If you’re a member of the Bitcoin community, whether self-proclaimed or working with an entity such as Bitcoin Magazine, you should be well-experienced with the chaotic nature of the narratives and politics around Bitcoin — and the sweepingly ignorant inclusion with “cryptocurrencies” in general.
Bitcoin has become the favorite target for champions of Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) narratives, namely Bitcoin’s energy use and environmental impact. Now, Nic Carter has quashed that conversation. Swiftly and effectively, Nic has done an exemplary job at defending the energy sector and miners with his silver tongue and numerically-inclined mind, especially with his piece “The Frustrating, Maddening, All-Consuming Bitcoin Energy Debate.”
Politicians had seemingly not learned via observation as institutional investors got a flood of aggressive rebuttals by bitcoiners — both investors and politicians alike — that were backed by more fact and data than any of the detractors had been capable of providing. Yet now Senator Elizabeth Warren is confident enough to think that she can succeed at condemning Bitcoin where the rest have failed. Well, she’s wrong.
Now, let me clarify. This is not a piece that has the intent of tarnishing Senator Warren’s career or reputation or what-have-you. I don’t care about the senator, personally. However, I want there to be some form of rebuttal to the flood of narratives and claims against Bitcoin that are literally, factually incorrect. The best way to provide some correction to Senator Warren and her peers is to address these claims directly. I’m not a fan of passive-aggressive responses when it comes to education. I prefer to face the challenges head-on.
Firstly, Senator Warren made the already infamous claim that Bitcoin “puts the system at the whims of some shadowy faceless group of super coders and miners, which doesn’t sound better to me.” So how, exactly, would we describe our current banking system? Arguably in a similar manner, just without the “super coders” aspect, considering that much of the banking and financial system does not operate on any level of public transparency, especially when compared to the Bitcoin network.
Senator Warren, your defense of the legacy financial system is a direct affront to financial inclusion, individual property rights and freedoms. You cannot support a system that provides such strong barriers to entry that 6% of our own citizens don’t have bank accounts. That’s 14 million Americans! And, on top of that, we have rules that state that you literally have to be rich in order to invest in assets that are likely to appreciate in value. Our own rules state that you can’t allow your money to earn a significant yield unless you are already rich. How absolutely asinine is this? This directly excludes the vast majority of the U.S. populace.
I personally don’t like how Senator Warren aimed to significantly diminish the fantastic work that the Bitcoin core developers have done throughout Bitcoin’s 13-year life by referring to them as “shadowy super coders.” How many networks can tout a 99.98% uptime while handling consistent growth and implementing upgrades without having to take the network down? Oh, and you know, all while securing nearly $750 billion worth of users’ savings, investments, daily income and spending (shout out to El Salvador). The fact that many of these developers prefer to operate under pseudonyms and avatars simply points to how radical the legacy financial system is in defending the hill it is so intent to die upon. These folks are so concerned with an aggressive riposte from the incumbents that they lean on anonymity while working on financial inclusion for the world.
To go a bit further, thanks to the Bitcoin network’s simplistic functioning at the base layer, an entity by the name of Strike, captained by Bitcoin’s Champion of the People, Jack Mallers, has now brought a functionality to money transmission that will shift paradigms on all types of trade the world over. Instantaneous money transmission, globally, for virtually zero fees. You can send money from anywhere in the United States to any location in the world for a mere pittance. Prepare the viking funeral for companies like Western Union who would’ve charged 30% in fees to do this. Not to mention dragged their big, fat, fiat clown-feet sending that money in a “timely manner.”
Even excluding the revolutionary work that Jack and Strike are doing, the amount of transparent data that is available on the Bitcoin network — its transactions, the value of those transactions, the numbers of active users, etc. — is absolutely unparalleled.
Ask any one of the cancerous number of banks that exist across the country to provide this kind of data to you and they’ll laugh you right out of the building while trying to convince you to dig your own grave in debt.
Secondly, iBtcoin promotes financial inclusion. Banks do not. I’ve already touched on the inclusion via remittances and the ease-of-use of apps like Strike. But if anyone wants to get some bitcoin, they can buy it from an individual that’s willing to sell (peer-to-peer), which can be done over the Lightning Network with Strike or via services like LocalBitcoins — no bank account necessary. Bitcoin promotes saving and even revives saving as a wealth accumulation strategy. Inflationary monetary policy does not.
Cue The Fiat Champ: Jerome “Jay Pow” Powell
Watch: Fed Chair Jerome Powell on YouTube.
Jay. Good ‘ol Jerome Powell. My man. Where would bitcoin be if not for your flaccid response to an economic climate that is your job to reel-in? You do realize that as you endlessly print money for the sake of keeping zombie corporations afloat you end up stifling innovation? Were Blockbuster allowed to receive mulligan-money do you think Netflix would have been allowed to prosper as it did? How many more jobs resulted from Netflix upheaving Blockbuster? Oh, and how many more patients got served thanks to Blockbuster liquidating locations into the hands of Jason Williams (founder and former President & CEO of FastMed)? The inflation stimulated by the Federal Reserve has utterly dissolved that process of creative destruction, resulting in what we now know as “stagflation.” Where nothing improves, because everyone is incentivized to just sit, play nice and not cause a ruckus.
The American Dream was sold as: work hard, work towards your dreams and passions, save money, accumulate wealth, buy your own home and raise a family. The Federal Reserve has systematically destroyed the American dream via a middleman hack by inserting itself between the Constitutional dollar and the American citizen. Thanks to the antics of this central bank (that hasn’t been audited by an external entity since the 1950s, by the way), the ungodly amount of inflation that has occurred has caused average cost of living, home prices and investment asset valuations to break free from Earth’s gravity while average income has remained flat.
So, Senator Warren, I invite you to engage in an intellectually honest conversation around Bitcoin and its value propositions. There are many. And I am not expecting the learning and understanding to come easy; there are a multitude of complex mechanisms at play here. Bitcoin makes plays on SHA-256 encryption, Metcalfe’s Law, Maslow’s Hierarchy, the Kardashev Scale, Pareto Distribution (shoutout to Aaron S), the Law of Diminishing Returns, the Law of Big Numbers and the list goes on and on. Bitcoin is blurring the lines between technology and asset, physical and digital, “real money” and “magic internet money.”
All of the Bitcoin Bulls that stand before you today started out once as Bitcoin critics. In my opinion you can’t become a bull without questioning every single aspect of Bitcoin and its operations.
To that effect, I think I can speak for all Bitcoiners in saying: bring on the challenge. If you’re willing and capable of engaging in honest dialogue, we have individuals that will answer any and all questions you have, professionally and respectfully. On top of that, we also have a library of eloquent writers that have put together a number of tomes that are well worth the read.
For your ease, I have provided a brief list that I personally recommend:
- “The New Confessions of an Economic Hitman” by John Perkins
- “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel
- “The Price of Tomorrow” by Jeff Booth
- “Layered Money” by Nik Bahtia
- “Fed Up” by Danielle DiMartino Booth
So, all I ask is one thing: engage with us. There are many reasons why nearly 20% of Americans have entrusted their hard-earned cash with Bitcoin. It would behoove all to at least do your own research (DYOR) and at least start looking. Because I can promise you one thing: Bitcoin adoption is not about to slow down.
I am confident that you’ll come to a similar conclusion.
This is a guest post by Mike Hobart . Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC, Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.