Author: Kurt Robinson

Kurt Robinson Raps: Anarchapulco 2017 – Episode 158

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The Story: Liberty hip hop

At Anarchapulco 2017, I (Kurt) had the opportunity to once again give an explosive hip hop performance. I spent a month re-memorising the songs, improving my delivery, and practising my speech. This was this most effort I’ve ever put into preparing for a musical performance in my life.

I rapped songs about freedom, how governments terrorise their own citizens, the history of money and why fiat currency is dangerous, the power that we have hidden inside of ourselves, about my own experience coming face-to-face with death, and about the ex-patriates that now live in Acapulco. I also tried to convey an important message to the crowd, that acceptance of yourself and others can lead the way to real, lasting change.

Many thanks to Doug Scribner, Ryan Herbison, Dan Dicks and everyone involved in this event.

The Eps:

Liberty hip hop Anarchapulco 2016

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Bitcoin vs Dash – Ridiculous comments on Dash

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The Story: Fun, interesting and exciting comments about Dash

If you bring up the cryptocurrency Dash among people who know anything about it, you’ll probably get a diverse range of opinions. Some people hate it and believe it’s nothing but a fraud. Other people love it and believe it’s the currency of the future. And others still believe its rise has more to do with sex appeal than any usefulness.

In this episode, Kurt digs into the cesspool known as “the YouTube comment section” and responds to the most interesting and bizarre among them. He discusses SegWit and how it causes mental blocks among Bitcoiners, user experience, Bitcoin as a blue chip company or international clearing house, the security of Bitcoin compared to Dash, the sex appeal of Dash, the fantastic dream of cryptocurrency, what Dash’s marketing says about it, Dash as a business, centralisation, whether someone could control 50% of masternodes, the instamine or fast mine of Dash, what is a Ponzi scheme and whether Dash is one, and finally whether Dash is just a big scam in general.

Join us on a crypto adventure in the next exciting episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Why Amanda B. Johnson loves Dash – Episode 155

Dash vs Bitcoin – which will reach mass adoption first? – Episode 154

The Links:

Dash Central

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Bitcoin vs Dash – Security & Bitcoin as blue chip

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An interesting argument people make for the long-term viability of Bitcoin is this: It’s fine to use Dash for fast transactions and private transactions, buying cups of coffee or whatever… but for big transactions people don’t need fast confirmations, and so they will probably continue to use Bitcoin for certain large, cryptocurrency clearing-house transactions. My question is always, okay, they don’t need fast confirmations, but they don’t really gain anything by having slow confirmations. So why are people going to continue to use Bitcoin?

The forthcoming answer is security. It’s true, Bitcoin has been around longer, has had more tests, and so the network is more secure. However, having a secure network resistant to hacking is actually only one part of security. Another part is, how many people have lost thousands or millions of dollars over the years due to negligence or malicious actors? A lot.

If you have to be a tech nerd to secure your Bitcoins, that means it’s actually not secure, and it’s definitely not ready for mass adoption.

The other thing is, if you’re trying to defend Bitcoin compared to Dash, you’re fighting a retreating battle. Sure it does privacy, speed, user experience and adaptation to a changing market better than Bitcoin, but other than that, what does it do? If Dash has the incentives in place to improve in all these areas, then surely it has the potential to improve in security as well. After all, security is one of the most important parts of user experience. If your coins are constantly getting stolen or the network is going down, that gives the worst possible user experience.

Bitcoin vs Dash – Bitcoin mental blocks: SegWit & UX

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A lot of people left comments on my videos saying “If SegWit comes in…” “Just you wait and see if Segregated Witness comes in…” What they don’t get is, that’s a huge “if”. The problem isn’t just that there are unconfirmed transactions now… the problem is, we have no idea how or when the solutions will be implemented. That is the real problem, and Bitcoin maximalists have a huge blind spot for that. It seems to be because they’re only thinking about Bitcoin in terms of the technology, not in terms of the human factors – the governance, the politics. It’s as if they say “Well the technology exists so it’s all going to be fine.” And when you ask “How is that tech going to be implemented?” they say “the technology exists so it’s all going to be fine.”

You also see this flavour of thinking when it comes to user experience. They say “I don’t care about having to copy and paste a Bitcoin address” Or they bring up QR codes. It’s true, QR codes give an improved user experience compared to long confusing strings of characters that make up Bitcoin addresses. However, QR codes pose their own problems. I’ve often been on the web looking at a QR code thinking, what am I supposed to do – point my phone at my monitor? That just seems weird. If people had to scan a QR code to get to Google or Facebook, the web probably wouldn’t be as popular as it is today.

If you want a service to get popular, you have to extend your empathy, imagine yourself in the shoes of a complete noob and try to feel what they would in that situation. If you get caught up thinking “I’m comfortable with this (so I’m sure everyone else will be too),” you’re confining your tech to be used by an elite few.

 

Sterlin Lujan: Compassionate Anarchy – Episode 156

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The Story: Sterlin Lujan’s approach of relational anarchy

Every day millions of freedom lovers take to social media in an attempt to argue their way to a freer world, trying to convince people that they should be able to enjoy liberty, that they have rights that should be respected, that they are sovereign individuals who should command their own autonomy. Most of the time, the response is “No, I shouldn’t, no I don’t, and no I’m not.” The freedom lovers fail because they try to isolate people’s beliefs with logic, quickly making them defensive. Few people really want to hear how wrong they are, how foolish they’ve been for believing in government indoctrination, and how many contradictions their outlook contains.

Sterlin Lujan has a different approach. By using the insights that he has gained from studying psychology, he has devised a method called “compassionate anarchy” or “relational anarchy”. He says that instead of trying to be combative, we should learn to relate to people. By building positive connections with people, we can allow the essence of freedom to enter right now. By practising respect, we create respect.

In this episode, Kurt interviews Sterlin about his ideas on how to embrace and spread liberty, how certain substances such as ecstacy (MDMA) may give us insight into how to be more empathetic, how the desire to rule or be ruled is a type of stress response to an authoritarian society, and how stress responses can be healed using different types of talk therapy.

Join us on another psychologically anarchic episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Thomas Szasz on Wikipedia

Thomas Szasz Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsibility

Prodromal phase of psychosis

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Why Amanda B. Johnson loves Dash – Episode 155

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The Story: Amanda B. Johnson of Dash Detailed

Amanda B. Johnson is a familiar face to many who are interested in financial technology, and particularly to those interested in cryptocurrency. For months she was the host of The Daily Decrypt, bringing news about new developments in the technology, informing us about the latest altcoins released and the progress of Bitcoin adoption. Eventually she got frustrated when she saw how tedious and stilted the movement was in Bitcoin, and about how awful most of the new coins were. She finished The Daily Decrypt and decided to start Dash Detailed, giving us a weekly report of the progress in Dash – the currency which she figures is the most likely to reach mainstream adoption.

In this episode, Amanda tell us why she’s so excited about Dash, explaining the concept of money as a service, the importance of user experience, how she might market Dash to people who know nothing about cryptocurrency in the future, and why it’s not easy to crack Dash’s privacy features – even when someone controls a masternode. We also talk about the incentives involved in Dash, and how its anonymity features compare to Monero’s.

Join us in the next blockchaining episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Amanda B. Johnson & Pete Eyre: The Daily Decrypt – Episode 79

The Links:

Will Dash ever get its killer app? Amanda at Anarchapulco 2017

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Dash digital cash vs Bitcoin: Which will achieve mass adoption first? – Episode 154

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The Story: Bitcoin & Dash – User experience and governance in cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is an amazing technology that captured the imaginations of many people. Various individuals were stunned at the idea that mathematical algorithms could form the basis of our money, rather than central bankers and corrupt politicians, as is normally the way today. People were seduced by the idea of sending value around the world in a matter of minutes, a currency uncontrolled and uncontrollable by authority, and sending micropayments to websites to read their articles – instead of having to tolerate clickbait content beholden to advertisers. Bitcoin has delivered on some of those promises, however, it’s 8 years on and it still seems to be far from mainstream adoption.

If we take a step back from the hype and the dream of Bitcoin – still alive in the minds of many of us – we can see that Bitcoin has a few key problems. The main problem is, it’s too hard to use. People have to use long addresses which look like computer errors, to know the right transaction fee to send their cash or risk their transaction being at the back of a queue of 80,000, they have to generate new addresses for security, make paper wallets or buy a Trezor if they really want to be secure – and if they lose their wallet, or get hacked, they might just lose their life’s savings. Does that sound like a currency which is ready for mass adoption?

Now, I don’t know any digital currency which is ready for mass adoption – but I do know one which might be close. Dash “Digital Cash” is a currency which started in 2014, and the team is actively working on the problem of user experience, devising a system where people can log-in from any computer with a username and password, send currency using something like looks like a name, have their money secured while still retaining control, and not worry about losing their retirement fund just because they misplaced their private keys. Even now, Dash has the functionality of instant payments, and of private payments.

In this short episode, Kurt presents the case of why Dash might reach mass adoption before Bitcoin. Join me in another paradigm-shattering, central-banker-unseating, digital revolution episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Bitcoin vs Dash – which is the currency of the future?

Why aren’t we seeing greater adoption of cryptocurrency?

Bitcoin’s bubble vs Dash’s killer app

Dash.org

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Sudden Shamanic Dancing & Immortal Alien Dreams – Episode 153

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The Story: Dreams of an humanoid alien with a fountain of youth

If we pay attention to most dreams we have, we’ll notice that they’re normally based around things we were thinking or experiencing during the previous days. Similar to the memory technique where you picture the things you want to remember in a bizarre context, dreams rearrange the images of our lives in a weird way to enhance our recall. However, many of us have dreams which seem to be very different to our waking lives – seemingly coming out of nowhere – leaving us to wonder what they could possibly mean, and where the flying heck they came from. Could it be that our dreams provide messages from other worlds, that we open some strange doorways whenever we sleep? Could you even contact spirits or alien beings through your dreams?

In this episode, Kurt discusses a strange dream involving a humanoid alien who claims to have a “fountain of youth” device, and the epileptic fit and energy bursts that resulted when he tried it. We also discuss how it relates to a previous ayahuasca experience, about downloading dance moves from the universe, and about yogic nadis, or channels of energy, that exist within our bodies. We talk about the flat earth vs the round earth, and Kurt’s idea of a simulation earth or super earth. Aaron then shares with us his experience of being a father of an unborn child, communicating with his daughter through kicks, and Aaron tells us about the art of living.

Join us in another spirit-exploding, bedroom-dancing, baby-kicking episode of… The Paradise Paradox!

The Eps:

Shamanic Aliens with Luis Fernando Mises

Shamans with Guns with Luis Fernando Mises

Thailand mystical space adventure

The Links:

History of triangulation (flat vs round earth) – Jesse Kozlowski

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.