As I introduce myself to the Steemit BitCoin community, I must confess something. From 2003 - 2005, I worked for Wells Fargo. Everything you've read about them is true. Their skulduggery was common before the investigation. Likely before my time, too.
I worked in Southern California. Orange County. SoCal. The OC. It was the epicenter of the housing and credit bubble. Mortgage ISO's - as we called the independent operators - proliferated. Everyone was a realtor, mortgage rep, banker, or knew one.
Wells Fargo wasn't a bank then, anymore than it is now. It's a sales organization. Branches were no longer branches, but instead called stores. It was a glorified boiler room, with tellers.
I was in merchant services, for most of my time at Wells Fargo. We set up credit card processing for businesses. Here we were, in the midst of a credit bubble that would blow up, and we're pushing debt.
Looking back, most had little understanding of how the Federal Reserve system worked. I didn't. It was an institution, and how things were. There was little reason to question it.
Wells Fargo was a career for a few, but a job for most. It was a job to me. I was in debt, and needed the steady paycheck.
But all around me, there were examples of the cracks and eventual fault lines that would be calamitous...
ARM financed houses worth far more than what the average person could support.
People fleeing to Vegas, the Inland Empire, the high desert... for a house... they still couldn't afford.
Maxing out credit cards... for the points, for the miles, for the kids. "Why not? I can transfer the balance. Refinance. Interest rates are low. Housing always goes up."
Adults living in garages.
Young adults moving back in with their parents.
Rents going to the moon, because fuck it.
A citizen on Chexsystems, and not able to open a bank account for 7 years, because of an overdraft not repaid in time. Thus relegated to pay day lenders. Punished by corporations, who had a loan-to-reserve ratio of 10:1 (maybe) and who needed bailouts.
Wells Fargo's obsession with checking accounts, and as we now know, fraud.
Mass and institutional delusion. Everywhere. All happening during war time. It was crazy.
But if you weren't taking advantage of it, you were a loser. Winners had credit card debt and ARM's for $800,000 one story homes. If the frenzy was questioned, that person was "negative". Willful ignorance was trendy.
And I get that. Why think twice about money falling from the sky? Especially when there was no penalty for being a passive receptacle.
Only there was, and the party came to a crashing halt in 2008.
Enter Satoshi's white paper.
I didn't buy-into BitCoin immediately. It's the Internet, after all. But I tracked it. One year became two. Two years became three. The price went up, then down, then up again. But it endured. So I began to learn more about it.
We've all been there. After reading about decentralized tech, peer-to-peer, etc., we have the epiphany. That "Holy shit! This is historic!" light bulb that captures us.
And we're happy to fall into its gaze. Because if your history and experience is like mine, then you know fractional reserve banking sucks.
You know that nationalized fiat money keeps people docile and without agency. You know that without a centralized banking cartel, it's unlikely there is a war on cannabis or a DEA. The swamp is much smaller, if one exists at all. There is likely no bus driver turned tin pot dictator ruining Venezuela.
If you're a progressive, now with BitCoin and crypto currency you can find alternative ways to fund your causes.
If you're a conservative, now you can do the same.
If you're a libertarian, there is a beam of hope.
If you're like me, you're damn happy to see technology finally kicking the system in the balls. Because it's deserving. Those balls have been ripe for a dick punch. And it's about fucking time. So BTC and crypto, cock block the old and stodgy all you want.
To those who feel threatened by BitCoin and crypto currency, why is that? To have expected technological innovation to not disrupt FinTech, was naive.
This isn't just disruption, by the way. This is a revolution. Without firing one shot. It's beautiful. It's damn sexy. And it's good.
You've read this sort of thing before about BitCoin and crypto currency. I'm telling you nothing new. But this message never gets old and we're blessed to be alive now, in position to shape the future and without permission.