Bitcoin Forum

make no mistake... this is a revolution

This is what I want to tell the power-elite and their puppets, the bankers and politicians:


We are taking things in our own hands now: we are introducing a new kind of money. A free market money. We welcome all other sorts of money to enter the competition, the free market for moneys.
  
Ah, Bitcoin: It really is the peoples money. As Gregory Mannarino says: you have to be your own central bank. And that's what Bitcoin does: it enables us, the poeple, to be our own central banks, to take control of the medium of exchange and store of value we use in our lives. This doesn't mean we control the money supply in any direct way in the case of Bitcoin... it just means it's outside anyones reach to control it... a sound money.

Us bitcoiners, we are not fighting the establishment. We live by the rules as far as we can and are not aggressive. We just happen to use our own money, thanks.

Consider Bitcoin: Bitcoin is not about accumulating wealth, it's about freedom: freedom of economic interaction and freedom of speech (those are interdependant: you can't have one without the other).

Consider the economy: The economy consists of the people participating in it, not some corporate monopolists. So the performance of the economy should be measured in the happyness and well-being of the people, not some aggregate value called GDP.

Consider our current monetary system: The central banks of this world are executing a "race to the bottom" between their FIAT-Currencies in order to keep GDP up (among other things), causing severe distortions in the otherwise functioning economy. Misallocations of capital continually produce bubbles and false price signals. Saving (setting aside money for later) is made impossible, hence money is not withheld from immediate spending (not because of the immediate need for products/services, but because of artificial inlfation). Manipulatd interest rates send false signals to the economy to do the wrong thing. The economy is sick... sick with a bad kind of money.

Consider how far this fiat-money-regime has gotten us already: there are puppets of the power-elite installed in parliaments in Europe. A blatant disregard of democratic values. These "technocrats" are not elected by the people of the respective countries, yet there they are shaping policy, legislature and the regulatory environment in general. Manipulating the rules that govern the police and the military. They put these puppets there to execute their will. They just do it with no legitimation whatsoever for us to swallow. They don't care about us. They don't represent us. Hell, they don't even respect us. They don't care.

But I care. I represent myself and respect myself and care about myself. And I think most of you care about yourselves and represent and respect yourselves. If speaking to a broader audience I could probably say: Some of you just don't know what to do at this point. Some of you might not quite understand the Internet and Bitcoin as what they are: a tool to be used by the people to take back control. And I'm not talking about the internet of Facebook and Google, those have become surveillance tools. I'm talking about the internet that nurtures creativity and cultural development. I'm talking about the internet that enables you to find like-minded people distributed around the globe. I'm talking about the internet that allows anyone to publish without fear. I'm talking about the internet that allows people to have communication in private and the internet that allows us to share what we want to share. I'm talking about the internet that allows everyone to give money to anyone else... in private, with no oversight, regulation or accountability. I think this is a basic human right: the right to engage in voluntary [economic, social, sexual, intellectual or whatever kind of] interaction with other poeple on a self-chosen basis that is not governed by anyone but the participants themselves.

Consider what the regime will do next: Surveillance of every aspect of your life is prevalent. The war propaganda machinery has been started. At the end of most fiat currency regimes, there is a war. It's used (among other things) to cover up the scam and keep it going one more time.

I don't want there to be a fucking 3rd world war... and I don't think most of you do, either.

I think there's a way to avoid it: if we transition to using types of money that are not controlled by the power-elite quickly enough, they simply wont be able to finance a war.

State controlled capitalism is called fascism. What do we call capital-controlled statism? Well whatever it is: it's sucking the motherfucking life out of us and if continued will end badly.
  
The era of the Nationstate is ending... The era of the corporatocracy is ending,... actually the era of aristocracy or whatever the structure of the current power-elite is, is ending.

This is the era of the people. We are now in the unique situation to be able to take back and defend our basic human rights, for example the right to privacy both of individuals and of groups they might form. The Internet and cryptography empower us to do this.
The right to privacy, both in being and communication, is a privilege I am not willing to give up and one that I want everybody to have.
Cryptography and the net give us the power to exercise this right... we just need to actually do it.

I don't want to be a serf,.. a slave, told by some institutionalized asshole how to act and think. I don't think you do, either. I don't want to be controlled by mass-channeled propaganda. And I don't think you do, either. I don't want to be constantly monitored in all my moves and analyzed in all my emotional state and thoughts. I don't want to be controlled, I want to be free. And I think you want to be free, too.

So what to do?

Here are some rules I wish I would live by:

• keep educating people about bitcoin and what it really is, freedom of speech, freedom of economic interaction.
• try to live a prosperous life. seriously: look after yourself, then look after others.
• don't work for or support more than necessary the government, police, military or monopolist corporation.
• actively select the sources of your information, talk to people, connect to their hearts.
• be open to everyone but critical of any information you receive
• keep the internet alive and as free as possible for as many people as possible
• use Bitcoin as much as possible
• offer goods and services for bitcoin
• help others to understand and accept Bitcoin
• encourage others (and yourself) to trade, perform services and/or make contracts among individuals
• don't evangelize Bitcoin. Bitcoin is not a religion, just the currently best solution to a problem. Emphasize on currency competition and freedom of the people.
• sell your bitcoins to anyone who wants to buy, but don't forget to re-stock
• don't follow a leader, think for yourself
• think... and feel... and be....
• we are one world, all connected,... act accordingly and responsibly.
• be not afraid, the greatest fear we have is fear itself.

All these cryptographic functions do not ensure your personal well-being per se.
All this digital gold does not make everyone equally wealthy,..
But what this cryptographic type of money does is to enable a functioning economy that serves the people who constitute it.
Those other problems will have to be fought in a differnt arena, not that of money.
  
I truly believe Bitcoin and the Internet empower us to ensure our freedom, well-being and prosperity of both the human culture/society and also of each of the individuals constituting it.

We just need to act accordingly...
  
We need to be the change we want to see!

I accidentally prematurely posted while still editing.

Well, I might still make changes to OP.

You prematurely elucidated?

Comrade Lenin?  :o How are you???

fuck that, I'm a capitalist.

hopefully.

You may want to rethink your slogan:

why?

Hmmm.  Yes, good point...

Good manifesto though.

"...Now it's OUR turn to fuck up."

good point... suggestions?

Show your capital, capitalist :)))

"You fucked up; now get out of our way." ?

Fucked up, you have. Fix it, we must.

This is absolutely brilliant, molecular.  Great work!  Five stars!  Ten out of ten!  You've taken my, and most everyone's, thoughts and condensed them into this sweet little package.  From a glance, everything looks to be in order.  But I do agree, that first bit, "You fucked up, our turn!" implies it's time for us to fuck up :P  Perhaps "You fucked up, now we're in control?"  Not sure...

It's better, but I'm not content. Will change for now.

They're not in our way, that's why I don't like it... how about "now we try" or "let us try".

Oh wow, thanks man! I'm not sure I would've even posted without accidentally clicking "post" instead of "preview".

Now I'm glad I did.

"NOW WE DO IT OURSELVES".... grr. still no good, is it?

My capital are my skills, my knowledge and my friends.

There is no 'try'.

Don't be so certain.
Even Satoshi said this was an experiment.

I agree, though. There's no doubt we will succeed: so let's make it "WE'LL TAKE CARE OURSELVES"?

It think I got it:

YOU FUCKED UP,
NOW PISS OFF!

good?

Very good.

Humorous, but I think it needs something a little more serious.
The 'fuck' part already gives away the 'free speech' thing, now it just needs something more friendly to add up.

true. also I'd rather have something motivating to the individual...

Actually, the original incentive to write this post was to write something that would convince people we're not in a bubble. I wonder wether or not that was successful.

Capitalism negates several of your "life rules"...

Personally I think it's a great post that everyone needs to pay attention to.

Name one.

Nice post. I agree.

Bitcoin needs a manifesto to appeal to the OWS crowd and this is pretty good. Stay away from the term "experiment" no matter who said it. Satoshi isn't here anymore. Bitcoin is here to stay no matter what the FUDsters say. This is a revolution, indeed.

word!

This is exactly what bitcoin doesn't need!

its not a cause, its a way to transfer wealth!

The more people think its got political overtones, the less support its going to get.

Just let the free market decide if bitcoin survives.

Having a manifesto seems to suggest that it can't survive on its own! ;)

I second that. If you want to keep the message short but meaningful and I recommend something along the lines:

How About

True. The original post is interesting and good, but it can't be a bitcoin manifesto, for sure.

wasn't planned as one. Just an excerpt of my thinking and feeling. Maybe inspires some and brings people back on track ;)

We know this is a real revolution because it already has a soundtrack (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMAI-OIxLPo).

I share a lot of the sentiment about revolutions and paradigms (peaceful of course!) but hearing it from others makes me itch to press the good old Sell bitcoins button, or would do if I held enough bitcoin for that to be worthwhile. ;D

Bubble, anyone?

Sorry if it came accross as such. I didn't mean to write a manifesto, just to express my feelings and share some of my thinking. The intention was to deny the possibility of a bubble in BTC/fiat rate.

And yes, of course, "let the free market decide". Thanks for saying that.

Don't be afraid, it'll work out.

the only valid reason to push the bitcoin sell button is to pay bills or move wealth into real assets.

YOU FUCKED UP,
WE'LL TAKE IT FROM HERE!

Agreed, trust me, I'm not using my bitcoin to buy fiat at all. It's either being "hoarded" or used to buy bling, or sometimes litecoin. Yes, I do use bitcoin to buy things sometimes, and to donate, and tip, and so on. That's what it's for. :)

I'm fine with my position because bitcoin isn't a get-rich-quick scheme. If I do wind up rich from my few 'coins, great, but it's more about the principle, and the Bitcoin love. ;D

+1*10^8

wow! I think that's it.

someone made a fork of this and sent the result to me:

Maybe we need to regionalize the reaction... (Harsh criticism / Bold action)
I sense a meme coming on! OK artist and graphics guys, have at er.

FF
PS. you are usually so quiet and polite, nice to see the firebrand back. All these years can weigh heavy on a soul and you can always count on our support and the continued support from the many old-timers here.

soothing words.

[/b]

Love the "Thank You".

Thanks for summing up what I have been feeling for such along time Molecular.

glad to have spoken your soul.

Isn't REVOLUTION == CATASTROPHE? One word in Greek, the other in Latin...

"Catastrophe" means "complete failure". Depending on what fails completely it can be good or bad.

I like this definition of revolution:

OK. I just wanted to point that centuries ago both words had the same meaning - overturn - one was in Greek, the other in Latin. So, be careful with revolution...

Predictions:

• Bitcoin will usher in the largest creation of wealth in the history of mankind.
• Historians will discuss BB (before Bitcoin)  and AB (after Bitcoin) as a defining moment in the history of money.
• Many early adopter will become fabulously wealthy. And with this wealth will come great power and potentially political might as well.
• Central banks will be forced to compete much the same way that the post office must compete with email.
• When the debt implosion occurs in fiat currency, Bitcoin will stand even taller, and those that have entrusted their savings into Bicoin will be rewarded by its preservation.

Very well written.

But perhaps you should replace the phrase "power elite" with something more neutral. It sounds a bit too much like a tinfoil hatter in my opinion.

Believe it or not, but some people in the "power elite" are actually on our side.

I agree and I would be happy to change it. Been thinking about this a couple of times while I was writing, but I haven't been able to come up with anything good.

Happy about suggestions.

the powers that be.

Very good post!

Viva la revolution!  8)

Wait, what? This molecular?

You've inspired me to think a bit harder about the larger societal effects of Bitcoin, not just where I could spend my coins next. Thank you.


It will probably be the era of the cryptocracy. I'm not sure if this will be a good thing or not - anonymity in bitcoin has given us both Satoshi and Pirate.

Excact.

With bitcoin, we will have a to rebuild a whole society! I think this will become really huge

Dr. Steve,

I think your predictions are all likely to come true....


likely. While bitcoin itself doesn't create wealth (you can't print wealth), it enables the people to create, through voluntary exchange (the economy), to create wealth.


also likely. gold will be seen as a crude precursor to cryptocurrency that could only be exchanged locally. However, I think future historians will view "the internet" as the big change that happened. They will not even be aware that the internet has existed before cryptocurrency has.


Yes. They will be wealthy. But they will not rule the land by force. They will be investors and visionaries and they will try big crazy things. And in the end they will pass on their wealth or distribute it in some way and they will have lived good lifes. No envy. With great wealth comes great responsibility.


also likely. however I think they will go down much faster. The post office still exists.


also likely. let's just see to it that violence is minimized and let's welcome the past wrong-doers with open arms and enable them to play a positive part in our new society.

+10000000!

I am humbled by your eloquence sir, thank you for this!

1. bitcoin doesn't create net wealth, it destroys it in the form of electricity, and aloooot of it, existing currencies don't do this at all. let me take this moment to emphasize that energy consumed by financial services such as banks are not energy consumed to keep currency from dying, energy consumed by financial services are unrelated to the currency itself and the same would apply to bitcoin financial services anyway
2. too stupid for comment
3. already happened, it only happens once and it was on the back of naive people who haven't even realised it yet
4. they will perhaps adapt slightly, but that is all they need to do and probably will never have to (atleast not with bitcoin 1.0)
5. Debt implosion implies significant increase in dollar value, your mom and dad will beg and eat their own shit to get their hands on a dollar to pay their dollar denominated debts and to prevent getting into wars as another means of payment to that debt

Nice opening post.

War is a way of wasting economic capabilities by building expensive items and the blowing them up on purpose.

Well done sir. Well done...

Molecular - I came across your post via a series of coincidences, too complicated to share here.  ;)
But, we share a vision, a passion and perhaps some inspiration.

I think we all understand this may not be smooth sailing, but that is a large part of the specialness of what BTC is bringing to the show.

They are trying to regulate us and I'm not completely against some as long as it doesn't become a stranglehold. We are in a position of power and we shouldn't forget that. They should meet us in the middle.
If you notice the news pumping out stories of Liberty Reserve being shut down and perhaps Bitcoin being next, all the while ignoring that we are decentralized, you know we are on their minds. They are
trying to quell the storm that recently started to explode in the media. (Once we are a few hundred more dollars per BTC, they won't be able to. It is my STRONG belief we need to go slow here. Don't try
to do to much too fast (regarding price)).

Now the Fed is investigating the effect we have on their money. Wow, a private corporation seeing if we impact them. I think their terrible policy (e.g. - inflation - 85 bill more $ a month) is doing that fine alone.

It will be interesting to see who gets to that point of no return first, TPTB or BTC. My bet is on the latter and we might have already crossed that threshold, though the legality hanging over us needs
some attention as we are up against criminals who profit from wars and have been enslaving people for a long time. They don't want "competition" and they will make a more obvious move, count on it.

Exciting times ahead. Our Anti-Fragile Black Swan has entered the building and she is not going anywhere (see my sig). To do so just makes her stronger. We are the beginning of a technological revolution that we just don't understand yet.

My Brother,
IAS

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e_UFZsszBa0/UU2WYGJVccI/AAAAAAAAAFk/hhUQUM0t3NM/s1600/blackswan.jpg