Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux - Bitcoin: The Greatest Genius Can Solve a Problem Aired: 2024-12-16 Duration: 05:24 === Solving Bitcoin's Limitations (05:24) === [00:00:00] Question. [00:00:02] If in a first-world country people choose porn, gambling, drugs, alcohol, won't people use a more valuable anonymous and easy transfer money system to consolidate the corruption? [00:00:16] I'm not really sure what that means. [00:00:19] I mean, people choose these things because they're abused as children. [00:00:24] They're just hunting dopamine because they're miserable because of prior abuse. [00:00:28] Thank you, Karis. [00:00:29] If you want to retype that, please, I'm happy to read it again. [00:00:33] I just couldn't quite follow it. [00:00:34] Somebody writes, Simple version. [00:00:35] If Bitcoin reaches stratospheric levels via fiat currency, how will it be used practically? [00:00:40] Will the fractional nature prevent this Satoshi coin or another level yet for saying buying and selling everyday goods? [00:00:49] I don't know. [00:00:50] But if the combined genius of the most brilliant people in the world can solve a problem, the problem will be solved. [00:00:59] The problem will be solved. [00:01:04] You can, that you don't know how the problem will be solved. [00:01:08] I don't know how a computer is built, but there still are computers, right? [00:01:12] I don't understand the mathematics behind quantum physics, but it's how computers run and work. [00:01:16] So it's really, really, I can't stress this enough, man. [00:01:20] It is really, really, really important that you don't have main character syndrome and assume that because you don't know how something can be done, it can't be done. [00:01:31] Well, how's it going to solve this? [00:01:33] And how's that going to be solved? [00:01:35] But this is all the way back to how are crops going to be picked if we don't have slaves, right? [00:01:39] How's it going to happen? [00:01:41] It's going to happen. [00:01:42] People need food. [00:01:43] How's the cotton going to be picked? [00:01:44] Well, people need clothing. [00:01:46] They like cotton, so it's going to happen. [00:01:48] But there are these limitations. [00:01:49] I don't know how it can be solved. [00:01:50] It is vainglorious, and I push back on this hard, right? [00:01:56] It is vainglorious in the extreme to say a big problem with a system is that I don't understand how it could solve things. [00:02:05] The big problem with a system is I don't understand how things can be solved. [00:02:13] People will figure it out. [00:02:14] If it can be figured out. [00:02:16] And if, for whatever reason, there's some physical limitation, right? [00:02:19] So the whole issue is that Bitcoin is slow because it's decentralized, right? [00:02:24] That you need to... [00:02:25] Bitcoin hitting 103, 331 during the show, a new all-time high. [00:02:29] Right. [00:02:32] Lightning Network can scale to 400,000 transactions per second on Bitcoin, which dwarfs Visa and MasterCard, so it'll be able to be used for everyday transactions. [00:02:40] Yes, I mean, it's still a little janky, but yes, I think that it can be very fast, right? [00:02:45] So, of course, as I'm sure you know, the reason why Bitcoin is so powerful is it's decentralized. [00:02:53] The reason why Visa is so fast is it's centralized. [00:02:56] So if you want decentralized currency, which removes it from centralized control, you're going to have to accept slowdowns. [00:03:05] So you can, because you're betting, in a sense, your financial health and your life and all of that. [00:03:13] So you're saying that the biggest geniuses with the greatest conceivable incentives won't be able to solve a problem. [00:03:23] That's pretty tough, man. [00:03:24] That's a pretty tough thing to say. [00:03:26] Do you understand? [00:03:27] There are trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars of value locked up in Bitcoin solving these problems. [00:03:33] So you have the biggest geniuses, the most brilliant people in the known universe with the greatest conceivable incentive, and you want to bet against them solving a problem? [00:03:45] And the alternative is, and it's not just the biggest incentive in Bitcoin, it's the biggest disincentive in fiat. [00:03:52] So, the biggest geniuses get to be fantastically wealthy if they solve this problem, and they get to be broken in prison if they don't. [00:04:03] Biggest geniuses have the biggest upside in history and the biggest downside in history. [00:04:07] That is the big delta. [00:04:09] So the biggest geniuses can be fantastically wealthy and free, or broke and or imprisoned, I would not in a million years bet against that. [00:04:19] I'm just telling you. [00:04:20] I mean, I can't solve the problem. [00:04:23] That's all right. [00:04:24] But it's Bitcoin or a bust, right? [00:04:27] And not the fun kind of bust at Hooters. [00:04:29] It's Bitcoin or a bust. [00:04:30] You understand? [00:04:31] There is no alternative. [00:04:33] There is no second best. [00:04:34] There is no backup plan. [00:04:36] There's no plan B. There's nothing like that. [00:04:38] It's Bitcoin or bust. [00:04:39] We either are free through Bitcoin or we are enslaved forever. [00:04:43] And whichever country adopts it the fastest and the most and offers a safe haven To people with the foresight and brilliance to have a reasonable amount of Bitcoin, that country will be the most powerful entity in the known universe for ever and ever men. [00:04:59] And I'm not kidding about that. [00:05:00] And I talked about this many years ago, that there's a country that's going to create a safe haven and blah, blah, blah, right? [00:05:05] So somebody says, I've been to many Bitcoin conferences. [00:05:09] The developers in Bitcoin are next level genius. [00:05:11] Yeah. [00:05:12] I remember many years ago, being at a Bitcoin conference and the developers, I was giving a speech and they were talking about how, you know, well, you know, you can put your phone number in and then you have to approve everything with your phone.