"The last enemy to be eliminated is death." – 1 Corinthians 15:26

If energy cannot be created, how did the big bang occur? How did energy come to existence? Some of the smartest PhDs in all realms of belief (religious, agnostic, etc.) have acknowledged intelligent design as the only answer that makes sense, since the math of reality is simply too perfect, where a chaotic sequence of randomness could never support human life.

POV's like Buddhists, Hinduism, and Law of Attraction/New Age says everyone is a piece of God, equal to God since "we are God" – and "this life is merely our souls observing existence from a unique lens as a part of a whole"... and when we die, we simply "return back to consciousness, to the source of the universe."

Well, observation is only an attribute of existence (an experience), it's not the underlying essence of your spirit, meaning, it's not what upholds your energy in order to exist. Existence itself is simply connection to source. A connection we were gifted at birth. (Matthew 10:28)

A lot of people are alive today but disconnected to source, they're basically zombies waiting for their finite time to end, and sadly, some think they just turn off back to dirt and nothingness, while others believe in reincarnation or some other type of spiritual wandering which isn't accurate either... you can't exist within God's frequency (Heaven, Space, spiritual realm, etc. which vibrates at a specific tune) if your soul is missing the light from source.

Darkness can never darken the light, but light always brightens the dark–if you're soul is operating at another frequency then you'll end up in the environment that harbors that frequency. (1 John 1:5)

Christians call it Hell, Buddhists call it ‘Naraka’ in Sanskrit, but they each have very different outcomes...Buddhists believe you'll suffer for awhile but then eventually reincarnate. John 3:16 (one of many verses) says that we believe in Him to save ourselves from perishing...and if you do end up in Hell, your suffering is weighed according to your deeds before you perish... (Luke 12:47-48). Some refer to this perspective as the ‘Annihilationist’ or ‘Conditionalist’ view. This interpretation of scripture resonates with me.

In contrast, mainstream Christianity insists that Hell is a place of eternal suffering. I don’t support this view. To me, to ‘perish’ means to cease existing entirely. Poof, vamoose! Your being is gone and is no longer existent! You lose your immortality...

So, you're either connected to Him, or disconnected. In Christianity, it's called "the Vine". We're all branches of this vine. What happens if a branch begins to wither? You can either water it to revive it or cut it off for the sake of the tree, right? That's what happens after you die in this physical life, you're either a weed in the afterlife that needs to be cut off (perish), or you're a fruitful vessel reflecting the portion of God that is allotted to you... we don't know when we die, so that's why knowing our true origin ASAP and honoring our existence accordingly (walking righteously) preserves our souls for the afterlife, otherwise, you forfeit your immortality. (Matthew 13:36-43)

Choose wisely...

A topic I've been thinking about...

Before I explain, if you're unfamiliar with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, here's a YouTube video breaking down the history of money and currency: Watch Video – and here's a video on how Bitcoin works: Watch Video

Disclaimer: I'm not an economist so my POV or math might be flawed. If you're an economist, please reach out to me if you have some input, critique, or are willing to do a brief video interview as a podcast conversation!

Now, here's my pitch...

It baffles me that we rely on a FIAT-based Market Cap for Bitcoin's value, aren't we supposed to be moving away from the FIAT system with the help of crypto/blockchain tech?

The Lightning Network – a second-layer scaling solution built on top of Bitcoin's blockchain to facilitate faster and cheaper transactions, making Bitcoin more practical for everyday transactions while maintaining its decentralized nature – helped speed up the currency adoption; but it's still reliant on FIAT valuation, which not only suffers from extreme volatility scaring away merchants and providers to accept BTC for payment, but in my opinion, it's not the best way to think about how to use the Bitcoin protocol. We should consider how to utilize the Bitcoin code's protocol to properly trade goods and services with the network's value, measured by the GDP provided by its users, without any reliance on FIAT Market Cap.

Hear me out...

The U.S. abandoned the gold standard in 1971 – so FIAT isn't backed by anything (it's merely digits on a screen) so the volatility in Trade Markets is irrelevant since BTC should be backed by the Bitcoin Network's GDP – not FIAT.

A suggested FIAT-to-BTC "Anti-volatility Conversion Rate":

BTC has a 21M Max Supply ÷ 11B Global Population by the year 2140 (last mined BTC) = 0.0019 BTC per person for equal allocation (0.19% of 1 BTC = 190k Satoshis ––– *excluding lost/irretrievable coins.)

Now the question is, how do we value, price, and trade with "0.0019 BTC per person"?

Example:

0.0019 BTC ÷ $10k (median annual income in USA in 1971) = 0.00000019 BTC

This would make market rates for Goods & Services as:

$1 = 0.00000019 BTC

$10 = 0.0000019 BTC

$100 = 0.000019 BTC

$1k = 0.00019 BTC

$10k = 0.0019 BTC

$100k = 0.019 BTC

$1M = 0.19 BTC

$10M = 1.9 BTC

$100M = 19 BTC

Does this conversion rate & overall idea make sense? If so, why aren't we putting thought and energy into perfecting this type of utilization with Bitcoin? Or if this idea is not applicable, why not?

Comment your thoughts below...

“If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, the quality of its music will furnish the answer.” ― Confucius. 

In a society bombarded by new content uploaded every millisecond ranging from social media pictures, viral video clips and broken flood-gates of new music from thousands of artists pouring into streaming platforms everyday combined with modern life's typical triggers of stress; it's easy to understand why so many people suffer from anxiety and panic attacks with a heartbeat thumping at 200 bpm or higher! Cue the Lo-fi playlist and let the 70-90 bpm beats entrain your brain and soothe your sanity as we evaluate this genre's impact on today's culture.

What is "Lo-fi"? The definition of the term is rooted in "low-fidelity" and has roots in various styles and sub-genres from Rock and Electronic to Hip-Hop, respectively. Recording artists like The Beach Boys helped popularize this low-quality DIY sound in the 60's which inspired a wave of indie acts, punk rock bands and other recording artists like Paul McCartney to use this sound as an aesthetic, effectively "turning sh*t into sugar" as the cost of professional studio time and recording equipment in those days were still unattainable for most indie artists and an expensive debt for major label signees – fast-forward to 2021, where the cost of professional home-studios are easily accessible, affordable, and abundant...why are lo-fi records still alive?

Let's dive deeper into where the term "Lo-fi" evidently thrives today: music playlists. 

Hip-Hop is today's dominate genre, and a phenomena has occurred in the past decade of Lo-fi (aka "Chillhop") playlists ranging from 1-8 hour durations to indefinite 24/7 live streams with playlist titles such as "Focus & Study" or "Relaxing Rainy Nights" which serve as the subtle soundtrack to the lives of college students, desk workers and others in need of a laid-back ambiance without the distraction of lyrics or the sonic slap of 808's and triplet hi-hats from today's popular hip-hop music...keyword: hip-hop. Hence the term, "Chillhop". The confusion of the term "Lo-fi" is due to its complex history of the technical definition and its multi-genre branches, but if you listen to any of today's most popular Lo-fi playlists you won't find Rock songs and you'd rarely bump into any Electronic drum patterns. Instead, what will you hear? Classic un-quantized boom-bap drums often supported by jazz samples. 

While the boom-bap era of rap was dwindling after the loudness wars took off spear headed by albums like Dr. Dre's "The Chronic 2001" followed by genre-bending raps with pop influences exemplified by artists like Kanye West or The Black Eyed Peas in the early 2000's; technology continued to improve resulting in higher fidelity records. Meanwhile, producers like J. Dilla and Nujabes are recognized as the fathers of Lo-fi with their steady contributions to the culture providing the dirty dusty barely-mixed-and-mastered imperfect instrumentals we hear so prominently in today's Lo-fi scene which is kept alive by a fleet of producers such as Jinsang or L.Dre but mostly unknown beat makers with anime avatars for profile pics. 

The combination of chillhop and anime has a history of its own. As mainstream as hip-hop has become today, and considering the amount of traction Lo-fi/Chillhop playlists maintain daily – it's still an oddly underground genre while extremely popular at the same time. Perhaps because Hip-Hop began as the voice of the people in an NY neighborhood and now that it boasts the highest streaming stats of any genre worldwide, well, that's a lot of voices to represent. But sometimes nothing needs to be said...just felt. The mood is unanimous. For perspective, the second most visited website is YouTube and the number one platform for music consumption is again: YouTube. What's one of the top categories on YouTube? Never ending live streams of Lo-fi/Chillhop music as seen when"ChilledCow produced one of the longest videos in YouTube history — more than 13,000 hours — and amassed 218 million views in the process". The trend is in such high-demand that the internet exploded with comments of shock, sadness and frustration when YouTube accidentally removed one of the most popular chillhop channels known as "ChilledCow "(who recently rebranded as "Lofi Girl"). 

Chillhop beats are streamed globally with annual rising stats – and according to Confucius, that's a statement. Are lo-fi hip-hop beats the global mood? Maybe the world wants to slow down, and these crackling Lofi beats are helping to do just that.

Listen to L.Dre’s latest album entitled “Birds of Paradise” [released 07.30.21]

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written by Erik “Airic” Diaz (@airicmusic)
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an article for NYU | TISCH | Yellowbrick