I had the pleasure of watching this video where Andreas Antonopoulos explains how the economy and banking cartel currently operate.
It really got me thinking on multiple levels. He equates the logistics of the economy metaphorically to pipelines. However, instead of liquid, these pipes are transporting money around. The banks and other monopolies tap the line and extract as much money as they can get away with.
It's a completely parasitic relationship, and this behavior gets rewarded. Even if you get caught doing something illegal, normally the penalty for white-collar crime is less than the payoff.
Many like to make the claim that our system is capitalism and that competition is good for the economy. However, once a corporation gets big enough there is no more competition. They buy out the regulators and they begin to bend the law to their own needs. These middle-men are nothing but greedy rent-seeking parasites.
Bid-Bot Microcosm
We see the same rent-seeking behavior right here on the Steem blockchain. Whales are selling their vote so anyone can pay to get onto the trending tab. How angry does it make you when you see a shit-post paying out hundreds of dollars? How angry does it make you that much of our ecosystem was ninja-mined?
To these people I say: your outrage is misdirected. The only reason people are getting mad at these happenstances is that they are happening transparently right in front of our faces. Trust me, our fiat economy is 1000 times worse. They are just much better at hiding just how badly we are getting enslaved by this broken system.
The difference between Steem and fiat? Plain and simple: those who hold Steem control 90% of all inflation created, whereas a central bank controls 100% of fiat inflation no matter who is holding the bag.
Another big difference is that we can actually get rid of bid-bots. I can already think of two ways:
- Make a smarter trending tab that can't be so easily gamed.
- Make a decentralized free-market vote buying service where anyone can be a bid-bot.
Either one of these implementations will make the rent-seekers of this blockchain obsolete, just like blockchain tech will eventually make central banking obsolete.
Time to Opt Out!
During these extremely bearish runs we need to stop panicking that our investments are losing money. Losing money compared to what? USD? We should be opting out of fiat completely. The system is completely broken. We've been on borrowed time for decades, and that time has nearly run out.
The left and right sides of the political spectrum are nothing but a festering neon distraction designed to keep us from addressing the real issues. The left bickers about microgressions while we engage in perpetual warfare. The right bickers about gun control and freedom as they bow to their masters.
Many of us can see the next financial collapse on the horizon. Antonopoulos speaks about this as well. This top-heavy house of cards is on the brink of collapse, and it's going to trump the housing crisis by several fold because our only solutions to the previous problems have involved leveraging even more debt to delay the inevitable.
Bitcoin was created in the wake of the last depression. What's going to happen to crypto in the wake of the next one? Will the zombified slaves look up from their phones long enough to realize what's going on? I hope so.