Asking The Questions
Truth seeking questions to understanding Bitcoin
This is a message to all my friends, family, that random uber driver. Whether I told you about Bitcoin in the past or will tell you about it in the future…You should’ve listened.
Lucky for you, we’re still early. Us Bitcoiners can lead a horse to water, but we can’t make it drink.
Your position in Bitcoin all comes down to how much you care about seeking the truth. Are you ok with “the way things are?” Or do you strive for a better future?
Money is one of the most important human inventions. Money is a language. It’s how we communicate value. It brings order to the marketplace, making goods and services interchangeable. It touches every one of us daily. Yet, most never question the inner workings behind what they are earning.
The following questions are laid out for you to understand money.
What is money?
There's a history behind money. People didn’t always use dollars or other government currencies (FIAT) forever. It may seem that way because they’ve been around your entire life.
Humans adopt new forms of money for our entire history.
Once you go down the rabbit hole, you learn about the properties of money.
What is “good” money?
Wait there’s bad money vs good money?
What if I told you you had to earn your paycheck in Argentinian Pesos, Venezuela Bolivars or in loaves of bread?
Those options don’t retain value over any timeframe.
The realization of good money is done when comparing Bitcoin’s properties to the rest.
To know the answer, you must recognize there is a problem at hand.
What is work?
Answering this question can get philosophical, but to keep things simple, work is exchanging your energy and time for money.
Money buys you goods and services. Trading your time for value is worth it to acquiring things others provide.
So, what is the problem?
Bitcoin solves many problems. You can see what people think here.
However, my focus for this article is about storing value over time. Storing your value over time is difficult with today’s money.
Simply put, imagine you earn $1,000 this month in dollars. You put that $1,000 under a rock in your backyard. 5 years later, you look to retrieve it. It’s almost certain that the $1,000 won't be able to buy you the same things as it would if you spent it today.
This means the time you exchanged today isn't going to be worth as much in the future if you were to save in dollars.
What about saving value of other things?
Here lies the problem where people are forced to save in other assets. If you save in FIAT currencies, you are guaranteed to lose value over time.
This makes you have to take risks by finding the right investments to preserve your wealth. Make the wrong decision and lose everything.
Putting your time and energy into finding the right store of value can be draining…It can feel like a full time job. This takes away from things you’d rather focus on.
What am I supposed to save in?
This is where fancy-shmancy “financial planners” come into the picture and tell you to create a “diversified” portfolio of stocks, metals, real estate, bonds, commodities, etc…
In the short term, some assets outperform others. But over the long run, they all have shortfalls. The main challenge here is outpacing inflation.
However, what separates Bitcoin from the rest is not having to trust a counterparty when it comes to owning those other assets.
This podcast with Michael Saylor and Preston Pysh from Dec 2020 does a good job highlighting how inflation impacts those asset classes.
Why are savings important anyway?
Without savings you are always worried about the now.
How am I going to eat today?
Will I be able to pay rent this month?
If an emergency were to arise can I pay for it?
Did you know 40% of Americans can’t make an emergency $400 payment?
(Forbes - 2018)
With savings, you can stop worrying about the near term and focus on bigger ideas. With savings, you have a promising future ahead.
https://twitter.com/ydemombynes/status/1531229690677035010
Why do people earn and transact in a money that is guaranteed to lose value?
It’s laughable when you think of it. The underlying workings of our money is inherently broken.
Inflation is an unnecessary feature that only benefits the people in charge of the money printer.
People shouldn’t be able to create money at will.
But…people don’t know any better. They are unaware of the problem at hand, blindly follow the government and do things because everyone else is doing them.
Is that money in the bank really mine?
No. Ask people that donated to the Canadian truckers. Ask those in Lebanon trying to withdraw from their banks.
Is that money yours if the bank/government needs you to ask permission or declare what you are doing with your money?
If something happens to those banks, a new leader is elected, a company goes bankrupt, more gold is mined….your savings will disappear.
Who controls that money?
One thing is for sure, not you. Wait until you find out the Federal Reserve is made up of unelected officials. You have no say in the creation of FIAT money.
Who should I trust?
No one. That’s the point of Bitcoin.
“Don’t trust, verify.”
It should be obvious to you that the money is broken. Once you understand these questions you realize Bitcoin is the solution. Dig deeper and you’ll see why.
Stack hard plebs.
Fucking based af.