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Why Bitcoin Is The Ultimate Expression Of Freedom
In this article, I will prove why bitcoin is the ultimate expression of freedom. Most of us remember the financial crisis of 2008 pretty vividly. We saw the forefront of corruption come home and face reality when they couldn’t hide the truth anymore, and the banks weren’t the ones that paid the price. We did.
And to add insult to injury, once the government made the decision to bail out the banks, they took that freshly printed money and paid themselves all bonuses. Also, no one went to jail for these egregious crimes. There were virtually no consequences to their actions, so what’s to stop them from doing it all over again in a sneakier way or by way of a new mechanism?
ENTER BITCOIN’S CREATOR…
Whoever Satoshi Nakatmoto is saw this happening before we all did, and as a result, invented one of the most powerful tools the world has ever seen.
It was during this time that I believe Satoshi Nakamoto saw the writing on the wall and knew that what was happening on wall street and the large banks was unsustainable. We needed a solution that could not be corrupted, interfered with, or otherwise controlled by the “Authorities” in power.
On October 31st 2008, The Satoshi White Paper; A Peer-To-Peer Electronic Cash System was released to an small inner circle of cryptographers on a mailing list that Satoshi had kept note of. The initial reactions were mixed, but mainly filled with excitement, and some naysayers that said it could never work. They cited numerous examples of previous ventures that came close and failed, such as BitGold and eCash.
But bitcoin was different because it solved the “double spend” problem and created an elegant solution for verifying transactions in a decentralized way; he called this the “Blockchain“. In case you are unfamiliar, the blockchain is a public ledger that includes a batch of transactions that are all batched together in a “block” to be verified with hashing power of several computers to solve a mathematical problem.
This offered a financial incentive in the form of a “block reward” where the first computer (or group of computers) solved the puzzle to receive a payout of bitcoin for each block. At the start when the first blocked was mined in 2009, the reward was 50 bitcoins and was scheduled to be cut in half every four years until the 21 million supply cap runs out in the year 2140.
The overall concept presented a solution that no one had been able to crack before, successfully. It came very close in some other instances but Satoshi was able to create a fair, completely decentralized way that incentivized people to be honest, fair, and created a new economic model that was built on a deflationary mechanism. This is brilliant, because it’s the way Austrian economic legends like Von Mises and Murray Rothbard saw the ideal way for the economy to be a free and fair model. Free markets let the people decide where and how money was used, instead of the government.
WHY BITCOIN IS DIFFERENT?
Bitcoin is the ultimate expression of freedom. It is built on the principle that no governing body or power can dictate (through politics) when money should be printed and what it can be used for, but rather what the people vote on with their hashing power. This was laid out with an agreed set of very general rules and procedures that Satoshi created as a foundation. Now, people any where in the world at any moment can transact freely with bitcoin.
One of the world’s current problems is that there are approximately 1.7 billion people that are currently “unbanked”. That means they do not have access to any financial services because it is either not profitable for banks to be in their area, or they live in an authoritarian country where all finances are regulated and reported on how/when they use it. This is especially prevalent in countries like Venezuela where the bolivar went into hyperinflation and people had to stand in line, for sometimes days, to receive rations for food and medicine.
Think about how powerful it is that when it comes to bitcoin, you do NOT need to provide your name, your phone number, your social security number, your ID, or any other identifying information to transact with someone. You do not need permission from a government or a bank. You do not need anything except for an internet connection. That is extremely powerful and there is nothing else like it.
Venmo, for instance, has at least 3 to 4 intermediaries that is getting tracked before you can transfer from person A to person B, even if they are standing right in front of you. Additionally, if they decide to decline the transaction for any reason they see fit, you’re out of luck. You’d need to hop on the phone with a bank or another 3rd party to send YOUR money. They can censor any transaction at any time for any reason. Bitcoin is permission-less finance. You have the power to not only create your own bank account, but become your very own bank. This is why bitcoin is the ultimate expression of freedom.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, since the beginning of civilization money has always been an expression of what you wanted or how you were feeling. What you wanted and needed, and how you communicated and expressed your needs and desires. Back then, it could’ve been anything from seashells and beads all the way to rare metals or statues. The type of medium didn’t really matter, it was something everyone in the ecosystem all agreed had value and thus, it was considered money. Bitcoin is an innovation that has limitless potential and it doesn’t start and end it peer-to-peer digital cash.
This is programmable unit of account and value. You can create automated smart contracts, you can encrypt private messages, you can even review and look at every transaction on the pseudonymous ledger of the blockchain for eternity. The applications are limitless, but most importantly, it is unequivocally, incorruptable. Once a transaction is completed, it cannot be erased or undone.
This is extremely powerful and takes away the human element of temptation or control. It’s a consensus-based algorithm and the truest form of democracy the world has ever seen. I am so grateful that this technology has come into existence in my lifetime and can pave a way for a new future for generations to come. The only limit of what this technology can do is only limited by our imaginations.
If you have any questions or comments on this post, please sound off below! I’d love to hear from you! Until next time…
Cheers,
The Crypto Renegade
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.
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What Is The Best Cryptocurrency To Invest In Right Now? (2020)
What is the best cryptocurrency to invest in right now? Yes, this may seem like a loaded question, but it ultimately comes down to preference. I have long been a believer that there will at some point come a cryptocurrency that provides more value that the current king itself (Bitcoin), but I still feel as though that day is still far off in the distance. Bitcoin has been the staple and foundation that started this revolution over a decade ago with the one crazy idea that the world could have a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that was governed by the people, and not an “authority”.
So far, the network effect is the strongest factor that keeps bitcoin in the minds of most people that are aware of it, because it’s not just a coin, its also a technology; a protocol. Decentralization and a VERY large distributed network gives bitcoin a superior power than all other altcoins listed on CoinMarketCap.com. However, that is not to say that other altcoins offer no value, in fact, a good few of them are innovating a way to new technologies and governance standards that let it stand apart from the rest. I will name a two of them that I have invested in below that are not Bitcoin, because they offer a unique selling proposition (USP).
ZCASH
Zcash has a proprietary privacy protocol attached to it. This is extremely attractive, as one of the key selling points of cryptocurrency to begin with was anonymous, uncensorable transactions. This is money as it was intended to be. I should be able to transact with anyone in the world, and not only NOT have it tracked, but keep it between me and the other consenting party. They use a method called zk-SNARKs.
This is an acronym for “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument Of Knowledge”. What does this actually mean? It essentially means that “Zero-Knowledge” proofs allow one party (prover) to prove to another (verifier) that a statement is true. It allows you to verify a transaction is relevant and true without knowing its origin.
Some people view this as potentially scary, because it allows money launderers or criminals to transact in a more private way. Well, my theory is this, criminals will always find a way to do what they want and transact privately. Valuable tools should not be banned or discredited because there is a potentially negative outcome.
There is an equally positive outcome. Privacy is an unalienable right to all humans and we should all expect it and understand our rights to it. To me, that makes this coin very very powerful and very much worth exploring, especially as it is considered an “Original”. Some similar example coins that came after are Monero and Zcoin.
TEZOS
In my opinion, Tezos is the new and improved evolution of Ethereum. It is a new platform for decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts. Here are a few key points that make it different:
1.) On-Chain Governance – The Tezos protocol offers a formal process through which stakeholders can efficiently govern the protocol and implement future innovations. This is democracy at it’s finest. It also helps avoid controversial “Hard Forks” as we’ve seen in the past with Bitcoin (BTC) to Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and then Bitcoin Cash (BCH) into Bitcoin SV (BSV). This has a detrimental effect on the network and causes a lot of confusion, contention, and tribalism.
2.) Security – This blockchain was designed to facilitate formal verification, which helps secure smart contracts and avoid buggy code. This has been a HUGE problem with Ethereum over the years as noted in the infamous “DAO Hack“, which again proved that their protocol was not immutable and caused yet another hard fork that brought forth Ethereum Classic into existence.
3.) Liquid Proof of Stake – This is a unique consensus proof-of-stake algorithm which gives every stakeholder the opportunity to participate in the validation of transactions on the network and be rewarded for doing so. Whether you are big or small, you have a vote. This is unlike the current mining pools that we have in place where the person with the most hashing power and hardware wins the block reward, and essentially dictate the rules of the network.
I tend to think that the tech behind each blockchain is what brings it’s value. Whether or not the price is currently up or down on these coins, I believe as the masses start to see the value these innovators bring to the table, the money will follow.
If you don’t recall, it took over a year of price discovery before Ethereum finally found it’s place in the market. All this to summarize that I am very interested to see where these both end up in terms of price and user adoption over the course of this year.
CONCLUSION
So what is the best cryptocurrency to invest in right now? My final thought comes down to diversification. No matter what cryptocurrency you own or believe in, it is always a good idea to NOT put all of your eggs in one basket. Diversification allows you to spread out your wealth and provide you a bit more piece of mind and stability as we all partake in our own personal crypto journey.
If you are new to this space and are unsure what to invest in, there is an up-and-coming site that allows you to follow a strong community of cryptocurrency investors and see what allocations are in their portfolio to give you a baseline. This is a desktop and mobile app known as “eToro“. It also provides you some guides and information on each coin so you can learn what the differences of each coin are and what the full scope of their previous price, current price, and the expected future price over time. I will leave the link here for anyone that’s interested.
Please sound off below! What do you think the best cryptocurrency to invest in at this point in the game? Do you think my top two altcoin picks are unfounded? Let me know in the comments.
NOTE: This post may contain affiliate links. This adds no cost to you but it helps me focus on giving as much value as possible in every single post by being compensated for recommending products that help people succeed.
