As you may know, I sold my company this year to focus full-time on the cryptocurrency space. I went all in, choosing to convert to fiat to pay fiat bills as needed. My cryptocurrency holdings were valued in USD terms much, much higher than they are today.
With the prices down 80-90% or more across the board, you might think I'd have reason to be quite discouraged. Selling cryptocurrency at these prices to pay bills is certainly not fun, and I sure would love a nice strong rebound, but the real reason I'm not too discouraged is because I know why I got involved in the first place.
I have not forgotten my why, my reason: the source of my passion in this space isn't about profits or quick returns.
It's about creating a better world for myself, my family, and everyone.
I watched an amazing talk tonight. It was Andreas Antonopoulos' best talk so far, in my opinion. It brought me back to one of my first posts about bitcoin in early March of 2013 on my old blog:
In that blog I had a whole section about fractional reserve lending and the Federal Reserve banking cartel.
I was also reminded of the time capsule series I put together of my bitcoin related tweets from 2013 which you can see here (the December post links to all the others):
December 2013 Digital Time Capsule: Bitcoin Tweets from @lukestokes
From the very beginning, I wasn't involved because of the potential for personal profits or even because of the cool technology. I've always been involved because this is a path forward to escaping a completely broken system. We all know it's broken. We've tried protesting, changing it from the inside, apathetically ignoring it, or even just getting what we can out of it while it limps along. The real answer, so perfectly put by Andreas, is to escape the system completely.
The real answer is peer to peer decentralization.
Centralized systems are corruptible. They allow intermediaries to to drain massive amounts of wealth through legal theft. They reward theft with profit, legal immunity, and bigger opportunities for even more theft in the future.
This has to stop and the answer is in this video. The answer isn't to think about cryptocurrency as an investment, but as a way of life.
Please, watch and share this video:
I've been following Andreas and listening to his talks since 2013. This is one of his best. Please, do give it a watch and share it. If this isn't your motivation for being involved in cryptocurrency, then you may be in for the wrong reasons.
Also related and worth mentioning is this post by Dan Larimer in July of 2016: Steemit's Evil Plan for Cryptocurrency World Domination. Dan's post and the plan to bootstrap a real cryptocurrency everyday people could use was one of the reasons I got so excited about the Steem blockchain to begin with. Let's get back to that vision. Let's make it happen.
On a personal note, I haven't blogged about the latest details of our move to Puerto Rico because I tweaked my back and my head cold came back so bad I lost my voice. I've been resting in bed the last few days, but you can follow along via Twitter. I'll post more once I fully recover and get settled.
Thanks for the video!
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I've also shared his video and watched it twice already. Man, he's on fire there! It's like something happened and fuelled his passion and urgency to convey his message even more. Everyone needs to hear this!!
Hope you feel better soon! 🤧
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Holy crap that Bitcoin video is old lmao! I used that in presentations 4 maybe even 5 years ago lol! But I do love your message here and it's the same thing I've been trying to preach. Bring the power back to the people. Love the way you think! Hope your back gets up to par soon man
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This concept which I have also called monetary sovereignty is why I also got involved in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. The thought of you truly controlling your assets and its transfer without a third party intervention necessary as you move in the ever more borderless society is promising. However, it also shows the disruptive potential to traditional players which is why they are fighting to influence regulation and adoption.
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I strongly agree with the message of this video. Peer-to-peer transactions not only will starve the parasites, but will also restore the humanity of knowing who you are dealing with.
I'm actively working towards being able to buy and sell more with crypto. I've done some, but looking to do much more.
Hope you feel better soon. Thanks for sharing this!
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I agree totally with peer to peer transactions. I am looking to acquire Steem this way, but I haven't found any options yet.
Get well soon.
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Did you heard about Nexo loans?
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Looks interesting, but 16% seems a bit high (8% if you pay with their token). Also, this should be done via smart contracts on Ethereum or EOS. Why trust a centralized wallet? Makes not sense to me. Might as well use a smart contract system like EthLend instead. I think Salt lending is more decentralized than this, but I'm not sure.
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thanks for reminding us of the original purpose here and the forces against it on the outside.
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Having a clear why is crucial, and there are bigger reasons than personal gain for being excited about crypto... that possibility for real economic change is what got me into it in the first place as well. Look forward to watching the video later (resteemed so I remember). Hope you feel better and that you and the fam are getting settled. 💞
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Luke! I didn't know you were moving to Puerto Rico, but that's such a great move! Well done! Taxes are going to be an absolute breeze for you now. Super smart.
I've watched that video and absolutely loved it... I'm actually just now listening to this podcast where they're talking about some of the dodgy banking practices. I didn't realise before but when you sign a home loan with a bank, they're no longer lending you money, they're effectively creating wealth at your request. By rights the loan amount should move off their books, but it doesn't... and this is yet another reason why we need to opt out. It's nuts.
The current Central Banking system just can't not crash.
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While I agree the whole central banking centralized system is broken , the assumption that a central crypto currency will not being implemented ( if crypto it not already fully owned by the big money) is a pretty wild assumption...bordering on naive- in my opinion.
The best of luck with your new project, matey!
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That’s a valid concern for sure, but the beauty of voluntary, open-source money is that people are free to move between any project at any time. If a local community wants to, they can create their own brand new currency. That voluntary currency-control free environment will keep things decentralized as long as we tell good enough stories about value we accept. If anyone can come along and pump and dump our token (and we let them manipulate our buy and sell points), then it becomes much easier to centralize and control.
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I hope you are correct matey, I really do.
BUT...if all the crypto is already owned by centralized banks, they can buy up,and manipulate is much as they like (it's not like fiat scarcity is a problem for these sociopaths, to do as they wish...)
There is nothing 'we' can do to affect the big moves/players...which is the worrying part.
The crypto market as it is now - as a whole - is small change for them...
I hope this is the new paradigm, but I'm not holding my breath. Not yet.
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I've been thinking and talking about this since 2013. Here's an old post on it: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=162961.0 (unfortunately the images no longer show up, but they were cool pictures from a revolutionary war and the matrix).
Some of the discussions there get into the idea of "what if the central bankers buy it all up and manipulate the price?"
The basic answer is, not everyone will sell so their process of buying it up eventually increases the price which increases more mass adoption.
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...if bankers already own it all...?
If they don't....their comp algorithm will have it bought before anyone else can..
The price is irrelevant (to them) - if it's the control they're after...
.....I'm hoping I'm disastrously incorrect...
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I think they just want us on a digital system, it doesn't matter which "coins" since they're all connected through exchanges (which you need to provide your government ID to buy from).
And if you're fully on a digital system, your wealth is tied to the price they say the price of your assets are. You work for the smart machine and it allows you to buy dinner from the smart shops with your smart phone and smart ID.
In reality it seems to be but one step closer to the chip. The pro-crypto propaganda is real, and so I discuss it in depth over at my blog.
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Maybe you didn't see the video I linked to in my post? The entire point is peer to peer interactions and disintermediation. why buy from "the smart shops" when you guy buy from your peers directly with no corporations involved at all?
You can call it "pro-crypto propaganda" if you want, but the current central banking system is a complete disaster. Controlling your own store of value is a much, much better approach.
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They can only print money for so long (see Venezuela and Argentina). They can't control purchasing power forever.
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I have invested quite a bit in cryptos for the long term. I am not really worried about the present downturn. I think the people wanting to take the power back in their hands will eventually bear fruit. It is only a matter of time.
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