 Okay, thank you very much. My name is Robert Greedlove and I'm here to talk about the number zero and Bitcoin. So many people believe that Bitcoin is just one of thousands of crypto assets. And this is true in the same way that the number zero is just one of an infinite series of numbers. In reality, Bitcoin is special and so is zero. Each is an invention which led to a discovery that fundamentally reshaped its overarching system. For Bitcoin, that system is money and for zero, it is mathematics. Since money and math are mankind's two universal languages, both Bitcoin and zero are critical constructs for civilization. Now this piece is like 40 minutes long and medium so I'm gonna fly through some of the parts. So you don't have to check it out after, but. Here we see one of the earliest forms of numeric systems, Babylonian cuneiform. It's base 60 and it does not include a zero. Here we show inscription K 127 which is the earliest known inscription of the number zero. This is from seventh century Cambodia. And here we see how those numeral systems evolved over time to form the modern numeral system we use today. And finally, we see the reason zero is so important or one of the reasons, and we'll get into more of them next is that it made computation and calculation much more efficient. Here we show a simple arithmetic of 1223 plus 1104, how complicated it is in Roman numerals which lack the zero. So getting into zero a bit and why it was so important, it has three critical functions in mathematics which I will liken to the three functions of money. And these three functions of zero are what made it an unstoppable idea. And it's the reason we all use a zero based number system today. As Victor Hugo said, there's nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. So zero's first function is as a placeholder in our numeric system. For instance, the number zero in the number 1104, here zero indicates the absence of value in the tens place without zero acting as a symbol of absence at this order of magnitude and 1104, the number could not be represented unambiguously without zero as at 1104 or 1114, for instance. This is zero's store of value function. So in the same way that a sound economic store value leads to increased savings, which undergirds investment and productivity growth in an economy, so too does a sound a mathematical placeholder of value. Give us a numeral system capable of containing more meaning in less space and supporting calculations in less time, both of which also foster productivity growth. Zero's second function is as a number in its own right. It is the midpoint between any positive and negative number like and it's negative counterpart like plus two and negative two. Before the concept of zero, negative numbers were not used as there was no conception of nothing as a number, much less, less than nothing. In this way, zero is the medium of exchange between the positive and negative domains of numbers. It is only possible to pass into or out of either territory by way of zero. And by going below zero and conceptualizing negative numbers, many new and unusual, yet extremely useful mathematical constructs come into being, including imaginary numbers and fractals. As you may remember, the imaginary number I is the square root of negative one. And this is a really important item to remember for later. And here we show the real and complex or imaginary number planes plotted. And essentially by by exponentiating I, we can rotate through the two different planes and this really comes into play later. And negative numbers also gave us the concept of fractals. And here we show the Mandelbrot set, which is one of the most beautiful mathematical constructs in all of reality and it's made possible with zero. So in the same way that the economic medium of exchange money leads to the acceleration of trade and innovation, so too does the mathematical medium of exchange zero lead to enhanced informational exchange and it's associated development of civilizational advances. Finally, zero's third function is as a facilitator for fractions or ratios. With zero, we can easily convert fractions to decimal form. For instance, converting one half into 0.5. This absolutes the need for long and complicated conversion tables when dealing with fractions. This is the unit of account function of zero. Prices in an economy are just exchange ratios converted into money denominated, a money denominated decimal. For instance, instead of saying this house costs 11 cars, we say this house costs $440,000, which is equal to the price of $11,000 cars. So money gives us the ability to better handle exchange ratios in the same way zero gives us the ability to better handle numeric ratios and an ability to more efficiently handle ratios directly contributed to mankind's later development of rationality, which is a logic-based way of thinking at the root of major social movements, such as the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment. But fascinatingly, zero did not arise from rational deduction. To truly grasp the strange logic of zero, we must start with its point of origin, the philosophy from which it was born. Zero was discovered by an ancient Indian mathematician named Brahmagupta, and he reportedly discovered this in the meditation of all places, in which he experienced contact with the void. So in meditation, the goal is the achievement of enlightenment for an ideal state of nirvana. This is equivalent to emptying oneself completely of thought, desire and worldly attachment. And achieving emptiness is also called the state of shunyata, which is a Buddhist concept that's closely related to the void. This emptiness is considered to be the conduit between existence and non-existence, in the same way that zero is the door from positive to negative numbers, each being a perfect reflection of the other. Zero arose in the ancient East as the epitome of this deeply philosophical and experiential concept of absolute emptiness. Empirically, today we know that meditation benefits the brain in many ways, and it seems too that its contribution to the discovery of zero helped forge an idea that forever benefited mankind's collective intelligence. Very importantly, zero gave us the concept of infinity, which was notably absent from the minds of ancient Greek logicians. And this mathematical structure called the Riemann sphere, which is constructed from a real and imaginary numbers, zero and infinity are geometric reflections of one another that can transpose themselves in a flash of mathematical permutation. Always at the opposite end, the opposite pole of this abstract sphere, we find zero's twin, infinity. And later, infinity would prove to be a threatening concept for an institution that premised itself on the existence of a finite universe, the Catholic Church, which we'll refer to here as the Church. So ancient Greeks who had inherited their numbers from geometry-loving Egyptians made little distinction between shape and number. Even today, when we square a number like X squared, this is equivalent to converting a line into a square and calculating its area. Ancient Greeks believed numbers had to be visible, to be real, whereas ancient Indians perceived numbers as an intrinsic part of a latent, invisible reality separate from mankind's conception of them. The symbol of the ancient Greek Pythagorean cult was the pentagram. This sacred shape contained within it the key to their view of the universe, the golden ratio. For the ancient Greeks, all was number, meaning shapes and ratios ruled the universe. The golden ratio is seemingly supernatural connection to aesthetics, life and the universe became central tenet of Western civilization and later the church. And here we show the golden ratio being used in the architecture of the Parthenon, how it appears in nature in the Nautilus shell and how it is calculated. So ancient Greeks clung tightly to this worldview that did not tolerate zero or the infinite. In core to their flawed belief system was the concept of the indivisible atom, the elementary particle, which could not be subdivided ad infinitum. In their minds, there was no way below or beyond the micro barrier of the atomic surface. And in the same vein, they considered the universe a macro cosmic atom that was strictly bound by an outermost sphere of stars winking down towards the cosmic core, which was believed to be earth. So as above, so below, with nothing conceived above the outermost stellar sphere and nothing below the atomic surface, ancient Greeks believed that there was no infinity and no void. Aristotle and other thinkers would interpret this finite universe philosophically and in doing so form the ideological foundation for God's existence and the church's power on earth. In the Aristotelian conception of the universe, the force moving the stars, which drove the motion of all elements below, including the actions of man, was the prime mover, God. This cascade of cosmic force from on high downward into the movements of mankind was considered the officially accepted interpretation of divine will. As Christianity swept through the West, the church relied upon the explanatory power of the Aristotelian philosophy as proof of God's existence in their proselytizing efforts. However, infinity was unavoidably actualized by the same Aristotelian logic that sought to deny it. By the 13th century, some bishops began calling assemblies to question the Aristotelian doctrines that went against the omnipotence of God. For example, the notion that God could not move the heavens in a straight line because that would leave behind a vacuum or in other words avoid. If the heavens were being moved linearly, then what was left in their wake and through what substance were they moving? This implied either the existence of the void and as in the vacuum through which it was moving or that God was not truly omnipotent as he could not move the heavens in a straight line. This insight eroded the power of the church and infinite universe meant there were at least a vast multitude of planets, many of which likely had their own populations in churches. Since Earth was no longer believed to be the center of the universe, why should the church have universal dominion? And in a grand ideological shift that foreshadowed the invention of Bitcoin centuries later, zero became the idea that broke the church's grip on humanity just as absolute scarcity of money is breaking the Fed's stranglehold on the world today. So fast forwarding to modernity in the age of zeros and ones, many centuries later, zero became the cornerstone of calculus, which is an innovative system of mathematics that enabled people to contend with ever smaller units approaching zero, but cunningly avoided the logic trap of having to divide by zero. And today all physical sciences, and I mean all rely on calculus. This includes physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and everything else. And as binary code now forms the foundation of modern software engineering, zero is essential to the development of digital tools like the personal computer, the internet, and now Bitcoin. More than just a new monetary technology, Bitcoin is an entirely new economic paradigm. Bitcoin is an uncompromisable base money protocol for a global, digital, non-state economy. Bitcoin is superior to all of the crypto assets due to an obscure concept called path dependence, which we'll now explore. Path dependence is the sensitivity of an outcome to the order of events that led to it. For instance, if you shower and then dry yourself off, you get a drastically different result than if you dry yourself off first and then shower. So in life, once started down a particular pathway, breaking away from sociopolitical inertia can eventually become impossible. For instance, imagine if the world today tried to standardize to a different size of electrical outlet. Consumers, manufacturers, and suppliers would all resist this costly change, which would require either one of two things, either a free market or pull method in which people were induced to change by a prospective benefit, or an unfree market or push method in which people were forced to change in the face of some threat. So when Bitcoin was launched into the world, it was released as a one-of-a-kind technology, a non-state digital money that is issued on a perfectly fixed, diminishing and predictable schedule. As a thought experiment, if a new Bitcoin were launched today, it would have comparatively weak chain security, liquidity, and network effects early on. And this head start makes Bitcoin's lead in hash rate seemingly insurmountable because everything would just collapse into Bitcoin. And as a real-world example of this, we have the Bitcoin Cash Fork, which its failure is a real-world reinforcement of the importance of Bitcoin's path dependent emergence as it shows that a competitive crypto asset, even with an absolutely scarce money supply, fails to compete with Bitcoin because Bitcoin has superior liquidity, chain security, and network effects. So because of path dependence, the idea of absolute monetary scarcity is a one-time discovery. And it goes against the wishes of entrenched power structures like the Fed. Like zero, once an idea of this time has come is released into the wild, it is nearly impossible to put the proverbial genie back in the bottle. In this sense, Bitcoin is the discovery of absolute scarcity, an idea that is changing the world as tremendously as its digital ancestor, the number zero. And it's a really big deal because it's a really big idea. And ideas are life forms in and unto themselves. As Carl Jung said, people don't have ideas, ideas have people. And I think many Bitcoiners could testify to just how gripping this mind virus is. And when it comes to money, the idea of money is a game in which scarcity is its shelling point or the default strategy. And Bitcoin exhibits perfect scarcity, making it a perfect monetary strategy for what I like to call the economic similarity. And today, central planning in the market for money, as Andy spoke about earlier, which was also called central baking or monetary socialism is failing. This tyrannical financial hierarchy has increased worldwide wealth disparities. It has funded perpetual warfare and plundered entire commonwealths to bail out failing institutions time and time again. A reversion to the free market for money is the only way to heal the devastation central banking has wrought over the past 100 plus years. And unlike central bankers who are fallible human beings that give into political pressure to pillage value from people by printing money, Bitcoin's monetary policy does not bend for anyone. It gives zero fucks. And in a world where central bankers can just add zeros to steal your wealth, people's only hope is a zero fucks money that cannot be confiscated, inflated or stopped. And at the internet age, we are fortunate to have such hilarious yet meaningful means. I particularly like this one where it says, anyone who has ever opened a history book in their life, please sweet baby Jesus, do anything to fix this economic crisis other than print more fucking money, I'm fucking begging you. And the government says, ha ha ha, money print go burr. I think it's hilarious and very apt for the situation we're in. So historically, inflationary and societal wellbeing have been inversely related. The more reliably value can be stored across time, the more trust can be cultivated among market participants and the more sophisticated civilization can become. When a money's roots to economic reality are severed, as happened when the peg to gold was broken and fiat currency was born, the money supply inevitably trends towards infinity in high ending in hyperinflation and the functioning of its underlying society deteriorates towards zero in economic collapse. As an unstoppable free market monetary alternative, Bitcoin is anchored to economic reality through proof of work energy expenditure and has an inflation rate predestined for zero, meaning that a society operating on a Bitcoin standard would stand to gain in virtually infinite ways. When Bitcoin's inflationary finally reaches zero in the mid-22nd century, the measure of its soundness of the store value, the stock flow ratio, will become infinite. People that realize this first and adopt it early will benefit disproportionately from the resultant mass wealth transfer. So in conclusion, only unstoppable ideas can break otherwise immovable institutions. Zero brought the church to its knees and Bitcoin is bringing the false church of the Fed into the sunlight of its long-awaited judgment day. And in an echo of history, us moderns can once again hear the discovery of nothing beginning to change everything. This has been the number zero on Bitcoin. Thank you very much. How many people do really think can connect to this concept of digital discovery of digital scarcity and that we are really having that Bitcoin is something really unique because when I see something like consensus going on with 10,000 online visitors and I see 35 million people having a KYC to count on crypto exchanges, but only two million people are actually holding their own keys on hardware wallets. I mean, there's so much noise in this. How many people do you really think can connect to a digital scarcity as a game changer in this world where we can really remove central banks or not just driven by this? Yeah, I think early on there are a few that see things that others don't and zero is a great example. Like it was resisted largely in Europe and a lot of other places that had established numeric systems, but because it was more energy efficient, it outcompeted, right? So I think with Bitcoin it's, a lot of it is related to the price, right? That's going to, as the price appreciates, people are gonna take custody of the asset more seriously, they're gonna look deeper into it. As I say, like where your money goes, your mind follows. So speculators tend to become holders over time. You start out speculating on Bitcoin, you keep studying it, you fall down the rabbit hole, you start to see how big of a deal that it really is. I just see that sphere sort of growing in tandem with the price of Bitcoin. But if you look at Carl Minger who wrote a book on the origins of money, he identified this notion a long time ago that there's a very small handful of people that identify some money with superior salability characteristics early on that hold it first and they form the kernel on which the entire future appreciation of that asset is based. So I think it works to seeing that in the digital age with Bitcoin, only this time it's having it at a global scale versus in an individual trade network. So it's really interesting. Well, is there something where you say like, there's some experience or something you learned or like combination of experiences that helped you understand the discovery of digital scarcity in Bitcoin? Something where you said like, this was the moment where help me later on get into Bitcoin or it was just a lot of reading and then general interest in philosophy and... Years ago, I bought all my family and friends an abridged version of The Creature from Jericho Island, which is a book about the inception of the Fed. And so for a long time I've identified central banking as the core problem with a lot of the problems we see in the world. And I didn't recognize Bitcoin as the answer to that until about 2017. So it actually took me a while even to see how big of a deal it was. But yeah, I think too that what made me land on zero was trying to answer the actual difficult question. People say, what makes Bitcoin different? You can just copy the code. There's thousands of crypto assets. Facebook outcompeted MySpace, all these fallacies. So I really had to dig deep to find the idea of an unstoppable idea that I think is as profound as Bitcoin. And it just so happened that absolute scarcity and zero percent terminal inflation seems to be a nice match with a number zero. They just have it overlapped. So... That's sad. Yes, I can relate to this. Everybody went to this MySpace thing and did some dabbling in shitcoins and whatever. And then yes, but you need some broad perspective on things and probably some experience. Yeah, and I think that the simple way to put it is inflation is taxation. We know that. Everyone would prefer a money subject to zero percent taxation. Every rational economic actor would prefer a money that could not be taxed. And that's what Bitcoin is as the mid 22nd century.