The year is not 1992. The year is 1984. The world is not about to enter a boom. The financial system is absurdly overburdened with debt, and global demographics point to a catastrophic decline, and quite likely large scale war, over the next 20 years. Power has become more and more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and those entities, whether states or corporations are actively seeking to increase their control over the masses.
Like it or not, the role of Bitcoin is as a weapon of resistance.
+1
This is why I feel that people supporting "regulation" of Bitcoin are missing perhaps the crucial point of this technology.
Like it or not, but money is at the very core of how our society works. While many agree that the current system is not very good as it allows for huge centralization of power, wealth as well as misallocation of capital, unsustainable projects and economic behavior etc. a lot of those people would argue that the way to change this is by passing new legislation and changing the system from the top down i.e. a
revolution. I don't agree with this at all, because it seems quite clear to me that this approach tends to yield just more of the same. The way to go in my eyes is by
evolution of a parallel system. One of the reasons why people cling to the old system is fear of the unknown. They have trouble imagining (helped by massive amounts of propaganda) things working in alternative ways. Growing alternative systems can go a long way, but those systems will be seen as a threat by the status quo and fought as such. Fortunately decentralized technology provides ways of defense against attacks by current power elites. The internet P2P sharing have done this with the flow of information - it's getting more and more out of control of those who would seek to control it. Bitcoin is a way to the same with money - the foundation of our current society. It's a big thing.
To me, Bitcoin is not about enhancing the current system. I don't want to see something as dreadful as the current financial system getting more efficient. It's about replacing the current system. All the pieces are in place - the inherent flaws of the current system are becoming more obvious to more and more people every day, it is primed to collapse sooner or later and there is fertile ground in terms of culture for the embracing of alternatives. The technology to address this has already been created. Now it becomes a question of growing this technology up to scale.
The Bitcoin economy is obviously still in its infancy. It has come a long way already in a short period of time. I reckon there will come a time,
before widespread adoption, where the community will arrive at a crossroads and have to decide; do we want to go the way of trying to integrate Bitcoin with current systems, or do we want it to stand its ground as a "weapon of resistance" and provide a much needed alternative?
H.G.Wells famously noted that "history is a race between education and catastrophe". Watching the slow motion collapse and consecutive propping up of the current financial system in recent years has made me pessimistic about the outcome of this race. Bitcoin is the biggest factor to emerge in recent years which makes me think/hope that education might win after all. Just think about how much you learned thanks to Bitcoin. I know I have. Not too long ago I knew nothing about cryptography and digital signatures. Now I have appeared in print media and given a presentation about just that. Same goes for the topic of money and political philosophy. Bitcoin is a huge catalyst for educating people and only educated people are able to make informed decisions.
