Bitcoin & National Security with Matthew Pines - WBD477

Matthew Pines is a Fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute
specializing in national security. In this interview, we discuss
modelling complex systems, current US national security
priorities, and how Bitcoin can help maintain US hegemony.


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We live in unprecedented times. An emergent battle for hegemonic
power is occurring during a period of unparalleled advances in
technology that politicians are struggling to comprehend. What
was previously deemed to be settled global economic and
geopolitical strategy is now in flux. Up may be down. The
unthinkable suddenly thinkable.


This is the environment in which Bitcoin, revolutionary money, is
going through its puberty stage. It is to be expected that
incumbent US (and other western) power structures are nervous
about such an immature innovation, particularly in uncertain
times. Yet, as counterintuitive as it may seem to them, Bitcoin
offers significant strategic advantages for the US.


For Bitcoiners, the issue is not that a case needs to be made,
but rather how that case should be presented and conveyed to
politicians and bureaucrats. So far the message has been conveyed
through grassroots advocacy: orange pilling individuals. But how
do you orange pill the world's major power centre?


Bitcoiners are disrupters and predominantly work outside of the
sphere of government. Bitcoin itself seeks to challenge the
status quo. However, the government needs to hear the message in
a language they understand, via channels they can trust.


This is the gap Matthew Pines is seeking to fill. And “Bitcoin
and U.S. National Security” is the report that aims to orange
pill the US government.