The below is a direct excerpt of Marty’s Bent Issue #1155: “Two very different things that highlight Bitcoin’s utility.” Sign up for the newsletter here.
There are two things going on in the world on opposite sides of the planet that are related to two very different subjects that highlight the incredible utility of the Bitcoin network; the intentional debasement of the Lebanese pound and uncharacteristically cold weather in Texas.
As some of you may be aware of already, Lebanon has been embroiled in an economic crisis since 2019 and it seems to only be getting worse as the country’s central planners continue to mismanage the crisis. Here is their latest plans to fix their monetary and banking system:
via Reuters
After locking people’s money in their bank accounts for almost three years, the government has decided to simply obliterate an estimated $69 BILLION of wealth from the face of the Earth. Forcing people to convert their US Dollars to Lebanese pounds without their permission. All so that they can potentially get their books in a good enough spot in the eyes of the IMF so they can double down on their incompetence by taking out a predatory loan in an attempt to right the ship.
Millions of people having their hard earned money disappeared before their eyes. Really sad stuff that is completely avoidable moving forward. The way this can be avoided is by opting into a monetary system that cannot be corrupted by the whims of incompetent politicians and bankers with a lust for printing money. Bitcoin provides that monetary system. If Lebanese citizens decided to begin converting their work to sats instead of the failing pound and put in the effort to secure their own keys, they could have significantly more confidence that they won’t be getting rug pulled like that again. There are no incompetent and corrupt politicians or central bankers that are able to corrupt Bitcoin’s monetary policy at the detriment of its users. Those Lebanese who were wise enough to convert…
