In this episode I talk with Brett Scott, author of The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance and Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets.
He also runs the substack Altered States of Monetary Consciousness.
Brett does a lot of work supporting the protection of physical cash, and I reached out to him about an article he wrote “The War On Informality” which explores the implication of financial surveillance by credit cards and private banks.
This is a thought-provoking episode. We explore the Commodity Theory of Money vs Credit Theory of Money, power dynamics, the importance of cash, and more. Brett offers some interesting critiques of certain Bitcoin narratives and provides some alternative frameworks for looking at how money works.
In particular the Credit Theory of Money sent me down some rabbit holes thinking about how money comes into being as a future obligation and how this theory would map on to Bitcoin, which has cemented my thoughts around the critical role of Bitcoin mining and energy use where the underlying Bitcoin and electrical power are both required to be spent to participate in the network (I hope to explore this in future episodes).
Please have a listen and make up your own mind. Brett has been involved in the Bitcoin world for a long time and I think his arguments and critiques are worth interrogating.
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Links:
Brett Scott on X - https://twitter.com/Suitpossum
Altered States of Monetary Consciousness (Substack) - https://www.asomo.co/
The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17368973-the-heretic-s-guide-to-global-finance
Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto, and the War for Our Wallets - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59314672-cloudmoney
MICA framework - https://www.coindesk.com/learn/mica-eus-comprehensive-new-crypto-regulation-explained/
The War on Informality Article - https://brettscott.substack.com/p/the-war-on-informality
The Landscape of Money: Visualizing Crypto Invasions, Stablecoins & CBDCs amidst the War on Cash - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK1DZlWaiLY
Andrew Cummins formerly worked for Bitcoin Magazine as the Growth Marketing & Analytics Manager, and he shares the journey that took him from New Zealand to Colorado Springs, including his Bitcoin story, being on the ground at the Bitcoin Miami Conference, and his future plans.
Zed is a Bitcoiner originally from the Czech Republic, but now living in Wellington, New Zealand, where he organises a Local Bitcoin meetup.We dive into Zed’s story, leaving the Czech Republic to go to London around the time of the occupy movement where he first discovered Bitcoin.We talk about Bitcoin art and the role of popular culture in sharing new ways of thinking, as well as the cultural background that Zed brings to Bitcoin, having being born into a communist system. We also talk about how people such as the Gypsies of Europe or the New Zealand Māori represent a different kind of relationship to the state that we can learn a lot from.
Dr Matthew Birchall is a Research Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative. The New Zealand Initiative is a policy think tank conducting independent research on a wide range of issues. We talk about Matthew's report “Paving the Wave: Learning from New Zealand past to Build a Better Future.” The report explores how the country effectively tackled infrastructure projects in the past, and offers guidance on how the country can rediscover this talent.
We talk about Jame Viggiano's project Orange, which hosts a server in the popular multiplayer survival game “Rust”, where you can trade and learn about Bitcoin, have virtual meetups, and complete missions to earn sats.