Bitcoin is The Invention of Money and You Can Buy Some (For Now)

I like Bitcoin because it finally led me to some answers for a few questions I always had as a boy growing up. I first bought Bitcoin back a few years ago because I don't like not understanding something.

I'm not Ramit Sethi where I smugly think I know everything:

Bitcoin?

Doggie coin #7?

Blockchain?

Timechains?

Wallets?

Proof of work?

Proof of stake?

What the heck are we talking about? Not staying on top of technology and how things work is how you get left behind fast.

So I bought some Bitcoin years ago because I thought it was number go up technology and for reasons of FOMO. At first, like most I bought it because the price was interesting, then as I learned more about it I realized that it's actually the invention of money, it's on sale and you can buy some... for now.

It's going to get to a point where the only way you can get Bitcoin is to earn Bitcoin. So if you can buy some Bitcoin now, I suggest you do exactly that.

Why can't you just save your money?

The first question I had as a boy was simple, why can't you just save your money? Before you scoff, and tap into your inner Ramit (or Dave Ramsey) and smugly state the obvious, that rich people own assets and you should strive to be a sophisticated investor.

You ever stop and think why smart guy, why you can't just save your money?

If money is supposed to be valuable, why does it not grow in value over time or at the very least maintain its value?

You should just be able to save your money and retire when you have enough, yet you can't because:

1) What is "enough?" You can't plan for the future properly because you don't know how much things will cost in the future thanks to inflation.

You're instead forced out onto the risk curve in pursuit of a yield and to exchange your currency that's being inflated away into scarce and desirable assets like real estate, Picaso paintings, Pokemon cards and anything that can't be made easily - as a way to maintain purchasing power.

The alternative is to just save your money and grow poor slowly.

Functionally, the S&P 500 (more specifically the magnificent 7) and related ETF's have now become money and the primary store of value Americans rely on.

Why is this?

Well the answer is because since 1971, our money has been backed by nothing and can be printed at a whim by our central bank. In reality the American dollar is backed by proof of war and oil, often referred to as the Petrodollar so every country has to use dollars to get energy.

This is America's exorbitant privilege. We can just print dollars which require no work to buy oil, while other countries have to work, produce value and earn dollars to buy oil.

As such, money can be printed to pay for programs, wars, and anything else to maintain voter support without having to actually vote on things, gain public support for initiatives and then tax the populace accordingly.

Oh, xyz group wants free this or free that? Let's just spin up a new program and print money to pay for it. Vote for us because we care, unlike those other guys who are selfish!

This inevitably leads to Tiktok videos of people saying "why is my life so hard and everything is so expensive. Someone needs to do something!"

No.

You need to do something and that something is to buy Bitcoin.

This money printing leads to inflation which is a hidden tax on savers who get debased over time to pay for government spending, wars, and anything else the "morally superior," yet poorly uninformed electorate deem important.

You need to invest (and risk losing money) or save in dollars and risk becoming poor if you're not earning more than inflation because you literally can't save your way to wealth.

But guess what?

With Bitcoin you can save your way to wealth.

Gemini 

My Bitcoin exchange of choice. Signup and dollar cost into Bitcoin. Also take a look at their credit card.

Sign up Today

We're all tax slaves now to some degree - It's no different than the "company store"

You ever hear the term "company scrip" before? Probably not.

It's when private companies would pay their employees in a currency (tokens or paper) that could only be used at the company store. This currency could be printed up at a whim and you would never actually save in it for obvious reasons.

As Rick and Morty put it, it's just a form of slavery with extra steps.

You work to produce value, and you have to spend the value you create with the monopoly that pays you. So the monopoly captures all the value you produce one way or another.

Even as late as 2008 some companies were still doing this like Walmart in Mexico where their Supreme Court ruled that Walmart could not pay their employees in vouchers that could only be exchanged in a Mexican Walmart.

Gold used to be money

We used to be on the gold standard.

That is, paper money was exchangeable for actual gold. Human beings choose gold because it was the best cooperation technology people had discovered. Better than glass beads, better than sea shells, better than copper, better than bartering:

For over 5,000 years, precious metals have been favored as money since they best fulfilled its five properties: divisibility, durability, portability, recognizability, and scarcity. Gold came to reign supreme because of all the monetary metals, it was the most scarce.

-Robert Breedlove

No one person, organization, council of elders or country picked gold. Gold was an organic choice from the ground up that developed over thousands of years which is why I think Bitcoin is the invention of money and will become the primary mode of savings for the future.

People will just naturally choose to save in something that is the most scarce, which is Bitcoin as it's currently the most scare commodity and it's backed by encrypted energy, proof of work and math.

Bitcoin is digital property you can take anywhere, send to anyone, divide it up easily into smaller pieces and it can't be stolen from you easily or inflated way.

Like how we all speak Esperanto now - oh wait - we don't.

Top down solutions never work which is why we're in the mess we're in with out financial system and why Bitcoin is the apex monetary predator that is demonetizing gold, real estate and stocks as we speak.

Don't like it?

Don't agree?

That's fine. No one is forcing you to do anything. If you think Bitcoin is a scam, stupid or a bubble then don't buy.

The great thing about BTC is that adoption is being choose freely by people world wide.

Once you understand how gold became money organically due to it's properties as money (and not it's industrial use), you'll start to see how it's almost inevitable that Bitcoin becomes the money we use because it's everything gold is but better as a monetary technology.

Paper money

The reason paper derivatives became a thing was because gold is a shiny yellow rock. You would store your wealth through earning gold and then store it in a bank you trusted. That bank would then issue you paper money that you could then exchange for goods and services.

This makes sense because how are you going to buy something like coffee? Carry around a yellow piece of metal that you then shave off to pay for things?

So private and independent banks sprout up, known during the 1800's as wildcat banking.

This is why back in World War 1 and World War 2 the government had to issue war bonds to actually pay for wars:

Because the government could not just print up money like they can today, they had to ask you the citizen to freely support a war with your wealth.

Executive order 6102

The first step towards moving off the gold standard was back 1933 where the US government made it illegal for individuals to store your personal wealth in gold. All gold was confiscated, put in Fort Knox, and you were paid for your gold in dollars which were then quickly devalued.

The next step was 1971 where they untethered the dollar from gold all together and made it impossible to redeem dollars for gold for sovereigns

Taxation without representation - remember that?

The whole reason America exists in the first place is because we got our start from a tax revolt. You can't tell us to pay a tax we had no say in and don't agree to.

No taxation without representation.

If our elected representative voted on a measure to increase taxes for whatever reason, then they would be held accountable for their public record. Individuals could vote to keep that person in office or remove them.

We the American citizens had a say in the taxes we paid through our elected representation.

But today because of central banking, you're taxed through inflation to pay for things you never consented to, without your vote and really without your representation.

Which for a lack of a better word is theft.

Then end result is like the company store.

You have to work harder and harder for a dollar that is decreasing in value.

Meanwhile, those closest to the money printer (banks, bank share holders, politicians, asset holders, the well connected) all get the benefit of that new money first because they get to buy stuff at the current prices before the influx of new cash drives the price up of everything through inflation known as the Cantillon effect.

A good example of the Cantillon effect are people who own their houses outright. Real estate prices are up and it's harder than ever to buy a home as housing prices keep getting more and more out of reach for a person earning the median income.

But the people who own the houses?

They are growing richer and richer because they own a scarce, desirable asset. This is why the price of Bitcoin will continue to grind up forever. The price of Bitcoin has no limit because the dollars chasing it have no limit too.

Because there are more dollars chasing more goods, the price of everything goes up. So the people who get the money last (the poor and working class) get hurt the most.

Why do we have to accept counter party risk with our money?

The second question I always had was "isn't it weird that the only reason you have $100,000 in the bank is because we all agree that you have $100,00 in the bank?"

What's stopping the bank from saying you have $10,000 instead? It's just a number on screen, a mark in a ledger.

What I was getting at with this question without knowing it as a teenage boy was the concept of "counter party risk."

You have to trust the bank.

But when things get bad, the bank can freeze your money, your money can even be outright seized by a bank bail in or your money can be converter to another currency by force (during a "bank holiday) and devalued.

With Bitcoin, your Bitcoin is yours because you and only you know the seed phrases to access your Bitcoin. Only you can sign transactions with your private key.

There is no counter party risk.

The only risk is on you to not lose your wallet. Be it a wallet on your phone that you then accidentally drop, break and then can't remember your recovery seed.

Or losing your hardware wallet for some reason.

This I think will be the most difficult transition for most people. The idea that you have to take control and be responsible over your own wealth. That yes, you will have to self custody potentially millions of dollars and there is a risk of loss.

This is why in the movies pirates had buried treasure because for 5000 years gold was money, gold was the bearer asset you wanted because you could exchange it for the stuff you needed and wanted.

Money is supposed to be valuable.

You're supposed to value it and be thoughtful with how you spend it.

Bitcoin is money.

Gemini 

My Bitcoin exchange of choice. Signup and buy BTC and take a look at their Bitcoin back credit card.

Buy BTC Today