The reason I am writing this article is that I see a lot of people are missing the point of using Bitcoin. Nowadays cashless payment systems are becoming more and more popular, getting in a shop without cash is normal in places like China where people uses Alipay and WeChat which are similar to Paypal but both are more advanced in terms of functionality.
These apps are so convenient that you can actually store your money in the app and do wire transfers just like using a bank account, some even no longer use banks and have moved to use Alipay and WeChat completely.
The Risk
So what’s the downside of a super convenient payment app, some would mention that if the electricity goes out you may not be able to use it, but the core issue isn’t that simple in my opinion, because these systems are centralized, they have a SPOF(single point of failure). What Bitcoin and Blockchain have inspired me is the sovereignty of my own wealth, it basically means if the money belongs to me, no one should be able to take that away or stop me from using it. Clearly, the payment systems people uses nowadays doesn’t have that, the company behind those systems can seize their money, censor the transactions by purpose, the government of the jurisdiction where the company is based can confiscate money from whoever they’d like. The worst case scenario that I can think of, is if someone happens to have the similar name to a crime suspect, that person can falsely get arrested and have no money to hire a lawyer to clear his name.
Capital Control
When I was running an online shop, I ran into trouble because I couldn’t retrieve money that I collected from Chinese customers because of capital control implemented by the SAFE, a department of the Chinese government. There’s an annual limit of 50,000 USD equivalent on foreign exchange on everyone living in the region. At first I was using multiple union pay bank cards to withdraw the money in other countries to avoid being trapped by the regulation, but in late 2016 the government implemented new rules to set limits on bank cards as well, even before the law was effective they found excuses and freeze almost all my bank cards, some students studying abroad were also being affected by that.
Later I unfrozen most of them by contacting the Chinese police department, some materials were asked such as a local newspaper in order to prove that I am the card owner and actually in the place where I claimed, it took 2 weeks and I didn’t have access to my money in that period which was quite stressful. It was that year when I come across Bitcoin and started using it, at the time the spread was pretty high, moving money out of China would cost me more than 3%, sometimes it’s even higher up to 10%.
Certainly, since then the Bitcoin has became the only legal way to breakthrough the Chinese capital control. Let me be clear that Bitcoin is still legal in China, despite the shutdown of crypto exchanges by the Chinese government, it’s just now people would typically go to OTC market to buy Bitcoin or USDT (Tether).
Volatility
No doubt Bitcoin is being considered highly volatile, when I first bought Bitcoin it was hovering around $300 and that created a delusion in me that the price wouldn’t change much, until the beginning of 2017, the Japanese exchanges started doing commercials on all media possible, the catchphrase I can still recall was like 「仮想通貨元年」‘the first(originating) year of Bitcoin’
https://twitter.com/bitflyer/status/814653703835615232
- bitflyer
Bitcoin started to rally from $300 all the way up to $20,000. Some would call it a bubble but in my mind it should be worth a lot more, considering what Bitcoin has brought us. I think the most valuable parts of Bitcoin are the financial sovereignty, the absolute security and censorship resistance, people can finally hold they money not worrying it would be seized by the governments, banks or even payment system companies, and protect themselves in extreme cases like being falsely suspected or accused of wrongdoing that does not exist, trust me you don't want to end up in jail just because you didn't have access to your own money and hire lawyers to fight back.
I believe that people should focus on the real benefit of a decentralized cash system rather than its price, it doesn't really matter whether Bitcoin will be adopted by masses, it doesn't really mattern if it will get to new all time high(even I believe it will), and I think that everyone should always have some Bitcoin because it’s the absolute secure way to make sure your own safety.
