Why Bitcoin Is The Sebastian Shaw Of Currencies
Reading time: 8 - 13 minutes
Bitcoin, with a pitbull like grip, has attached itself to Leviathan's carotid artery.
Bitcoin, a censorship-resistant crypto-currency, will absorb any regulatory interference and only grow stronger as a result. Blowback baby! As the DNA of Bitcoin gets spliced into other projects, like the Steem network, we see even more financial innovation and disruption happening. This is so exciting!
The cost of using credit cards is being dragged out of the shadows. Germany has demanded their physical gold be moved back to the Homeland in anticipation of a currency crisis and capital controls. And the Bitcoin juggernaut continues to gain mass and momentum having reached $585.39 today.
BITCOIN HAS SEBASTIAN SHAW-LIKE CHARACTERISTICS
There are many reasons why a government ban on Bitcoin would fail miserably. It appears even Russia has figured this out and relented on Bitcoin regulation.
Sebastian Shaw is a mutant villain in the movie X-Men: First Class and leader of the Hellfire Club. Shaw has the mutant ability to absorb energy or force and then focus it in a counter-attack.
Thus, the idle threat of force from regulators at 0:17 to 'Put that man down or we will open fire.'
Can you see Bitcoin smirking a satrical response to regulation with, 'Promise!?!'
At the end of the day, all regulation will do is make increase the amount of entrepreneurial opportunities thus making Bitcoin even more profitable. It should be fun and interesting!
Gold, a physical element, is the same today as it was 500,000 year ago. But Bitcoin is so much more than it was a mere seven years ago when first released to the public!
COME TO CIPHERSPACE
Cipherspace is a place where heroes live and where people who want to be heroes live.
By analogy, the blockchain is like DNA and the market participants of the open-source Bitcoin and crypto-currency community are like ribosomes that read the DNA in order to craft proteins necessary to adapt to and function within whatever environment or circumstance are encountered.
This organic proliferation of software code by crypto-warriors who are changing the world is a beautiful thing and a simple time function with exponential effects.
Crypto-Ancapistan is already here and just not evenly distributed yet. It seems most do not recognize it though because it is neither across an ocean nor does it have borders. Its citizens neither secede nor declare independence plus there are no permanent residence visas or passports required.
Instead, they build this new virtual nation line of code by line of code with companies like Bitpay or Kraken and projects like Steem or Ethereum.
THE COST OF USING CREDIT CARDS
A few years ago I flew around a volcano in southern Chile. I even saw magma! Then it came time to settle the bill so I got out a credit card. The proprietor stated, "Using a credit card will be an extra 5%."
For a 200,000 peso flight that comes out to about $21.33!
A day after I enjoyed a delicious congrio dinner. The waiter brought the handwritten bill. So I got out the credit card. He responded fairly vehemently, "No tarjeta. Pesos or dollares."
So I scraped together a few pesos. Well, get used to it. Why?
Many credit card merchant agreements included a clause that prevented merchants from charging a fee to use credit cards for payment. But as part of a $7.3B class action settlement starting 27 JAN 2013 merchants can begin adding a surcharge for using credit cards.
The IRS and gas stations have done it for years. Perhaps now it will likely be coming in force to merchants near you. And if your favorite merchants do not then perhaps you can ask for a discount if you pay with cash.
After all, there is a sweet sound of cash. So encourage your local merchants to talk with BitPay about accepting bitcoins.
GERMANY DEMANDS GOLD REPATRIATED
As the currency wars escalate the currency controls will get increasingly onerous.
On 16 JAN 2013 Telegraph reported that Germany would repatriate 674 tons of physical gold to the Homeland because 'A growing chorus of lawmakers in the Bundestag has demanded a return of all Germany’s gold in case the financial crisis escalates.' Germany can sense that the are going to intensify.
Argentina has already shown by example why one should look for ways to avoid credit cards. For example, if you have an Argentinian bank issued credit card and use it outside Argentina then the Argentine government has a 15% tax tacked onto your bill.
As the currency wars escalate the currency controls will get increasingly onerous. If a currency or payment method is censorship-prone, like Argentinian bank issued credit cards denominated in Argentine pesos, then it will be subject to such controls. This means you could take a large financial loss.
CONCLUSION
Bitcoin, with a pitbull like grip, has attached itself to Leviathan's carotid artery. After all, the most potent power the statists have is to issue what we use as currency. With this power, they are able to acquire all the other resources they desire that the economy is able to provide.
This sophisticated cryptographic protocol and the largest distributed computing network in the world and is immune to force. Threats of regulation, which are really just threats of force, are idle because of these Sebastian Shaw-like characteristics.
Germany is preparing for a major currency crisis by repatriating 674 tons of physical gold. Currency controls will only raise the cost of using credit cards which are currently far more expensive than Bitcoin in terms of time, money and privacy. And when currency controls are ratcheted up it will be Bitcoin that allows holders of capital to have monetary sovereignty and portability.
Sure, gold is collapsing against Bitcoin but the real question is why are Bitcoins trading at a mere $585. Perhaps the most important aspect of this censorship-resistant currency is the impact it will have on economic censorship!
New to Bitcoin or crypto-currency? Then get a copy of the Free Bitcoin Guide.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
I would love to hear your thoughts on Bitcoin and crypto-currency. What do you think the most important properties are? Why? How can Bitcoin be used in daily life to corrode the power of the Statists? Any examples? What do you feel is your favorite aspect about Bitcoin? Have you done Bitcoin mining or been a Bitcoin miner?
Crypto is the future as instant payments gain traction in the public space, people will very fast catch on that paying ridiculous fees will become a thing of the past and move very quickly into buying goods and services with Bitcoin for example, as is already happening albeit on a small scale. Mass adoption will speed up as this current financial ponzi scheme draws to its end.
Is Steemit going to be the gateway crypto-currency as @dollarvigilante has talked about?
Everyone has always said that when Bitcoin becomes so easy that grandma can use it, it'll go mainstream. But the problem is securing Bitcoin, which the average person cannot do all that well, unfortunately. :/
That being said, Steemit doesn't require much knowledge of crypto-currency to gain access to it. That means, even grandma can make money on it. So yes, it'll be the gateway crypto. I just hope that people diversify some of their funds into bitcoin. :)
The solution to make it simple for users to keep their crypto-coins safe is not to make them rely on a central website like steemit.com
:·>(although the steemit.com webserver does not store any private keys/passwords, but rather in the user's html5 local storage, thus being almost a full local app, there is no guarantee that this will always be like that in the future. steemit.com may change this behavior any time for whatever reason, and it would be hard to notice for the user. you have to trust them. trust that bitcoin was originally designed to eliminate.)
Security for the mainstream is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet ;) #Airbitz
Yes i agree, also there is a lot of other sites that are popping up which are Crypto based so i think its only a matter of time. Facebook, Twitter etc will have to change the way they treat creators of content in the near future otherwise they will be left behind or disappear totally IMO.
Trace has posted on Steemit 4 days in a row -- it's confirmed, STEEMIT IS THE F'ING FUTURE.
Definately a very fun experiment!
Trace. I have been interested in bitcoin since around 2012, and i have followed you on and off since 2013 i think. I like your deeper and more philosophical approach to bitcoin. That said, i like everything about bitcoin. I mean, as an anarchist, what is there not to like. If i should choose some aspects, it is the outlook of ending the state and thereby ending war. States killed 250 mill of their own citizens in the 20th century and equally many in wars. This needs to end. From a social perspective i like the outlook of micropayments to anywhere in the world. This could be helping small businesses in poor countries getting going, while they have no chance now. Ending poverty for good :-)
Ending all poverty and war for good. For real. That would be cool. If its going to work I think we need a way to use communication networks for building high level intelligence.
I find it interesting to see the attempts of regulation of Bitcoin through taxation. Remember when everyone was mining Bitcoin and then countries came in with complicated tax laws to regulate it?
And then the hashrate exploded to the moon? :)
Nice article.
My favourite aspect of Bitcoin/crypto, is that I am my own bank.
I also like the fact that I can effectively live 'outside' of the banking world.
In other words, being able to stand free and independent in economic matters!
"Bitcoin, with a pitbull like grip, has attached itself to Leviathan's carotid artery. "
I loved this one!
Good read
Bitcoin be protected by super man.
Was mining until, like you said the hash-rate went into lunar orbit and it wasn't worth keeping my hardware plugged in! That's what I like about mining (and soon witnessing) for this system. Delegated Proof-of-Stake is quite innovative in how it keeps mining and platform support a decentralized individualized system.
Indeed the opportunities are exponential!