Welcome to Slate Sunday, CryptoSlate’s weekly feature showcasing in-depth interviews, expert analysis, and thought-provoking op-eds that go beyond the headlines to explore the ideas and voices shaping the future of crypto.
Jeff Booth has been warning the world about how technology and debt don’t mix for over a decade. The Vancouver-born entrepreneur and author of The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is Key to an Abundant Future says the financial system we live under is one giant illusion. It’s a construct that prevents the natural process of progress and innovation from benefiting everyone equally.
“The natural state of the free market is deflation,” Booth reminds me early in our conversation.
「自由市場の自然な状態はデフレーションです」と、ブースは会話の冒頭で私に思い出させます。
“When we compete to provide value to other people, we’re forced to keep providing more for less. And if you use technology, you’d expect the prices to fall really fast. That can’t happen through a debt-based system; they’re opposite systems. A debt-based system must expand forever.”
Booth, who led the tech company BuildDirect for nearly two decades and now runs venture firm Ego Death Capital, was named among Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.
ビルドダイレクトというテクノロジー企業をほぼ20年率いてきたブースは、現在はベンチャーキャピタルのEgo Death Capitalを運営し、ゴールドマン・サックスの「最も興味深い起業家100人」に選ばれました。
He has spent the past several years speaking and investing around one central idea: the future doesn’t have to be dystopian. But to make it hopeful, we must choose different incentives.
Global economic data paints an increasingly unstable picture. The U.S. unemployment rate has ticked up to 4.1%, corporate bankruptcies are at their highest since 2020, and credit card delinquencies have surged past pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, real wages have stagnated against a backdrop of record debt: global borrowing surpassed $337 trillion this year, according to the Institute of International Finance.
And yet, prices keep rising. The cost of living in both the U.S. and Europe has forced millions of households to rely on short-term credit. In Booth’s framework, that outcome is baked into the system itself. He says:
“When you go to a bank, the bank doesn’t have the money; it’s lent into existence, and then you pay an interest rate on that debt. So it sets up a system whereby the money has to grow forever. It has to be manipulated forever… If deflation happens from a debt-based system and prices fall, then the debt resets and everything built on that debt collapses.”
“If you had an open, permissionless, decentralized, secure protocol bounded by energy that couldn’t be changed by governments, then it would perfectly describe the first free market that has ever existed.”
In his words, Bitcoin “reprices the entire world” because it operates outside a system of debt and compounding credit. All global assets are steadily losing ground to Bitcoin’s scarcity-driven, deflationary model, and real estate is a prime example. While house prices may be rising in fiat terms, they’re becoming vastly cheaper in BTC.
“If my house five years ago was 300 Bitcoin and today it’s 12 Bitcoin, prices are falling forever in Bitcoin terms. It’s not that my house went up in value; it’s that the currency it’s priced in went down.”
That perspective shift explains why Booth tells people not just to buy Bitcoin, but to move their time into it. And what does he say to people who believe it’s too late to start stacking sats? To the contrary, “We’re insanely early,” he smiles.
“Learn Bitcoin and really understand it. Then buy it, spend in it, and move your time to it. You’ll see a reflection of the world you want to see, rather than contributing to the world you’re scared of.”
It’s a worldview that’s counterintuitive in a time defined by anxiety.
これは、不安に満ちた時代に逆説的に響く世界観です。
Fear and systems of control
恐怖とコントロールのシステム
Booth believes our collective fear, whether of inflation, artificial intelligence, or geopolitical conflict, is a symptom of being trapped in a rigged game. It’s in the interest of those in power to create a cycle of constant uncertainty and fear.
“The only reason monopolies can exist is through a control system. And monopolies favor regulation. Who wins from having people scared of AI? It’s the big AI companies, because now prices can’t be allowed to fall to their minimal cost of production.”
In a truly competitive market, prices naturally drop until they match the cost to actually make the goods (the minimal cost of production). Anyone who wants to charge more will quickly be undercut until prices settle as low as they can go without producers losing money.
The cost of creating another line of code is zero, Booth remarks, so when AI becomes free, when its cost falls to zero, its abundance flows to all people (if governments can’t manipulate the money).
The paradox, of course, is that while economic anxiety grows, Booth is radiant with positivity. He laughs:
もちろん、経済的な不安が高まる一方で、Boothは前向きな気持ちに満ちています。彼は笑います。
“I’m crazy optimistic. I’m living in the optimism of builders who are doing this every day, and when you’re in that every day and you’re seeing it expand at the rate it’s expanding, it’s hard not to be extraordinarily optimistic.”
In a world where individual freedoms are diminishing by the day, I ask how he feels about the inevitable creep of digital IDs like the one proposed by the UK or Europe’s CBDC. He points to emerging technologies like Nostr, the decentralized social protocol, and Fedi, a privacy-preserving platform that allows anyone to launch their own digital federation.
“That’s why I’m not on Twitter anymore. I’m on Nostr. It can’t be blocked. My voice cannot be turned off on Nostr… And Fedi can’t be blocked. It’s being used in many authoritarian countries because it’s a life-saving technology. And it’s already available.”
Ego Death Capitalは、3年半前にFediに投資し、「中央集権システムの罠」に陥るのを防ぐためにこの技術が必要だと考えました。
Ego Death Capitalは、3年半前にFediに投資し、その技術が「中央集権システムの罠」に陥るのを防ぐために必要だと認識していました。
The ego death
エゴの死
The name of his venture firm, Ego Death Capital, reveals much about his philosophy.
彼のベンチャー企業の名前、Ego Death Capitalは、その哲学をよく表しています。
“It just seemed to fit what I think Bitcoin is going to do to everybody in time… There’s one rule in Bitcoin: don’t try to cheat it, because you’ll cheat yourself.”
Booth’s own journey toward this understanding was not immediate. And when he realized that all of his work was in the fiat world, even after understanding the virtues of Bitcoin, he felt like a hypocrite.
“I realized 90% of my time was in the system I was making worse. Ego Death Capital was created to solve that paradox for me, so I could move my time into the system I said I wanted.”
「私は、自分の時間の90％が悪化させているシステムの中にあることに気づきました。Ego Death Capitalは、そのパラドックスを解決し、自分が望むシステムに時間を移すために作られました。」
He encourages others, entrepreneurs, creators, and educators, to do the same:
彼は、起業家やクリエイター、教育者に対しても同じことを勧めます。
“Everybody’s trapped in pain and fear, scrolling on Twitter. But every problem in that system is an opportunity to solve pain for people in the new one. You can create extraordinary wealth by providing value. That’s the free market.”
Booth’s thesis that technology-driven deflation should be embraced, not feared, has never felt more relevant, nor hopeful. According to the International Labour Organization, global youth unemployment is nearly 13%, and Goldman Sachs warns that automation could displace 300 million full-time jobs by 2030. Yet Booth sees abundance on the other side of that transformation.
“The same AI that people think might destroy us will actually make life unimaginably abundant. If prices fall faster than wages, everyone gets richer. But that can only happen in a system you can’t manipulate; a free market.”
When I ask Booth if he thinks we’ll live to see the world he envisions, if it will really happen in our lifetimes, his answer is instantaneous. He beams:
“I already see it. It’s the world I live in. It’s like that William Gibson quote: “The future is already here. It’s just not widely distributed.” You can live in this world tomorrow. It’s just a choice. The more you do it, the more it will reflect back at you.”
ジェフ・ブースはあなたにビットコインにより多くの時間を使うよう勧めている
Welcome to Slate Sunday, CryptoSlate’s weekly feature showcasing in-depth interviews, expert analysis, and thought-provoking op-eds that go beyond the headlines to explore the ideas and voices shaping the future of crypto.
CryptoSlateの毎週の特集「Slate Sunday」へようこそ。ここでは、深掘りしたインタビュー、専門家による分析、そして見出しを超えた思考を促すオピニオンをお届けし、暗号通貨の未来を形作るアイデアや声を探ります。
Jeff Booth has been warning the world about how technology and debt don’t mix for over a decade. The Vancouver-born entrepreneur and author of The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is Key to an Abundant Future says the financial system we live under is one giant illusion. It’s a construct that prevents the natural process of progress and innovation from benefiting everyone equally.
ジェフ・ブースは、技術と債務は相容れないと10年以上にわたり世界に警鐘を鳴らしてきました。バンクーバー出身の起業家であり、『明日の価格：デフレーションが豊かな未来への鍵である』の著者は、私たちが生きる金融システムは巨大な幻想だと述べています。それは、進歩と革新の自然なプロセスがすべての人に平等に恩恵をもたらすのを妨げる構造なのです。
“The natural state of the free market is deflation,” Booth reminds me early in our conversation.
「自由市場の自然な状態はデフレーションです」と、ブースは会話の冒頭で私に思い出させます。
Booth, who led the tech company BuildDirect for nearly two decades and now runs venture firm Ego Death Capital, was named among Goldman Sachs’ 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.
ビルドダイレクトというテクノロジー企業をほぼ20年率いてきたブースは、現在はベンチャーキャピタルのEgo Death Capitalを運営し、ゴールドマン・サックスの「最も興味深い起業家100人」に選ばれました。
He has spent the past several years speaking and investing around one central idea: the future doesn’t have to be dystopian. But to make it hopeful, we must choose different incentives.
彼は過去数年間、ひとつの中心的なアイデアについて語り、投資もしています。それは、「未来は必ずしもディストピアである必要はない」ということです。しかし、それを希望に満ちたものにするには、異なるインセンティブを選ぶ必要があります。
The illusion of stability
安定の幻想
Global economic data paints an increasingly unstable picture. The U.S. unemployment rate has ticked up to 4.1%, corporate bankruptcies are at their highest since 2020, and credit card delinquencies have surged past pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, real wages have stagnated against a backdrop of record debt: global borrowing surpassed $337 trillion this year, according to the Institute of International Finance.
世界の経済データは、ますます不安定な状況を示しています。米国の失業率は4.1％に上昇し、企業倒産は2020年以来最高水準に達し、クレジットカードの延滞もパンデミック前の水準を超えています。一方、実質賃金は停滞し、記録的な債務の背景の中で、国際金融協会によると今年の世界の借入額は337兆ドルを超えています。
And yet, prices keep rising. The cost of living in both the U.S. and Europe has forced millions of households to rely on short-term credit. In Booth’s framework, that outcome is baked into the system itself. He says:
それにもかかわらず、価格は上昇し続けています。米国やヨーロッパの生活費は、多くの家庭に短期信用に頼る状況を強いています。Boothの枠組みでは、その結果はシステム自体に組み込まれているといいます。彼はこう述べます。
We’ve never lived in a true free market, Booth argues, only in various forms of controlled economies dressed in different ideologies.
私たちは真の自由市場の中で生きてきたわけではなく、さまざまなイデオロギーに包まれたコントロールされた経済の形態の中にいると、ブースは主張します。
Bitcoin fixes this
ビットコインがこれを解決
For Booth, Bitcoin represents the first true global free market, one that can’t be manipulated. He reasons:
ブースにとって、ビットコインは操作されることのない最初の真のグローバル自由市場を表しています。彼はこう考えます。
In his words, Bitcoin “reprices the entire world” because it operates outside a system of debt and compounding credit. All global assets are steadily losing ground to Bitcoin’s scarcity-driven, deflationary model, and real estate is a prime example. While house prices may be rising in fiat terms, they’re becoming vastly cheaper in BTC.
彼の言葉によれば、ビットコインは「世界全体の価格を再設定」します。なぜなら、それは債務と複利の信用システムの外で動作しているからです。すべてのグローバル資産は、ビットコインの希少性に基づくデフレモデルに対して着実に価値を失っています。特に不動産はその例です。住宅価格は法定通貨では上昇しているように見えますが、BTCでは圧倒的に安くなっています。
That perspective shift explains why Booth tells people not just to buy Bitcoin, but to move their time into it. And what does he say to people who believe it’s too late to start stacking sats? To the contrary, “We’re insanely early,” he smiles.
この視点の変化が、ブースが人々にビットコインを買うだけでなく、その時間をビットコインに移すことを勧める理由です。そして、「もう遅い」と考える人々に何と言うのでしょうか？むしろ、「私たちは非常に早い段階にいる」と笑います。
It’s a worldview that’s counterintuitive in a time defined by anxiety.
これは、不安に満ちた時代に逆説的に響く世界観です。
Fear and systems of control
恐怖とコントロールのシステム
Booth believes our collective fear, whether of inflation, artificial intelligence, or geopolitical conflict, is a symptom of being trapped in a rigged game. It’s in the interest of those in power to create a cycle of constant uncertainty and fear.
ブースは、私たちの集合的な恐怖、インフレや人工知能、地政学的紛争に対する恐怖は、仕組まれたゲームに囚われている結果だと考えています。権力者にとって、絶え間ない不確実性と恐怖のサイクルを作り出すことは利益になるのです。
In a truly competitive market, prices naturally drop until they match the cost to actually make the goods (the minimal cost of production). Anyone who wants to charge more will quickly be undercut until prices settle as low as they can go without producers losing money.
真の競争市場では、価格は自然に下がり、実際に商品を作るのに必要なコスト（最小生産コスト）に一致します。より高い価格を設定しようとする者はすぐに打ち負かされ、価格は生産者が損失を出さない範囲まで下がります。
The cost of creating another line of code is zero, Booth remarks, so when AI becomes free, when its cost falls to zero, its abundance flows to all people (if governments can’t manipulate the money).
Boothは、もう一つのコードラインを作るコストはゼロだと指摘します。AIのコストがゼロになり、その豊富さがすべての人に流れるとき（政府が通貨を操作できない場合）、それは社会全体に利益をもたらすと。
Under a Bitcoin standard, he argues, technological deflation would finally benefit society rather than a few monopolistic gatekeepers.
ビットコイン標準の下では、技術的なデフレーションは最終的に少数の寡占的ゲートキーパーではなく、社会全体に利益をもたらすと彼は主張します。
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The paradox, of course, is that while economic anxiety grows, Booth is radiant with positivity. He laughs:
もちろん、経済的な不安が高まる一方で、Boothは前向きな気持ちに満ちています。彼は笑います。
The choice to act
行動を選ぶ
Booth’s core message is one of agency. He insists individuals have more power than they realize.
ブースの核心的なメッセージは、自己の主体性です。彼は、個人には自分が思う以上の力があると主張します。
In a world where individual freedoms are diminishing by the day, I ask how he feels about the inevitable creep of digital IDs like the one proposed by the UK or Europe’s CBDC. He points to emerging technologies like Nostr, the decentralized social protocol, and Fedi, a privacy-preserving platform that allows anyone to launch their own digital federation.
個人の自由が日々縮小していく世界で、私は彼に、英国や欧州のCBDCの提案のようなデジタルIDの不可避な浸透についてどう感じているのか尋ねました。彼は、Nostrという分散型ソーシャルプロトコルや、誰でも自分のデジタル連合を立ち上げられるプライバシー保護プラットフォームFediのような新技術を指し示します。
Ego Death Capitalは、3年半前にFediに投資し、「中央集権システムの罠」に陥るのを防ぐためにこの技術が必要だと考えました。
Ego Death Capitalは、3年半前にFediに投資し、その技術が「中央集権システムの罠」に陥るのを防ぐために必要だと認識していました。
The ego death
エゴの死
The name of his venture firm, Ego Death Capital, reveals much about his philosophy.
彼のベンチャー企業の名前、Ego Death Capitalは、その哲学をよく表しています。
Booth’s own journey toward this understanding was not immediate. And when he realized that all of his work was in the fiat world, even after understanding the virtues of Bitcoin, he felt like a hypocrite.
ブース自身がこの理解に至るまでの道のりは一朝一夕ではありませんでした。そして、ビットコインの美徳を理解した後も、自分のすべての仕事が法定通貨の世界にあることに気づき、偽善者のように感じたのです。
He encourages others, entrepreneurs, creators, and educators, to do the same:
彼は、起業家やクリエイター、教育者に対しても同じことを勧めます。
The abundance ahead
未来の豊かさ
Booth’s thesis that technology-driven deflation should be embraced, not feared, has never felt more relevant, nor hopeful. According to the International Labour Organization, global youth unemployment is nearly 13%, and Goldman Sachs warns that automation could displace 300 million full-time jobs by 2030. Yet Booth sees abundance on the other side of that transformation.
ブースの主張は、技術主導のデフレーションを恐れるのではなく、受け入れるべきだというもので、その重要性と希望はかつてないほど高まっています。国際労働機関によると、世界の若者の失業率はほぼ13％に達し、ゴールドマン・サックスは自動化によって2030年までに3億人のフルタイム雇用が失われる可能性を警告しています。それでも、ブースはその変革の向こう側に豊かさを見ています。
When I ask Booth if he thinks we’ll live to see the world he envisions, if it will really happen in our lifetimes, his answer is instantaneous. He beams:
私がブースに、彼の描く世界を私たちが生きて見ることができるのか、実現するのかと尋ねると、彼は即答します。彼は輝きながら言います。