The Bitcoin Revolution
It all begins with a published paper by Satoshi Nakamoto. Right after publishing his concept of a P2P (peer-to-peer) currency, in 2009, he created the first blockchain protocol, and Bitcoin in top of that.
As his identity remains a mystery, it’s hard to say why he created it, but the context of the 2007 - 2008 financial crisis might help us guess his intentions. And there’s also some hints in his paper.
Things Bitcoin was explicitly supposed to correct are :
- Trust ! You can’t trust banks for keeping the ledger for all the people in the world. Their system allows modification of a said transaction long after it’s done and the balances are only known by them and it’s impossible to verify if there has been alterations.
- Privacy ! Another clear intention of Satoshi was to let people dispose of their money as they please, and not according to laws of governments.
Things Bitcoin implicitly change :
- Money Creation ! Bitcoin puts the process of creating money back in the hands of the people and forbids lending money created out of thin air. You need to make money before lending or spending it. There is no massive irrepayable massive debts in a Bitcoin economy.
- The actors of the economy ! Central Banks no longer exist, banks are reduced to an adviser role. Governments have no control over money and taxes can become hard to collect.
Those are facts, but with the secrecy of the Satoshi Nakamoto persona and the absence of a clear manifesto, his real objectives are up for interpretation by any and every one.
The potential threats to cryptocurrency
As we just saw, Bitcoin (and cryptocurrency) implies a chance of paradigm. And that can’t please everybody. Let’s now see, according to what the goals of cryptocurrency are, whom its potential enemies could be and the common conception of their roles in the current system. Then, we will try to see if they’re in fact all enemies and who is the most dangerous one.
Governments
They need taxes to survive and cryptocurrency can make collecting taxes really hard on them. They make laws (especially the ones dictating what you can and can not do with your money) and with cryptocurrencies, you strip some of this power from them.
Central Banks
With cryptocurrency, those completely disappear. They create the money, hence controlling the entire economy. They’re the communist core of our capitalist system and they have everything to lose with cryptocurrencies.
Private banking entities
They are here to offer you financial services and take a commission for it. That won’t change. But they also create money by lending to individuals, companies and states. This second role would disappear with cryptocurrencies.
The one and only enemy worth a fight
Time for a little brainstorming, who’s the real enemy of cryptocurrency ?
The first answer for most of the people would be governments, as they lose their ability to make laws, to collect taxes, and to print money for themselves via their central banks.
This couldn’t be more wrong, governments are in fact not enemies of cryptocurrencies and can even be their strongest allies, but changing their "states" of mind will take a long time as an administration has no other goal than to survive (perpetuate itself) and every change that seems to be menacing its existence will be hard to assimilate.
Why isn’t the government a problem ? "I thought it was the devil incarnate."
- They have no part in the money creation process. Central banks print money, but there’s no ink involved, just numbers typed into computer programs. Central banks are private entities, due to their independence principle, and they have no link with states. They have private shareholders, who are often the same as the shareholders of the biggest private banking firms. So it’s not governments and central banks that forms loving couples, but central banks and private banks. Let this be clear once and for all ! Governments do not print money, private companies do.
- Governments aren’t superpowers, even if it seems like this to us mere humans. In reality, they’re dying, suffocating creatures snuffled by the weight of an ever-growing and not-repayable (by design) debt.
So private banking firms are our real enemies ? "How so ?"
They’re the one profiting of the current system, not governments (a bit through corruption but that’s all). Let’s say some names here to be clear : Rothschild and Rockefeller (there’s more but they’re the most symbolic ones).
These people own the central banks, that create money out of thin air and lend it with interests. To whom do they lend this money ? To their own private investment banks (like Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan to cite the most infamous ones) that are controlled by the same people, they DO NOT lend to governments ! The private banks then lend it to the governments, making a nice and easy commission in the process (imagine borrowing infinite money at 0,5 % a year and then lending it at 1,5 % a year, wouldn’t you be happy?) with absolutely no risk ! Yes there’s virtually no risk lending to states : you and your future hard-earned money are the guarantee your government gives these banks to ensure them they’ll be repaid in full.
But that changes a lot of things !
Yes, I will not lie.
When looking at the numbers, it becomes evident. Without having to repay their debt to bankers, most states could decrease taxes or increase social benefits. And when you really think about it, even the idea of taxes isn’t bad in itself :
Do you mind paying taxes for Health Care ?
Do you mind paying taxes for Education ?
Do you mind paying taxes for Unemployment Insurance ?
And the list goes on, and on….
Conclusion
Now that we know who is our real enemy, let’s look at cryptocurrencies. In their present form, are they capable of changing the system ? Or will they be able, at most, to perpetuate it with just a few name and face changes ?
In the next part, we’ll answer those questions in details.
Thanks for reading and see you soon !
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