Money is an Attention Allocation Technology (Part 7)
Asking yourself "What is Money?" is the 1st step into a philosophical rabbit-hole that could prove to be the most fascinating intellectual journey of your life…
The question “What is Money?” is deceivingly simple. One would expect the answer to be abundantly clear given its prevalence in daily life, but upon further reflection, most find money to be mysterious. Money is pervasive economic phenomenon, an interpenetrating field of energy influencing human perception, thought, and action. Yet despite the all-encompassing nature of money, its deepest truths remain hidden in plain sight. Here, we explore yet another answer to this curious question—money is an attention allocation technology.
The Nature of Celebrity
When an individual becomes the focus of enough attention, the concentration of energy it creates becomes a “hot spot” in a phenomena known as celebrity. The topic of celebrity is relevant to the rest of what I want to say here, and I’d like to share a personal story to properly set the frame…
While I was still conceiving of money as an attention allocation technology, I was at Market Disruptors Live 2022, Mark Moss’s conference that was held in Dallas, TX. The night before my scheduled presentation during Mark’s event, I enjoyed a wonderful dinner with a few of its attendees. We talked about many things: work, dating, marriage, kids, life goals, etc. But one topic that kept coming up was my “Bitcoin celebrity.” The guys at dinner told me my written and media work had been transformative to their thinking about money, economics, government, etc. Although the praise felt a bit awkward for me, I nonetheless really appreciated the kind words. As you might imagine, spending most of your life reading and writing can be lonely at times, and I always find it extremely gratifying to hear when someone was positively impacted by my lonely laboring. In response, I told the guys that I was extremely grateful to have the opportunity to create value for others in the world, and in a way that also creates value for my loved ones.
When I was growing up, a celebrity was, more or less, synonymous with a movie star. But not all types of celebrity are the same. Celebrity occurs anytime someone receives an abundance of attention. A celebrity is someone that is “celebrated,” typically for their superior skills or raw talent. So of course, there are many, many non-movie-star celebrities. Anyone that receives ample attention for their actions can rise to the status of celebrity, even if only within a niche. In other words, celebrity can be achieved in a more localized form. For example, you might be a really good chess player, and all that chess player attention you get causes you to be celebrated in the chess world, thus making you a “chess celebrity.” Or, you might imagine a young man on the local news being interviewed about saving a cat stuck in a tree, thus temporarily becoming a “local celebrity.” For me, writing and talking about Bitcoin has made me a “Bitcoin celebrity.” In particular, I’ve become “Bitcoin famous” for asking a simple question and exploring its many answers. It’s a question I find so fascinating that I also made it the namesake of my show—The “What is money?” Show!
Now, let me tell you: being a “Bitcoin celebrity” is exactly like being a Rockstar except that, instead of beautiful young women, almost all of my groupies are nerdy middle-aged guys. Of course, that’s not to say that being a “Bitcoin celebrity” doesn’t have its advantages with the ladies. By way of example, one of guys at dinner that night, who I won’t name (but I will say I liked very much) kept stopping girls that walked by to ask them a question—he would say: “excuse me miss, are you a veterinarian? My friend here really needs to find a veterinarian, can you help him? The girl would then look at our group with a puzzled look on her face. Seizing the moment with a sudden shift in his own facial expression (flashing from desperate to devious), this guy would point at my arms and say—we need to find a veterinarian quick, because these pythons are sickkkkkkkk”—embarrassing the shit out of me in the process. So, my middle-aged Bitcoin guy groupies do help me out with the ladies in this respect, which is why being a “Bitcoin celebrity” is exactly like being a Rockstar ;)
All joking aside, I tell you this (hopefully funny) story because I want to zero-in on the concept of celebrity, as it is pertinent to the topic of attention. As we said in the beginning: celebrity is a hot spot that forms when humans focus their beams of attention onto an individual. If energy flows where attention goes, then celebrity is a “celebratory hot spot” created by a focused allocation of attention. Again, it’s little wonder that wealth and fame often correspond so closely. Celebrity is like a fire lit by focusing otherwise disparate beams of attention on a single being. But focusing beams of attention in this way not only turns individuals into celebrities, but can also cause works of art, businesses, technologies, and many other man-made constructs to be celebrated in a similar fashion. We often use other words to describe the “celebrity” of these other objects of attention: for instance, when a company “has a great brand” this is because it is “famous” for its product or service. And in the sphere of cryptoassets, no brand is more recognizable than Bitcoin.
Bitcoin’s superior brand recognition is clearly evident in its price, the focal-point of market actor attention. In terms of raw capacity for attention-grabbing, few things have exceeded the meteoric rise of Bitcoin’s price over the past ~13 years. Initially, Bitcoin tends to draw the attention of otherwise disinterested market actors by virtue of its exponential price movements (to both the upside and the downside). But this initial absorption of attention is only the beginning for those who “do their homework” and pay closer attention to the fundamentals and value proposition of Bitcoin. Inevitably, some of the market actor attention drawn by price crosses the point of no return—the Bitcoin rabbit-hole’s “event horizon”—where attention seems to collapse into a singularity, continuing to fall ever-deeper, without end. Said differently, the price movements of Bitcoin pull some attentive minds into the orbit of its ethical, moral, and philosophical gravitas. In falling into the Bitcoin rabbit-hole, individuals find themselves engaged with an inexhaustible teacher that spans disparate domains such as computer science, (real) economics, game theory, complexity theory, psychology, monetary history, alchemy, and many others. Writing as someone who has crossed this threshold from which there is seemingly no return, I can confidently concur with this famous quote from an OG cypherpunk:
“Nobody has found the bottom of the Bitcoin rabbit-hole.”—Jameson Lopp
It is little wonder that the gift of incorruptible money has gained so much attention in a world awash with counterfeit money. Now, Satoshi Nakamoto—the creator of Bitcoin—stands in the (pseudonymous) position of becoming the world’s foremost celebrity precisely because he created one of the most successful organizations in human history. Bitcoin is absolutely dominant in terms of brand recognition, market capitalization, and worldwide mind-share. By creating the world’s first, and perhaps only, decentralized institution, Satoshi surely knew that his project had the potential to become the ultimate enemy of the state. In other words, Bitcoin was a dangerous idea, like its digital ancestor the number zero. Given the treacherous game he chose to play, Satoshi took extreme precautionary measures so that his identity would not be discovered. Since he was doing something the state doesn’t like, he wisely sought to avoid the attention of state bureaucrats. To this end, pseudonymity was one of his primary tools, and one he would program into Bitcoin itself.
The success of Bitcoin thus far speaks to the superior software engineering skills, strategic genius, and courage of Satoshi. In this sense, he is already a global “money celebrity” as the mysterious creator of Bitcoin. However, I believe that Satoshi’s celebrity is just getting warmed up, and will only continue to rise in tandem with the success of his one-of-a-kind creation.
If you enjoyed this writeup, please check out my recorded presentation from Market Disruptors Live 2022 where I told this story live! https://www.marketdisruptorslive.com/robert-breedlove1652719565862?affiliate_id=3366956
Thank you for reading Money is an Attention Allocation Technology (Part 7).
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