12 years passed already since the launch of Bitcoin. And yet, most of people have no idea how it should be used, nor what Bitcoin is good for. Most of the users make a combination against the nature, using Bitcoin together with banks and centralized exchanges, having no knowledge about its libertarian and crypto-anarchic grounds.
Without understanding that Bitcoin is here for helping them evade the slavery that governs and banks coerces them to, people do all they can to enslaves themselves, making an easy job for the elites which oppress them for thousands of years.
12 years ago Satoshi offered a very precious tool to humanity, tool which was able to set them free. Let's see how he was describing his invention:
A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.
Commerce on the Internet has come to rely almost exclusively on financial institutions serving as trusted third parties to process electronic payments. While the system works well enough for most transactions, it still suffers from the inherent weaknesses of the trust based model.
Completely non-reversible transactions are not really possible, since financial institutions cannot avoid mediating disputes. The cost of mediation increases transaction costs, limiting the minimum practical transaction size and cutting off the possibility for small casual transactions, and there is a broader cost in the loss of ability to make non-reversible payments for non-reversible services. With the possibility of reversal, the need for trust spreads.
[...]
What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust, allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted third party. Transactions that are computationally impractical to reverse would protect sellers from fraud [...]He offered a method with which people could transact directly,
peer-to-peer, avoiding any third party, no matter its name - govern, bank or other middleman.
Satoshi invented Bitcoin and gave it away for free, for helping individuals to have financial freedom, but people, in return, invented centralized exchanges, "helping" themselves to remain miserable slaves. This is something which remembers me of other memorable scientific inventions, meant to help people, but immediately after the respective inventions other showed up and weaponized them. Apparently, if there is not any entity to harm them,
people choose on their own to harm themselves.
After reading these, some may ask: "What's wrong with using centralized exchanges? They keep my money and I have the money at my disposal and I can do whatever I want with them!".
The last sentence is a monumental lie. It's an
oxymoron, meaning an expression which denies itself. It's like saying "I am smoking in a healthy manner".
People's greed never had any limit. Bitcoin appeared for liberating them, but they only understood that Bitcoin is here to help them get rich. The greed determined people to invent the centralized exchanges. Instead of using Bitcoin between them, in peer-to-peer transactions, fact which would render traditional money and governs as irrelevant, people created an abomination meant to centralize something which was born decentralized.
Some were smarter than others, but also greedy, and they took advantage of their knowledge and the others' greed for creating these centralized exchanges, where people hurry to deposit
their money - which, since they are deposited, they become
exchange's money. Individuals hope to get rich, without realizing they just lose on all directions. The situation is dramatic, as they don't lose just money, but way more...
What could be more than money? They are losing their personal information -
that gift they received at birth which remains
personal only until the individual chooses to not be personal anymore. And once the personal information is revealed, it will never be personal anymore. How many asked themselves "What means
personal?". As greed blinded them, hoping to obtain profits and become rich over the night, people ran happily towards the centralized exchanges, sparing no effort for having accepted their requests for opening accounts. Meaning they offered all their personal data to the exchanges. Some exchanges offer for free some 5-10-20$ amounts to those opening accounts. Have you ever wondered why the exchanges give this money for free? Have you told yourself that "the exchanges are honored to have
me as a client, that's why"? Not true. That amount of money is nothing for the exchanges, as they will earn way more from the clients. It is said that when something is free,
you are the merchandise. Like on Facebook. In the case of exchanges, the situation is worst: if you are paid to become a customer, think to the most bad thing that can happen to you!
What is the most bad thing that can happen?
First of all, the exchange never loses money. House always wins. And customers always lose. Users are happy when BTC goes to the moon, hoping they'll earn some profits. They get sad then BTC value crashes, because they lose money. Many sell their BTC although they know they are losing, but they do it in order to avoid to lose even more. They don't understand that as long as they keep their BTC they don't lose anything. And what do the exchanges do? They win when BTC soars, as they earn fees from the users. They earn when BTC value goes down, as they are receiving fees now as well. When the users withdraw their money from the exchange, they lose more money. And I'm not talking about the network fees, but the exchange's fees.
In other words, people constantly contribute to the benefit of exchanges and also to their very own poverty. Besides, how many of you observed how the biggest exchanges, like Coinbase or Binance,
always encounter "technical outages", shutting down their platforms right at the moment when BTC soars to the moon or plunges? Can it be such a coincidence that at each substantial price change, an outage shuts down the exchanges only until the price comes back to its previous value? The explanations given by the exchanges' spokepersons are pathetic and ridiculous. It's vivid clear that, since these shitty moves are made for years, the exchanges choose to shut down in such moments, thus people won't profit if BTC soars too much and limiting them to buy BTC if the price plunges.
Second of all, as I was saying above, people lose their personal information by going willingly through a very dangerous process, named KYC. The exchanges don't care about their clients nor about their personal information. They only want to earn more money. They can be hacked by hackers which, besides stealing money, also steal the users' personal information, this being a very precious resource, which can be turned into even more money, especially when it is sold on Dark Net. A CNBC article describes how the hackers sell personal information for 1$ a piece (this information consisting, among others, in physical addresses of the users, their credit / debit cards, copies of their IDs etc.):
Hackers are selling your data on the ‘dark web’... for only $1. A notorious similar case from the forum is
the case of the Romanian bekli23, which, while pretending he is decrypting old BTC wallets, he was also asking users to send him photos with them while holding their IDs and other bills in hand. Obviously, he was not decrypting any wallet. But he was trying to collect personal information, most likely, for selling it on Dark Net, for the ridiculous price of 1$ per piece!
In some cases, the exchanges are the ones selling customers' personal information! And I'm not talking about small, shady exchanges, but about the big ones. Coinbase is one of the biggest exchanges and yet it was caught selling clients' personal data! A 2019 article,
Coinbase Admits Its Former Data Provider Sold Client Data, describes how Christine Sandler, one of the exchange's executives, admitted the company sold the users' personal information. Having this example, do you think that other exchanges don't do the same thing? Just they weren't caught yet?
Third of all, exchanges offer users' personal information directly to the authorities. Were you hoping the govern wouldn't know about you and your finances - at least your crypto transactions (considering that it knows anyway all your transactions with fiat money)? By using centralized exchanges, it is certain that the govern will have its eye on you! Again, an example involving Coinbase: a Forbes article,
Coinbase Notifies Customers That It Will Turn Over Court-Ordered Data, describes how this exchange gave the customers' private information to IRS. Don't imagine it was
a singular case. Such practices are done by all exchanges, no matter the country.
Fourth of all, a centralized exchange doesn't offer the private keys to the clients, meaning the users don't have access to the tool allowing them to control their own money. The private keys of the wallets are held by the exchanges, thus
the users accept they are ceasing the right of ownership over their money when they make deposits to exchanges. Regarding this situation, the Bitcoin evangelist Andreas Antonopulos used the expression "
Not Your Keys, Not Your Bitcoin". For making things even more clear, in a lawsuit against Coinbase (this exchange seems to be the most negative example), the accuser lost the trial and the judge decided
Not Your Keys, Not Your Bitcoin.
Fifth of all, exchanges can be hacked by hackers (
and you lose the money).
Sixth of all, exchanges can decide abusively to freeze your accounts (
and you lose the money).
Seventh of all, exchanges can exit scam (
and you lose the money).
This is why you should avoid centralized exchanges. This is why Bitcoin must not be used together with such monsters, which are working just to the prejudice of the clients! This is how the clients of centralized exchanges lose their money no matter the operation they intend to do. And this is how, besides money, they also lose their personal information, risking to have it stolen by bad actors, fact which exposes them to monumental risks: once the criminals obtain someone's personal information, they can pay him a "visit", they can rob him, they can break into his house, they can steal his goods or even they can threaten his life!
People's greed has no limit and, although the above examples should suffice and convince anyone to run away from centralized exchanges, it still doesn't happen. People didn't limit just to the abomination of using centralized exchanges; they took the absurd
to the moon, and used Bitcoin in an even more grotesque combination, by involving also the banks in the financial transaction! Meaning they involved those trusted third parties which Satoshi wanted so much to take out from the equation. The man fought hard to damage himself as much as possible, by combining Bitcoin with the exchanges and also with the banks.
Similar as above, after reading these, some may ask: "What's wrong with using banks? They keep my money and I have the money at my disposal and I can do whatever I want with them!".
Again, the last sentence is a monumental lie.
First of all, banks do not hold your money, but use it in order to obtain even more money. They should keep just a fraction in reserve but, many times, they don't hold even that fraction. This detail
was also observed by Satoshi and maybe it represented another reason which determined him to create Bitcoin.
The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts.
Second of all, banks do not allow the clients to use their money as they wish. If they deposit an amount too big (compared with the previous transactions), the banks can freeze the accounts, forcing the clients to justify where they have all that money from. The same thing happens if the clients receive too big transactions. Those believing they can use their money as they wish are terribly wrong. Similar to the centralized exchanges, once the clients deposit their money to the bank, they also give the bank full control over the money.
Third of all, banks can handle their clients to the hands of authorities. And again: if a transaction looks suspicious in the eyes of the bank, usually a transaction involving a big amount of money, then then bank may not just freeze the account, but also notice the authorities. And, in this case, the client will face something even worst, being forced to justify his money in front of the authorities!
Of course, if the individual is not able to justify the provenance of the money, then the money is lost. Banks act like long arms of the govern and they don't care about the clients; they only care about growing their own wealth, while keeping a good relationship with the govern.
Fourth of all, banks can deny transactions initiated by clients, as they please, or based on the Terms and Conditions, which represent a document signed by the client, but usually nobody reads that dozen of pages when opening a bank account. And, as most of the banks are not friendly with crypto, crypto users are very exposed.
Fifth of all, some individuals use services provided by some financial institutions like Revolut, thinking they own crypto. In reality, they don't own even 1 satoshi! That's because Revolut doesn't allow the possession of crypto, but of CFDs. They sell you the illusion that you own crypto, but you don't. The same is the case with eToro.
Sixth of all, similar to centralized exchanges, bank clients will lose money in all possible ways: they'll pay fees for opening accounts, for depositing money, for withdrawing money, for transferring money, for checking the account balance, for the administration of the accounts, for having issued a credit / debit card and so on.
Seventh of all, banks may also go bankrupt, they can exit scam and they can lose clients' personal information. Of course these cases are not so often as in the case of crypto exchanges, but such incidents may still happen. They happened in the past and they'll keep happening in the future.
And, in case you still have doubts about what I described so far, the below screenshot proves the way one of Romania's biggest bank treats its clients:
Photo source: Facebook
Translated in English, it means the following:
Within the business relation the bank has with its clients, the bank is forced to follow the laws related to knowing their clients with the purpose of preventing and combating money laundering, financing terrorism and for following the General Business Conditions (GBC) for the entire clients portfolio.
According to GBC, to the regulation 2/2019 of National Bank of Romania and the Law 129/2019, the client has the responsibility to provide the Bank all the documents requested by the Bank, which are needed for verification and clarification of the purpose and the nature of the recorded transactions. Through this document, we let you know that, after analyzing the transactions realized from your account, we decided the typology of these transactions breaks art. 23.1 from GBC, which states the following: "In case the Bank identifies potential risks or some requests coerced by financial institutions implied in banking operations, the Bank reserves its right to not allow transfers for transactions linked to services such as gambling, acquisition of pornographic services (including videochat or similar services), acquisition of weapons/munition without complying to the conditions stated by the law, transactions involving cryptocurrencies."
Below you can read the reaction of a client of the above mentioned bank. You may laugh, but the situation should be treated seriously:
Photo source: Facebook
Translated in English, it means the following:
Subject: Justification signed by [...] in order to explain what I'm doing with my own money
I [...] being a client of the bank, I sign the present document being forced by the Bank, which invokes some internal regulations which are not against me, in order to coerce me to justify in front of the Bank what I'm doing with my own money.
Given the fact that it is summer and a period of vacation, considering it is also a post-quarantine period, I want very much to have fun. For doing so, I'll travel to Holland, where prostitution is LEGAL, in order to fu*k some whores. Most likely, on my way to Holland, I'll do the same in Austria and Germany.
Then, while being in Holland, given the fact that drugs are LEGAL, I intend to smoke some marijuana and hashish, but I'd also try some shrooms.
I heard they have some good marijuana cakes in Holland, and I also suggest you to try them, maybe you wake up and stop forcing people to sign stupid papers, based on stupid procedures, in order to justify to you what they're doing with their own money.
Obviously, if I won't have toilet paper, given the fact that I have so much money, maybe I'll fancy enough and I'll wipe my a*s clean with a few hundreds of euros, like rich men do.
The rest of the money is for lending them to my friends and for making useless expenditures, which I'll regret afterwards.
All of the above should make all of you to seriously think about using Bitcoin together with centralized exchanges and banks. Beware! You will just harm yourselves and maybe you'll provoke irrecoverable prejudices. Should I also mention about Mt. Gox exchange, which lost
850.000 BTC 
Should I also mention about the dozen (hundreds?) of hacked exchanges and about the hundreds of thousands of clients which lost their money for good? Should I mention the thousands of cases when banks froze customers' accounts? Should I mention how many people received death threats, how many were blackmailed, how many were extorted, how many were forced by hackers to pay ransom, after the hackers got their personal information?
Do you want to live something like that? If not, then cease using Bitcoin together with centralized exchanges and banks! Use crypto cash-in / cash-out ATMs, which offer you anonymity. Use decentralized exchanges, which don't hold a dime of clients' money and act just to connect the users one with each other. Use peer-to-peer transfers. Use crypto wallets which have embedded anonymous exchanges, allowing you to exchange a cryptocurrency with another one. Use any method to preserve your anonymity and financial privacy. It's for your own good.
This essay is a part of my educational articles. I recommend you all to read also the following essays:
-
Bitcoin: The dream of Cypherpunks, libertarians and crypto-anarchists-
Governs are coming for traders!-
Cryptocurrency vs digital money issued by the state-
The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto - We all should read it-
Governs try to limit access of public to information and freedom since ages-
Phil Zimmermann's thoughts about PGP - We all should read them-
When the govern wants to hold your private keys-
The call for Julian Assange || The WikiLeaks Manifesto - We all should read it
Translations (in chronological order):
- Română: 12 ani mai tarziu si oamenii tot nu stiu cum se foloseste Bitcoin/la ce-i ajuta, translation by GazetaBitcoin
- Pidgin: 12 years don pass and people no sabi how dem go use bitcoin or Wetin e good for, translation by Stable090
- Polish: 12 lat później, a ludzie nadal nie wiedzą jak używać Bitcoina, ani do czego ..., translation by cygan
- German: 12 Jahre später und die Leute wissen immer noch nicht, wie man BTC anwendet, translation by cygan
- Filipino: [Translation] 12 taon na pero hindi pa rin alam ng tao ang pag gamit ng Bitcoin, translation by Peanutswar
- French: 12 ans après, les gens ne savent toujours pas utiliser Bitcoin ni à quoi il sert, translation by iwantmyhomepaidwithbtc2
- Bengali: ১২ বছর পরেও মানুষ বিটকয়েন ব্যাবহার জানে না, translation by Learn Bitcoin
- Urdu: سال12 بعد بھی لوگوں کو بٹ کوائن کا نہیں پتہبٹکوائن سائیفرپنکس ،آزاد خیالوں کا خواب, translation by Publictalk792
- Russian: BTC 12 лeт, a люди вce eщe нe знaют, кaк иcпoльзoвaть, translation by DrBeer
- Indonesian: 12 tahun telah berlalu dan orang-orang masih belum tahu cara menggunakan Bitcoin, translation by Pandorak
- Ukrainian: BTC 12 poкiв, a люди вce щe нe знaють, як йoгo викopl, translation by DrBeer
- Turkish 12 yıl geçti ve insanlar halen bitcoinin kullanışını veya amacını bilmiyor, translation by tetaeridanus
