My name is Larry-Jobs Zuckerberg-Gates. I am from the year 2060. I have traveled back in time to share some important information with you.
Time Travel Ticket.
I bought a ticket to travel back in time using Bitcoin. Dollars don’t exist any more in 2060, except as a mere collectible digital token. The price of a single Bitcoin in my year, 2060, is more than one-zillion google-dollars. It could buy all the gold in all of your central banks.
As you can see, it's very expensive to buy a time-travel ticket. Only I can afford such a ticket. You see, in 2060, I am the richest man in the USS, the United Solar System. I literally own your planet earth, and quite a few others too. In fact, I could well be the richest creature in the entire universe.
About me.
My ancestors were the founders of some of the greatest companies on planet earth. By 2018 these companies collectively owned and controlled all the information known to mankind. Now, in 2060, they are all merged into the largest company in the Solar System.
No more central banks.
In the future, in my year, 2060, we don’t have any more central banks. In fact we don’t have banks. They are all gone. Your brain is your bank. Everything you own is linked to your DNA and held on the Blockchain.
The Blockchain in 2060.
The Blockchain has replaced everything from ownership of assets, to pleasure, to governments. Nothing happens without the Blockchain. Power is truly in the hands of the people.
Gold and Bitcoins banned. Dollar abandoned.
Just before the dollar was abandoned, some 30 or 40 years ago, the gold price was over a billion dollars. They tried to suppress the demand for gold by making it illegal. Same thing for Bitcoin. Of course it didn’t work. It’s like telling people to stop breathing or eating. Before digital assets were invented, people would hide their gold by burying it in the garden. The Blockchain was like another garden.
US Digital Dollar.
The US digital dollar, ("USDD"), was introduced in 2019. People were skeptical at first. They didn't like it. However adoption grew quickly because it was very convenient to use. For a while, it looked like the US digital dollar would work.
We know your bank balance.
Skeptics and anarchists were against the new currency. Every cent had a unique identifying code. The government knew where it was now, and where it had been. They always knew how much you had.
It wasn’t good for criminals.
Tracking every cent.
Dissenters saw the main problem with the USDD as the tracking. They didn’t like the fact that the government was tracking every single cent. They knew who owned it, and what you spent it on. It wasn’t anonymous like bank notes. You couldn’t stick your USDD in a bank and hope to disguise your ownership that way. Every US digital cent, (USDc), was linked back to its ultimate owner.
Apart from anarchists and crooks, the public at large didn't have much of a problem with the tracking. Young people, especially, were used to being spied on, particularly by the companies my ancestors founded. They just saw it as the price to pay for convenience. After-all, the new digital currency was very convenient to use.
We, the government, own you. We control your money.
The biggest weakness of the USDD was the fact the government could literally cancel any dollar, any cent, or take your money off you, at any time, for any reason. They could take everything in a micro-second with the click of a mouse. It was just too easy.
The government starts to abuse its powers of seizure.
To start with, it was seen as a good thing that the government could seize the assets of criminals and terrorists. Then the government started to attack a wider group.
Seizures started to happen to anyone the government didn’t like, for any reason. This included suspected tax-evaders, rogue foreign governments, anti-establishment journalists and anarchists. Political rivals started see their cash seized. The policy was, “seize first and argue later”. You only had to say something like, “I don’t like the President”, to be treated as a possible terrorist, and have your assets seized.
Gold and Bitcoin soar past the $1 million mark.
As fear and doubt grew about the government's abuse of power, the public started to seek out alternative assets that couldn't be seized, like gold and Bitcoins. The prices of both assets had been rising rapidly for a couple of years, but now the prices were moving geometrically upwards as everyone scrambled to own some safe-haven assets. Prices were already well over $1 million, more than 1000X the price of a few years before.
2022: The government is on the brink of bankruptcy.
The government was struggling to fund itself. Nobody would lend them money. The government was desperate. For decades it had been borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, and printing the difference. Now Peter wouldn't lend any more. In a last ditch attempt to stave off bankruptcy, the Central Bank raised interest rates to 17%. At the same time, the government made ownership of gold and Bitcoins illegal. It didn't work. Physical and digital assets were immediately buried in their real and virtual gardens.
The final straw. The "Dollar Emergency Bailout Tax".
The final straw came when the government imposed the “dollar emergency bailout tax”, (“DEBT”). They arbitrarily imposed imposed a 4% tax on every USDD. Every cent whose serial number ended with the letter “a” was returned to the government. Whilst this was supposed to be a one-off emergency situation, designed to bailout the bankrupt government, few saw it that way. Most suspected the government would be back for more next year. That was the end. People fled into other things, as the dollar collapsed.
Winners and losers.
Whilst that was unfortunate for the government, central banks, bond holders, and anyone who held lots of cash, it was a blessing to those who owned other things. Stock markets soared along with gold and all kinds of assets outside the control of governments.
The Global Currency Reset.
Needless to say, my ancestors’ companies were major beneficiaries of the ensuing global currency reset, (“GCR”). The new currency of the world became information. Collectively we owned or controlled all the information known to mankind. The weakened government became powerless to stop the so called “illegal” merger of our companies. We had the money, we had the information. We could buy anything. That’s what we did. We bought the world.
Power to people.
The governments of planet earth are long gone. The world is run by the Blockchain, (and of course by us, the repository of all information known to mankind). The people of the world run the Blockchain. Global peace has returned. There are no more taxes. Everyone has enough food and lodging. The economy is a free market economy. You can do anything which doesn't hurt others. If you are doing something controversial the Blockchain will let the people decide what should be done. Everyone is happy, nobody is oppressed. Of course we still collect your information so we can bring exciting and pertinent offers to your attention. But we don't force you to buy, even if we do influence your thinking. It's a free world in 2060. Whether you want it or not, we can force you to be free.
Well that's a fun story... But if a ticket is only 1 BTC, I know a lot of people who'll be able to buy one in the future.
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Yeah, but a lot of others will never afford 1BTC $3500-ish and only going up. But, this author got a lot of it right.
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Hey, upvoted you. Nice to do this as a story. Makes it very entertaining.
Remember how the internet was supposed to free us from the established news media and government censorship? Well, now the ISPs and their buddies in the FCC and Trump administration dismantled internet neutrality. I can very well see the same kind of dirty tricks played out in the bitcoin story. Governments will not knuckle under, every. It's gonna get nasty to those who old crypto in the days it will get banned.
Upvoted you.
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One thing is for sure. The governments are moving at hyper-speed towards their own crypto-currencies. To what extent these new currencies have the weaknesses of the old currencies remains to be seen. Even if the weaknesses are removed, questions will remain over whether the government can change the rules later. Probably the new Government backed USDD will come at a time of monetary crisis, and collase of the old USD. The new USDD will carry a promise that it is protected from the flaws which destroyed the old currency, namely excess printing and unlimited supply.
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Well, if that were true then it's a step in the right direction. But as you correctly point out, that can be legislated later to change -- change into something undesirable like the old currency.
Ideally, we would all have a choice in what we want to hold and trade with, USDD, BTC, BCH, and everything else, like Euros, British Pounds, all converted dynamically behind the scenes on the blockchain ...
We can only dream.
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