Agreed. Hopefully it can be salvaged/fixed, or maybe lessons will be learned and a LN 2.0 network can be established in the future.

One thing they absolutely *cannot* do is hold on to a bad model/system that is overly complex and costly, all due to hubris. The promise of LN was supposed to be "fast, easy, zero fee micro transactions."

Otherwise it'll become nothing more than what Ethereum has done. We don't need another broken Rube Goldberg chain with extortionary fees that is continuously gaslighted as "the next greatest crypto thing".

Here's my new working theory on how the next bear market will begin...it's like they are already breadcrumbing it to the public.

He spends way too much time proclaiming what he wants to happen, than accurately predicting what will happen using...something. Some data. Anything.

ie. A blowhard cheerleader.

WRT to China, I'll just leave this here...YMMV      

In order to create large long positions...

PSA: My fellow WO'ers, there's a reason that the month of September has always traditionally been bad for stonks (and now Bitcoin is no exception).

Remember "Sell in May and go away"? Yep, deep pocket Wall Street traders sell off their positions in May so that they can go and play all summer long, take extravagant vacations, fuck off, etc.

So they come back to the trading table after August is over, ready to start fresh trading again.

You think they're just going to take up large positions again at whatever the current market price is? Nope. They are going to open large short positions first, and then short like hell, scooping up cheaper equities (and now sats) as the rest of the mom & pop retail traders freak out and sell. The MSM helps them out by spinning a convincing narrative of market doom and gloom.

Shit like this:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/20/cramer-says-take-crypto-profits-cites-evergrande-related-tether-risks.html

So cheer up and BTFD.

Remember that for them, the stonk market has to end at least +10-12% in the green for the year by Christmas or they are losing wealth. And this includes Bitcoin.

"Out of nowhere" is the narrative they are selling to the public. See also "didn't see it coming."

However, the public should be questioning the timing. Why right now, at this precise moment in time? Why not a year ago, or two years ago? Or five years ago? Extreme over-leverage, lack of liquidity, and lack of earnings was just as bad then as it is now, if not more so. The CCP could have tightened monetary policy at any time within the last 5 years, but they chose to punt. Why tho?

A: Because the deep state is both the arsonist and the firefighter, that's why. They create crises on demand and when needed. They wait and choose the precise moment to do it. All they have to do is to stop supporting markets with more debt liquidity and boom: instant crisis. And guess what the fix is? More money printer go brrr. More bailouts for banks and the wealthy elite. And another paltry stimmy check for granny who just lost her part time job at Walmart...

So let's see... 1. Stimulus checks over. 2. Unemployment payments ending. 3. Housing moratoriums ending, evictions starting.

Thus consumer spending and GDP falling like a brick.

And now, liquidity crises around property developers in China suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Coincidence? I think not. The Fed & Treasury took away the punch bowl too soon.

If the stock market tanks significantly, then just watch as U.S. Congress not only raises the debt ceiling, but they'll vote for and pass another multi-trillion $$$ "stimulus plan" so fast that it'll make your head spin.

Gotta avert that crisis. All by design.    

And the sheeple will applaud.

Actually it's more like 76% above the age of 12. But you think hitting 80+% vaccinated in Israel is going to suddenly cause the newly reported cases drop to zero? Or to some insignificantly small number of cases?

I'm sure that you do. But I guess as long as they remain below 80+%, you can keep moving those goalposts indefinitely, huh?  

Israel would like to have a word with you.

"Trust the science", they say?

Well "the science" shows that a vaxxed and an unvaxxed person can carry and spread the CV19 virus equally just as well. And a vaxxed person can still contract the virus at a later point. In fact, there is a very good chance that a vaxxed person would likely contract the virus from another vaxxed "asymptomatic carrier" around them, who is more likely to break social distancing rules because of a false sense of trust and supposed minimal symptoms.

So if they feel protected, I'm still left wondering why the vaxxed care so fkn much about what the unvaxxed do again?

I've even seen a vaccinated person who claims to understand "the science" take a step back from someone who said "I had Covid, but I'm fine now because I have natural immunity!" Talk about fkn delusional behavior.

Congrats on miraculously surviving! /s

I would say "Prepare to be forced to get the vaccine anyway, because the govt mandates that you do regardless of natural immunity", but you're retired and living in TX. So you will probably dodge that bullet.

Exactly. The best thing is to not even signal that you own any bitcoin:

1. Don't store bitcoin in a wallet on your phone.

2. Don't have bitcoin screen savers on your phone/laptop/desktop.

3. Don't wear bitcoin related t-shirts, socks, ball caps, etc.

4. Don't have bitcoin coffee mugs, posters, framed art, etc. strewn about your house.

5. Don't incessantly talk about bitcoin with strangers.

6. And for gods sake, do NOT run about with a license plate that says BITCOIN, BTCLOVE, CRYPTOZ, etc.

They won't want or try to steal what they don't think you own.

Precisely. I actually do use a dedicated tablet for that separate from my phone and other computers. It stays turned off and stored in a secured/locked, non-disclosed location when not needed, and I only turn on wifi for about 1 minute only to re-sync the google auth codes when needed every few months when I use it, and then turn wifi right back off again. The secret is stored offline and secured. I do all crypto related activity on a desktop only (with a hardware wallet), not on a phone. Actually never on a phone.

It boggles my mind that most crypto people I read about do everything, including crypto wallet storage and also authentication to their crypto accounts, all on one single device: their phone. Are they fkn stupid? It's almost like they want to get phished/hacked/scammed out of their crypto.

I will say one thing though: we will never achieve mass adoption of Bitcoin until storing and using crypto is as easy as having and using a bank account online. The masses will never jump through all these technological hoops in order to adopt bitcoin. They are too afraid of fucking something up and getting hacked.

The Chinese govt worked very hard over the last ten years to stoke FOMO in their middle class and turn them from primarily savers into primarily consumers. They did this by issuing massive amounts of debt and building out consumer-driven infrastructure, i.e. "build it and they will come" with shopping centers, restaurants, hotels, high rises, venues, gambling, etc.

Some of it worked: the Chinese middle class has more money now, and they like to flex by shopping shopping shopping. Esp high end brands (think Nike, Calvin Klein, Prada, D&G, etc.). The middle class also increased their personal debt from 0 to something like $6K per household.

But much of it didn't work: the Chinese middle class still has little desire for buying houses (i.e., mortgages), cars (loans), expensive vacations, high end watches and jewelry, and all the little China-made crap consumer goods, etc. compared to Western countries consumption of those same things. Also, the average middle class Chinese family still has more savings than the equivalent Western family.

The biggest failure was not stoking enough internal consumerism to levels that match Western counterparts. As the rest of the world economies deflate, they desperately need their internal velocity of money to increase exponentially to compensate. So far, a big failure.

As a follow up to this, I'll leave an absolutely fantastic interview of Luke Gromen on George Gammon's channel that discuss much of what is happening in the world economies and markets in mind-boggling detail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JpYiBFGLDQ

Some jaw dropping statements during that interview. These stand out:

"Inflation [and also sovereign debt] is a now matter of national security." *shudders*

"The wealth effect has become such a driver of consumer spending and tax receipts, that the Fed cannot allow the stock market to fall too much, and/or for too long." *double shudder*

This all true.

We can lead horses to water, but we can't make them drink at the fountain of Bitcoin.

They would rather drink at the shitcoin fountains, get poisoned, and die. Because greed and ignorance.

The sheeple still don't realize what is happening.

The world economies are continuing to deflate. In a long term melt-up, the stonk markets will continue to be bought up on every dip with absolutely regularity every month via free money from the Fed.

The market noise between Jan and Dec of every year will be irrelevant, the stonk market will end the year at least 8-12% higher than the year before it. And the year after that, and the year after that. There will be no down years for the stonk market. Why? Because it has to go up, in order to offset massive yearly inflation. This is how the wealthy elite protect their wealth. And the middle class and poor, because they don't invest, continue to lose wealth (i.e. purchasing power) at an alarming rate.

Just look at this pattern:



Once you take the red pill and realize what is happening, you also realize that high value deflationary assets are your only savior. Bitcoin will outrun them all.

#BUYBTC

Let's all take a moment to reflect on the current price of bitcoin.

We're currently at ~$46k/btc, which is 4.5X higher than we were pre-pandemic.

That is amazing! Unbelievable! A price level that seemed like a pipe dream when we were in the $7-9k trading range for what felt like forever.

I don't know about you guys, but if the price wants to go sideways for a while, and then do another 3X-5X every time the world's economies takes a crap and the Fed prints trillions more $$$, I think I'm ok with that.

Just me?

Oh shit! Quick to all the WO'ers, let's pitch in and buy the NFT for this btc meme jpeg before it can get copied and used by others.

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Oh, wait...