Bitcoin is a challenge to the monsters of this world

I am impressed by those who bet their livelihood on Bitcoin. Not the dabblers, but the mad.

It takes courage to invest in Bitcoin.

It could be made illegal or taxed in unpredictable ways. Your family could be threatened and your money stolen. Foreign governments could issue cyberthreats. The likelihood of these risks only grows larger.

We don't usually associate courage with capitalism. In the Western canon, the hero or heroine uses bravery and heart to fight the villain. The villain is clear in their ambition to destroy the world and irrational in their thirst for violence.

The monsters of this world are different. They lurk in the shadows, playing infinite games with value and public perception. Playing not by breaking the rules, but by creating them. They breed even more morally bankrupt monsters and the cycle continues.

***

I recently donated plasma. The 40 minute ceremony with two tubes puncturing my vein and blood moving in and out of my body reminded me of a series by Nobuyuki Fukumoto called Akagi.

In Akagi, the title character engages in a deadly gambling game with Washizu Iwao, the richest person in post-war Japan. Akagi is attached to a similar machine.

Consumed by the greed and madness of old age, Washizu bets his fortune against the blood of young men. Akagi's machine draws or returns his blood according to his score in the game. The more blood he returns, the less money he can win from Iwao.

Most players try to conserve their blood as much as possible, fearing for their death.

But Akagi realises that his advantage is not in youth, intellect or rationality. His blood is limited and his self-preservation instinct only serves to protect Iwao. An illusion of hope.

Instead, Akagi is fearless. He chooses not to return his blood even after regaining points. He is prepared to die and embraces the irrational courage it requires. He knows it's the only way he can win the game.

***

It's precisely the irrationality of buying Gamestop past its intrinsic value that was strong enough to hurt the monsters.

It takes a similar irrationality to buy a lot of Bitcoin. That decision to hurt the monsters. Not the "rational" decision of managing your exposure. Not the "rational" decision of selling your company to the monsters.

To quote from the Forest Passage by Ernst Jünger:

None of us can know today if tomorrow morning we will not be counted as part of a group considered outside the law. In that moment the civilized veneer of life changes, as the state props of well-being disappear and are transformed into omens of destruction. The luxury liner becomes a battleship, or the black jolly roger and the red executioner’s flag are hoisted on it