Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street) has had quite a lot to say about cryptocurrencies lately. Most recently, he posted the video above to his Facebook page. Do I believe as others do that Jordan is attempting to spread FUD in order to buy up Bitcoin? I would say it’s highly unlikely. I simply think Jordan has convinced himself that Bitcoin is going to die, and he’s invoking numerous logical fallacies in an attempt to prove his claims.
Jordan, with all do respect, you quite clearly ONLY understand Bitcoin in a financial sense. You don’t understand Ethereum or the crypto market as a whole. Allow me to elaborate:
You speak of a lack of proprietary value. This is a nonsensical argument. Proprietary value doesn’t apply here. Why? Because proprietary value implies ownership. An ocean has no proprietary value. States can draw imaginary lines around sections of the ocean they claim to own, but the majority of the ocean has no proprietary value. What gives an ocean value? Currents? Fish? Travel potential? Weather patterns? You name it. Oceans are of value to humans for numerous reasons. What about the internet? What about the element gold? Who owns the element gold? Who owns the internet? No one. People can own portions of the internet or ounces of gold, but not “gold” as a whole. Once a person purchases a portion of either, now it has proprietary value.
This market, like the internet before it, allows for innovation without permission. Some innovative projects could apply for patents while others remain open source. And unlike the internet companies of the DotCom era, the companies/projects in this market are being transparently crowd funded in an open source framework. Those who lose their money to scams chose not to do their own research before investing in some shit project. Good projects provide investors access to development progress, a list of team members that can be vetted, and engage with their investors regularly via numerous platforms. If you invest in shit, you will get shit on. Buyer beware. Many of your claims are just strawmen. You’re building a caricature of Bitcoin that fits within the narrow framework of your narrative and ruthlessly attacking it. It’s just not an argument.
To a degree, yes you understand Bitcoin. You clearly understand the threats to bitcoin’s future and the crypto world as a whole—many of us do. Those of us who actually understand how the world works would never say this tyrannical symbiosis of corporate/financial and state power isn’t going to do everything it can to stop us. Can they stop crypto? No. They can stop it to a degree, but like the internet, without destroying the entire planet’s information system infrastructure, there’s no way to destroy cryptocurrencies.
Moreover, as Andreas Antonopoulos has so brilliantly put it, states and financial institutions have “failed to scale”. At their current pace, both will consume themselves, collapse from their own weight, or fall to uprisings. When the global debt bubble pops, and it will pop, the impact will make 2008 look like child’s play. Look at what the current administration—the one that ran on less taxes and smaller deficits—is about to do. They are about to add another trillion to the debt. The Senate refuses to even allow amendments or debate on the bill, but I digress.
States are failing and rapidly so. The federal government of the United States is leading the pack. And when this state fails, down goes the house of cards taking the financial system with it.
Picture a scenario where Fed interest rates skyrocket to 20%. The dollar loses 50% of its value. Riots break out and target the government for mismanaging the nation and financial institutions for destroying the economy a second time. Police? No where in sight because they haven’t been paid in a month or longer and recently found out their retirement and pension are completely gone. Air traffic controllers? Gone. Postal workers? Gone. Trucks stop shipping food. People get hungry. Total chaos breaks out.
Modern states are bubbles of inconceivable proportions. Their ability to maintain power is predicated on a fairytale. Without the trust and consent of the governed, the ability to control the money supply, enslave the population via debt, their monopoly on the use of force, etc. the bubble pops. Most modern states are bubbles within a larger bubble—the United States’ militaristic, geopolitical, and financial empire. When that bubble pops, the rest follow and down goes the entire system. States have failed to scale and this hubristic facade of unlimited power will come crumbling down taking its parasitic partners in the private sector down with it.
Millennials, crossovers born before 1991, and latter members of Gen X see the world differently. Our brains are wired differently due to the explosion of technology we’ve experienced in our lifetimes. Our obsession with decentralization will not stop because we know we are right, and so do those who stand against us. Like all other times in history, when enough people want to see the world change, the world will change. You could be right about many things, but what you’re wrong about is blatantly obvious: you underestimate the potential of many in this generation.
Moreover, you fail to understand the actual reason Bitcoin was created in the first place. Honestly, many investors in this market do not understand why it exists either. What it represents cannot be stopped. The logic of the moral philosophy behind cryptocurrencies is sound and unwavering. We may lose many battles on the way, but we HAVE to succeed. If we fail, the world falls into darkness. You can call me crazy, but you’d be foolish to assume the impossibility of such an outcome. In the context of history, the modern world is but a blip. And taking history into consideration, the path we are on has but one outcome—collapse.
The question you should be asking yourself is what side of the line do you want to be on when it all comes crashing down? If you “care” about millennials like you say, you should stand with us.
Take care.
—TheFeralTaint (CTOM Admin)
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