A part of your lifestyle changes significantly when one of your routines has become a habit. Don’t you think so?
Covid-19 started spreading rampantly in the world last year. Especially, at the beginning of the pandemic, in early March in 2020, checking the number of people who got infected on the website of Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, Coronavirus Resource Center (1) became a morning habit of mine. The website updates the information on a real-time basis, so it tells us very accurate information about how fast the virus was spreading in the world. The website shows the number of infected people using a different size of a red circle, and as the circle became bigger and bigger, the more I became depressed. (´;ω;`)ｳｩｩ
Well! Having the right habit is so important! Indeed!! ﾎｰ!((〆( `Д´ )ﾒﾓﾒﾓ
Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words.
Be careful of your words, for your words become your deeds.
Be careful of your deeds, for your deeds become your habits.
Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character.
Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny.
-Mother Teresa
My new habit in cryptocurrency
As I wrote in the previous blog (my blog #2), my morning habit changed when I had started trading Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) on the eToro application. First of all, the way I check morning news has changed. I started thinking more “Why this kind of regulation has been applied?” “Why this certain group of people wants to regulate this particular company or cryptocurrency?” I started feeling that I was reading the news more comprehensive way. Wow, a big word, “comprehensive”! I used to check some particular local news every morning before I had become interested in cryptocurrencies, so it was a big change for me. Thanks to you, crypto! LOL.
ｧｨ(｡･Д･)ゞ
I have become checking CoinMarketCap almost every morning as well as reading news on Crypto Slate. As you know, the crypto world changes very fast. One new regulation or a new project of cryptocurrencies will affect the market significantly. So, I started paying more attention to regulations and projects which I follow on particular cryptocurrencies.
Yes! Covid19 which has been haunted in my head, at last, gone! I kicked it out unconsciously when I had started trading BTC and BCH, as well as learning blockchain technology. Bye Covid19, and hello Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash! That was the time when I started thinking that Bitcoin was such a genius invention, and Satoshi Nakamoto is like a freaking awesome identity. And, it (s/he) is anonymous, even better! So cool! It is like a cool SF novel I read. Cyberpunk!
I stopped checking the number of people who newly got infected and got killed by the virus on the website, instead started thinking about how we can change the world by applying blockchain technology in society. We could have distributed vaccines faster utilizing the blockchain technology, or maybe, we could have applied it to trace the distribution of vaccines in the supply chain management, and so forth. It is a lot of positive ways to perceive the world how we can save people instead of thinking negatively about why we cannot control the virus and people are dying. Thanks to blockchain technology, I have gained a positive perspective to see the world.
( 〃´艸`)ﾈｯ
Cyberpunk movement and libertarianism
I check the websites I wrote about in the previous blog almost every day to gather new information about cryptocurrencies. And, I became very interested in the cyberpunk movement and libertarianism which gave some influence on Satoshi Nakamoto to create Bitcoin.
Be independent of a centralized institute, which was one of the main concepts why Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin. I, at last, started understanding, just a bit of the deeper side of the Bitcoin white paper.
What are banks anyway??
The Bitcoin white paper starts from the abstract stating, ”A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”.
If we assume that Satoshi Nakamoto invests Bitcoin to be independent of aka to get rid of the centralized financial institute, I started wondering, well, what is a bank anyway? It may be easier for me to think about it by comparing Bitcoin and banks.
The banking system is OK, right? (´･ω･`)ﾓｷｭ?
We have to ask a bank to open a bank account. As we open the account, the bank gathers much information about, the legal name, address, telephone number, and also annual income. Today in the world, the institute holds a great amount of information rules! Banks verify that we are the legitimate owner of the bank account. It means that every transaction we conduct can be traced back to our identity as long as we use our bank account. Importantly, banks provide trust. Why do we trust banks? We trust that banks because nations regulate banks, and the issue of the nation notes (money) through financial institutes which are, well banks! Thus, nations and banks have mutual relationships.
Bitcoin challenges banks!
So, how Bitcoin fulfill a bank’s functions? In Bitcoin, identity and account management are completely autonomous, self-managing, and it means self-responsibility. We do not reply to the third party which means that if we forget a private key of the Bitcoin account, it concludes that you will lose the whole assets in the account. Several accounts hold so many Bitcoins but, the owner of the account forgot the private key. (4) So sad, but it is over. No access to the account. But, in Bitcoin, everyone can create an own account without relying on banks, which means that we can be independent of banks finally.
(ﾟ∀ﾟ)(ﾟ∀ﾟ)ﾄﾞｷﾄﾞｷ
To banks and nations, Bitcoin is one of the largest threats they can think of. To them, ”Darn, Bitcoin! Wanna fight?!” that is how they feel. Many people tried to create their currencies, and Bernard von HotHaus is one of them. (5) Many of them who tried to create their liberty currency, either got arrested or still in jail. Well, Satoshi, run!! ( *´艸`)ｸｽｸｽ
As you know, Bitcoin account is encrypted and our identity is protected. So, as Satoshi wishes in the white paper, we can transact peer-to-peer basis transactions through Bitcoin accounts. One may doubt how people check and manage each transaction record. The incredible invention of a decentralized open ledger called blockchain solves the problem. Everyone can access the blockchain to check all transactions if you wish. Anywhere in the world, as long as you have Internet access, one can check the blockchain on a real-time basis. This site is upsetting because I can see and realize that there are so many rich people in the world transacting Bitcoin. Millions and millions of Bitcoins are transacting every second and you can see the whole ledger.
However, all the Bitcoin accounts are encrypted, so that each identity cannot be revealed. People are monitoring the open ledger, blockchain each other if there is no malicious attack on it. Bitcoin provides trust based on math, cryptography, and logic instead of trusting a third party like banks. Fishy! LOL!
Well, as I continue writing my blog about how I learn Bitcoin, I hope you get the idea better as I did with simple, non-tech English. ( 〃´艸`)ﾈｯ
These are something Bitcoin provides, which banks traditionally provide;
１、 Identity authentification
２、 Financial services (peer to peer transaction, store of assets)
３、 Record keeping
４、 Trustalibity
And, in Bitcoin, these are provided based on math, cryptography, and logic instead of trusting the third party such as banks. (-ω- )o< ﾌﾑﾌﾑ
I am writing this blog so that my mom can also understand what Bitcoin is. Well, she is still not convinced yet! I need to learn about Bitcoin more. The journey continues. LOL!
(ﾉ∀`笑))
Mizuo
References
COVID-19 Map - Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.htmlCoinMarketCap
https://coinmarketcap.com/Cryptoslate.com
https://cryptoslate.com/Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes （The New York Times）
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/technology/bitcoin-passwords-wallets-fortunes.htmlBernard von HotHaus (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_von_NotHausBlockchain.com
https://www.blockchain.com/btc/unconfirmed-transactions
Status of the Liberty Dollar with Bernard von NotHausBlockchain at Berkley
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5sgoRfoSp3jeX4DEqKLwKgBitcoin White Paper
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf