6 Years In Crypto: Living The Revolution
This Is What We Believe
It was in 2013 when I first encountered Bitcoin in the news. A couple of months later, I stumbled upon another financial article, and this time it was about the Bitcoin exchange MtGox which collapsed after losing 800,000 Bitcoins due to hacks and mismanagement. I thought this was it. Bitcoin was just another internet scam, and the news confirmed my skepticism.
Three years later, in March 2017, Bitcoin appeared again in my news feed. This time the article was titled “Bitcoin crossed the price of gold”. A confusing title, since we can’t compare the price of different assets. It meant nothing. Nonetheless, this title caught my attention.
Bitcoin had crossed $1300 (again) and was heading for a new all-time high. Perhaps this wasn’t a scam, I thought.
Financial newspapers were indeed concealing a progressive and disruptive technology for the sake of the old system and I still blame myself for not recognizing their attempt to undermine Bitcoin while it was early.
An Adventure Begins
Since that moment in March 2017, I have not missed a single day without reading, studying, educating myself, investing, and using or trying to promote the concept of cryptocurrencies to my friends, work, and family.
We joined for the money and the price action but stayed for the revolution.
Cryptocurrency is transforming our economies, supporting progress, and heralding a modern era of finance. A financial system free from intervention, authoritarianism, or manipulation of the money supply for political reasons.
While many seem to think all of this is far-fetched and radical ideas, consider why Central Banks are (slowly) decentralizing their structure and becoming more independent from the control of governments.
Still, with the current pace, it could take a millennium before central banks achieve a meaningful separation from political intervention.
They will never be autonomous, so truly decentralized money will overthrow the flawed legacy establishment peacefully with the consensus of the people.
Fix the money, fix the world.
Separation of money and State was never closer. 8 Billion people have to know they can use CBDCs if they want to, but you can’t deny them the alternative.
We read about calls to ban cryptocurrencies even in Western societies/economies. The self-proclaimed champions of liberal democracy should, first of all, think again if these discussions adhere to democratic principles.
When such discussions emerge by economists or politicians in the West, they deny pluralism from our societies. They deny democracy and the civil liberty of choice by proposing a ban on cryptocurrency. A disanalogous measure to support what exactly? The failing fiat experiment? It will be over soon, anyway. For how long can you stretch the use of this system? Look at how far we have evolved and consider the needs of the population.
It is illogical to consider that centralized fiat currencies will still be used fifty years later just by looking at the rate of technological progress or even by examining the history of every fiat currency so far. There is a time limit for every fiat currency. And the results of the fiat failures are always disastrous.
The needs of the population and the needs of commerce will decide if it’s going to be centralized CBDCs or decentralized cryptocurrency.
Money is just a tool, not the highest purpose. Better money demands autonomy from interventions and manipulation. Yet money without the ease of access or ease of use has already lost its primary function, which is to serve commerce, serve the people.
Money is a personal right if you ask me, but this is a philosophical aspect to discuss another time.
P2P permissionless uncensorable cash is my motive as a vivid supporter of freeing money from the previous restraints. Money has to be free from every aspect of politics, private or state interests, control, manipulation, for our economies to flourish and fully enjoy the benefits of our technological evolution.
There Is More In Cryptocurrency Than You’ve Even Imagined
There are two objectives, sometimes in conflict, but usually, they align.
During these six years in crypto, I didn’t get rich under any metric applied, if that’s the question (which usually is).
Always remember that crypto is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Instead crypto is a get-poor scheme if you consider the vast amount of scams and Ponzis together with the irrational bubble formations.
The real wealth is here: Dethroning the weak, inflating fiat currencies with independent, permissionless, sound money. This can be achieved with cryptocurrency adoption on all fronts, with acceptance by physical shops, internet services, or platforms.
There’s nothing wrong with demanding transparency or stability.
Undeniably, the rational pursuit of improving our living conditions is a primary objective of every human being. Rising our purchasing power delivers these better conditions. Fiat money is not supportive of this fundamental goal. Inflation reduces income and creates a vicious cycle leading to increased poverty. Inflation is a fixed tax, the most unfair of taxes.
The pursuit of self-interest with an ethical approach is not irrational or condemnable but is within our nature. It is a moral purpose for every human being to pursue happiness. And while happiness is not just material goods and services, these will usually lead to an improved and healthier life.
Did I Get Rich From Crypto?
Overall I am in a better position than when I started, but not in any drastic and defining way.
People often ask me if I am crypto-rich or a similar term since I got in early. Actually, 2017 was already too late. I should have started in 2013, although that is not early, either. So, I did not risk as much as I should have, and the rewards were not that great either. Maybe I felt threatened by the volatility, and at some point, I reduced my investment or completely ignored how much higher prices could rise during the “good times”. Anyway, I didn’t reach such a state of wealth. Probably there was this small chance that I missed, but the odds were not there unless I risked more than I could afford to lose.
As rational human beings, we take steps to improve our living conditions. Increasing our purchasing power is one of our priorities. Still, we can’t lower the ethical barrier to achieving our goals. We behave with respect to human life and dignity. Moreover, we have the moral duty to call out scams and promote decentralized procedures.
The outcome is positive, but not all that matters. Crypto offers the alternative to the trust-based corrupt system that operates with rules set centuries ago. Trust-based systems are flawed simply because humans are not perfect. Cryptocurrency presents the trustless alternative, eradicating the weaknesses of the legacy finance that lead in the previous centuries (and the current one) to severe calamities, wars, and poverty.
In 2017 I had no idea how to trade or behave during crypto cycles. I was just lucky because the bullish trend was unstoppable.
Starting day trading was the worst possible course of action yet I did that in 2017 for some time. Online shills for crypto trading platforms like Bitmex pushed me there. There was no hope with day trading.
So I tested, failed, and abandoned trading after a few weeks. There are only a few “Chads” out there that the media claim how they became top traders in trading rooms like Bitmex.
But are they really?
Most people lost money in crypto (again) in 2021. They all follow the mantra: Buy the top and sell the bottom, influenced perhaps by the financial advice of “top traders on Bitmex” like AngeloBTC.
Who is buying now that prices on several projects with developments and adoption tanked? Nobody. Everyone will buy the top of the next bubble again and again.
In 2017 most people bought Bitcoin at $15–20k.
2021 was a repeat of 2017, although greed was powerful this time. Professional Ponzi lords took over the “crypto industry” and destroyed confidence in the centralized parts (custodial exchanges, and services).
Celsius grew too big to not fail, and so did BlockFi and the rest high-yield relending schemes. Even crypto behemoth Grayscale was in trouble.
So, after FTX, crypto was dead. For the third time.
Hopefully, next time (if there’s going to be one), a solid and transparent P2P economy will be ready to accommodate the needs of billions, beyond the scope of fake yields and irrational speculation.
There’s far more in cryptocurrency than any one of us considers.
In late 2018 DeFi changed the rules. In 2017 it was NFTs like CryptoKitties that paved the way for individual control of virtual assets.
There’s vast innovation in the field and projects that keep building a better, transparent future where values like meritocracy, liberty, and financial sovereignty thrive. More innovations are coming.
Why Bitcoin Cash?
So, here I am, six years already in crypto. Two years ago, I joined the fanbase of Bitcoin Cash. A cryptocurrency with valid grounds to succeed as money for the modern economy.
Back in 2017 (months before the Bitcoin Cash fork), the division in the Bitcoin community was apparent. I can’t find any reason for Bitcoin to divert from its original purpose, though.
People forget as years pass, so history tends to repeat itself.
One day, a decade ago, the money was gone.
This is the quadrillion-dollar question and where the real crypto fanbase differs from those promoting passive income, those selling you trading courses, and advocating in favor of custodian re-lending scams.
Number-go-up as an objective is flawed by default, and one of the reasons I dismissed BTC right from the beginning and treated it as a speculative bubble. The devs made sure BTC will never scale to achieve meaningful adoption rates and achieve its original purpose.
Banks can cut anyone off the financial system either by human or system error or at will, after the demand of any agency.
Bitcoin was fixing this, and naturally, the banks intervened when they identified a serious threat to their industry.
This is what we are supposed to fix with Bitcoin.
I’ve read countless times how this is just a conspiracy theory, by serious people, but I guess it’s easy to not understand how banks or even large corporations operate when it comes to eliminating competition and threats.
A whole industry of tens of thousands of companies operates within this sector as payment processors supporting the banks and networks, so evidently, there would be an issue if a new technology suddenly appears, able to render all of them obsolete.
This, in case you still believe the block size wars were about having 1000 more non-mining nodes in the Bitcoin network.
Dollars in your bank account? No. You can’t do this or this or that unless the bank authorizes your transaction.
You put your trust in a flawed system with a questionable future.
With fiat currency, you are at the mercy of your bank.
Has anyone wondered why Bitcoin developers keep telling us to use a fiat and credit cards instead of Bitcoin?
Hard facts.
Is Fiat Worth Our Attention? Don’t We Have A Better Option?
Have you considered why all these Bitcoin developers are telling us to use a bank card instead of Bitcoin?
We replace what doesn’t work and with something better.
Years ago Bitcoin was on its way to fixing everything.
Dan can “hodl” all he wants but he fails to comprehend the larger situation.
Fees and slow transactions made Bitcoin look like a farce.
A decentralized payments network is the first step. A giant leap forward for mass adoption is scalability.
Even if LN worked properly, it still took Bitcoin eight years to resume adoption!
This approach allowed banks to perfect e-banking/e-commerce and wallets. In 2017 cryptocurrency wallets were technologically superior.
Scaling stagnation regressed Bitcoin’s adoption.
The rise of LN financial hubs and centralized regulated services/wallets proved the theory.
The market already ignores LN. You know that when you can’t even force the use of LN at gunpoint in El Salvador.
Everyone in support of second layers is responsible for these eight years of negative adoption rates, including those that supported the argument that scalability reduces decentralization, including those that hypothesized trilemmas to masquerade their incompetence as a blockchain feature.
Bitcoin yielded to external pressure and devolved into a speculative bubble, forfeiting its disruptive potential.
Any Bitcoiner that reads feel free to block me, but first listen again to what Augustin Carstens explains in the following interview because this is exactly what Bitcoin became.
What’s what Central Banks think of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in 2023:
Notice how Augustin Carstens mentions that crypto WAS a threat to fiat currencies. Bitcoin’s exponential user and merchant adoption turned negative after Blockstream decided it shouldn’t scale.
BTC used to be a competition but NOT anymore.
During my crypto journey, what made sense while struggling to find reason in the crypto far west was Bitcoin Cash.
The reason is the commitment of the Bitcoin Cash community to advancing a trustless and permissionless P2P economy.
Quote by Margaret Thatcher while presenting Britain’s new economic policy after she slammed Hayek’s “Constitution of Liberty” on the table telling everyone:
“THIS IS WHAT WE BELIEVE”
Unless your income depends on promoting Blockstream’s version of BTC then you already know all the above.
Bitcoin Cash exemplifies the ideals of freedom and liberty.
Money everyone can use, not just the elite.
We support a FREE MARKET, not a FEE MARKET.
Closing Thoughts
Bankers have won this round, but the struggle is ongoing.
Price does not represent the significance of crypto assets. When prices increase, this brings attention to cryptocurrencies, yet the overwhelming majority of newcomers stay ignorant since the crypto media repopulate maximalist propaganda.
Just investing in cryptocurrency is not purposeless, although there are a few criteria more for cryptocurrency to succeed than just holding.
Merchant and user adoption with non-custodial wallets and education of newcomers regarding the correct use and storage is the first step.
Merchant adoption, DeFi, tokenization of real-world assets, and more developments will help cryptocurrency advance into a digital economy. We focus on securing the non-custodial approach and promote the permissionless features of decentralized blockchains.
Cover by geralt on Pixabay
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