Today, I’m going to talk about one of the greatest things in the world… or at least will be soon.
If you didn’t already know, bitcoin is the most popular form of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are a type of currency that only exists digitally. Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency there is, but it’s the biggest one and the de facto standard.
Buyers and sellers can conduct transactions completely outside of the banking system, completely outside of any particular country, and do so anonymously and tax free. You can buy something from me using a cryptocurrency like bitcoin, and I have no idea who you are or where you are located. I just get my money and you get your item.
If that sounds cool, that’s because it is. You’re anonymous, no country can confiscate your money, no country can deflate the value of your money by printing more, you can’t be taxed, and you can buy stuff anywhere in the world, regardless of where you are or how much you travel, since bitcoin is the same all over the planet.
With central banks slowly devaluing and destroying their own currencies, as well as governments’ never-ending War on Cash, bitcoin is now more popular than ever. Bitcoin value has just recently reached an all-time high, at $1193 per bitcoin. (I remember when it was $120 about three years ago!) I expect this to go up as the Western world approaches collapse and as more and more governments crack down economically on their own citizens.
I own some bitcoins and soon I’ll be setting up bitcoin purchase options for everything I sell. (Frankly, this is something I should have done a few years ago, but I’m busy, so fuck you.) Over the next year or two, I plan on converting as much of my day-to-day finances over to bitcoin (or some other cryptocurrency) rather than using US dollars, since Trump clearly wants a weak dollar just like Obama and Bush did before him.
I will still own US dollars as a hedge investment and some liquid savings. I’m just talking here about my day-to-day financial transactions. I won’t be able to shed the dollar there completely either, but the more I can do with cryptocurrency, the better, at least in my view.
Sadly, using bitcoin is not quite as user friendly as I’d like, and it’s a little daunting for new users. Regardless, it’s become much easier in the last few years. There are many sites, services, and apps you can use, but the easiest one is probably Bitpay. You can go there, download the app for free (for computers or smartphones), buy a few dollars worth of bitcoin, and play around with it. This stuff is going to be a big part of your future so you might as well get comfortable with it now.
Do I think bitcoin will be some kind of world-wide standard someday? No. I think bitcoin is the 1.0 version of this technology, and at some point down the road, some other, more superior form of cryptocurrency is going to come along, and that will be the one everyone starts using. I could be wrong, but I think bitcoin is MySpace, and Facebook is coming around the corner soon.
It’s going to be a battle, though. Governments and central banks are furious that cryptocurrencies exist. They can’t tax bitcoin (unless you declare it yourself, but they don’t like that either), can’t regulate it, and can’t track it. Man, that pisses them off. It’s quite likely that bitcoin and similar technologies may become illegal in some parts of the world; not that it will stop it any more than it stops guns, drugs, or prostitution. It will just go underground and people will still be transacting in a free market manner the way they should.
What’s coming down the road is very exciting and will help you become a freer man. I can’t wait!
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joelsuf
Posted at 12:32 pm, 27th February 2017I bookmarked bitpay and will probably dump a good chunk of cash into bitcoin. Nerd alert, one of my favorite video game streamers mentions bitcoin on his page and because of that I became slightly aware of it. But CJ’s article brought this to light for me.
I know a good thing when I see it. Blogging for a living, open relationships/juggling FBs, bitcoin…people say I’m crazy, selfish and some even say “un-american” but they’ll be jealous in a decade or so 😉
So props to CJ for publishing this!
David
Posted at 09:03 pm, 27th February 2017I haven’t had much opportunity to study cryptocurrencies, but based on your post, Bitcoin certainly sounds amazing.
I’m just curious, what are some of the biggest drawbacks to something like Bitcoin at this time?
That one trader
Posted at 10:42 am, 28th February 2017Hell yes
Great analysis, I only think you’re wrong by saying bitcoin won’t be a standard or that bitcoin is just what MyScape was to Facebook. Obviously I can’t prove it, but I do think it will be an living icon for cryptocurrencies. There will be more competitors, governments could create their own cryptocurrencies, but I do believe this won’t kill bitcoin or even push it out of the spotlight.
The era of cryptocurrencies hasn’t even begun, what an exciting time it is to be alive
CF
Posted at 04:01 pm, 28th February 2017I’m new to crypto, but my concern with using crypto is the instability of it. For example, if a laptop is worth 1btc now, it can be 0.5btc or 1.5btc tomorrow. To me, that’s just like buying things with stocks instead of a currency.
Caleb Jones
Posted at 10:07 pm, 28th February 2017– Ease of use; not that great
– Volatility.
– Most places don’t support it.
You could be right!
In terms of tech, I agree!
Correct; that is one of the problems with bitcoin.
Stork
Posted at 02:16 am, 1st March 2017An excerpt from ’99 Ways to Escape Leviathan’ about Bitcoin:
Despite its volatility Bitcoin already is more reliable and efficient for the transaction of huge quantities of money. Just convert all that money to BTC, transfer it to the other party and then he transfers it back to USD the same day. BTC already has outcompeted banking in this aspect, which is quite impressive due to its short life so long.
This, of course would be something to credit decentralized peer-to-peer information technology, that is what cryptocurrencies and lots of other pieces of revolutionary software are based on. Remember the endless and fruitless fight governments all around have been into to stop ‘piracy’ and enforce Copyright laws? Torrenting can’t be stopped because because it’s decentralized so instead of having the cops shut down a centralized server they’d have to shut down thousands of private computers that are acting as seeder nodes. Multiply it for the literally billions of files out there that are being shared via p2p and it’s pretty obvious that no state has the means to suppress it no matter how much police officers it may have to its disposition. And most of those information transactions are being done in the open, without any attempt by the sharer to mask his identity via proxying and VPN’s, which just make it even more impossible for the government to
Not only it is unsupressable, but also, inversely to centralized information distribution systems, it delivers faster the more people accesses to it. Unlike a regular server which can be overladed with requests, p2p sends the data faster the more people have accessed or are requesting it. The day even regular web pages like yours are distributed this way that will be the end of government censorpship of the internet. As a matter of fact I’m surprised this hasn’t already been fully developed and in widespread use.
Ian Tompkins
Posted at 01:29 pm, 6th May 2017I recommend taking a look at Ethereum, it’s a more programmable cryptocurrency, that some are calling Bitcoin 2.0. It’s essentially a smart cryptocurrency. I don’t think it’s perfect yet, but it’s still in development. I’ve also heard it’s expected to become a means of creating direct democracy, I’m not 100% sure how it’s supposed to work, but worth a mention.