The Path of Freedom and Sovereignty with Natalie Smolenski

 
 

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“The only way that tyranny is prevented is a strong civil society that the state actually becomes concerned about.”
— Natalie Smolenski

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Natalie Smolenski is an Executive Director of the Texas Bitcoin Foundation and a Fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute. In this interview, we discuss the elimination of cash, the importance of Bitcoin to a free society, and the clear and present danger posed by CBDCs.

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Like the fable of a frog being not perceiving danger when slowly boiled, citizens in mature democracies have been surrendering to the steady erosion of their privacy and rights. The issue is that society now stands unknowingly at the edge of a precipice. Governments and compliant businesses are working on a technology that they will sell as providing utility but could herald the end of democracy: CBDCs.

Whilst Bitcoiners are aware of the dangers, it seems as though the rest of society, including decision-makers, are ignorant. Faster, less costly, more convenient payment systems - what’s the problem many will ask. The risks of providing unfettered access to arguably the most critical component of our private data do not resonate with those who have already traded their privacy with social media companies.

But, there is obviously a massive difference between surveillance capitalism and unprecendented government oversight of individuals’ financial data. And further, as Natalie Smolenski alludes to in the whitepaper she has written with Dan Held, “Why the U.S. Should Reject Central Bank Digital Currencies”, adopting CBDCs could be a one-way valve: reversing political will and technology is formidably hard. Once cash has gone, it won’t be coming back.

The battle is not only for democracy, it is for prosperity. The American experiment has shown that bottom up innovation can thrive in a free society. It is hard to imagine the industrial revolution occurring if feudalism was still the dominant form of societal organisation. It was the enlightenment, the development of ideas of freedom, tolerance, fraternity and rights that enabled humans to flourish.

This is perhaps Bitcoiners' most important fight. Education, advocacy and conviction are our weapons. Maintaining our personal sovereignty is the prize.

TIMESTAMPS

00:01:14: Introductions
00:03:05: About Natalie
00:09:34: The bitcoiner subculture, property rights and free society
00:24:59: Social housing in the UK, and the rent-seeking economy
00:31:53: El Salvador and the coup trap
00:42:08: US political polarisation
00:47:40: Journalism and the media
00:51:19: Self-censorship and audience capture
00:57:51: The pleasure of violence, and war and Bitcoin
01:06:43: Different forms of governance
01:14:05: The full surveillance state
01:28:56: The search for the productive economy
01:35:00: CBDCs and the elimination of physical cash
01:49:22: A call to action for bitcoiners
01:55:42: Final comments

 

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SHOW NOTES

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Mentioned in the interview:

Other Relevant WBD Podcasts:

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