Dogecoin: DBeS2gHm79fHsxkYWTatbCYonxxc8fQn4M
Bitcoin: bc1qga4p8wxjvc8vx2l9p5y35ac7t0q0jqf8lmsf9y

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

An Argument Against The Ban of Bitcoin: Bitcoin Represents a Threat to The Permanent State, Not America


If The U.S. Bans Bitcoin It Will: 

1) Be A Threat To National Security 

2) Tie Our Demise To The U.S. Dollar

One of my favorite movies is Scarface. And, this is one of my favorite quotes:

    “In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.”
-Antonio "Tony" Montana; fictional character and the main protagonist of the 1983 film Scarface

The goal of money is a little different. Money's ultimate goal is to be a 'unit of account'. That is, it doesn't become a true gangsta until it hits 'unit of account' status. And, in this world, first you get the store of value, then you get the medium of exchange, then you get the unit of account.

Bitcoin is at the unit of account stage all over the world. It has arrived and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Why? Just listen to what Brad Sherman is saying in the video below. He is our unwitting advocate.

(57 seconds in: Brad Sherman, US Congress, Arguing against Bitcoin)


In May of 2018, Brad made a plea to abolish Bitcoin because he views it as a direct threat to the U.S. dollar. Specifically, he wants to make the purchase of Bitcoin illegal. What implications does this have for the U.S. if the rest of the world doesn't follow suit? In a nutshell, it means there's about to be a massive redistribution of wealth from the U.S. to the rest of the world, specifically, to the those countries with the most Bitcoin.

What's key in this testimonial is that Sherman is merely stating what other nations are saying as well. And, if our enemies have an interest in hurting the U.S., one way to do so is through the strategic purchase of Bitcoin as a reserve currency, and that's exactly what's happening. Central banks across the globe are buying Bitcoin.


How Are Other Nations Responding To Bitcoin?


Sovereign states are making statements with regard to "their" reaction to the Bitcoin "threat". Some nations like Canada and Russia have embraced it. Countries all over Africa have embraced it. The entire middle east has embraced it. South America has embraced it. A few politically challenged industries have embraced it (read: marijuana, gambling and porn). The entire West Cost of the United States has embraced it. This is why the price refuses to go down. It has too many advocates and that advocacy grows with every bomb, sanction and tariff.

Meanwhile, what are Americans being told? Bitcoin is simply a modern day case of tulip mania -- it's a nothing burger, a scam, a Ponzi scheme, a tool for criminals, punks and terrorists. And yet, one Bitcoin is still worth more than an ounce of gold.

The truth is, Bitcoin has already become the world's reserve currency, but we (Americans) are the last to know. And, if folks like Brad Sherman have their way, Americans will be left out of owning Bitcoin altogether.


What Does That Mean For The Coming Redistribution of Wealth?

What does this mean for the future? From a global perspective, it means the meek will inherit the earth. From a national perspective, it will play out in a civil war between the banking and technology sectors; the old and the new guard. America will continue to evolve and thrive, but there will be a reckoning of sorts, a changing of the 'money' guard as the value of all assets backed by the U.S. dollar, directly or indirectly, gets absorbed by Bitcoin. 


Bitcoin Represents a Threat to The Permanent State, Not America

Bitcoin represents a threat to sovereignty and the current power structure, not America or its values. In fact, if America's forefathers had Bitcoin, they would have used it. They were advocates of a small and limited government, by the people and for the people. The war between America and the Permanent State's government is coming, but America's adoption of Bitcoin will make sure America doesn't get taken down with the Permanent State's dollar scheme. America is an ideal, not a currency. We let the dollar use our name for a while, and now we want it back.


Thursday, April 1, 2021

How Did Estonia Become More American Than America? By Investing In Blockchain & Automating Government


 “I should have called the Estonians when we were setting up our health care website.”               
                       -Barack Obama


Estonia has become the American dream. The country offers its citizens something it seems Americans can only dream about (we are always dreaming). Blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin, has made the American dream of liberty, freedom and democracy a reality...in Estonia. 

When the world thinks democracy, they think 'America'. They may not think 'United States', but they do think America. That's because America is an ideal, not a place. Like bitcoin, the goal of America is freedom through democratized power; that is, power of the people. I write about this connection in the post: Bitcoin & America Have Common Goals: They Are Linked By The Ideal of Democracy. When I wrote the post I had no idea that a country like Estonia existed. Its discovery has had my attention ever since. And, one thing has been made clear in my research -- Estonia is more American than America. How did this happen?

Estonia's digitization

Estonia’s digitization began in 1991. Just after the break-up of the Soviet Union, Estonia restored its independent statehood from the USSR. It was a poor country with little in the way of infrastructure, so it decided to use technology as a way to leverage its scarce resources.  Now, Estonia is using blockchain technology to create the world's most democratized country. I'm going to use the rest of this post to explain how.

First, let me introduce blockchain.

Blockchain is the underlying technology used to create bitcoin, but as Estonia is showing the world, it can be used for many other things. 

At its heart, blockchain technology is 'trust' technology. It comes with a decision framework that replaces trust with consensus. The decision framework within blockchain builds a consensus based on a network of all users rather than a centralized control system. As a result, there is no need for trust. Governance decisions are made by consensus and all data exchanged is protected through encryption (crypto). Put another way, the system is naturally democratized rather than centralized. In this way, it is also self-sustaining. So, when you hear about a system being converted to blockchain, it means the system is being taken from a centralized to a democratized decision framework.


Easy implementation: Digital ID

So how does all this work? Well, every Estonian is issued a digital ID. Much more than a legal photo ID, the digital ID has been "blockchained". That is, it's been democratized on a blockchain platform that uses a 2048-bit public key encryption.

Estonia has been issuing digital IDs for the past two decades. The ID serves as:

  • a fully encrypted digital passport for Estonian citizens traveling within the EU

  •     a national health insurance card

  •     identification when logging into bank accounts

  •     a proxy for digital signatures

  •     a proxy for i-Voting (public voting occurs online)

  •     a way to check medical records, submit tax claims, etc. (filing a tax return takes less than five minutes)

  •     a way to use e-Prescriptions

The card doesn't just make life easier for Estonia's citizens, it also saves a great deal of time for the government which translates into real savings and a boost to GDP. 

According to a report by PWC, Estonia saves over 1400 years of working time and 2% of GDP annually through its digitized public services. Today, 99% of public services are available to citizens as e-services. Since all transactions are made on a general ledger secured by blockchain-based time-stamping, you also know if someone other than you has accessed your records.

This leads me to perhaps the most important aspect of Estonia's digitization process -- you own your data. The data may be in Estonia's database, but it belongs to you. You have the right to know and control what happens to the data. In other words, sitting behind the automated governing body is a legal framework that ensures responsible use. Your digital ID (online signature, security, and rights) is protected by law and data integrity is ensured by blockchain technology.

Kersti Kaljulaid

For those that think issuing a digital ID requires a massive financial commitment, you are wrong. A central tenant of the Estonian digitization strategy is the use of cheap technology. Which is to say, this isn't an effort that requires massive fundraising. 

According to Kersti Kaljulaid, "Cheap, common technology that is inclusively used by society as a whole brings much greater benefits than exclusive ones only accessible to upwardly mobile populations." She would know. She is also the fifth and *current President of Estonia (in office since October 2016).

Estonia is not alone

Estonia isn't the only country to see the digital light. Germany has given its citizens an ID card with a digital chip, and Finland has joined Estonia on the same data-exchange platform. There are also amazing things happening in Africa, with widespread usage of mobile payments and different practical applications for farmers in Rwanda and Senegal. To read more about the trend in Africa and the Middle East see: Can Digital Currency (Bitcoin / M-Pesa) Wipe Out World-Wide Corruption & Poverty?

Meanwhile, the U.S. is trying to ban bitcoin. The current administration believes bitcoin is a national threat, but I believe banning bitcoin is the national threat and you can read more about my prediction for the U.S. if it bans bitcoin here

It's time for a new paradigm

Named ‘the most advanced digital society in the world’ by Wired, Estonians have Trumped us. We are so far behind the Estonians it's "tremendously" ridiculous (I'm channeling Trump now). If we were to find our way to the highest digital mountain in America, we still wouldn't be able to see the digital dust left by the Estonians. It's that bad.

It's so bad, that Estonians have actually come to expect better services from government than they do from the private sector. 

I don't know where you're from, but think about that. It's hard to comprehend if you're American. This is the American ideal, yes, but we've been told there's no money for anything but war. We're still trying to figure out what happened to trillions of dollars in lost funds (Mark Skidmore, a professor of economics at Michigan State University, found that $21 trillion in unsupported adjustments had been reported -- that’s about $65,000 for every American).

It's time for Americans to stop dreaming. We need to take our name back from the dollar, adopt bitcoin, and overhaul the government with blockchain technology. 

The revolution is digital...

*This post was originally written in May 2018