In 1785 philosopher Jeremy Bentham invented the Panopticon, a type of prison where a single jailer can see every prisoner. The jailer sits in a room in the center, and each cell radiates out like bicycle spokes. The idea is no prisoner knows if they’re being watched. …

This week the US Congress is bickering over trying to raise their debt limit so they can borrow more trillions. The usual suspects, of course, are panicking that it will end the world. I’ve talked about debt default in general, but now we have the prospect in flesh and blood. …

This week is part two of my response to a Gravel Institute hit piece on Bitcoin as Ponzi. Read part one here, but the gist is that every accusation they aim at Bitcoin is far truer for fiat, which marches openly — proudly, even — towards zero value. …

This past week the left-libertarian Gravel Institute has been trolling the internet claiming Bitcoin is a scam, writing that Bitcoin “cannot ever be used as a currency,” and therefore “it can exist only as a pump-and-dump scheme for gullible investors who want to get rich without doing any work.” …

A few days ago, Fidelity Investment’s global head of Macro Jurrien Timmer made a splash by seeming to predict that Bitcoin would hit $100 million by 2035. This would imply 72% annual returns on bitcoin for the next 14 years. Which beats bank accounts by roughly 72%. A few days…

Last week Fed chair Jerome Powell gave his annual state of the economy speech. He promised more money-printing, suggesting the Fed will remain the government’s piggy bank for awhile yet. This raises concerns about inflation in future, so this week’s question is how much inflation does it take to make…

Ever since Nixon broke the dollar in 1971, the dominant economic story in the West has been rising debt and slowing growth. This is unsustainable, and likely leads to a crash. How will that crash affect Bitcoin? First, why the crisis. The debt is rising because low interest rates subsidize…

I’ve been writing a lot about cheap stuff recently. How Lightning’s cheap fees take Bitcoin from digital gold to digital money, or how cheap revolutions cannot be banned. Today I want to pull these together and look at how Lightning Network changes, not just our money, but our world. …

Recently, the US Senate Banking Committee held a hearing titled “ Cryptocurrencies: What are they good for?” where one Senator worried that Bitcoin threatens the worldwide dominance of the US dollar. …