus through proof of work. This ensures that no single actor, including governments or financial institutions, can alter the rules for their own benefit. The security of the system increases as more participants join, forming a feedback loop of adoption and resilience. Bitcoin does not solve every economic or political problem, but it removes a key point of failure that has distorted economies for decades. A monetary system that is neutral, scarce and decentralised creates a foundation on which individuals and businesses can plan with greater certainty. In the long run this is likely to produce more stable and sustainable growth than any policy intervention. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins I’ve spent the last 13 years building @nprofile…kvek on the back of the very platforms I criticise. Google, Meta, LinkedIn, X… I know them better than most because my entire career has been spent navigating their systems, their algorithms, and their incentive structures. And if I’m honest, in a lot of ways I’ve been part of the problem. I’ve helped businesses grow inside an ecosystem that is fundamentally unhealthy. I’ve played the game because you have to play the game if you want to grow a company today. Organic reach is gone. Attention is pay-to-play. Most businesses simply cannot survive without digital marketing.m in some form. But the more I study the economics behind these platforms, the more obvious it becomes that the model itself is broken. They extract attention, manipulate behaviour, and amplify whatever keeps people emotionally reactive. Not because they’re evil, but because that’s the only way their ad-based, fiat-driven model functions. So it raises the uncomfortable question: how do you build and scale a business without feeding the very system you know is destroying genuine human interaction? The honest answer is that it’s difficult. There’s no magic switch. But there is a way forward. You build differently. You create real value instead of noise. You focus on long-term relationships instead of short-term clicks. You build ecosystems instead of funnels. You align incentives so that everyone involved wins from actual performance and productivity. That’s why I have rebuilt @nprofile…kvek around the VCM (Value Creation Metric ) model. It’s why I started The Bitcoin Transition. It’s why I’m leaning into decentralised tech like Nostr. I want to be part of building a direction that leads out of the mess, not deeper into it. We can’t change the entire digital landscape overnight. But we can change how we operate inside it. We can build businesses that serve people instead of exploiting their attention. We can anchor growth in real value creation. We can stop pretending the system is fine and start actively designing something better. Because at the end of the day, the tools aren’t the problem. The incentive structures are. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Another London based Bitcoiner. 😄 npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Lately I’ve been thinking about how unhealthy most social platforms have become. X gets all the attention for being toxic, but truthfully the rot is everywhere. X is designed to keep you in a loop of negativity. Outrage, fear, conflict, repeat.. and when it’s not that, it’s hype boys from fintwit promoting some bullshit trading strategy. Instagram is the opposite flavour of the same problem. Endless perfection theatre. Everyone pretending their life is perfect when everyone secretly knows it is not. The whole thing is one big performance to protect the illusion. LinkedIn might actually be the worst. A never-ending wall of corporate circle jerking, humble-brags, fake success stories and people clapping for themselves in the hope others clap back. Steven Bartlett, seems to be the ring leader here. It is less a professional network and more an attention marketplace where authenticity quietly goes to die. Not to mention Facebook is just a digital retirement village these days. Boomers talking about their all-inclusive cruises, funded by inflated property prices and the distortions of the fiat clown world. A place where yesterday’s economic luck gets paraded as personal brilliance. TikTok. YouTube. All of them run the same playbook. They do not optimise for connection, truth, or human wellbeing. They optimise for whatever keeps you scrolling long enough to show you another advert. That is the business model. That is the incentive structure. That is the problem. People aren’t broken. The platforms are. They are built on a foundation of emotional manipulation and attention extraction because that is what the ad-driven, fiat-fuelled economy demands. This is why decentralised protocols like Nostr feel refreshing. No algorithms trying to control what you see. No company harvesting your psychology for profit. Just people, conversations, and actual freedom to choose how you engage. I think more of us are waking up to how toxic the legacy platforms have become. And honestly, the quicker the old social media models die, the better. A healthier internet is possible. It just requires building systems that respect authentic human connection rather than exploiting it. npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Drop me a note via our form www.involvedigital.com/careers npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Let’s chat. Who knows this might be what you need npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins When I take you through our business model everything will make a lot more sense. Clients love it too, we just need to get in front of more of them npub1qhfq3d2wmeuzrrynwfpd73vcx7xj7k6rh3qstd2lfvve5m7ahauq3zruvy Michael Wilkins Go to www.InvolveDigital.com/careers and drop me a note via the form there and we can tee up a time to have a call to discuss