Bitcoin, you are 16 now, well into your teenage years. These are often the years when, for most people without even realizing it, a person often makes decisions that shape the course of their entire lives. It is incredibly rare for someone to get a “redo” to reverse the decisions that locked them in a certain way of life.
I’m afraid you, or rather Bitcoiners, are about to make one of those big mistakes that will have dire consequences for the rest of their lives.
We are seeing unprecedented growth at this time. The price is close to all time, it finally broke 100k, the big nations are against the hope of creating bitcoin reserves, we are hitting escape velocity. After that, people have become completely dependent on the narrative that we have already won.
They cannot sleep at night without telling themselves that “we have won”.
Currently Bitcoin is not counted at all. If the world realizes that tomorrow they need bitcoin, everyone will be stuck in the storage of coins with Coinbase or JP Morgan, because the system is not balanced enough for everyone to hold their coins. All those people will be under surveillance, they will have no freedom, their coins can be taken arbitrarily at any time by government order. They will not be able to start a business or build anything new, they will not be able to spend their money as they wish, without the permission of the government.
“Well, royalty is not for everyone, it is a responsibility. They wouldn’t want it anyway.” Those “elite” few won’t be in the best of shape either. They may not be able to take the user’s personal coins as easily as the user’s, but they don’t have to. They can just catch you. They can follow you, they watch you everywhere, and if they get a hint that you’re trying to do something they don’t like, you go to jail. That will hang over the head of anyone who tries to establish or build in a way that is not approved by the government.
Stablecoins have actively helped create new avenues of demand for US Dollars as our adversaries have begun to reverse their purchases. The things that Bitcoin is born in this ecosystem, due to the need to help the bitcoin market itself to survive I might add, actively help to save the dollar. They are doing the opposite of a long-held promise to debase the dollar.
That’s the way we are. Another one is Bitcoin it does government surveillance and control. When it actually helps those things. Why are we that way? Bitcoin doesn’t go far enough, and there aren’t any incentives that are compatible and sustainable for privacy (ie that are simple enough and inexpensive enough to dump people who don’t actively want privacy).
Right now the way we are is that people who are willing to just roll over, give up whatever Bitcoin futures are causing the old revolution, and do what the government wants will get rich. Besides, not much will fundamentally change in terms of people’s financial health and their relationship with the government. We need to acknowledge these problems, and actually support solutions to reduce their severity, not just sing to ourselves that “Bitcoin has already won.”
Bitcoin has the potential to bring such positive changes to the world, but it won’t happen if we are overconfident, angry, and apathetic about solving problems and pretending they don’t exist. Listening only to the arrogance of youth rarely goes over well with the right group.
Bitcoin is too valuable to waste making the same kinds of quick mistakes that teenagers do. So don’t do it.
This article is a Take it. The views expressed are entirely those of the author and do not reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.