Bitcoin as enforcer of responsibility

[Silberman]

Before I discovered Bitcoin, The US dollar was the option for me, and I always use it as a way to save value for myself. The currency of my country has been losing its value overtime, so USD has been an option for those who really want to save value so that in years to come they wouldn’t be holding a currency that has lost so much.

Imagine holding the same currency in your bank account, and it keeps on losing value, in some more years to come and you will see that the whole money that you have packed up are just nothing at all. Coupled with inflation and everything, you will find it difficult to cope. But when I discovered Bitcoin, I knew that there was no other better option than to choose it. And it has been working for me for years now, no regrets.

And this made sense back then, after all those that promote gold argue that it is better than the dollar at storing your value, and they have a point about that, however gold has its fair share of issues that makes it way more difficult to use than the dollar under those circumstances, but bitcoin due to its characteristics is way better than gold at being a store of value with almost none of the flaws, so we are slowly seeing a shift on the preferences of the people on those countries with high inflation.

[mindrust]

You are quite right but not all governments are like this. They are not all evil. Look at El Salvardor. That country fully adopted bitcoin. If Bitcoin was bad for all countries and governments, El Salvador wouldn't adopt it. That means Bitcoin is good for at least some countries/governments if not for all. You did too much generalization there. There are good governments and there are bad governments. Not all governments are the same.

[The Cryptovator]

The most challenging part of Bitcoin that always competes with fiat is decentralization and volatility. A government can't control that even they hardly try it. This isn't a side effect exactly, this is challenging and competitive. To me, there is no side effect of Bitcoin, this is a blessing for us who believe in financial freedom. If I keep my fiat in Bank, they ask questions during withdrawal why do I need to withdraw and where will use that. That means I don't have freedom with my funds. Here Bitcoin works for us. We can store even millions in my wallet and no one can ask me a question. Although it's quite hard to liquid Bitcoin day by day it's becoming easier.

[amishmanish]

The access to finance determines the opportunities available to a large swathe of world population. Countries erect barriers so that useful exchange of services or just collaboration cannot happen without them taking a cut. Bitcoin made it possible for people to have such an economy which everyone is free to join. It is more of a knowledge economy than a goods economy but still does make a difference. A lot of people like to say that other Alt-coins can play the same role but when you look at it from the prism of centralization and censorship-resistance, it becomes evident that PoW and Bitcoin's network cannot be replaced.

This makes Bitcoin precious and those who understand it have a disdain and hatred for anything that dilutes this, be it liars like CSW or peddlers of Alt-coins.

The sad part about the fiat world is not the fact that it doesn't work, it is that it could have worked. The people in power made sure that they got all the rights, all the money, all the power and everything they desired, and all of their friends, or all the people who bribed them.

This concentration of power is something that will happen in every system over time. First those with power are generous about it. Then all the plebs start getting excited about it and want a share of the pie. To keep them grounded, those in power start erecting barriers. I don't think even Bitcoin is immune to this. There is definitely a class of Bitcoin elite who would love more than anything else to tell everyone else what has value and what doesn't.

This elite effect has already been amplified in case of the Alt-coins, particularly Ethereum. The less said about NFTs the better. They are, by definition, a closed club that the crypto elite have made for themselves. I don't think anything is immune to this except empowering people more and more and ensuring decentralization of information. Truth helps. That is why Bitcoin is useful.

Sure we look at Saudi Arabia or nations like that and say that there are human rights violations, and then we look at USA and their "muh freedum!!" and realize that wall street bought both parties decades ago and they do whatever they want and people are overworked in horrible conditions with absolutely no healthcare they could pay and an endless rat race and we assume it is free because you could say "f**k biden" without a problem.

Unfortunately fiat is used for enriching the rich people all around the world with the exceptions of maybe scandanavia, haven't checked in a while but they seemed fine and popular about it.

LOL..True words brother. The work culture in US promotes this mindset that if you "hustle" hard enough, you will make it. If you didn't make it, that means you did not make good use of your opportunities. While this maybe true for some cases, i'll never understand that why the richest country in the world has a homeless problem, a drug addiction problem, A "kids shooting kids with guns" problem and a healthcare problem. There definitely is something fucked up and almost all the evidence points to the usual suspects.

[Silberman]

You are quite right but not all governments are like this. They are not all evil. Look at El Salvardor. That country fully adopted bitcoin. If Bitcoin was bad for all countries and governments, El Salvador wouldn't adopt it. That means Bitcoin is good for at least some countries/governments if not for all. You did too much generalization there. There are good governments and there are bad governments. Not all governments are the same.

El Salvador is a special case because long ago they abandoned their own currency in favor of the dollar, this means they do not print their own currency, and they just picked as legal tender the one that was the most commonly used around the world, but then a forward-thinking politician like Bukele saw in bitcoin an opportunity, however most countries that print their own currency are going to have problems doing something like this as they will see their interests being affected, so the number of governments that will do something similar to this during the short term is kind of low.

[V-t.Ester]

Actually, Bitcoin is not about responsibility of governments and not about forcing governments to something. BTC is about non-inflationary transparent money-system that is free from governmental influence and borders. It became money that can be easily used all over the Earth in the world without banks. It’s a pity that when Bitcoin became valuable and interesting to all the people, big corporations bought up the huge amount of it. This quickly pumped BTC’s price but a lot of the poor investors had lost their moments to buy some BTC for themselves by low prices. Today 90% of BTC is already mined and only 10% are left (to mine for the next 120 years). Governments are trying to forbid BTC or provide laws to legalize it not because they are responsible but because they try to find ways to control BTC.

[fullhdpixel]

bitcoin has now given the power to the people to defend themselves by holding bitcoin and - I am not sure how aware are governments about this - forcing the governments to either be responsible or get their currencies demoted to a secondary way of storing wealth. A sign of these is that it is only the most repressive and irresponsible regimes the ones that try, normally without success, to ban bitcoin.

A lot of governments around the world has not been doing what they are supposed to do, and as a result, their currency has been losing its value overtime. Right now, even the USD does not interest me that much, because I know that holding it is still the same thing with holding my own native currency – the only difference that the both have is that my native currency would lose value faster than the USD, but at the end of the day the both of them are going to suffer from inflation and Bitcoin would have more value more than them.

This is why I try to invest in bitcoin as long as I have the money to, and I know for sure that I wouldn’t be needing that money anytime soon, so I just move it into bitcoin or any good crypto.

[Gozie51]

Right now, even the USD does not interest me that much, because I know that holding it is still the same thing with holding my own native currency – the only difference that the both have is that my native currency would lose value faster than the USD, but at the end of the day the both of them are going to suffer from inflation and Bitcoin would have more value more than them.

This is why I try to invest in bitcoin as long as I have the money to, and I know for sure that I wouldn’t be needing that money anytime soon, so I just move it into bitcoin or any good crypto.

Yes fiat is fiat likewise cryptocurrency and inflation is a breaker to fiat. You can't compare fiat value in the future from the past because of inflation as it has undergone some policy that it purchasing power won't measure up but cryptocurrency has no such effect on it directly by inflation. It only losses value in volatility, volume.

[boyptc]

This is why I try to invest in bitcoin as long as I have the money to, and I know for sure that I wouldn’t be needing that money anytime soon, so I just move it into bitcoin or any good crypto.

Much better to go into bitcoin first before proceeding to another cryptocurrencies. Nothing bad if you want to move into another one as long as you've got your own stash for bitcoin already.

As long as you're in a free country and they're not prohibiting you doing it, you must do what you have to do. And some countries are too strict and prohibits people owning bitcoin, yet, there are still those that does it and says that nobody can stop them even if it's the government.

[Haunebu]

I agree with what you op. BTC did shake up world governments once its price went through the roof. This created a domino effect which led to many other cryptocurrencies rising in value.

So many people started investing in popular cryptocurrencies in droves primarily due to the ability to execute financial transactions online without any sort of government interference.

[Poker Player]

I agree with what you op. BTC did shake up world governments once its price went through the roof. This created a domino effect which led to many other cryptocurrencies rising in value.

So many people started investing in popular cryptocurrencies in droves primarily due to the ability to execute financial transactions online without any sort of government interference.

But paxmao was talking about Bitcoin as enforcer of responsibility, not just about the price. That is why the initial reaction of governments was very negative, and since they realized that they could not put an end to it, they ended up regulating it.

I would only add that I think we are yet to see the profound effect of Bitcoin on society as more and more people use it.

[Coyster]

However, bitcoin has now given the power to the people to defend themselves by holding bitcoin and - I am not sure how aware are governments about this - forcing the governments to either be responsible or get their currencies demoted to a secondary way of storing wealth. A sign of these is that it is only the most repressive and irresponsible regimes the ones that try, normally without success, to ban bitcoin.

Your ideas all make sense, but one thing we must understand is that the government do not like individuals to have the sort of financial freedom Bitcoin offers, it's crazy, but that's just the fact, they prolly seem worried by the idea of Bitcoin changing the entire financial sphere and making individuals banks (cause you're your own bank in the network). Fiat currencies have been subjected to inflation and hyperinflation for quite a long time now, and that's why even institutional investors want to keep some of their reserve funds in the Bitcoin network; the advantages of Bitcoin absolutely outweighs it's cons, and the government knows that, but all they do is, use the media to spread negativity about Bitcoin.

Of course, there will continually be efforts by the government to discourage and dissuade people from using Bitcoin, they can try to ban it, but they know it'll only be futile, as for sanctions and regulations, they can only have an ephemeral effect on the network, after a while, everything goes back to normal, it's obvious Bitcoin is gearing and growing towards mass adoption, and that time the government will have no choice but to either leave it completely alone, or to join in the network.

[justdimin]

Your ideas all make sense, but one thing we must understand is that the government do not like individuals to have the sort of financial freedom Bitcoin offers, it's crazy, but that's just the fact, they prolly seem worried by the idea of Bitcoin changing the entire financial sphere and making individuals banks (cause you're your own bank in the network). Fiat currencies have been subjected to inflation and hyperinflation for quite a long time now, and that's why even institutional investors want to keep some of their reserve funds in the Bitcoin network; the advantages of Bitcoin absolutely outweighs it's cons, and the government knows that, but all they do is, use the media to spread negativity about Bitcoin.

Of course, there will continually be efforts by the government to discourage and dissuade people from using Bitcoin, they can try to ban it, but they know it'll only be futile, as for sanctions and regulations, they can only have an ephemeral effect on the network, after a while, everything goes back to normal, it's obvious Bitcoin is gearing and growing towards mass adoption, and that time the government will have no choice but to either leave it completely alone, or to join in the network.

To be honest, even though I live in a nation that is "little" dictatorial, not like north Korea nor china or something like that, not like many African nations with dictators, my life is decent compared to those but not as democratic as many west European nations neither. Even in a nation like that our government doesn't care about crypto and doesn't create laws against it and doesn't seem worried about it at all.

I am not saying that governments love it, but I do not think that they are worried about it neither. All they had to do would be put up some regulations, if you follow regulations then they will be in charge and if you do not follow regulations then you will be punished and that is it. I do not see any problems for governments in this regard, which is why I feel like there is nothing to worry about at all regarding this situation.

[Darker45]

It would be a huge achievement for Bitcoin if governments are somehow nudged or perhaps forced to transform the status of fiat into a better state because of how Bitcoin is. That would be a subtle yet big way of saying Bitcoin is the standard.

Anyway, fiat currencies couldn't be "demoted to a secondary way of storing wealth" because they are not storage of wealth in the first place. They are designed in such a way that they are to be spent as soon as possible.

[davis196]

Turkey is a great example for having an irresponsible monetary policy.
The Turkish lira collapsed a lot and many people in Turkey sold their lira for Euro,US dollars and Gold.
Unfortunately,I don't know how many people in Turkey sold their devalued national currency for Bitcoins.
AFAIK,the Turkish government and the central bank are extremely anti-Bitcoin,so not many people have decided to buy BTC.
Anyway,I don't think that Bitcoin can force governments and central banks to become financially responsible.
Countries like Venezuela are still financially irresponsible,despite the fact that many people are using BTC.