Earlier today, I shared this Coin Telegraph article on my Facebook feed about Venezuela getting rid of their 100 bolivar, with only a 72 hour warning. As the you may remember, India recently got rid of their 500 and 1000 Rs paper notes, causing all kinds of problems for the unbanked and poor alike.
I've read enough discouraging stories about this not to dwell on it further. The main takeaway for me is this:
The paper fiat currency in your wallet does not belong to you.
It belongs to the government whose jurisdiction you live in. Their monopoly on the use of force and currency creation within their imaginary lines is why I often see government as human farming. We livestock produce more when we believe we're free. For more on that, watch the story of your enslavement.
Not only does the government claim ownership of the money in your wallet, but they have also claimed ownership of other stores of value, including gold. Hopefully you're familiar with Executive Order 6102:
Gold Has Been Confiscated Before
source
Executive Order 6102 is a United States presidential executive order signed on April 5, 1933, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the Hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States". The effect of the order, in conjunction with the statute under which it was issued, was to criminalize the possession of monetary gold by any individual, partnership, association or corporation.
It was theft at a massive scale because the price they offered was almost half what they then pegged the gold at later. Hiding it wasn't an option unless fines of up to $10,000 (over $180,000 in today's money) and/or ten years in prison sounds fun.
Could it happen again?
What if the paper money in your wallet was deemed worthless next week? What if any gold or silver you've obtained becomes illegal to own?
Many call this the war on cash, and we're already seeing examples of it in countries such as Venezuela and India mentioned earlier. As someone who is not a fan of the global central banking cartel, part of me would be happy to be rid of fiat money all together. Defining it as a cartel is not hyperbole, btw. A cartel is "an association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition." Central bankers have been working at this since the late 1700's.
Instead, I would love to see competing currencies. I would love to see money used as a form of language and personal expression — a content type, as Andreas Antonopoulos has come to call it.
This idea of removing national currencies, removing national borders, everyone expressing themselves with their own preferred store of value, exchanging seamlessly with one another via the blockchain and smart contracts is truly exciting!
At the same time, many fear this outcome. They demonize it with the term "Globalism" and are convinced the "New World Order" and "Illuminati" (whoever they are) are planning total domination with a one-world government having visibility and full control of all currency transactions.
On one hand, these are valid concerns. Those with power crave more power. Very few cryptocurrencies are designed from the ground up to be truly anonymous (Zcash, Dash, Monero... any others?). There have been research papers done on how easy it is to analyze the Bitcoin blockchain to pinpoint ownership to specific individuals. Given the many tools the NSA has at their disposal, this not only seems likely but inevitable. The blockchain is not yet a safe place for those who want to completely control their own store of value. Bitcoin mining is becoming more centralized and requiring more government electricity (as Dan mentioned recently). That said, it may be the best option we have so far.
I think removing borders and national currencies scares people because they think it will be that much easier for a global power to rise up and crush anyone who stands against them. That's certainly a possibility, but I choose to look a little deeper. If we remove the tribalistic, "us verses them" thinking which fuels so much authoritarianism and blind following and acceptance of rulers, what then? If we all saw ourselves not as our nationality but instead as human beings, how would that change our thinking and in turn our actions?
Our physical nature and hard-wired brains will make it very difficult for us to transcend tribalism, but what if we could trick ourselves into treating all humans as part of our same tribe? What if we could view the earth as a small blue dot, a life ship sailing through the cosmos?
When I put everything together, the results I want are clear: I want to control myself which includes owning my own stores of value. I want to freely exchange that value with others in mutually beneficial ways.
If paper, gold, and silver can be confiscated via threats of violence against me, then maybe digital, borderless solutions should be more fully embraced. If those solutions carry their own systemic risks, then we just have to continue innovating. We have to grow our communities who want to be self-governed to the point where an executive order confiscating our stores of value would be laughed at and ignored.
If the world is a tribe of free people, there would be no prison large enough to hold us and no army big enough to coerce us.
It starts with spreading information about what the future can be. A global, free tribe, expressing itself not by force but through exchanging value and mutual service. It can happen, and it starts right here. If you need a dose of encouragement, re-read Dan's Plan for Cryptocurrency World Domination. Together we can make global thinking the safest path forward while protecting each other from those who desire power over others.