I'm here to tell you about a new and exciting challenge: to live as much as possible off of cryptocurrency, while staying away from government-issued fiat currency, for a whole month. It's an idea I believe passionately in, and have been living for the past several years myself. I'm very excited to get others to try it with me.
Why Go Fiat-Free?
Before encouraging everyone to try using little to no government-issued money, we may as well do a quick rundown of why this is a good idea:
We've come dangerously close to a run on the banks
Right as the pandemic lockdowns loomed, people went en masse to withdraw physical cash from the banks, prompting some withdrawal limitations. Any worse and we could have had a full-on panic as banks would have quickly run out of cash.
The purchasing power of the dollar is going to plummet
Due to the measures being taken to supposedly stimulate/save the economy, we could soon face a situation where the value of the dollar (or any fiat currency) sharply declines. In that situation you really don't want to be caught with all your savings rapidly bleeding value, and even if you're safe by moving into scarce and manipulation-resistant assets, that won't do you much good if you can't spend it on necessary goods and services.
Financial censorship may start hitting people who aren't looking for trouble
Right now, most of the people you see running into trouble with getting financially censored can arguably be labeled as "edgy" in some way, whether it's political dissidents, bleeding-edge innovators, sex workers, and so on. This still amounts to monetary persecution and as such is terrible, but at least the people affected may have some kind of idea that they run such a risk. That may change soon. Perfectly legal and established industries such as gun shops have already started to experience censorship, and just as YouTube has begun demonetizing and deplatforming a growing array of creators, we can expect the same thing to happen eventually in the financial system.
Financial freedom is just generally a good thing to practice
Finally, it's just a good idea to actually own your own money and practice how to use it in a way that no one can stop you. Just like good health, self-teaching, and all other forms of discipline and self-ownership, taking personal control and responsibility over your money is a great idea.
The Challenge
Myself and a group of other cryptocurrency and freedom advocates have decided to launch a challenge called the 30-Day Fiat Free Fast. The idea is to attempt to live for one month, starting May 1st of 2020, while using as little fiat currency as possible, hopefully none at all. This is to help people who may have been on the fence to get out of their comfort zones and actually give it a shot at living all on cryptocurrency. You may be surprised at how far you can get!
Step 1: Watch my upcoming videos on how to live on Dash!
Over the coming weeks I'll be releasing a video series on how to live completely off of cryptocurrency without using fiat currency. I've been living on Dash for nearly four years now, and am eager to share how I do it to the rest of the world. This should make it easy enough to actually participate in the challenge without doing days, if not weeks, of research. The videos will be published on my channel, the Digital Cash Network, on LBRY, YouTube, and 3speak, and streaming live podcasts to the above and Flote as well, where you can jump into the live chat and ask questions about living on Dash. Just follow along and live the grand experiment.
Step 2: Post things you buy with the #FiatFreeChallenge hashtag
As you're learning how to live fiat-free, post on social media what you've bought, where you've bought it, how you bought it, your experiences, anything related to the challenge. Use the hashtag #FiatFreeChallenge to maximize exposure and connect with other people who are trying the same thing as you.
Step 3: Post an end-of-month recap of your results
At the end of the month, go through your expenses and add together everything you've been able to pay for with crypto, and compare it with all your fiat expenses. See how far you managed to get, and also share that under the #FiatFreeChallenge hashtag. If that's too complicated or too personal, or you were only able to pay for a few things, just post about whatever you bought with crypto. Anything is a step in the right direction!
The future of being able to live without government money is here right now. Go give it a try!
If you enjoyed this, please leave a tip, either here or via CoinTree. Thank you! And thanks to my supporters Kingsley Edwards and AnarchyRadio for their continued support!