In the first episode of Aym the Podcast, Jack Liu talked to Nicolas Ryan-Schreiber about hyperbitcoinization, the profound changes it will bring about, and what the next few years might look like in the industry.
Aym the Podcast #1
Thanks to @liujackc for being the first ever guest!
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What does hyperbitcoinization mean to Jack Liu?
Ryan-Schrieber dives straight into the deep end and asks Liu what hyperbitcoinization means to him.
Liu thinks it’s when the rate of change in the economy is so great that humans can barely perceive it. He likens it to the technological singularity. Many people think it’s about the price of Bitcoin tokens, but that’s a side effect of them being used in the economy, he says.
Is anyone already living in this world? Liu thinks people start living in it as soon as they get it. For him, that was when he read the Bitcoin white paper more than a decade ago. He expresses surprise that there haven’t been more profound effects in the world given Bitcoin’s power, but as he says later, he thinks those are on the horizon. Right now, people are still focusing on getting fiat rich, but that era is ending.
What will life be like after hyperbitcoinization?
Something like Bitcoin having such a dominant role in the world would have profound impacts on society. Ryan-Schreiber wonders what life might look like in a hyperbitcoinized world.
Liu starts by explaining that, in an average human lifetime, we get 30,000 days. In the first 3,000 of those, we can’t read or write, and in the last 3,000, we’re probably too old to do much. It’s the middle 20,000 that count, but the routine and structure of these days are mundane, causing them to go by in a blur. Liu believes the structure will be very different after hyperbitcoinizatioin; people will have more control, will value their time more, and spontaneous, creative work will be rewarded above all else.
Ryan-Schreiber wonders if, by getting in early on buying bitcoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other on-chain assets, we might end up with the same class structures and problems we have today with an ultra-rich elite dictating the economic lives of others. Liu says that we might not have a fraction of their wealth, just as he doesn’t have a fraction of Bill Gates’ wealth today, but there will be a lot more satisfaction in daily life, and that’s what counts.
How many people in the world understand this right now? Maybe 5,000 or 10,000, he says. However, things are becoming unpredictable in the Web 2.0 world; Twitter, Meta (NASDAQ: META), and others have recently laid off lots of staff. There’s no sense of security anymore, and the effects of Web 3.0 are already starting to be felt.
Giving a concrete example of the disruption, Liu points to BitMap. Much like Ordinals, the creator didn’t have access to vast capital or wealth, but they beat those who did to the punch. This is the new economy—the real asset is creativity and ingenuity. This isn’t comforting for the new platforms.
How is Liu so often early and ahead of the trend?
Liu has consistently made early predictions and has been at the forefront of almost every Bitcoin trend or innovation. How can this be so?
He says it’s a combination of factors, including being in the right place at the right time. Aside from that, he’s seen things from many different perspectives over the past decade, including as an investor, builder, and advisor, so he’s pretty clued into what might take off when he hears of something occurring in the space.
He’s also surrounded by other misfits and is attracted to innovation—he calls it having “A.D.D. towards innovation.” Liu says the person who can spot these trends and bring them to him early is the most valuable person in the company.
Why even have a company in this economy?
Traditional companies have been called into question by many in the Bitcoin space, and while corporate legal entities are handy for many reasons, some have wondered whether companies are really necessary for the Bitcoin economy.
Liu says they should be nimble, versatile, and ready to pivot if they do exist. He advises people not to be too sure what their company will look like in three or four years’ time. The ability to see opportunities but also to decide on and execute them is huge.
Speaking of companies, Liu points out that, in a pre-Bitcoin world, it didn’t matter who got into something first—it was all about who could last and make it to IPO. In a hyperbitcoinized world, people who are early and who buy up some assets benefit from the work of companies that come later and perhaps even take their market share. Since the assets rise in value as they become more useful, being early does matter in this market.
In closing, Liu says things will change dramatically in the next two or three years. Many of the things he has been predicting for a decade are coming to pass, and a lot of exciting change is coming.
Watch: What is the State of the Bitcoin & Blockchain Space?
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