Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably have some familiarity with Bitcoin. While most people do not own it, most people have heart it in the news or social media. Some people remain skeptical of Bitcoin, others are passionate supporters. Whether you’re an investor, hodler, or bitcurious, Bitcoin is something to be aware of in the new age of stagflationary economics.
Ever since 1971, the nature of money changed. Once the US left the gold standard, which provided backing of the US Federal Reserve Note with a hard asset, cash became a form of debt. Hence every economics student learns (as I did) that money is nothing. Cash, as money, literally doesn’t exist since paper money printed at discretion by federal banks is just a debt IOU. When you get paid in cash, you are getting a promise that one day the balance will be worth something. In actuality, those who save cash are harmed the most because continued debt-driven fiat economics depreciates the value of cash. This is inflation, and if you haven’t noticed, prices for just about everything are up.
With the current fiat economic system in chaos, what are the alternatives? Bitcoin doesn’t represent a “get rich quick” scheme as many people without knowledge of cryptocurrency think. Bitcoin and the emergent cryptocurrency industry represent an entirely different economic alternative to the corrupt central bank-central government cartel that controls the global economy. Imbeciles like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mark Warren, among many others, have shown themselves to be shills for the current financial industry—despite their populist and little-person persona. What is their critique of crypto? That it “threatens the current financial system.” That’s rich, pardon the pun, coming from a fake Native American claiming to be against the big banks. But when the big banks are threatened, she comes down in favor of their protection in the name of “protecting consumers.”
The decentralized and unregulated nature of Bitcoin, along with its fixed supply, means inflation is impossible. Moreover, the pseudo-anonymity to Bitcoin means the potential problem of tracking and putting an expiration date on central bank digital currencies are non-existent. (CBDCs are nothing more than highly centralized and regulated forms of digital fiat that will give central banks even more control over our finances and economies despite promising greater equity, efficiency, and usability.) Unlike fiat, Bitcoin can travel anywhere in the world with people who have crypto wallets, exchange accounts, or crypto-backed/linked debit and credit cards. There is no more need to exchange national currencies upon arrival in countries with different national currencies; once Bitcoin is accepted as a decentralized means of payment it can be utilized anywhere in the world. The Bitcoin protocol makes it impervious to the manipulation of central banks, unlike fiat currencies.
While the dinosaurs of the US Government and petty tyrants like Elizabeth Warren, Mark Warner, Kyrsten Sinema, Janet Yellen, and President Joe Biden are showing their true colors in the recent anti-crypto legislation in the infrastructure bill with their amendments and advocacy for crippling the crypto industry (which will effectively offshore crypto development and the future of digital technologies to China and other overseas despotisms), the bright spot is that Bitcoin will remain impervious to bad and crippling legislation because of its decentralized nature. If billions of people around the world accept it as currency, it doesn’t matter what banks and central governments do. The power remains in the hands of the people, the truest manifestation of the Invisible Hand in economics.
As fiat spending and debt-GDP ratio increases (as it is also increasing in Japan, China, and the European Union), the future of our stagnant economic crisis is reaching a crossing road. Continue down the devaluating and despotic fiat system, or cross over to the future offered by cryptocurrency. It is no utopia, but at the current moment offers something better and allows individuals to reclaim control of their economic destinies.
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Hesiod, Paul Krause in real life, is the editor of VoegelinView and a writer on art, culture, literature, politics, and religion for numerous journals, magazines, and newspapers. He is the author of The Odyssey of Love and the Politics of Plato, and a contributor to the College Lecture Today and the forthcoming book Diseases, Disasters, and Political Theory. He holds master’s degrees in philosophy and theology (biblical & religious studies) from the University of Buckingham and Yale, and a bachelor’s degree in economics, history, and philosophy from Baldwin Wallace University.
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