It is Divine Providence that BitcoinStandardConference.com was an available domain a few weeks ago and now the challenge is to live up to the name.

Two weeks ago Pope Steffen assigned me this task and I thought “No problem I will whip it right out.”

But then I thought about it. What is the conference really about? And it is an awesome task.

Not unlike the realization that G.O.A.T. is an anacronym.

Only after I created UglyOldGoat.com did my eldest son confront and ask: “Dad, do you know what GOAT stands for?”
I had no clue and originally wanted the handle Ugly Old Fart, but decided it a bit too crude.

Only after the fact was I faced with the task of living up to the meme I had chosen. And to do the meme justice I recognized I had to make my trading record available in real-time. I had to make myself responsible to Members, those who paid me bitcoin to teach them how to trade.

My mentor, E. C. Harwood, demanded no less.

During more than a half-century, I have read hundreds of different investment advisory letters or bulletins. There must be few if any, that achieved substantial circulation during those decades that I have not read over periods ranging from several weeks to a few years.

By far most of them attempted to forecast market trends. Only a few tried to outguess the short-term ( days to a few weeks) changes, and I do not recall one that was not soon discredited. The great majority strive to forecast the longer trends ranging from a few months to a few years, the latter being known as cyclical trends because of their relation to business-cycle changes.

What can be done? Harwood provides an answer, not a panacea.

Almost certainly, the trends now apparent cannot be reversed in your lifetime. Try as you might, remedying the situation within a few or even several years probably is beyond the power of all in your age group, even if they could be united in understanding and purpose. What can you do? Two courses of action are open to you.

The first, of basic importance, is to provide adequately for your own future by arranging for the maximum income after taxes during the remaining years of your life. Then you will have excess income part of which you can apply where you believe it will be best used to fulfill obligations to others, including your children and grandchildren.

The second is to aid the educational effort required if the basic principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States are to be restored to their earlier status. How can you do this?

So first, by sharing my life story through www.uglyoldgoat.com it is my hope to teach by example the principles I have learned while accomplishing the first task.

And second, this conference is simply my small contribution to what Harwood discovered to be the second-best way to meet the challenges that lie ahead to restore and preserve sound money.

What is The Bitcoin Standard? I do not claim to know. I have my own favorite ideas and theories.

But the purpose of the conference is to promote a forum and establish traditions so the future generations have the opportunity to find out.