You've Been Fooled

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Avatar for Pantera
3 years ago (Last updated: 10 months ago)

I was scrolling through a website yesterday and stumbled upon an article striving to make meaning of a previous BTC narrative for financial inclusion and freedom.

Bitcoin used to be about that, but not anymore with the BTC version. The moment it was decided for Bitcoin not to scale, it instantly excluded 8 billion people from its financial network and became a toy for the whales and a few wealthy individuals (Musk, Saylor,Jack, etc).

What this post is about, is obvious. This is evidence of how the BTC maximalist-driven narratives are manipulating the minds of beginners in this field.

For a BTC maximalist, it doesn't matter what Bitcoin is about, it is only about finding ways of attracting more people into believing BTC is useful and anything that helps the price rise is welcome. Including lies, censorship, and propaganda.

The article is on this link, and while the author is amazing in his writing abilities, it is an article propagating the BTC narratives that are no longer supported by the BTC blockchain.

The article was on the front page of Publish0x being one of the most popular and having gathered some good tips for what this platform is paying its users.

Of course, the first thing is the word choice on the title that attracted me.

"Bitcoin is useful". Alright. To begin explaining what we will read, this author believes that the BTC version of Bitcoin is following the whitepaper and is what Satoshi wanted Bitcoin to be.

I have already written about this topic in this article: Bitcoin Is For Everyone and explain exactly why BTC is not for everyone but just the 1% exactly as the BTC maximalist community wanted it. The alternative, the real Bitcoin that is for everyone is Bitcoin Cash.

I'm not expecting someone that just started to learn immediately about everything that happened, and how Bitcoin is not what it used to be. It takes time and research.

I'm not going to discuss the fact this article is based on outdated information from 2019 (medium post). My problem and everyone else's is this:

It is obvious that credit institutions become accessible only for a few people.

Source: Publish0x

For this reason, I joined Bitcoin too, thinking it empowered the individual. It used to do that on a small scale, however, as new users were joining and the transactions were increasing, the network was facing an unavoidable defeat. It could not scale.

It was known from the beginning that Bitcoin was not going to scale unless changes in the code were to happen.

Satoshi knew that and even given directions to change the block size as the network was increasing in numbers.

We can phase in a change later if we get closer to needing it.

It can be phased in, like:
if (blocknumber > 115000)
    maxblocksize = largerlimit

-Satoshi Nakamoto

Source: bitcointalk

This small argument encompasses how Satoshi was directing changes to the Bitcoin code. Satoshi never wanted Bitcoin to be static, but to scale and reach mass adoption.

Satoshi wanted Bitcoin to be P2P Electronic Cash that will reach mass adoption.

This is so true! Mass adoption is overrated.

Source: Twitter

And this is how the maximalists view Bitcoin.

Maxis often are removing their narrative masks and become clear in their wishes for Bitcoin.

In these situations, cryptocurrencies can be of help to citizens as banks are no longer needed while transactions remain traceable.

Source: Publish0x

This is something we all agree on. Cryptocurrencies are alternative to the traditional financial system. Not just when and where it is failing but even in times when it is still working. But the post is not about Bitcoin Cash, Dash, or another cryptocurrency that has high speed and low fees. It is about the BTC version of Bitcoin. That has fees ranging between $10-60 and hundreds of thousands of transactions stuck on the network.

The article in question tries to explain how BTC is helping the Venezuelan society avoid the drawbacks of the hyperinflating "Bolivar" and with the use of BTC, everyone enjoys better days.

At this point, I'd like to ask some friends on this platform coming from Venezuela for information.

The question is how BTC has helped the common people in Venezuela? Can you use your daily or monthly income to buy BTC and, moreover, is BTC anywhere accepted in Venezuela for payments?

For the Venezuelan people that want to escape the hyperinflation of the Bolivar fiat currency, would BTC with fees of $10-60 be the solution or perhaps Bitcoin Cash will be, with fees of less than $0.01 .

Is this article correct (Bitcoin is useful and not just a speculative medium) and what would you say could be more useful to avoid high inflation? BTC or Bitcoin (BCH)?

This article is claiming that Bitcoin (the BTC version) is useful to Venezuelans and that simple folks from this country are flocking in LocalBitcoins to buy with their monthly wage. Is this even viable?

Source: Publish0x

You can't buy $10 of BTC and transfer it to your wallet no matter if you are poor or wealthy. You can buy in an exchange, hold there and just speculate, but you can't spend it because the fees are more than $10.

Financial freedom means being in control of our funds. Bitcoin is about that, and not about only a few wealthy individuals. Fees make Bitcoin useless and the title of the post in question (Bitcoin is useful and not just a speculative medium) is a BTC maximalist brainwash.

Unfortunately, in the vast majority of opinions, BTC, is considered a speculative means to get rich.

BTC is useful only for speculation.

Bitcoin will set us free!

The important thing is to understand it!

Have you understood it?

This is the reason I joined too. I wanted an escape from the failures of the traditional banking establishment. What I didn't want was a replacement with something worse. I entered Bitcoin in 2017 before the fork, and I was like this guy in the beginning. I sold everything when BTC fees reached $20 in 2017 and from that moment I had to rethink everything in the crypto field.

Luckily, some folks were not in line with Blockstream's plans and wanted Bitcoin to succeed. I read about the scaling debate and witnessed firsthand the BTC maximalism censorship. There was nothing in BTC being useful for me, or the 8 billion population of the globe.

BTC is useful only for speculation.

Conclusion

I thought it will be great to find what exactly use case this author thinks Bitcoin (BTC) has, but it seems the only argument is inflation.

It is one of the examples of those entering right now in the cryptocurrency field and having the distorted idea that BTC is still a currency that empowers the individual, by providing the financial freedom to transact anytime we want with everyone in the world, without a third party interfering and authorizing our transactions.

For those that are new in this and just joined I'm telling you this:

You've been fooled.  Bitcoin is not BTC, because it didn't scale to include 8 billion in its network. It remained static and it is now fooling you to believe you can use it. Fees for BTC are currently $20 and it is just available for a selected number of people to use it.

BTC is not what Satoshi wanted for Bitcoin and it is not a medium of exchange.

The P2P Electronic Cash you signed up for is now manifested in Bitcoin Cash, the true Bitcoin, the one that serves everyone in the world and has the ability to scale and reach billions of users.

Lead Image from: Publish0x (modified)

Material: Bitcoin is useful and not just a speculative medium

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3 years ago (Last updated: 10 months ago)

Comments

it is simple Bitcoin Core is not helping anyone except those who bought when Bitcoin was below $1000 and can have more than 0.01 BTC. Everyone with less money than that will find the hard way they can't afford the fees. The sooner people use BTC the sooner they will realize it doesn't work that is why we need people to use the crypto currency because once they use they can't be fooled any longer, transaction fees speak more than 1000 articles and it is understood right away, once you use it you move on to other coins that's why the Bitcoin Cash community must teach new people to use both assets so that they can see it with their own eyes.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Great article, the so called whales have arrived and are influencing the markets for their own gain.

Cuban and Musk only care about rising their balance sheet while newcomers suffer or worse get turned off crypto, enjoyed reading and Thank you for the sponsorship, it is very much appreciated.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Hello Pantera, I take advantage of the fact that electricity arrived (I do not know for how long, so I will respond quickly and directly to the best of my ability)

The question is how BTC has helped the common people in Venezuela?

This is a big lie, here the currencies that have helped (and continue to do so) are steem, hive, and currently BCH (because thanks to the dissemination work that several Venezuelans are doing, there are already places such as restaurants, technology stores, etc. they are using to receive payments from common customers like me).

So whoever made that comment I guarantee that he is lying or at least he is a businessman with a lot of economic power. The proof is that where I live 99% of the people I know do not even know about the existence of BTC, in the best of cases they associate it with the "Petro" which is the government's digital currency (which does not have any use, it is just a government trap for money laundering for drugs and illegal operations, and incidentally it is not listed in any major exchange worldwide, in fact it is banned from major exchanges such as Binance).

Can you use your daily or monthly income to buy BTC and, moreover, is BTC anywhere accepted in Venezuela for payments?

No. Only people with high economic power in the country (1% of the population, probably less, who are those who are part of the government, are in money laundering, illegal businesses, drugs, etc.) are those who can afford that luxury .

The common citizen like me, we can only acquire through faucets like freebitcoin, and we have been accumulating very little amount, in my case, I have only managed to acquire $ 12 in BTC over about 12 years. So this is false. In addition, the businesses in which the btc are accepted do not have movement of customers who buy in that currency, precisely for the reason that the commissions are highly high.

So they can accept BTC but nobody pays with BTC, they just use their debit card or make the payment in foreign currency.

On the other hand, if there are many places accepting BCH, and every day there are more, that is the reality. Well, Venezuelans have seen that the BCH is really the alternative to get out of poverty and improve their quality of life, of course hand in hand with the steem and the hive.

$ 1.00
3 years ago

Thanks a lot for the details in your reply @MicroReylatos. I felt it was required to have your experience and explanation.

$ 0.05
3 years ago

For me it is a pleasure to contribute, and I regret not being able to make more extensive comments, because I have a lot more to say and explain, but due to these aggressive conditions (which by the way I just heard that they just reported on the radio, the failure electricity in Palo Verde which is where I live) I am afraid that I will find a power cut while I write and lose all the work I have done writing.

Thank you very much for your support, believe me I value it and it means a lot to me! :)

BROFIST!

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Bitcoin is no more decentralized..

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I was also thinking BTC is only crypto currency and real bitcoin or all hype but now after learning alot i knew which one is real bitcoin and purpose of it.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Every new newbie not know the real crypto.They listen the name of bitcoin and they understand BTC is bitcoin.I was also confused about it in start.But now it is for me a shitcoin.As it limited the freedom of money.The main purpose of Crypto should be it has easy approach for everyone.Your words are true it should be money for everyone not for millionaire not for poor.Everyone should enjoy this.BTC sooner dropped from its graph after Elon tweet about its shitcoin.I think it would not survive sooner.BCH would take its place.BTC would be limited to Venezuela.BCH has all the feature that are common either you are millionaire or you are poor.

$ 0.05
3 years ago

Bitcoin is like a pyramid scheme now that it doesn't scale anymore, attracting more investors to increase it's price without scaling...and those who bought on top will lose because those who bought lower already sell their Bitcoin or even buy the dip again to drive back the price to top to fool new investors again.

$ 0.20
3 years ago

"bitcoin means decentralization" yeah no it doesn't. not anymore. great article :)

$ 0.00
3 years ago