2016 Theme #3: The Rise Of Independent (Non-State) Crypto-Currencies
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
This week I am addressing themes I see playing out in 2016.
A number of systemic, structural forces are intersecting in 2016. One is the rise of non-state, non-central-bank-issued crypto-currencies.
We all know money is created and distributed by governments and central banks. The reason is simple: control the money and you control everything.
The invention of the blockchain and crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin have opened the door to non-state, non-central-bank currencies--money that is global and independent of any state or central bank, or indeed, any bank, as crypto-currencies are structurally peer-to-peer, meaning they don't require a bank to function: people can exchange crypto-currencies to pay for goods and services without a bank acting as a clearinghouse for all these transactions.
This doesn't just open the possibility of escaping the debt-serfdom of central and private banks--it opens the door to an entire global economy that's free of the inequality and concentration of wealth and power that is the only possible output of central bank created and distributed money.
Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert and I discuss these possibilities in The Keiser Report: Radically Beneficial World (25:43)...
Recall that central bank money is borrowed into existence, which means interest must be paid until the money is extinguished by the payment of debt.
In effect, today's wars, bread and circuses, etc. will be paid for in perpetuity by our kids, grandkids and their kids. This is debt-serfdom. The only possible output of borrowing money into existence is debt-serfdom.
Debt jubilees, no matter how well-intended, simply maintain the system of bank-issued money and debt-serfdom: dialing back the debt load from impossible to bearable does nothing but continue financial feudalism.
Just printing money and distributing it to the unemployed and working poor (known as QE for the people) also doesn't change anything structurally: printing money without increasing the production of goods and services just means the flood of new money will chase the existing pool of goods and services, generating runaway inflation (see Zimbabwe, Venezuela, et al.)
The Keynesian Cargo Cult's fetish is "demand"--meaning the "demand" created by having money in your pocket. The Keynesian Cargo Cult wrongly assumes that this "demand" will magically generate more goods and services.
If this were true, then there would be no inflation when governments such as Zimbabwe print money with abandon: this new "demand" would magically generate more goods and services.
But this Keynesian assumption is flat-out wrong. In reality, printing and distributing money does not guarantee a corresponding expansion of productive goods and services. The "magic" is misleading fantasy; the actual mechanism is much more complex than mere "demand."
The second fatal flaw in the Keynesian Cargo Cult's "solution" of printing and distributing "free money" is the money ends up funding worthless or even destructive uses: bridges to nowhere, ghost cities, needless MRI tests, worthless college degrees, and so on, in essentially limitless mal-investment and waste.
I propose instead that new crypto-currency money only be created when goods and services that are scarce in real-world communities are produced. I call this CLIME: the Community Labor Integrated Money Economy, and I describe how it works in my book A Radically Beneficial World: Automation, Technology and Creating Jobs for All.
This is the unsustainable world of bank/state issued money: crushing debt loads across the globe. This is debt-serfdom on a planetary scale.
Debt serfdom is no longer the only option - A Radically Beneficial World beckons.
(12 votes)
»
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
99% of people who hate BitCoin or the blockchain have zero clue what these even are. It scares them simply because they refuse to learn. But that is OK. The rest of us will move on and leave them behind.
The internet was invented decades ago... yet, there are still some in my family who don't really get email or like it.
Bitcoin is similar. For those who don't have anyplace to start, begine by googling "bitcoin whitepaper". Don't worry about the maths, but the descirptions are pretty good. Even to the older generations, they have almost no idea how you could run a 'decentralized' network. They don't know what that is. Shutting down all the power in the USA would not stop bitcoin from ticking. This is a hard concept for people to grasp. It is a currency run by the 'miners' who are us, the people (and global).
6-7billion human beings versus 10,000 plutocrats. Game on. May the odds forever be in your favor ;)
I call bullshit.
I do not see any retailers offering prices in bitcoins. Until I can see it in practical action TODAY, I aint spending a dime on it. Have fun.
It sounds more like a dungeons and dragons gag to me. If it was such a great investment, I would expect most folks to keep it quiet.
Bitcoin, SpaceX, 3-D organ printing, bubble, bubble, toil and trouble.....
The Wright Brother's stupid flying contraption will never work either.
http://www.bitcoinvalues.net/who-accepts-bitcoins-payment-companies-stor...
Hey, maybe you want to actually read that above list. There are also many 'mom-and-pop' local places that do as well. Along with bitcoin ATM machines... but hey, don't let facts get in the way of your bashing. +1 for your lack of knowledge.
"It sounds more like a dungeons and dragons gag to me. If it was such a great investment, I would expect most folks to keep it quiet."
I had a similar reaction when I first heard about it - as did almost everyone who is involved with Bitcoin, including the guy who literally wrote the book: "Mastering Bitcoin."
That guy dismissed it as "nerd money" when he first heard about it. My thinking early on was that owning it would probably be about as useful as doing something like learning Klingon.
But then I started to read and ask questions, and as I found out more, my opinion changed. I don't think there's an easy way to short-circuit that individual discovery process, but I have noticed that someone's level of information about Bitcoin seems to correlate fairly strongly with their opinion of it.
By the time you see Bitcoin in practical action on a daily basis, it will be trading at at least several hundred times its current price.
Trading.......I have heard that term many times. So the question is: Is that a stock or a currency? And several hundred times it's value in what? More bitcoins or US Dollars? Because if the answer is US Dollars, then your bitcoin is pegged to the US Dollar, hence, just as worthless. If the answer is bitcoins, then it is valued against itself..again, worthless.
I'm confused.
Bitcoin is traded (as a currency) against global fiat currencies as well as against other digital cryptocurrencies via a number of online exchanges. In other words, it's free floating, market based price discovery - no pegs required or desired.
A lot of bitcoin purchases happen in China (as does most of the mining activity), and when things happen in China like what we've been seeing the past couple of days, the price of a bitcoin tends to rise (5% or so in the past 24 hours), and the price on Chinese trading exchanges tends to be higher vs RMB than it is vs USD on US exchanges until whatever 'excitement' that started the inflow of fiat dies down.
THERE'S YOUR MORTAL PROBLEM RIGHT THERE !!!
If something increases in value out of thin air.... it is a bubble
bitcoin IS a bubble, it is a ponzy like all otheres
The increase in value won't necessarily be 'out of thin air.' There are about 6 billion people in the world who have no access to banking services at all, and a good percentage of that number who have fiat currencies that are even more volatile than Bitcoin.
Bitcoin provides a way to bring savings accounts, checking accounts, wire transfer capabilities, etc. to those people without having to build bank branches there, and that's where some interesting things may soon start happening. Remember how Africa skipped over the economically unfeasable prospect of building a land-line network and jumped straight to cell phones?
Google "m-pesa" and you may start to see some hints of how something similar could happen there and elsewhere in the underdeveloped world with cryptocurrencies.
I have several retailers in my local area who will take BTC and I live in the middle of nowhere. I have been skeptical for years but I am going to the 80/20 rule, with 80% in silver/gold and 20% in BTC. I have finally bought into the blockchain after watching BTC for years. My favorite BTC site is https://bitcoinwisdom.com/ btfd and good luck.
Hi Moccasin,
Yes, thanks for your rational thought. Local stores are popping up all over the place. Not to mention things like Overstock or BitPay. bitcoinwisdom is my favorite too right now and if you are a USA resident the "Bitstamp" chart is the one closest to the 'coinbase' rates. Huobi is China's.
Hey for the TECH CHARTISTS out there. Bitcoin is old school manipulated. You have to actually buy them before you can sell them (no naked shorts or derivatives). So the big-o-banksters can throw globs of cash at the bitcoin prices, but they still have to buy before they can sell. So... it's old school and you can plot technicals. Also, very easy to understand resistant points like 400, 450, 500, 550, 600.
True bansksters (especially US cabal banksters) have hijacked the system for their own benefit, they get free money from QE , they then give it to their own corporations where they have puppet directors & CEOs.
Trickle down system is a failure
Adam smith is a failure
All due to chronic chrony syndrome , an unholy nexus between politicians in power & the capitalist bankers & corporates
-------------
Any alternative system is ok including barter
Anyone who does not believe that Chinese and Ukrainian and Korean and Russian and NSA hackers cannot take BitCoins is kidding themselves. Even if you think the BitCoin servers are 'safe' (questionable at best)- your cell phone or computer are NOT! All your passwords, account information, 'secret' tokens, BitCoin security, etc - can be intercepted or your entire device can be cloned. And the wider the acceptance of BitCoin, the greater the chance that a retailer will get hacked - meaning it is up to you to prove you didn't cash out $4000 in BitCoins in a hotel in Budapest. And unlike a commercial and government backed legal system for currency and credit cards - there is no "BitCoin Judge" that can enforce rulings.
And when push comes to shove - governments - including China and the US can simply 'outlaw' BitCoin - both the ownership of it, and the retailer's ability to accept it. And you can bet the NSA has lots of BitCoin data in storage - waiting to be used.
All your Base is Belong to Us???
Seriously... we already know all that. This is the great disclosure age. What do you think 'Jane: Ender's Game' will think when she comes online?
Of course. Quantum computers will crack all the cryptocodes.
Dude... NoWayJose... it's about Freedom... you wanna fight? Bitcoin is a tool in the war-chest of battle against the darkness. Hope you don't have too many closets full of skeletons, because this is going to get ugly.
The blockchain ledger, by design, is readable, by all parties on earth and heavens. We aren't looking for jo-schmos running illegally-illegal drugs... We're looking for the Bankster illuminati crap-shoot entities, or whatever you choose to call those types, etc.... Bitcoin will help us hunt them down.
As soon as any of the assclown elites place ANY of their money in the bitcoin blockchain network we can start tracking everything they do and where everything they do goes. One great goal of mine wouuld be to find where and what they have been doing with their (or is it ours?) money. Go Bitcoin. 6-7billion human beings verus 10,000 oligarch imbread flesh-rot-pots.
btw, you won't have to pay 3% on all your CC charges, so it'll save you a dime (silver) at the grocery store too.
"BitCoin servers"
lol
Its amazintg that so many people buy into this scam. Okay if you are a gambler have at it, but its horrible as a currency. People selling this shit only sell at a premium to its exchange value so you immediately lose unless you are praying that somedone dumber than you will pay a higher price for it later on. You are then expected to rely in an insecure password to keep it safe. You really think your shitty little password is protected when every single keystroke you make is recorded. People that stupid deserve to lose thier shirts. All of the shitcoiner pumptards arguements have been shattered over and over with fact and logic, yet the ignorant and self entitled can only resort to thier desperate one liner `you just dont understand it`
Why would someone use an insecure password instead of a secure one? In fact, why wouldn't they just use a hardware wallet like the Trezor (or one of the many others already on the market) instead of a password?
With a hardware wallet, you can transact securely, even on a compromised computer or phone. That computer can be absolutely filled with viruses and keyloggers, and there's not a thing they can do to exploit a hardware wallet.
But then you probably don't know the details of how hardware wallets work, right? Or that they even exist.
Which is why people who grok Bitcoin keep having to resort to the - you just don't understand it - response. Because within your post, talking about passwords, you've revealed that you really don't understand it. So what else are we supposed to say?
You also fail to address the fact that the dependence of our current financial system on PII - personally identifying information, results in honey pots of data (duplicated all over the world in the databases of countless companies and governments) that we can't protect from hackers (Sony, Target, Sony again, USGov's clearance database, etc.)
A Bitcoin transaction doesn't require PII, so just based on that one attribute, Bitcoin provides a way to greatly reduce the opportunities for identity theft and fraud. But you probably didn't realize that either, right?
So to sum things up, not only are you wrong about how secure bitcoin can be, but you're also failing to understand that the system we have now is far more vulnerable to fraud and theft because of the thousands of corporate PII databases we have to enter our names, addresses, email addresses, SSN's, etc. into if we want to buy something either online or in a store with a credit card, and Bitcoin (or something very much like it) is really the only thing that can stop that problem from getting worse in the future.
And if you're wondering about what I meant in the first paragraph about a 'secure' password, google 'password entropy' and start learning about it. I really wish that more people would.
Bitcoin revolves around power, as in electicity. And that can also be controlled by the elite. I like the idea, but it really does not work on a global level, as yet. I think one day it will, but that will be after the witch hunt of the elite.
You have cheap solar. Decentralized like mining itself. What more do you want?
if pretty much everyone can "invent" a new crypto currency how can value be atribbuted to it ?
If bit coin price is high I can go for Emerald, Tagcoin, Execoin etc etc etc
ENDLESS ALGORITHMS
There will be so many that it will be difficult to find 2 people that accept or deal in the same crypto
Gold... there is only 1
I really don't understand the Bitcoin thing. It's a non existant currency. Some say it's valuable because it's limited. The fact that tomorrow one could start a thousand Bitcoin type currencies doesn't seem to come up in these discussions. But look at how it's going up, I hear. Going up in value against other fiat currencies is not really impressive. I can't ever imagine buying "bits and bites" on some server somewhere and thinking that I am protected from loss. I am preplexed at folks who keep looking for the next whiz bang idea when for 5,000 years there has been one solid and sure way to preserve value.
It already happened. People have created about a thousand different alt-coin 'copies' of Bitcoin. The difference between all of those and any that you might want to create in the future is that Bitcoin has the world's largest ASIC supercomputer defending it from counterfeiting and double-spending.
Creating a new coin is trivial - there are actually services where you can do that online, point-and-click. But that doesn't mean anything until you've secured that currency with mining power.
It's all well and good, and wunnerful, unti they decide to change the rules on the internet.
PLUS talk about control?,every time you move your digital cash,you're monitored.
Face it there is no escape.
Depoisiting the family GOLD with a Govt entity, is as stupid as fiat dollars.