The Fiat System

Jeff Booth argues that humanity has never experienced true free markets. The natural state of markets should be deflation—where competition drives prices down and creates abundance for all. Yet we've only known inflationary, debt-based systems that require constant expansion and extraction. This isn't accidental: when debt is created as money itself, the system must continually steal value to maintain itself.

This creates a zero-sum game where exploitation is inevitable. Throughout history, nations have extracted resources and labor from others—through colonization, war, or economic slavery—to support their own populations. All our "isms" and political structures emerged from this same framework, making it extraordinarily difficult to recognize we've been living within a control system our entire lives.

Politicians cannot simply announce "the jig is up" without catastrophic consequences—banks failing, houses going to zero, supply chains collapsing. This isn't a "them" problem; it's an "us" problem. We collectively choose leaders who promise stability within a fundamentally unstable system, making us complicit in our own exploitation.

Money as the Master System

Laws don't protect people—they protect the money system. In countries with broken currencies, laws invariably serve politicians and the wealthy, not citizens. Money is "superordinate" to law; legal systems adapt to support monetary regimes, not the reverse. This explains surveillance states, the Patriot Act, and increasing financial controls—all natural extensions of broken money trying to maintain control.

Every subsystem—healthcare, education, military-industrial complex, media—flows from the fiat monetary system. Believing these can be reformed while keeping fiat money intact is living in delusion.

Bitcoin as Protocol, Not Asset

The critical distinction Booth emphasizes: Bitcoin is a protocol, not merely an asset. This single framing difference has enormous implications.

Viewing Bitcoin as an asset keeps you trapped in the old system—measuring wealth in devaluing paper, waiting for "number go up," remaining dependent on the control structure. This is how institutions are adopting Bitcoin: as another asset to trade, control, and extract value from.

But as a protocol, Bitcoin is an open, decentralized, secure network bounded by energy. Like the internet before it, it will develop in layers, with each layer providing functionality we cannot yet imagine. The internet took 20 years from DARPA (1969) to HTTP (1989), and we couldn't predict smartphones, social media, or streaming. Bitcoin's development will follow a similar trajectory.

Protocols are winner-take-all. Vitalik Buterin couldn't change Bitcoin, so he created Ethereum—along with countless other centralized alternatives that will ultimately fail. For Bitcoin to succeed as the foundation of a free market, it must remain decentralized and secure—withstanding all attacks, including co-option by the existing system.

The Adoption Paradox

Current institutional adoption might appear as Bitcoin integrating into legacy systems, but Booth sees something different: two incompatible systems temporarily coexisting. The fiat system prices everything in insolvent debt pretending to be real. Meanwhile, Bitcoin imposes a new reality every 10 minutes, regardless of what anyone thinks.

Those who truly understand Bitcoin move their time and energy into building on the protocol—running nodes, achieving self-custody, using it as currency, developing privacy tools. They're building a parallel system that will eventually replace the old one. Most people, even in Bitcoin, remain mentally trapped in fiat, yelling at the system while strengthening it with their attention and energy.

Privacy as Essential Infrastructure

As AI becomes more powerful, centralized control systems will use it against populations. Every person now needs completely private communication channels outside mainstream systems. Booth emphasizes this isn't paranoia—AI can already create convincing deepfakes of anyone.

Entrepreneurs are building critical privacy infrastructure: Fedimint, Cashu, Noster (decentralized communications), Silent Link (private mobile), and others. These aren't peripheral concerns but core requirements for human freedom as surveillance capabilities expand.

Consciousness and Non-Duality

Booth's perspective transcends economics into philosophy: everything is mind. The physical world we inhabit emerged from human consciousness—every object in a room came from someone's imagination first. Yet we become trapped measuring from the physical realm, losing touch with the creative source.

He describes profound interconnection: trace your lineage backward—2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents. Every choice those ancestors made, every person they met or didn't meet, led to your existence. Now trace forward: every interaction you have ripples outward, affecting countless others in ways you'll never know. We are all fractals of each other.

This means there is no "they"—only "us." When we blame others, we avoid responsibility. When we see enemies, we project our own shadows. True change requires recognizing that the systems we oppose, we also perpetuate through our choices, attention, and energy.

The Only Moment That Matters

Booth emphasizes living fully present: only the current moment exists. Past moments merely led us here; future moments don't yet exist. Most people enter each moment carrying rigid stories about who they are, unable to see new possibilities. This self-absorption prevents real change and connection.

If you truly saw every person as connected to you—as carrying genius that contributed to your existence—how would you treat them? What would you create? The entire journey is consciousness expanding, seeking to know itself better.

Practical Guidance for Entrepreneurs

Booth offers concrete advice for Bitcoin entrepreneurs:

• Find narrow product-market fit first before scaling. Iterate locally, deliver extreme value to a small group, prove it works.
• Don't spend heavily on marketing until you've proven value. Marketing is about value creation, not volume.
• Stay alive at all costs. Maintain parallel funding tracks. Be willing to pivot. Admit mistakes quickly and adapt.
• The Bitcoin economy operates differently: companies adding Bitcoin to balance sheets monthly, with proper product-market fit, will have astronomical terminal values as the measurement unit (fiat) collapses.

El Salvador: A Case Study

Booth's observations of President Bukele reveal someone operating with agency despite enormous pressure. Bukele tells citizens to use self-custody, run nodes, and spend Bitcoin as currency. He's created 500 classrooms teaching Bitcoin. No other national leader has done this.

Visiting El Salvador reveals transformation: from fear and gang violence to hope, smiles, and progress—all in three years. Yet people in Canada who've never visited confidently call Bukele a dictator, demonstrating how powerfully media controls perception when people surrender their agency to investigate truth themselves.

The Path Forward

Booth's ultimate message: move your time and energy into the new system. Stop yelling at the old one. Build value for others on honest protocols. The transition won't be clean—censorship, debanking, and control will intensify as the old system becomes desperate.

But this creates enormous opportunity. Every breakdown invites action. The truth doesn't need to fight; it simply exists. As more people get stuck in the failing system, they'll discover the alternative already being built.

Bitcoin can't fail if it stays decentralized and secure because it will simply continue imposing reality every 10 minutes, repricing everything over time. The question isn't whether it succeeds, but whether each individual will exercise their agency to participate in building the free market humanity has never experienced—until now.