Joe Kelly
@joekelly100
Followers
3K
Following
5K
Media
514
Statuses
22K
I might change my mind
Joined May 2010
New article series: On Bitcoin's Fee-Based Security Model Part 1: Beware The Turkey Fallacy → 10,000 and 1 days in the life of a proof-of-work cryptocurrency https://t.co/Q0qyn714LL
joekelly100.medium.com
10,000 and 1 days in the life of a proof-of-work cryptocurrency
15
21
114
Three possibilities: 1. Bitcoiners engineering their government 2. Government engineering bitcoiners 3. Neither: Both sincerely believe that putting bank IOUs on a blockchain (reminder: not bitcoin) somehow represents some kind of unpindownably brilliant and promising innovation
1
0
3
But then, it's not really about the technology and whether it actually makes sense, it's about perceptions and narrative-persuasive force, and harnessing those things to socially engineer outcomes that you want. The question is who is engineering who?
1
0
5
Seasonal reminder that stablecoins: - don't run on bitcoin - have nothing to do with bitcoin - don't require a blockchain - are a technological farce They're just bank IOUs. They're encumbered like bank IOUs, and floating them around on blockchains doesn't magically change that.
I learned so much about Bitcoin at the Bitcoin 2025 conference. Here is a summary of what I learned. #stablecoin
2
1
13
So it seems plausible that sensorimotor data could "reveal" a lot of otherwise invisible meaning, enabling models to find connections that are otherwise impossible to find in just words. And/or to map them in a vastly more efficient way.
0
0
4
The experience (which defies words) of bodily movement in physical space is so baked into our use of language that we take it for granted, but it's fundamental.
1
0
4
I think there's a decent chance the co-evolution of language models and robot training processes will lead to a phase change in model capability:
1
0
8
Both of these cognitive tendencies can be intentionally exploited and are naturally turbo-charged by financial incentives, political motivations, and group reinforcement. 7/7
0
0
2
We also plain just don't like uncertainty. We prefer clear and certain answers to things, even when the certainty is misplaced and the clarity is false. 6/
1
0
2
Money and finance, economics, government, blockchain technology, etc. are complex, messy, uncertain domains that provide a nebulous stimulus. People have a tendency to project all kinds of meaningful interpretations over them. 5/
1
0
2
US Military Officer Space Force Major Jason Lowery Esq. is an expert with credentials, and he uses words that sound like they must mean something. But what he's actually saying, if you read it, is completely ridiculous. https://t.co/WrjuyPHQt9
https://t.co/8mXVUw0pqc 4/
@matthew_pines I'm not sure I could come up with something more acutely out of touch with reality if I tried. It's wrong in every conceivable way except basic grammar.
1
0
2
Seeing faces in the clouds is the classic example. But the effect is much broader: the patterns we see in nebulous stimuli are programmable. E.g. We can end up seeing meaning in an arrangement of words and theories that in reality are total gibberish: https://t.co/3BrcA08Sgu 3/
US Space Force Major urges Defense Department to adopt Bitcoin as an 'offset strategy' Lowery suggested that Bitcoin and its underlying PoW technology could serve as contemporary tools in an offset strategy, potentially redefining the landscape of cyber warfare and defense.7
1
0
2
Another important building block is "pareidolia"—the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus. Seeing things you expect/want/set out to see. 2/
1
0
3
The most important building block in the system: https://t.co/yjRk2YMcOY 1/
@JohnReedStark The genius of crypto is that when you make number go up, people see confirmation of their theory, no matter what their theory is.
1
0
8
Sam as CEO has fully activated and engaged the public in this discussion. Sam has been basically responsible and candid in all of his public communications about this, neither over- nor under-playing the risks, including existential risks.
4
5
144
This isn't a new political cause. Libertarian idealists have wanted to end the Fed and deregulate everything since forever. What's new is the strategy for recruitment to the cause. That's what the crypto "industry" is, and it's never going to play by the rules. 5/5
4
0
7
They talk about "innovation" and "economic freedom". Economic freedom means freedom from the rules of the regulated financial system. Innovation means creating new ways to obscure economic activity so that it can be free from the rules of the regulated financial system. 4/5
2
2
8
The US military often makes use of strategic ambiguity as an information tactic. Cryptocurrency activists — knowing full well that the purpose of cryptocurrency is to undermine government authority over money and finance — make use of strategic obscurity. 3/5
1
0
6
A compliant blockchain offers no coherent value proposition to its end users. A regulated #Bitcoin network, for example, fundamentally makes no sense. There is no reason for those things to be valued by anyone because they don't achieve anything. 2/5
2
0
14
Seasonal reminder: The entire reason "the virtual currency industry" exists in the first place is to give people ways of not playing by the rules of the regulated financial system. 1/5
13
9
41