To preface this, I am not a crypto expert. I’m merely a fan boy. I read the Satoshi white paper in 2012. At that time my life was a wreck largely due to the 2008 crash. So Satoshi’s solution stood out to me as a game changer. I spent the slow weeks over Christmas vacation to dream about and publish a book on the subject. I enlisted help to help me understand it and write the book. Mainly as a means to understand it myself. The book is here. https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Bitcoin-Phil-Weaver-ebook/dp/B00HKY8T3O It’s horribly outdated and better experts than I have done better jobs at writing books on the subject. Mine is just an artifact now.   After that I did a deep dive into Andreas Antonopoulos’s work. I watched everything he put out. I could see that this was going to change the world and I just had to understand it.  So with that in mind. Here is my answer to crypto energy usage. I get asked the question (or told that it’s bad for the environment) fairly regularly. So instead of repeating myself I pasted my answer here. Perhaps someone can do a better job of answering but as of yet I haven’t seen this info compiled into one place. If it is let me know and I’ll link to it from here.   Can anyone explain how crypto/blockchain “currencies” are going to be able to handle all the transactions they’d need to handle to replace the weird mix of stuff we currently call “money”? The power consumption just seems like an unsolvable problem, but maybe someone smarter like Phil Weaver knows.  ~Dan Theis   Yez there are several answers. 1) more transactions does not mean more proof of work computing. The computing power value used will always be just under the emittance plus transactiin fees. The electricity used dies not correlate to number of transactions. This is a fallacy spread by the media. 2) the large number of transactions needed are handled by layer 2 solutions such as the lightning network. Which is up and running. These solutions are proof of stake. This is an example of composability. One of the biggest ztrengths of crypto. Everything plugs into everything. Like legos. In this case computation (lightning) has been separated from security (bitcoin). Security is where the cost is. 3) a lot of mining is being moved to stranded sources of electricity. Geothermal in greenland and now el salvador. This is creating new clean industries. Essentially the power that would have gone to waste is converted to storable monetary value. 4) Renewable energy becomes financially viable. Renewable energy production does not generally match demand. And it cannot be stored. By placing proof of work mining near renewable energy sources it can use energy that would have gone to waste. The operators of renewable energy always have a place to sell their energy. This of course will lead to the building of more renewable energy facilities. Instead of raping taxpayers to build them the market will provide. Kinda the opposite of what the media is telling you Surprise!!!   It’s also very important to realize that what is being paid for with energy is only partially the creation of money and state changes. It is security. That is the most important feature of btc. So add up all the security costs of fiat and even gold. What do all of those building cost to build and operate. The security guards. The cybersecurity specialists. The upkeep of the ancient settlement system that uses programming that almost nobody knows how to code in anymore. And how secure is that? How fragile is that? If you want to compare apples to apples add up everything. Security, production and transportation, Compliance. Back in the day us crypto folks all touted the beauty of tiny transaction fees and all that enabled. I thought I would build my own tipping economy based on colored coins. That didn’t happen. The increased transaction fees created a problem and the market created a solution. Btc has evolved to become a settlement layer. That’s why it is referred to as digital gold. It is no longer a payment system per se. It is a settlement layer. When people buy a happy meal in El Salvador that transaction is not on chain. It is in the lightning network. At some point that lightning channel will settle out on chain but there is no predetermined time when it has to. It could stay open as long as it wants. and buy doing so it is saving on the settlement transaction costs. The computing cost to run a node on the lightning network is no more than a regular CPU and there is no proof of work algoryth. It is proof of stake. If there is more demand more channels open. And this solution has been operating for several years. Yes there was a problem with energy usage, but it is now at a point where that has reversed. Proof of work requires energy but to be competitive miners must find the cheapest energy. And that means finding energy that is not being used. Sometimes that means making it more financially incentivized to build green energy production. So our net in the end is actually solving environmental concerns, not creating them. Those who spout otherwise are slowing this move forward down. They are damaging the planet. They are damaging the economy, and they are most certainly putting our place as a world leader at risk. Incidentally Eth is moving towards becoming a settlement layer as well. They are not trying to be all things. They are trying to be what all things are built on top of. And the plan is to be 100% proof of stake. We’ll see how that goes. They also already have layer two solutions. Two different technologies vying for top spot. Optimism and zk rollups. Optimism seems to be the winning solution now but it is predicted that

Last night I chatted for a moment with an old student. It has been many years since I have seen her. She’s grown up, is married, a mother of two, and has a great career stretched out in front of her. She thanked me for Liz and I helping to shape who she is today. That felt pretty good and it also got me thinking. We are always looking forward to what we want to do but realizing what we have done is sometimes helpful too. So I started thinking about who else I might have helped shape. The list grew long in my mind. I thought it might be good to get a bit of it down. I have mentored hundreds of girls like her. Who, through learning to fight, realized not only that they were strong but also that they were worth fighting for. That theme has been a consistent one in girls and women alike. I don’t understand the cause but in my experience most women will not fight for themselves. When they learn to do so they change. They literally become different people. It makes me smile when they become dangerous. This has led to many divorces. All from abusive relationships. It’s led to a few abusers getting their ass handed to them. It’s also led to many happy marriages. Strong girls have a hard time finding a mate but when they do it’s a good one.  I’ll never forget what one young lady wrote on her college admission essay. She listed as a skill being able to take my constant criticism and demands of her, not saying a word, and doing what she was told for 10 years, resulting in finally getting her black belt. I don’t know if that skill set impressed but she got in, graduated, and is now travelling the oceans as a marine biologist. A lot of the “nice guys” stand out to me too. Guys that go through life in a very non aggressive way. Many might be mistaken as soft. But when something happens they become very dangerous in an instant. One kid, just days before graduating high school, in one punch, broke the school bullies jaw on both sides. Sending the guy through the air. The shop teacher who saw it said he’s never seen anything so powerful in his life. The bully had just burned a kid with a hot metal poker and must student simply reacted in defense. Awhile back I got a call from another guy who had trained under me decades ago. Also, a non aggressive fun loving guy. He called me from some town in the middle of nowhere after he had just blasted, with one punch, the town brawler. The guy was knocked out in the middle of the street. Same thing, bullying a friend. The locals vouched for what had happened. The cops laughed. He went on his way. His call was funny and like so many other calls. He couldn’t believe it worked so well and after so many years. My grand master used to get those calls regularly. I made one myself. Now I get them now and again. They are hilarious. I’ve trained at least one person who has stood bodyguard for the President of the United States. I’ve trained WITH one guy who we are pretty sure is some kind of undercover CIA operative working in some dangerous situations. In our online training we’ve trained over 40,000 people and here’s some of them we have heard from. A group of women training secretly in Iran Numerous men in war torn countries just trying to survive. Numerous people shut in by depression. People who gradually got stronger and more couragous. Finally making their way back into society. Numerous veterans suffering from PTSD. Many of these guys were able to get off of meds. They were relieved of nightmares and other PTSD symptoms. In person we have trained countless kids with learning struggles. Giving them the confidence and tools to work through their struggle. We’ve trained cops We’ve trained those going into the military We’ve trained those going into the FBI We’ve trained prison guards We’ve trained a few animal control officers. Animal control officers can have very dangerous jobs. Unarmed yet going into dangerous scenarios often before having police backup. Some stick out in my head but there are likely thousands that I have forgotten or never knew how they turned out. And sadly, a few fails as well. One in jail for murder. We only had influence over him for a very short time. I often wonder if we could have changed that. One who is constantly back living on the streets. He trained with us extensively but his life only goes well when he is actually training. Which is another common theme. What really affects me is the things that we may have caused to not happen. Violence, suicides, depression, etc. Of course we can never know, nd that’s a good thing. But we can extrapolate from what we do know that we likely changed the course of lives in such a way that they did not do bad things they might have otherwise done. That is unmeasurable and only theoretical and best kept that way. That “Thank You” I got last night sent my mind down this path. I’ve never mentally gone down this path before. It was a pleasure. But more than anything I realize that in this regard I have not realized even one percent of my own potential. By concentrating my teaching efforts and by making them as publicly accessible as possible I have no doubt that I will multiply that good in the worlds by thousands of times. Empowering women, making stronger men. At my Grand master’s funeral over and over very strong men stood up crying. they told the same story. He had transformed them into good people. They were going down a bad path. He changed that. I

Every once in awhile when I am teaching I puff out my chest and strut. I then say, “Who Is The Greatest Teacher” Most of the time I am answered with a nervous, “You are Shun Shifu” And I reply, “No, pain is the greatest teacher” This is ussually followed by an example. It’s been a running joke I have relied on for years in my teaching. But there is much more to it than I ever knew. Pain is far more complex than any of us realize. And indeed, it is a teacher. Even with my own knowledge of the subject whenever I feel pain I first attribute it to injury. This is actually only occassionally the case. Pain can be due to the mechanical, an injury to flesh or bone. But even so it is still a nerve signal to and from the brain and that signal can be upregulated, downregulated, or completely eliminated. The signal can be a false signal and this false signal can also be regulated in either direction. Pain can be psychosomatic. We don’t like to think this because in our society psychosomatic pain can often be judged as weakness. It is often judged or percieved as shameful. Negative emotions upregulate pain and shame is the most negative of all emotions. So a downward spiral ensues. This perception of psychosomatic pain being “all in the mind” is true but unhelpful. Psychosomatic pain is a protection mechanism. It is, in the right context, helpful. It protects us from ourselves. This protection can be physical. Preventing us from movement that might exacerbate injury. It can also be protection from our own negative emotions. The emotional pathways and the pain pathways actually share much of the same neural networks. And that phenomena can lead to some very unexpected human behavior. This psychosomatic pain alone is complex. Has it run amuck or is it serving a purpose? Do we need to rest or push through? It’s often very hard to tell. Often we can only guess. There is also a psychosocial aspect. Our society is overrun with this on the negative side. You know the type. Mention something that hurts and they have something that hurts worse. If two are of like mind a competition ensues. Try not to play that game, it’s a race to the bottom. On the positive side of this we have heroes. Their love for others downregulates pain. The mother that picks up the car to save their child. As a society we look upon this as the ideal. Just watch any action movie. I think there is much more to explore in the positive side of psychosocial downregulation of pain. Because I believe we can all learn to be heroes. Proper Shou’ Shu’ instruction does this and despite the fact that I have been observing and experiencing it in this venue for nearly 30 years I still feel I am just starting to understand. I often joke to my students about their Shou’ Shu’ training being hero training. Truth is that I’m not joking. As I mentioned, negative emotions upregulate pain. This leads to what is known as pain catastrophising. Another horrible downward spiral. It gets out of control very fast. Because I was brought up in a very negative and traumatic environment I learned to pain catastrphise at a very young age. Now that I have learned to avoid pain catastrophising I look back on much of my life and see how badly it held me back. It saddens me to see how it reduced my potential in so many venues. But that also gives me motivation to help eliminate it even more in myself and to help others do the same. Like I said, we can all be heros. I have learned to eliminate pain catastrophising through Shou’ Shu’ training. However the thing that really got me over the edge was Wim Hof training. When one can quietly meditate while siting in 35 F water something changes inside. Everything becomes much clearer. We can do much more than we think. Wim says the cold is his teacher. I understand. Wim Hof is a hero and he teaches others how to be heros. Go Wim! Another form of pain is reffered pain. When our nerve pathways conducting the pain get so strongly developed and so easily triggered that the signals actually just jump track. Like a short circuit. As an aside, cannabis, in it’s raw, non-psychoactive form was very helpful for me for this form of pain. I experimented on myself with it and it eliminated reffered pain in under two weeks. That’s a N of 1 so take it for what it is. Cannabis in it’s psychoactive form was helpful in figuring out some of the psychosomatic physical protection aspects. That plant is truly God’s gift. But like all powerful things, needs to be used wisely I no longer think of pain as an adversary. It is here to protect us. However, more often than not it protects us like a helicopter parent. Not allowing us to explore the world and grow. Sometimes you have to talk it down. Just explain to it that your strong and although you respect what it is trying to do it can stand down for now. Thank it for it’s vigilance and for being there when needed. It’s just not needed now. Despite knowing pain pretty well it’s still very difficult to understand what workings of it are going on at any given moment. It is deceptive. We have to experiment with it and see. And the results of that can be truly surprising. That’s not so fun but the good thing is that, in doing so we not only learn about pain but we learn about ourselves. I’m not sure if pain is truly the greatest teacher. Perhaps in our present state it is.  I hope and I strive to learn just as quickly without it.  I am certainly not asking for more but I am grateful