In a Time of Universal Centralization, Cryptocurrency is a Revolutionary Act
Sometimes it’s good to take a step back and appreciate the nature of something you advocate for and Bitcoin Magazine does just that with this article.
The whole piece is worth a read, but the author zeroes in on the core truth of why cryptocurrency exists, and why it is so revolutionary, subversive, and liberating:
We now have something to compare the current system to. It would seem the case that the creation of Bitcoin is the recognition that having a monetary system — a network of value — that is centralized and enables the weaponization of this network by those with administrative privileges against those without (the users), is a deeply flawed and immoral one. This system of incentives that rewards people for playing political games, specifically those who get closer toward the center of this system by playing these games, benefit disproportionately to those furthest away. The zero-sum nature of the current design would seem another fundamental flaw in the code of the central banking system, but perhaps to those who designed the system it is a feature? This dynamic of inequality only accelerates over time as those at the center of the system continue to increase the supply of monetary units at the expense of a large swath of users on the network and eventually to the demise of the network itself.
The very creation of this technology we call “Bitcoin” is perhaps the most significant political act of all time. It is a technology that is diametrically opposed to the current system and everything this current system stands for. The notion that someone should be able to get between two individual humans and their right to transact with one another or that any entity or group should have that power over another? Bitcoin rejects this. That you should be required to identify yourself in order to access the network of value transfer and be subject to surveillance and a loss of privacy for that privilege? Bitcoin rejects this. That the imaginary borders formed by tribes of humans should have any impact over our ability to transact with one another? Bitcoin rejects this. The current system asserts that the right to transact freely is not a fundamental human right. Bitcoin rejects this.
Bitcoin is a vote in opposition to the current system and the values this current system has attempted to install within the minds of many. It is, in its very essence, political.
The beauty of Bitcoin is that it will never coerce you to use it, like the current system does. It will never impose its power upon you or any other. It will simply offer superior incentives. And no one can ever control the network, therefore no one can capture this power. Bitcoin is an immaculate system of incentive design that allows the flow of pure informational clarity from any node in the network to any other. A system that is owned by no one. Where no hierarchical structure exists and no imbalance in the distribution of this information affords any node power over another as a result.