I’ve been prepping a long time and am well equipped for emergencies because of the diverse and survival-centric skill set I've acquired over the past 20 years. I've become proficient in solar and other alternative energy technologies, food and water production, long-term storage, medical, survival and defensive skills, the use of hand tools in a grid-down situation, even entomophagy.
I've used the “beans, bullets, & bullion” strategy (a standard phrase that summarizes prepper tenants) as my guiding philosophy. The current challenge is finding new, interesting, and useful prepping skills in which to continue educating myself, but what? A priority for any potential new personal skill is it must benefit me in both the non-prepping and prepping facets of my life.
So after much research I've added a new "B" word to my preps, "Blockchain!"
I remember reading this old article on Zerohedge: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-27/he-lived-through-hyperinflation-devaluation-and-confiscation-his-advice and it prompted me to begin checking out blockchain-based digital currency technology.
My article is not about Bitcoin, but I need to start with this original blockchain-based digital currency. I was aware of Bitcoin at its launch, but for some reason I was never interested in it, whether because I didn't understand it (I did not), didn't care about it (I did not), or my focus was elsewhere (it was: on prepping).
Bitcoin is a disruptive technology, and that's a good thing because it stirs up the status quo which can lead to important and beneficial societal changes. In the early 20th century the automobile was a disruptive technology, many naysayers existed, but now look at how the invention of the automobile changed the world.
I also remember reading this article: https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/03/the-blockchain-might-be-the-next-disruptive-technology/. The last paragraph mentions "If Bitcoin has been everywhere for years, its underlying technology — the blockchain — might be the most interesting and disruptive part of it. Indeed, for the first time in history, the technology seems to be able to replace institutions." That statement is powerful, especially when the institutions referred to are banks and other financial companies whose leaders have dictated monetary policies for decades.
Now, years later, the value of Bitcoin has increased exponentially and people are still writing about it replacing the current financial system: https://hbr.org/2017/03/the-blockchain-will-do-to-banks-and-law-firms-what-the-internet-did-to-media
After more research into Bitcoin, or rather the general "blockchain" technology which is the foundation of Bitcoin, I realized that as a prepper, the following benefits were important to me: 1) Digital currencies are not tied to the Federal Reserve in any way, thus are not subject to the inflationary or deflationary processes created by bureaucrats via the fiat US dollar, 2) They allow for a new method of financial diversification with a currency that is “physical” (in the sense that you can hold it in your hand – on digital media), 3) They are easily portable, and 4) Getting involved is educating me in a subject totally new and therefore is keeping my mind sharp by learning a new skill that is out of my comfort zone. These blockchain benefits are extremely compelling!
The portability aspect of any digital currency is truly a benefit. As an over-simplified example, if you left your home for any reason, (bugging out, whatever...) without your purse, wallet or money, you have a store of your wealth safely available and not stored with a bank or investment firm, but on a flash drive, CD/DVD, or online non-institutional account.
Of course arguments exist about EMP-induced grid-down or other scenarios preventing access to it. Sure, this may happen, but nobody really knows how it will all go down, and having another currency option is extremely useful. Multiple solutions for emergencies only increase our survival odds.
However, and estimates vary, creating Bitcoin (mining it) consumes a great deal of electricity. It's my proposition that mining Bitcoin is selfish, because you're creating it for yourself and it helps nobody else.
Alternatively there is another digital currency called Gridcoin (http://www.gridcoin.us/), which is created by volunteering your computer time to process scientific data using BOINC.
(https://boinc.berkeley.edu/).
Wow! When I discovered Gridcoin I was already volunteering for BOINC, so now I could earn a digital currency by a simple process of signing up on the Gridcoin team. Soon, the "team requirement" will be removed, so BOINC volunteers can remain in their own team, or start their own, and still earn Gridcoin!
I decided to spend a bit more time checking out the BOINC projects and had an "Aha" moment! A BOINC project related to scientific research, Rosetta (https://boinc.bakerlab.org/), managed by the University of Washington and which analyzes “protein folding” data, exists. A better understanding about how proteins fold has many positive medical implications, including helping to prevent or cure Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. So I immediately switched my BOINC project to Rosetta so I could assist in solving the riddles of biology that lead to dementia, plagues, and other horrible diseases.
I made this switch to Rosetta because a close family member passed due to complications related to fronto-temporal-dementia (FTP) (http://www.alz.org/dementia/fronto-temporal-dementia-ftd-symptoms.asp). Now I'm not just helping myself, family and like-minded friends for a SHTF scenario, but also potentially helping many others as well by assisting science to understand disease fundamentals.
Many other exciting BOINC projects (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/projects.php) exist that have gotten a LOT of people involved in helping science.
Some of these projects are even related to prevention of SHTF scenarios such as disease investigation, asteroid detection, and climate prediction, of which many (http://wiki.gridcoin.us/Current_BOINC_Whitelist) earn GridCoin. Gridcoin incentivizes the public to help scientific research, and perhaps, if enough people participate in Rosetta and other BOINC projects, it may even postpone or prevent an apocalyptic disaster! Despite the time, effort, and money spent on preps, I truly hope I never have to use them, so anything I can do to prevent a world-ending scenario is my goal, and should be all preppers goal, and helping scientists with their projects may help to achieve delaying or preventing a world-wide catastrophe.
The Gridcoin developers may not be preppers, however they are aware of the problems of fiat currency, and judging by what I've read these folks are highly motivated, passionate, and intelligent, cementing for me that GridCoin is a viable alternative over Bitcoin and the other alternate coins. With this group of people working on Gridcoin, the chances are high it will continue increasing in value, as can be seen by its currently rising market capitalization and price.
The Rosetta data my computer processes will be part of my legacy. It's impossible to predict the benefits at this point in time, however I'm sure it will lead to other breakthroughs in 10, 100, or even 1000 years. Incremental changes now lead to huge changes in the future. Innovations in metallurgy, steam power, the bicycle, mass production and many other areas ultimately led to the invention of the automobile, and blockchain technology is where the automobile was 100 years ago. 500 automobile manufacturers existed in the beginning, all vying for market share. Ultimately only a few remained. Henry Ford, Walter Chrysler, and William Durant had no idea how their companies would change the world, however the world did change, and blockchain technology will have a similar global effect.
In summary, not only am I happy to help solve the tragedy of dementia for other families, but I've improved my own personal survival chances through financial diversification. I'm involved in a disruptive technology that will have everlasting positive effects, the likes of which I can't even imagine. I simply configured my computer to earn Gridcoin at no extra cost to me since it functions when I'm using my PC for other purposes. Additionally Gridcoin pays 1.5% annual interest, more than what my savings account is paying.
If you as a prepper haven't looked into the concept of diversifying into digital currency and adding "blockchain" to your "beans, bullets, and bullion" strategy, the time is now. I strongly recommend adding Gridcoin to your financial portfolio to not only help yourself, but also to help the world.
Resources:
Gridcoin - http://gridcoin.us/
BOINC - https://boinc.berkeley.edu/