There’s a scene in It’s a Wonderful Life where George Bailey sees his town as if he’d never existed, Bedford Falls transformed into the darker Pottersville.
Jordi - I recommend to you “The Last Economy: A Guide to the Age of Intelligent Economics” by Emad Mostaque … he makes similar arguments but founded on the 2d law of thermodynamics. I think your dot connecting mind will be blown. Thank you for all you do!
Enjoyed it. Like you I am inherently positive about the future. However, we must keep an awareness of the potential costs to society as well. With power comes responsibility which most governments have shown poor stewardship. I fear the control, monitoring, and attempted ordering of society that politicians will find irresistible. I am a realist and realize, ready or not the future and ai are upon us.
Not to detract from the overall narrative, technically speaking, Edison didn’t invent the first lightbulb; he perfected a commercial system for electric lighting.
Westinghouse and others likely would have advanced AC power systems. Still, the timing, pace, and structure of electrification would have been meaningfully different, perhaps slower, and less integrated early on, and probably delayed by at least a decade or two.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla significantly shaped the development of electrical technology. Edison developed direct current (DC), which flows continuously in a single direction, like in a battery or fuel cell. During the early years of electricity, DC was the standard in the U.S., giving Edison a significant first-mover advantage with a strong foothold in the market.
Tesla briefly worked for Edison as a junior engineer, improving DC generators while also attempting to interest Edison in an alternating current (AC) motor he had developed. Unlike DC, AC reverses direction several times per second and can be easily transformed to higher or lower voltages using a transformer. This made AC far more practical for long-distance power transmission. Edison, however, rejected Tesla's ideas, calling them "splendid" but "utterly impractical." Tesla viewed DC as inefficient for the masses due to its inability to easily adapt to different voltage requirements and its high energy losses over long distances. Edison, heavily invested in DC technology and infrastructure through his Edison Electric Light Company, sought to protect his business interests. Transitioning to AC threatened to undermine his established systems, Edison was a DC maximalist and famously declared, “Fooling around with alternating current is just a waste of time. Nobody will ever use it.”
Tesla left Edison's employment to pursue his vision of alternating current, which he believed was superior to Edison's direct current for long-distance power transmission. With the financial and industrial support of George Westinghouse, Tesla's AC system gained traction. Together, they challenged Edison's DC monopoly, engaging in what became known as the War of Currents. Ultimately, Tesla and Westinghouse emerged victorious, as AC proved far more efficient and cost-effective for transmitting electricity over long distances. This breakthrough made electricity accessible and 'scalable' to the masses and established AC as the global standard for power distribution.
Fast forward to the 21st century- in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin whitepaper, introducing the first decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency. By 2010, Satoshi handed over control of the Bitcoin repository to Gavin Andresen and gradually reduced his involvement. His last known communications on the Bitcointalk forum in December 2010:
December 11, 2010: “It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.”
December 12, 2010: “...I’m doing a quick build of what I have so far in case it’s needed, before venturing into more complex ideas.”
The birth of Kaspa has taken over a decade. Little is known of the creator of Kaspa, Yonatan Sompolinsky. His public timeline ironically started when his Twitter account went live in December 2010, the same month and year Satoshi disappeared from the Bitcointalk forum. During the early days of Bitcoin's maturity, Yonatan Sompolinsky recognized Bitcoin's scalability issues and co-authored multiple papers to try to improve the Bitcoin development community.
2013: “Accelerating Bitcoin's Transaction Processing. Fast Money Grows on Trees, Not Chains”
2015: “Secure High-Rate Transaction Processing in Bitcoin”
2015: “Inclusive Blockchain Protocols”
2016: “Spectre: A Fast and Scalable Cryptocurrency Protocol”
2017: “Optimal Selfish Strategies in Bitcoin”
Despite these contributions, Bitcoin’s core developers rejected his proposals, arguing that solving scalability on layer 1 was impractical.
Aviv Zohar even posted on the Bitcointalk forum to urge BTC devs:
Prominent Bitcoin developer Adam Back later dismissed DAGs, stating, “The DAG is over-complex; I had a similar idea in 2013 and discarded it.”
Bitcoin maximalists, like Edison, were heavily invested in their existing system. For example, over the past 10 years Adam Back’s Blockstream has received hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for Layer 2 solutions, such as the Lightning Network.
Frustrated by Bitcoin’s limitations, Yonatan Sompolinsky launched Kaspa on November 7, 2021. As the world’s first blockDAG-based proof-of-work cryptocurrency, Kaspa addresses the blockchain trilemma of scalability, decentralization, and security, setting a new standard for peer-to-peer transactions.
Key innovations include:
BlockDAG Architecture: Enables parallel transaction processing, drastically improving scalability while preserving the security of a decentralized network.
kHeavyHash Algorithm: A power-efficient proof-of-work mechanism that reduces energy consumption compared to Bitcoin’s SHA-256.
As a result Kaspa has become a robust distributed trust protocol for fransacting.
Direct Current/Bitcoin: Unable to scale to the masses, power inefficient.
Alternating Current/Kaspa: Scalable to the masses, power efficient.
Thomas Edison employed various tactics to discredit Nikola Tesla and his alternating current (AC) system through fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD). Edison, a staunch supporter of direct current (DC), sought to maintain his dominance in the burgeoning electricity market by undermining Tesla’s innovations.
One of Edison's primary strategies was to instill fear about the safety of AC. He conducted public demonstrations where animals were electrocuted using AC, showcasing its potential dangers to instill fear and mistrust among the public. This spectacle aimed to associate AC with fatal consequences, creating a perception that it was inherently dangerous compared to DC.
Edison also manipulated the media to spread misinformation about AC. He used his influence to publish articles and stories exaggerating the risks of AC, painting it as a hazardous technology. By sowing doubt and uncertainty, Edison hoped to sway public opinion and policymakers against Tesla’s AC system.
Furthermore, Edison engaged in patent wars and legal battles to stifle Tesla’s progress. By challenging Tesla's patents and innovations, Edison aimed to delay or halt the adoption of AC, giving his DC system a competitive edge.
These FUD tactics were part of Edison's broader effort to discredit Tesla and protect his interests in the electrical power industry.
Be vigilant and do your own research. Bitcoin maximalists, just like Edison, use fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) to discredit Kaspa by labeling it as a scam or impossible, highlighting its perceived flaws, and promoting Bitcoin as the only legitimate cryptocurrency- "There is no second best" campaign.
I think Jordi Visser is one of the great visionaries of our time. Every week he connects the dots in a way very few can do, and in so doing provides all of us with a roadmap of possibilities and opportunities. I've been in the investment industry for 41 years and am a self-confessed data junkie, and I can say without any hesitation that Jordi's work is insightful, forceful and, most importantly, exceptionally well-informed and educational. We are incredibly fortunate to have access to such a great mind. All the best, Jonathan Pain, Author of The Pain Report (No, it's not medical!)
The atheists' attempts to use science to justify their jokes are crumbling, because intelligence can only come from intelligence, where does human intelligence come from? It is from ALLAH. We are intelligently designed. Do not live your life as if death is optional. thanks jordi.
Jordi - I recommend to you “The Last Economy: A Guide to the Age of Intelligent Economics” by Emad Mostaque … he makes similar arguments but founded on the 2d law of thermodynamics. I think your dot connecting mind will be blown. Thank you for all you do!
No Edison and you get Nikola Tesla unleashed Alternate history and probably a much better one IMO
Exactly !!! Free Energy and Flying Saucers in every garage & Inter-Planetary Travel !!!
Yeah, Jordi...Edison killed Tesla...we'd have free energy and our own flying saucers like the Jetson's if it weren't for that greedy thief, Edison.
Sincerely....
...Reality !
If
It hasn’t been Edison it would have been any of the others working in Menlo Park, or Tesla or Westinghouse.
From Edison to AI. We live in interesting times indeed.
Thanks for the read. Love the perspective
Enjoyed it. Like you I am inherently positive about the future. However, we must keep an awareness of the potential costs to society as well. With power comes responsibility which most governments have shown poor stewardship. I fear the control, monitoring, and attempted ordering of society that politicians will find irresistible. I am a realist and realize, ready or not the future and ai are upon us.
https://open.substack.com/pub/pramodhmallipatna/p/the-ai-leverage-economy-when-compute
Not to detract from the overall narrative, technically speaking, Edison didn’t invent the first lightbulb; he perfected a commercial system for electric lighting.
Westinghouse and others likely would have advanced AC power systems. Still, the timing, pace, and structure of electrification would have been meaningfully different, perhaps slower, and less integrated early on, and probably delayed by at least a decade or two.
The War of Currents: DC vs AC
The War of Currency: BTC vs Kas
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla significantly shaped the development of electrical technology. Edison developed direct current (DC), which flows continuously in a single direction, like in a battery or fuel cell. During the early years of electricity, DC was the standard in the U.S., giving Edison a significant first-mover advantage with a strong foothold in the market.
Tesla briefly worked for Edison as a junior engineer, improving DC generators while also attempting to interest Edison in an alternating current (AC) motor he had developed. Unlike DC, AC reverses direction several times per second and can be easily transformed to higher or lower voltages using a transformer. This made AC far more practical for long-distance power transmission. Edison, however, rejected Tesla's ideas, calling them "splendid" but "utterly impractical." Tesla viewed DC as inefficient for the masses due to its inability to easily adapt to different voltage requirements and its high energy losses over long distances. Edison, heavily invested in DC technology and infrastructure through his Edison Electric Light Company, sought to protect his business interests. Transitioning to AC threatened to undermine his established systems, Edison was a DC maximalist and famously declared, “Fooling around with alternating current is just a waste of time. Nobody will ever use it.”
Tesla left Edison's employment to pursue his vision of alternating current, which he believed was superior to Edison's direct current for long-distance power transmission. With the financial and industrial support of George Westinghouse, Tesla's AC system gained traction. Together, they challenged Edison's DC monopoly, engaging in what became known as the War of Currents. Ultimately, Tesla and Westinghouse emerged victorious, as AC proved far more efficient and cost-effective for transmitting electricity over long distances. This breakthrough made electricity accessible and 'scalable' to the masses and established AC as the global standard for power distribution.
Fast forward to the 21st century- in 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin whitepaper, introducing the first decentralized, peer-to-peer digital currency. By 2010, Satoshi handed over control of the Bitcoin repository to Gavin Andresen and gradually reduced his involvement. His last known communications on the Bitcointalk forum in December 2010:
December 11, 2010: “It would have been nice to get this attention in any other context. WikiLeaks has kicked the hornet's nest, and the swarm is headed towards us.”
December 12, 2010: “...I’m doing a quick build of what I have so far in case it’s needed, before venturing into more complex ideas.”
The birth of Kaspa has taken over a decade. Little is known of the creator of Kaspa, Yonatan Sompolinsky. His public timeline ironically started when his Twitter account went live in December 2010, the same month and year Satoshi disappeared from the Bitcointalk forum. During the early days of Bitcoin's maturity, Yonatan Sompolinsky recognized Bitcoin's scalability issues and co-authored multiple papers to try to improve the Bitcoin development community.
2013: “Accelerating Bitcoin's Transaction Processing. Fast Money Grows on Trees, Not Chains”
2015: “Secure High-Rate Transaction Processing in Bitcoin”
2015: “Inclusive Blockchain Protocols”
2016: “Spectre: A Fast and Scalable Cryptocurrency Protocol”
2017: “Optimal Selfish Strategies in Bitcoin”
Despite these contributions, Bitcoin’s core developers rejected his proposals, arguing that solving scalability on layer 1 was impractical.
Aviv Zohar even posted on the Bitcointalk forum to urge BTC devs:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=359582.0
Prominent Bitcoin developer Adam Back later dismissed DAGs, stating, “The DAG is over-complex; I had a similar idea in 2013 and discarded it.”
Bitcoin maximalists, like Edison, were heavily invested in their existing system. For example, over the past 10 years Adam Back’s Blockstream has received hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for Layer 2 solutions, such as the Lightning Network.
Frustrated by Bitcoin’s limitations, Yonatan Sompolinsky launched Kaspa on November 7, 2021. As the world’s first blockDAG-based proof-of-work cryptocurrency, Kaspa addresses the blockchain trilemma of scalability, decentralization, and security, setting a new standard for peer-to-peer transactions.
Key innovations include:
BlockDAG Architecture: Enables parallel transaction processing, drastically improving scalability while preserving the security of a decentralized network.
kHeavyHash Algorithm: A power-efficient proof-of-work mechanism that reduces energy consumption compared to Bitcoin’s SHA-256.
As a result Kaspa has become a robust distributed trust protocol for fransacting.
Direct Current/Bitcoin: Unable to scale to the masses, power inefficient.
Alternating Current/Kaspa: Scalable to the masses, power efficient.
---------------------------------------------------
Thomas Edison employed various tactics to discredit Nikola Tesla and his alternating current (AC) system through fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD). Edison, a staunch supporter of direct current (DC), sought to maintain his dominance in the burgeoning electricity market by undermining Tesla’s innovations.
One of Edison's primary strategies was to instill fear about the safety of AC. He conducted public demonstrations where animals were electrocuted using AC, showcasing its potential dangers to instill fear and mistrust among the public. This spectacle aimed to associate AC with fatal consequences, creating a perception that it was inherently dangerous compared to DC.
Edison also manipulated the media to spread misinformation about AC. He used his influence to publish articles and stories exaggerating the risks of AC, painting it as a hazardous technology. By sowing doubt and uncertainty, Edison hoped to sway public opinion and policymakers against Tesla’s AC system.
Furthermore, Edison engaged in patent wars and legal battles to stifle Tesla’s progress. By challenging Tesla's patents and innovations, Edison aimed to delay or halt the adoption of AC, giving his DC system a competitive edge.
These FUD tactics were part of Edison's broader effort to discredit Tesla and protect his interests in the electrical power industry.
Be vigilant and do your own research. Bitcoin maximalists, just like Edison, use fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) to discredit Kaspa by labeling it as a scam or impossible, highlighting its perceived flaws, and promoting Bitcoin as the only legitimate cryptocurrency- "There is no second best" campaign.
Great article. Needs to be read carefully by all the pundits currently describing AI as a bubble. Yes Bank of England, this includes you.
I think Jordi Visser is one of the great visionaries of our time. Every week he connects the dots in a way very few can do, and in so doing provides all of us with a roadmap of possibilities and opportunities. I've been in the investment industry for 41 years and am a self-confessed data junkie, and I can say without any hesitation that Jordi's work is insightful, forceful and, most importantly, exceptionally well-informed and educational. We are incredibly fortunate to have access to such a great mind. All the best, Jonathan Pain, Author of The Pain Report (No, it's not medical!)
Excellent analysis again 💪 Thanks
beautiful, one of the best posts I've read on substack in a while
The atheists' attempts to use science to justify their jokes are crumbling, because intelligence can only come from intelligence, where does human intelligence come from? It is from ALLAH. We are intelligently designed. Do not live your life as if death is optional. thanks jordi.
Great insight and truth. I thoroughly enjoy your work and writing, thank you.