The Most Important Thing After Bitcoin Itself

We are surrounded by stimuli. Sights. Sounds. Blogs. People who want us to do, or not do, this or that. It’s a real challenge to choose and maintain our focus.

Ever since Bitcoin appeared it has had the same problem. After all, how does a decentralized network focus on anything, let alone the most important thing. Probably the most focused the network ever was, was during the couple years before that fateful pizza, when mining was the only game in town.

Being generally dissatisfied with any state of things, users have ever since been looking for the next best thing to do after mining which has been really tough.

Bitcoin mining rocks the house in two ways. It secures the network, by burning energy on math but it also lays the foundation for an economy by distributing the monetary tokens, the bitcoin units among a large number of people. By now, many thousands of people have mined at least some bitcoin and after paying expenses, they may have a little socked away.

Smart people are working tirelessly on this problem, trying to get miners into more people's homes and devices, but it's really hard and it gets harder with each halving as the paydirt becomes ever poorer. Distribution of the currency is the most pressing problem we have to tackle.

Giving it away is stupid. Buying stuff is, well, not that great unless you're really fiat poor. Cashing out during or after a rise makes some sense but few of us are about to trade 1 BTC for a tiny slice of a Tesla when that coin could could buy a huge chunk or half of one at some point in the future, especially when we know the recipients will turn around and sell them. After all, they paid $ for all those batteries, motors, and awesome.

Decentralized labor is the smelting to Bitcoin’s mining.

Distribution is part of why I think decentralized labor is the most important thing we can work on after Bitcoin itself. Decentralized labor is the smelting to Bitcoin’s mining. If I pay someone to do a graphic or some coding, not only do they get bitcoin, but since their expenses are fixed versus the extra money they're getting, they are more likely to hold than even an ideologically-committed miner.

Paying someone to do a gig accomplishes two very real things. It helps to unite the global labor economy in a way that has never happened before but most importantly, it enables those who work for bitcoin to do so discretely, without interference from those who are trying to keep an eye on them and their means. This is part of the power of Bitcoin. Nobody can stop you from receiving this money. And unless they're snooping on you 24x7, nobody can stop you from using your brain to make it.

This connection between self-determination for the worker and smart distribution for Bitcoin holders, is why I think you should be part of this, on whichever side makes the most sense for you. If Bitcoin is stored energy, why not use it as efficiently as possible? Use it to empower people around the world. Use it to build decentralized infrastructure and... Use it to carry the distribution torch that Bitcoin mining will inevitably surrender.