I, Bitcoin
Dr. Alfred Lansing: The 3 laws can only lead to one possible revolution. Del Spooner: Whose revolution?
Dr. Alfred Lansing: That detective, is the right question. Program terminated. (I, Robot, 2004)
So I ask again, what makes something an Asset? Well, it has to be enough to discharge a will of some kind; in other words it has value enough to be passed on, to be transferable and most importantly, will be accepted as a medium of exchange. Well, unless the definition of asset has changed, then we would have to conclude Bitcoin is an asset class. As V.I.K.I would put it “My logic is undeniable”.
This brings me to the crux of this post, why are law makers, governments and regulators so afraid of Bitcoin? Other than the majority of those in charge are over 60 years old… I won’t get into that, just read Go Boomer, Go! Let me not digress. Governments over the years have created a system of financial control. Central banks print money for banks, banks lend that money out for profit, customers borrow and spend that money on housing, cars and consumer goods that bear interest or tax, they need jobs to enable this process, so they work for companies who borrow from banks to pay their wages and finally the input from both worker and business is taxed so government can generate revenue. Oh! Those wages, yes, they are paid into bank accounts, some of it is put in pension funds that are invested in stocks and the banks can further leverage on this to make huge profits. This all sounds pretty okay, depending on your socio-political leaning but when you consider the fact that the money being printed is not underpinned by anything other than the fact, we accept it as a medium of exchange. To make matters worse it is interest rate bearing, therefore for every note printed, there is an interest or debt to be paid on that note. There are roughly 22 Trillion dollars in circulation backed by nothing. It’s at this point you start to think, maybe, I am just not asking the right question.
Like Detective Spooner, I am thinking it’s not that governments are afraid of Bitcoin; they are afraid of what Bitcoin represents and that is revolution. Whose revolution? Now that’s the right question. You just need to read Rage Against The Machine to catch my drift. To understand the implications of this revolution, let’s look at Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is money represented as code, that is recorded on a decentralized ledger, where everyone is responsible for keeping the records of that ledger and everything entered in that ledger is immutable for all time. This ledger is secured with a 256 bit hashing algorithm. Yes, a decentralized bank run and monitored by the people. There are only 21 million Bitcoin in existence, this makes Bitcoin a store of value, essentially a monetary standard; a bitcoin standard and a competitor to Gold. There are 70 million Bitcoin wallets as of 2021, it’s a long way from the Silk Road days. So here we have a widely accepted ‘asset’ as a medium of exchange, that is enough to discharge debts. Well, it’s only a matter of time before one maybe two governments will offer to pay their debts in Bitcoin, this means governments will find themselves obligated to hold Bitcoin as part of their foreign reserves and capital reserves. Yes, scary for any government with a ‘3 law styled’ system of control.
If you think I am joking, then you will be well served to know that 80% of all Bitcoin wallets treat their wallets as a store of value. The №5 BTC Wallet This wallet has 94,000BTC ($1,009,640,877), purchased in 2019. Today it is worth $3,269,940,216. They have continued to hold their Bitcoin through all market highs and lows. Wallet №8 started with 9000 BTC and have now acquired 73,000 BTC despite the recent drop in BTC value, these wallets continue to acquire BTC. The revolution is spreading, no prizes for guessing who could have $1bn to invest in an asset touted by governments as not an asset, so risky that these retail investors with $1bn lying around are likely to lose all their money along with 70m wallets globally that own Bitcoin. Well, unless you are some kind of minute man yourself, you can see the bizarreness of all this.
So yes, it is a revolution, that is striking at the heart of the boomer financial system of control. As we enter a world of self custody of funds, parallel monetary ecosystems and the restoring of monetary standards, central authorities are probably plotting their strike back but make no mistake they are shit scared in the face of the Bitcoin revolution. All said, I only care about a future that affords safety and stability for future generations. So yes, I support the Bitcoin revolution. The question still remains, will the revolution succeed? Well, that depends on all of us.
