Bitcoin Is Power
by: Mike Hobart
I’ve been saying it, well… shouting it I suppose, that everything is about one single thing. It isn’t bitcoin, it isn’t politics, it isn’t gold, it isn’t attention, it isn’t even money. Can you name that thing? That evergreen thing that we all seek, that we all crave… yet many are too ashamed to admit it.
“Who’s that Pokemon?”
What we are talking about here is… power.
Power to say ‘No.’.
The power of options.
Power to be calm in the midst of the storm.
The power of capability.
Power to choose.
The power of freedom.
Power is what drives this world. It just so happens that we lend much of that power to a paper, fiat monetary system via trust in said system. A monetary system that is backed by…itself. A monetary system that just voted to protect the GSIB’s (that’s Globally Systemically Important Banks).
A monetary system that is building incentive mechanisms that increase vulnerabilities, particularly to those smaller players in the system. A monetary system that determines that banks cannot be allowed to fail, regardless of their failures in competence & risk management. A monetary system that is willing to watch as greater consolidation of power to the Big Four, with little consideration to how such consolidation invites an assortment of fragilities to the American system.
For one, it obviously reduces the distribution of targets, allowing for focussed efforts to attack said system. A distributed system that has a wide surface area can sequester damages to a single node or region of the network if failures arise. Effectively allowing for controllable damage mitigation. It also allows for a greater level of adaptability, as individual nodes would be incentivized to try new approaches to attract interest, activity, and therefore business. Allowing for new solutions to be developed, including those solutions that were not needed (or relevant) at the time of development. When the attack surface is reduced it also allows for greater coordination and precision of assets to carry out penetration tests and learn behaviors.
Through this vein it also means greater risk for the average American citizen. Greater optionality for the average citizen to choose where they park their funds provides a competition that keeps standards elevated, meaning deflating costs and increases in efficiencies. It provides a relationship where, while the banks benefit, the customer also benefits, and the competitiveness forces those banks to avoid illicit activity (or at the very least incentivizes them to obfuscate said activity). Consolidation towards oligopoly takes away the benefits for the customer, and shifts the majority towards the oligopolistic parties, due to the customer having no power of choice. This also means that the customer loses out on bargaining power, which was largely handled by the competitiveness of the market before the consolidation.
The fiat system has no choice but to seek deeper and deeper levels of centralization and consolidation. We’re at a crossroads (we have been for sometime, which has been visited and revisited multiple times in the last 50 years); further debase the currency and avoid recession or depression, or let the correction hit and then toil & struggle to pick up the pieces. The former is easier and provides immediate gratification, the latter is harder in a slew of ways and provides long duration stability (given that the correction does not obliterate the system entirely; aka a ‘collapse’).
What do you think is the choice here? Bear in mind that this is a choice being made by the majority, by the mob, and not by one individual or group. The decision may have started out that way, but no more. Due to advancements in telecommunications, we have increasing breadth and depth of communications, making it nearly impossible for anybody to be free of the influence of public opinion. Meaning that monetary policy and fiscal policy are both dictated by the mob and its average level of understanding and knowledge. How many people do you know that understand the operations of the dollar, let alone basic economics? If you don’t understand why this is, fret not, I have an article for you that will explain precisely why this Merkle Tree plays out this way.
Seeking Freedom
The only proper response is to seek out avenues that swell the individual’s war chest of freedom, their war chest of power. Power of choice and freedom can be achieved by developing skills; the more capable one is, the more scenarios they can survive & navigate while mitigating losses or damage, let alone devising strategies to achieve success in such environments. Another prospect for increasing freedom is seeking out methods to achieve financial freedom, whether that be through building a business, or working hard, or investing, or any mixture of the three. Then there’s the holy grail mixture; having developed skills of survivability & success, coupled with working hard and investing in assets that enable high mobility & agility.
This is where bitcoin shines. Today, an individual that has the street smarts to survive, and has the skills to provide services (or products) that the market desires, can park any amount of excess to the side in bitcoin and be capable of traveling wherever they may need. Now, one can argue that you could do that with services like CashApp today – sure – but, you don’t have the kinds of security & redundancy capabilities that the bitcoin network provides. Take the SVB situation that is apparently just a continual snowball of implosions after another; CashApp could have (by all information I’ve seen, it didn’t) had funds kept at SVB, at which point there would be a likely impediment to customers being capable of carrying out business with the service, let alone cashing out or paying for expenses. Yet, we did see plenty of issues arise akin to this with the more traditional style banking services like First Republic Bank ($FRC).
The Way
The point here is this:
With the world seeming to be shifting to a more multi-polar world as we are experiencing rebalances in globalization, we are in a situation where, worldwide, individuals are incentivized to remain agile. In finance. In skillset. Maybe even in place of inhabitance? When such demands are placed on the individual, the individual is incentivized to seek out the products that enable them to do what is necessary and best suited for themselves. That product (and service) would be bitcoin in this case. For quite literally every individual on this planet, aside from the Unproductive Class that inhabit the more developed nations and regions of our world.
This is what true power looks like. Providing freedom to the masses to enable them to seek out what is best for themselves and their children. Enabling freedom of relocation, of production, and of commerce.
Bitcoin consumes power.
Bitcoin provides power.
Bitcoin is Power.
Excellent piece. Thanks!