- Eric Weinstein is well known for captivating and thought-provoking opinions in theoretical physics and has commented on encounters with Bitcoin maximalism.
- In one statement in 2021, Weinstein referred to Bitcoiners as “the logical saviors of physics,” outlining his conversation focusing on the physics behind the protocol.
- The conversation painted a not-so-evident framing of centralization that inevitably leads to Bitcoin changing the world.
Eric Weinstein, Managing Director of Thiel Capital and Host of The Portal podcast, took the Nakamoto Stage at Bitcoin Conference 2022 to discuss fixing the monetary systems of humanity. Weinstein was joined by Abraham (Avi) Loeb, an Israel-American theoretical physicist and professor of science at Harvard University.
Weinstein has been known to have interesting views when it comes to bitcoin. One Twitter thread from 2021 got particularly interesting when Weinstein was asked to become a bitcoiner by another user, to which he replied “No. Your job is to liberate physics. Mine, to liberate you.”
Weinstein continued to say “I would however come to any credible meeting about freeing Satoshi’s genius from the loss of anonymity to the ledger that is the blockchain.”
That comment reads as adversarial, yet in the same tweet Weinstein stated “Bitcoiners are the logical saviors of physics.” This takes us to his conversation with Loeb at Bitcoin Conference 2022, the aforementioned “credible meeting” to which they discussed not only the possibility of bitcoin’s success, but the need for it to save us all.
To start the conference, Weinstein did not shy away from the debates he has had with Bitcoin maximalists in the past. “Many of you may know me for getting in trouble with bitcoiners on ClubHouse,” he said.
At this point, the crowd watched as Weinstein and Avi took a hard-left turn for conversation. It seemed as though the conversation was meant to focus on UFOs and the discovery of objects entering our solar system that were previously undefined. This was a clever framework of the intended conversation.
“The reason I’m here with you at Bitcoin 2022, there is some commonality,” Loeb explained. “The government may own data or classify data for objects that they really couldn’t identify.”
The commonality being the centralized distribution of information from a government agency representing a metaphor of centrally-planned financial systems that determine what is ultimately the direction of global economies. This problem becomes exacerbated when one realizes the inefficiencies of government entities.
“The government works in a system that is opaque. Different parts of the government don’t know about each other,” Loeb said. The question being raised at this point in their conversation is, where do we look for answers to the problems of money, and for the world?
Weinstein and Loeb made multiple comments of looking next door to your cosmic neighbors with hope that maybe they will have an answer, or information you are unaware of. Who is the cosmic neighbor with information that these two, brilliant individuals are missing?
“If you think about it, the Bitcoiners are the first people to break into the logical layer that breaks the constraints of the logical layer,” explained Weinstein.
At this point, the conversation moved towards discussing the incentivization of Bitcoin and how it calls to the primacy of human nature while still protecting and serving its users, aligning itself to the baser callings of humanity all but guaranteeing its success.
“Bitcoin recognizes that humans are humans,” Eric said. “The amazing thing is that by appealing to our base nature, it also appeals to liberty and freedom.”
Weinstein returned to the subject of maximalism as he discussed the repeated nature of Bitcoiners to defend their truth absent recourse. “Even though this community can be very aggressive and has its immune system, it’s also got some of the most forward-thinking people’.”
A community such as this has clearly experienced a most-profound form of inspiration, according to Weinstein, which most assuredly means success. “A community that has seen a miracle in its lifetime transforms the lives of many people around the world.”
If Bitcoin can break the constraints of physics as we know them and allow a multi-planetary existence that pushes the bounds of what it means to be human by breaking down what we think we know, then possibly we can experience something unfelt before.
“The breakdown of Einstein’s theory of gravity may allow an advanced scientific culture to do things that look like magic to us,” Loeb told Weinstein.
