At best they'll offer real quality BIPs that the network will reject or accept, or they'll fork themselves into a shitcoin and the stronger decentralized Bitcoin will win as usual.

It do be like that.

The most frustrating thing about being a Bitcoin maxi is how it makes you into an extremely low time preference individual in a society that values extreme high time preference. But the frustration is ironically coming from the high time preference of wanting others to become low time preference 😂. Bitcoin is the ultimate low time preference money, but paying with Bitcoin requires the receiver to understand it enough to be able to provide a receiving address, or to at least use a payment processor that supports it. Then it requires that they understand how to safely hold it over time assuming they don't immediately convert it into fiat. In a high time preference society where people don't take the time to understand money, they just want paper cash or tap to pay plastic, this is very difficult to do. Especially with how many scammers and shitcoiners their are preying on the ignorance of the average person, which makes Bitcoin off-putting by association. I want to help the person in front of me with something that holds it's value better than fiat, and that doesn't fund wars and corruption. If I'm tipping $5 nobody wants to accept a silver dime, and I don't want to tip in paper or on a card, and they don't understand Bitcoin enough nor desire to spend the time learning it. I think my happy medium is the 1/4 Goldback. I like the fact that I can hand someone a sorta-spendable piece of art worth $2 that is made of $1 worth of Gold, so I hand them out as tips all the time (I ask if they'd accept it first). Usually I do it along with a $2 bill and a copper half dollar so it's a mix pack of different small units of money. Usually I ask if they accept Bitcoin or Goldbacks, I show Goldbacks and they say no. If it's a cashier at a counter service restaurant I just hand them cash, and when I pickup the food I ask if I can tip them a 1/4 Goldback and maybe hand it to them with at least one half dollar. Take 5 seconds. If it's a sit down restaurant I'll explain the history of sound money and show them old silver coins, I'll them explain Goldbacks as kind of an attempt to return currency to it's roots in gold, and I'll ask them if they would like to receive their tip in Goldbacks or cash or a mix of the two. They often request a mix of the two, and it feels good to introduce a unit of sound money into the economy. Spending paper and copper feels like burning money, as over the long term that's basically what happens to their value. At least with a 1/4 Goldback, the gold helps the note hold it's value against inflation which is a good happy medium in my book.

Hey Daniel, hope your doing well. Been off Nostr for a while, just getting back on to post my thoughts, appreciate the reply. Religion implies blind faith, understanding cause and effect and it's long term repercussions is anything but blind faith. You are right nothing is truly guaranteed, which is why I said it's all but guaranteed. I view Bitcoin's long term network effects as incredibly difficult to stop, it's not impossible that Bitcoin fails at freeing humanity from itself but it's not something individuals can really do anything about or should worry about. It's a global movement and there will either be enough individuals who do something or there won't be, you can help move the needle in the direction of success by stacking sats and running nodes, and by engaging in discourse online and in person. But ultimately it's success is out of our control, and understanding that is what is capable of bringing us peace. "Do not seek for things to happen as you wish, but wish for things to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well." - Epictetus

The only things I enjoy spending my Bitcoin on are: food, bills, medical/dental care, and physical precious metal products. There's no world in which I would endure hunger or physical pain from medical issues just to continue holding Bitcoin, as revolutionary as it is it's just money and there's no shame in actually using it to take care of yourself. There's also no shame in using your Bitcoin to buy other forms of physical value storage that have historically held a place in prosperous societies and will hold a place again in the future on a global Bitcoin standard. IMO the rise of Bitcoin will coincide with a resurgence of precious metal currencies. But instead of the precious metals being the ultimate store of value, they will become treated like cash is today. Just as you don't want to hold too much cash today and want to spend it, the same will be true of the "cash" of the future. Smart people will trade their excess gold and silver for Bitcoin, just as smart people trade their excess cash for assets today. Gold loses value against Bitcoin faster than cash loses value against gold, only gold is able to support a happy long life while paper cash cannot. In a world with a Bitcoin standard, you can use Bitcoin in place of gold as the pinnacle of value storage and just spend gold into the economy. Those who do not understand Bitcoin, can use gold to support a happy life until they learn to understand why Bitcoin is trustworthy. There is value in transferring value without the aid of a computer, physical currency is more intuitive and easier to understand and that's okay. Both will have their place in the economy to come.

Bitcoin's success is all but guaranteed over the long term. The math is sound, the distribution and control is decentralized, the economic incentives are strong, and the need is great. I've made predictions in the past, they turned out incorrect. I think the failure is trying to put Bitcoin into predicted specific outcomes when it should be looked at more elastically. Bitcoin is on the path to some day bring the world into a new age of energy abundance. Not just in creation and usage, but in storage as well. Do things, don't do things, the end result of global Bitcoin dominance will still occur according to cause and affect. Focus on your family, your health (mental/physical), and defend your future by building your stack enough to be ready for anything.

Unfortunately the 5% yield is less than 7% real inflation so still losing ground in that case. But the principle of buying assets and delaying gratification is 💯.

Tired of cults controlling everything. Which is why I use Bitcoin.

Don't threaten me with a good time.