Throughout the site you'll see small orange badges: 🔍 don't trust, verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: This is what a verification badge looks like when you click it.Verify at: /verify/ ↗Try it: click the badge to toggle this panel open or closed. Click any of them and a panel expands with the exact claim, where to verify it, and why it's flagged. This page is the longer explanation.

Why every claim has a source

Bitcoin's core design principle is that you don't have to trust anyone. You run a node, you verify the blocks, you confirm your balance yourself. Nothing is taken on faith. Every transaction in the whole 17-year history is checkable by anyone.

This site tries to live by the same principle. When we say the dollar lost 87% of its purchasing power since 1971, that number comes from the BLS CPI inflation calculator and the link is in the sources section. When we say Bitcoin's 10-year CAGR has been around 55%, the CAGR is a specific calculation against CoinGecko data over a specific window, and the window is stated. No "studies show," no "some say." If the claim is worth making, the source is worth citing.

The internet is full of finance content that's confidently wrong. The only defense is: check the source.

How to read a verification badge

Click any 🔍 don't trust, verify×DON'T TRUST, VERIFYClaim: The badge expands to show you the specific claim, the source, and why it's flagged.Verify at: This page ↗Badges are interactive. Open them, read the source, close them with the × or the Escape key. badge and the panel below it shows:

• The claim: the specific statement that needs verification, in plain terms.
• The source: a direct link to the primary source, usually a government data series, an issuer prospectus, a book, or a peer-reviewed paper.
• Why it's flagged: most common reasons are "rates change," "data updates monthly," "law may have been amended," or "self-reported figure."

Keyboard users: tab to a badge and press Enter or Space to open it. Press Escape to close. Mobile: tap to open, tap again to close, or tap elsewhere on the page.

What we flag

Any claim where the right answer today might not be the right answer next month. Categories we flag routinely:

• Dollar figures that update: IRS contribution limits, HYSA APYs, ETF AUM and expense ratios, current prices.
• Moving statistics: Bitcoin CAGR over rolling windows, volatility figures, mining hash rate, Sharpe ratios.
• Legal and tax rules: IRS notices, revenue rulings, state tax laws, pending regulatory changes.
• Self-reported industry data: Bitcoin Mining Council energy mix surveys, corporate treasury holdings, ETF self-disclosures.
• Quotations: where exact wording matters and our source material is second-hand or summarized. We paraphrase and flag rather than fabricate a quote.

What we don't flag

Claims that are stable and already have a cited primary source in the page's sources block don't carry badges. The badge is a prompt to re-check; a stable citation doesn't need one.

Opinion, argument, and framing also don't carry badges. "Bitcoin is a long-duration hedge against fiscal dominance" is an argument, not a fact claim. We say so directly and cite the people who built the framework (Lyn Alden, Parker Lewis, etc.) rather than fact-checking an opinion.

Report a bad source

If you find a source on this site that's wrong, stale, or misattributed, tell us. Email hi@fiatisfake.org with:

• The URL of the page
• The specific claim
• The primary source you believe is correct (with link if possible)

No registration, no form, no account. Just email. We update fast when we're wrong.

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