As many of you will know, all people are free to send comments to the SEC about their pending review of a Bitcoin ETF (exchange traded fund). Below are the comments that I submitted to them:
"Thank you for offering the opportunity to comment freely on the Bitcoin ETF application.
Many have already spoken on the technical and trading issues involved. I wish to offer my comments on the underlying philosophy of the asset and it's developing ability to promote freedom in the modern world and to allow those in the world who are being persecuted to freely transfer their capital to places where they are not being persecuted.
Crypto-currency is nothing more than a value marker (a credit on a ledger that denotes entitlement) that a community has agreed to accept in exchange for value. It's not unlike a paper currency issued by a central government or even a Starbucks gift card. It signifies that the holder has an entitlement to value in the community that has agreed to accept it.
It provides ease of use features in how fast, how far and how cheap it can be transmitted and stored and the fact that you don't require an intermediary to store or transmit it (although many larger and inexperienced users may choose to employ one). It also guards against double-spending and other payment issues and fractional reserve issues that have posed very real risks to all of us and western economies.
Bitcoin's Ledger itself is entirely public and traceable and therefore is a poor alternative to using cash for those who wish to hide their transactions.
Philosophically, it guards against abuse/manipulation by central issuers (think venezuelas government)that can rework the ledger and the value that attaches to the value marker at will and without transparency. It also guards against forfeiture by unscrupulous governments (think brazil's seizure of funds from accounts that had more than $50k, the nazi's seizure of wealth from their victims, the Chinese governments attempts to stop their citizens from taking their wealth outside of the country).
Crypto-currency removes the maintenance of the community's value ledger from central authority and places it in the hands of the people that can have confidence in its certainty, immutability and transparency. It is very much about freedom and should benefit countries like the US where people live free. It will permit freer flow of capital for individuals and we know that individuals typically flow their capital to places where they enjoy freedom and capital security.
Bitcoin is very much about individual freedom and property rights and, outside of western democracies, that is something that is in short supply in much of our world. We already see individuals in Venezuela and other countries suffering with corrupt governments increasingly turning to crypto to try to protect their property rights and to try to escape it.
Bitcoin will, in my respectful opinion, never replace government issued currency, but it has begun to open an international bridge between countries and currencies to allow people to protect their property rights and to move their money within an international community of those who have agreed to accept the bitcoin value marker.
Bitcoin is nothing more than the development of a new asset class, but it is an asset that offers the hope of freer property rights and individual liberty to those in the world who are suffering and oppressed. Bitcoin is as American as Apple Pie.
All of which is respectfully submitted,
Luke C."