The Power and Peril of the 'Bitcoin Fixes This' Meme

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Cities around the country have been engulfed in protest in the wake of the murder of 46-year-old black man George Floyd. There is an intense battle for the narrative around the protests. Are they legitimate outcries against institutional racism and police brutality? Is the looting covertly being driven by white supremacists on the one hand or ANTIFA on the other? </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the Bitcoin community, some have plumbed the “Bitcoin Fixes This” meme to argue that the core underlying issue has to do with a monetary system that structurally creates inequality. Others have clapped back against pushing that meme in this moment. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode of The Breakdown, NLW looks at:</span></p> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">What bitcoiners are trying to say when they apply the “Bitcoin Fixes This” meme to this moment.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why the current system structurally exacerbates inequality.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why the meme fails to capture additional economic, political and power dimensions of what’s going on.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why the meme in this moment might feel so out of place as to inspire the opposite of its intended effect: turning people away from bitcoin rather than making them want to learn more.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why Satoshi’s “If you don’t get it, I don’t have time to explain it to you” quote is the most misused and abused of his sayings.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Why complexity and nuance, not memes, are needed now.</span></li> </ul>