The Dark Side of the Bitcoin
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I was recently watching a publication of @ura-soul, where I was talking about how in 1988 'The Economist' had predicted that for 30 years in the future, in 2018, there would be a kind of global digital money that everyone would use, and that would come to replace all national currencies.
THIRTY years from now, Americans, Japanese, Europeans, and people in many other rich countries, and some relatively poor ones will probably be paying for their shopping with the same currency. Prices will be quoted not in dollars, yen or D-marks but in, let's say, the phoenix. The phoenix will be favoured by companies and shoppers because it will be more convenient than today's national currencies, which by then will seem a quaint cause of much disruption to economic life in the last twentieth century.
Here the publication of @ura-soul:
Also @thatsnumberwang did a post about how Timothy C. May made a prediction about cryptocurrency in "The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto", interestingly the same year 1988.
The technology for this revolution--and it surely will be both a social and economic revolution--has existed in theory for the past decade. The methods are based upon public-key encryption, zero-knowledge interactive proof systems, and various software protocols for interaction, authentication, and verification. The focus has until now been on academic conferences in Europe and the U.S., conferences monitored closely by the National Security Agency. But only recently have computer networks and personal computers attained sufficient speed to make the ideas practically realizable. And the next ten years will bring enough additional speed to make the ideas economically feasible and essentially unstoppable. High-speed networks, ISDN, tamper-proof boxes, smart cards, satellites, Ku-band transmitters, multi-MIPS personal computers, and encryption chips now under development will be some of the enabling technologies.
Here the publication of @thatsnumberwang:
Well this is a theory that I had already thought about for a while, and to which I have given a couple of turns in my head.
The Bitcoin is always presented as the currency that will make the elites fall, or a new financial system that is itself anti-system. The truth is I cannot affirm the veracity of these words, in fact, I am getting closer and closer to believing that it is the exact opposite.
If the Bitcoin were really anti-system, already outlawed, it would not have waited for millions of people to enter the market and they would not wait 8 years to do so.
These people (the elites, the rulers, the people with financial and political power) have been playing this game for centuries, and the economy and finances are their forte, we do not expect them to leave such a large gap and freedom as the BTC without no consequence.
Target
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From my perception, Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market empowers all people, but as always, those who have more power always benefit more. How?
They can favor anonymity to finance and move all kinds of capital, that is, they can make transactions anywhere in the world and without any trace. This would allow them to take money out of the United States, just to set a wild example, and finance some terrorist movement like Al-Qaeda without leaving a single trace.
They can also keep their money away from the State, this is quite important, because the people who influence through the use of money and the financing of politics and government are also in danger of a ruler destroying their properties. After all, in theory the president is the most powerful person in the nation.
But I think the biggest point in favor of cryptocurrencies with respect to FIAT money is the total rupture of borders and financial encirclement. Currently, the economic elites of the United States and the West cannot directly influence countries such as China or North Korea. This is due to the secrecy and excessive statism of both countries. With a global currency and without any border, nothing, not even the most anti-system State, will be able to stop the influence and hegemony that these people represent.
Avoid the State
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The elites, however contradictory they may seem, also want to avoid the state, because although they enjoy a system of control and influence over the politicians that gives them the greatest power over the current establishment. Its system is quite delicate, and it can collapse with only a rebel ruler.
I recently made a post entitled "Globalization is the ultimate form of Statism", where he talked about how the globalists (really progressives) would seek to abolish national states, not because they were anarchists, but because in that way they could seize power.
The globalists are statist in the purest sense, and only seek to abolish Nations and States, to let a high and bigger establishment dominate them.
But this is only the beginning, with a centralized state and without borders, nothing will prevent the globalists from becoming the next Communists, because if power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and a supranational State, that can govern 100% of the earth's surface, it is certainly the most absolute power that exists.
The elites avoid the State because they do not want anyone to control them, but that does not mean they stop trying to control things. They seek a slight anarchy that gives them freedom, but only to them, and thus be able to establish a government over others.
Decentralized
Many people are waiting to see if the Bitcoin will somehow become a more centralized mechanism, to check if an elite or group of power is controlled, but this will never happen. What benefits the same elites with respect to Bitcoin is precisely that it is decentralized, and in that way they can move with complete freedom in any country of the world without having to render an account to the State or the local government, making possible, as I said before, enter economies like China or any other country that refuses to fall under their hands.
The fact that decentralization benefits the majority of these people does not matter to them, why they are not diminishing their power, but that they are increasing it.
To illustrate this, I am going to talk about Switzerland. Have you ever wondered why Switzerland is always neutral?
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Nations have no problem with Switzerland being neutral, in fact, the vast majority of people in the world would prefer to remain neutral and avoid participation in any war. But this is not possible, because politicians declare war and people go and fight.
Many elites, like the Bolshevik, before and after the October revolution, used Switzerland's neutrality to enter the European continent. Strategically located in the center of Europe, sharing borders with Germany, Italy and France (the three powers of continental Europe), Switzerland became the perfect place to handle their influences over all these countries.
After all, it was in Switzerland itself, during the Zimmerwald Conference, that the Russian revolution was born. And it was also in Switzerland where the November revolution was planned in Germany, the Germans shook Lenin's hand to take down Russia and he stabbed them in the back.
The Bolsheviks benefited from the neutrality of Switzerland and did not plan to convert it into a communist, as this would mean renouncing such a strategic place. Nikita Khrushchev once said "When all the world is socialist, Switzerland will have to remain capitalist, so that it can tell us the price of everything."
In this way, both the communists and the Swiss benefited from the neutrality of that country.
The same happens today with the decentralization of Bitcoin. If the BTC were to be centralized, the great benefits for what they use would be lost, and it would not make absolute sense, since they themselves control the banks. This time, all of us who use the Bitcoin are like the Swiss, and we benefit in a collateral way from their control mechanism, but they are not watching over our interests, as the Bolsheviks did not watch over the interests of the Swiss.
To conclude I will say this, freedom is the greatest objective, and we must seek and defend it at all costs, but we must not be deceived by those who promise freedom only in their words, and seek with their actions to impose a tyranny.
Very important points raised in this well-written post.
As for those prediction about a global currency - I believe the people making those predictions assumed that the global currency would be under the control of multinational organizations/governments, not decentralized cryptos like bitcoin.
In the case of Timothy C. May if he was predicting a decentralized currency. And with respect to The Economist I could not tell you, maybe they do not speak of a decentralized currency at all, but of one that has much greater freedom than the common currencies.
Excellent article! Exactly my thoughts. Upvoted and resteemed 😀
Well, if you have not found your niche as a author somewhere else, you certainly have here. Excellent content too. Appreciate your efforts.
Crypto/Bitcoin and even decentralization are just means, or rather tools to achieve freedom. I believe extreme decentralization, not just going halfway, is the only possible way to limit the power of the State over the individual. Your example of Switzerland is interesting and shows how everyone including the controllers benefit from decentralization. The reality is that these things are not a silver bullet to the State. What's important though and what seems like has been let out of the bag, is that these technologies have greatly increased the average person's ability to be decentralized as possible, regardless of what the elite try to do.
In the book The Sovereign Individual, it's discussed that the ruling class will still be there and potentially be as powerful as ever; however for the individual who cares about freedom they will also have the means to live as free as possible alongside a mighty centralized power structure. This is sort of like going back to feudalist times where the informed and self-organizing factions of society lived in "free-cities", where autonomy was relatively more available compared to serfs who either went along with or were captured by the dominant ruling class. So I foresee a world where something like a large majority use crypto aligned with the State backed financial system, while the rest essentially use gateways where they can operate under a more decentralized economy.
Interesting times ahead.
I think the same. The people above will not let themselves be snatched from power so passively, they will continue to maintain control of the current financial system, but people will have a place to breathe fresh air.
As an ETH miner by night (Bitcoin trader by day ^ ^) I have come across many articles and videos where Bitcoin is described as a problem, the candidate for "Mark of the Beast", the start of the Economic Crash and simply downright evil but you sir, explained it very well in full detail what not only some of the known benefits are but more importantly the hidden dangers of this crypto-currency are! I really enjoyed reading this article.
Thanks!
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Relevance:Discussion of Decentralization