WOW. Fantastic post. And you are absolutely correct. One of the biggest hurdles is getting more people to use the currencies. But we are seeing more and more "normies" come over to crypto. I think that Steemit is a wonderful example of how you do not have to be very tech inclined to start earning some crypto.
There are initiatives such as yours, that attempt to give people the info in an easy to understand fashion. Bitcoin and other cryptos will only get more popular as time progresses. Many people understand the flaws in thh fiat currency system, but also do not know that there is a way to distance yourself as much as possible from it . . . by staying in crypto as much as possible.
One thing I may add to the great description of the USD alt-coin . . I heard that the pre-mine is out of this world.
The problem with cryptocurrency development is that so many people still don't understand what it even is.Some are sceptical and super conservative, it will take some time before people will realize that this is a "chain breaker".Hopefully, the word will spread in every corner of the world.Thank you for explaining things,it's very helpful for those who are new here;)
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I'm from Croatia and here Damir is quite comon name, as myself, but Damira is very very rare. Nice to hear that somwhere else it is a ladies name thats used obviously quite more than here in Croatia...
The problem we have today is a very small group have taken advantage of a western civilization worship of Adam Smith, the so called "Father" of economics. Adam in single handed manner turned our understanding of what money is upside down. There is however hope in groups such as the likes of you @lukestokes and many others. A very interesting group making efforts in monetary reform is the American Monetary Institute.
www.monetary.org
If you are in the Chicago area, they are having their yearly symposium this month from the 14th-17th.
For an interesting read by one of the presenters at this years' AMI conference is professor Yamaguchi. See one of his working papers here:
I remember hearing about Stephen Zarlenga and his book 'The Lost Science of Money' on a Gnostic Media podcast many years ago. His concept behind debt-free fiat currency is appealing, however I am more enthusiastic about non-state solutions with cryptocurrencies.
But a debt-free dollar would be a great start for the state, regardless.
It's funny, my dad sent me an article about how Bitcoin was a massive bubble, and it reminded me that the most massive bubble in the world is the dollar itself.
Your commentary on fiat currencies is directly on the mark. If this concept were to be instituted from scratch, the purveyors of which would be laughed out of the room.
Cryptocurrencies will continue to suffer from misinformation, both un- and intentionally, and will take longer than we'd like to become mainstream. The good news is that it IS happening.
One of the threats to Bitcoin and other solid cryptocurrencies, however, derives from the cryptocurrency world, itself. The advent of ever flimsy and extraneous currencies, and the news of their resultant fraud and misuse, could disrupt the advent and adoption of established ones. Guilt through association, if you will.
This is perhaps the largest threat to the cryptocurrency revolution, and I'm not exactly sure what can be done to avoid or mitigate it.
Great point. One thing which can help is for all of us to reign in our own greed and stop chasing every random ICO we come across. Or, if we do invest in something stupid, own it. Don't expect someone else to come along and bail us out. Be public about our mistakes and our successes.
The ICO are very interesting. They also are potentially a huge platform from fraud. Steemit is the perfect platform for distributing information on the ICO's. It will allow a permanent record. Note: Stock fraud has gone on for a long time and continues to go on. I would love to see a whitelist and a blacklist of ICO's.
You're right... this entire perspective can be confusing to people born into the pervading system. That's one reason I'm writing a fantasy novel set in medieval Ireland, to illustrate the problem you mention here: "My biggest concern with fractional reserve fiat debt-based currency is how it is used to fund wars that would otherwise be impossible." In the story, one of the three Gaelic deities/faeries known as "war starters" (this is actually a Gaelic thing) will start a war by funding it much like a central bank would. The idea being, debt funding is "magic"... it belongs in the realm of faeries and goblins. Title: To Coin a War. (Celts were famous for poetry and coining a phrase.) Anyway, your entire post was well stated!
Thanks. I'm serializing it here on Steemit, so the first four parts are available here. And the Steemhouse Fiction Trail ( @sft ) has expressed interest in creating a publishing imprint for authors here and publishing To Coin a War when it's finished.
If a cryptocurrency was created to fund government we would have no need for debt or taxes.
money controlled by government makes them go crazy with power.
Cryptocurrencies can solve that problem
By creating a currency that only government can trade but the government cannot produce it.
the coins are divided up among citizens equally and the government creates a fund me page for each and every part of government.
The people can then choose which parts of government they want to fund with coins.
The coins are created specifically to fund government its not created out of the wealth of the people.
I love this idea. I've often thought if we truly want to get rid of the power of government, we should take their entire budget and go through it line by line. Then open it up via a shared spreadsheet and let the 300 million people in this country add private alternatives to the ones being done currently through monopolies backed by violent force. We'd see efficiencies increase overnight. I like the idea of a token specifically used as a way to vote for services we want. The military spending would, hopefully, go out the window so we could focus more on building instead of destroying.
Awesome article and I agree a hundred percent. Politicians are not the ones in power, the bankers are, the more war the more money printed, the more happy the bankers are. Whenever the economy has stagnated war has been the solution and considering the current economic situation these times are scary. A debt based currency is definitely what we should fear as it enslaves us and many people have started borrowing to afford to pay of their debts and usually these lenders have higher interest rates so it's a slippery slope. Finally thanks to cryptocurrency the people are holding the right end of the stick and I am hopeful for the future ! Great post 👍
I almost included the documentary All Wars are Banker's Wars. Whenever I start talking about this stuff I want to mention democide and Smedley Butler's War Is a Racket as well. One thing at a time, I guess. Great comment, thank you. :)
It is quite scary the truth about who really turns the wheels of society. I actually haven't seen this documentary yet, but I definitely will do that this upcoming weekend. I have seen Zeitgheist some years ago and it definitely had an impact on me.
It feels like, with Steemit, Cryptocurrency and the blockchain, we are holding the Bankers Cryptonite. Change is coming and I have a feeling it's good !
I am not sure that politicians create wars to fix banking problems. While at times it can help. People have been fighting for a long time, for a lot of other reasons. The American Indians fought wars before central banks were around. Wars typically make everyone poorer. Yes, it helps if you can loot gold, crops, cattle or women from a neighboring village, but war is less than a zero sum game. That said. It is also interesting to look at the history of Wars. We go to war about every 20 years. I think that is more of one of mankind's inherent weaknesses.
Have you read Steven Pinker's Better Angeles of Our Nature? Violent death per 100,000 people has gone down significantly in the last 100 years even including WWI and WWII. As we move up Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we understand the value for cooperation of competition. Those who do want to fight wars (usually the sociopaths who get voted into office) must align with banks to get the funding they need. It's a sick symbiotic relationship of greed and destruction.
The concept of government-backed, inflationary fiat money is so cemented in the psyche of the ordinary citizen, that any challenge to the idea is somehow perceived as a personal attack.
This phenomenon is much more prevalent in the older generations. I find it crazy how my parents always look for some authority to tell them what is legit and what isn't.
Most of the older generations are brainwashed beyond belief. The light at the end of the tunnel is that the millennials are much sharper, observant and ready to act on their disgust of central banking and the fake money system they were born into.
So true. I have had conversations in years' past with a close relative regarding central banking. His attitude was "Well, central banking was just a natural progression that evolved over time organically". What a bunch of garbage!
That's exactly how the banksters have been able to get away with their fiat money racket for so long: the dumbing down of the population. An ignorant, intellectually lazy electorate is exactly what the banker overlords desire.
I think the Internet has played an important role. It removed the gatekeepers of information. It also gave all the tin-foil-hate wearing crazies a platform to spread their craziness, but at least those who work at improving their epistemology can find the information out there for what's really going on.
Cryptocurrency needs good marketers, people who can educate on Blockchain and help them understand. I think this article is brilliant, the George Orwell quote to open and close is awesome. I would like to translate your article to Spanish and put on my blog, giving you credit of course, if you don't mind ^^
Any concerns that majority of BTC mining is occurring in China, and at the appropriate moment, the Chinese military could decide they want to run all the Chinese miners, as one group, that controls more than 50% of hash rate?
Seems like a non-zero probability of being the end of BTC
No real concerns because, as we've already seen this year, if BTC doesn't provide value in a competing currency market, others will rise up to do so.
Maybe the cryptocurrency world will shift to STEEM and SBD where they can do 10's of thousands of transactions a second with 3 second block times and zero transaction fees. I wouldn't mind that one bit. :)
Very cool post. Packed with very valuable information.
Everyone who owns a share in the cryptocurrency space has a voice as to how their coin of choice should function and many projects are open source and open to valuable input and change.
Nice, you watch Stefans videos too, just watched the one about your enslavement couple months ago already. But yeah, Fiat currency is the cause for so much shit in this world, ruled by greed. If wealth would've be shared better, it could end allot of suffering. Maybe crypto can, but government is Fiat, government and the banks will never give up on control.
Maybe they won't have to give up control, we'll just stop giving them power via our use of their money. Our choices from what we buy to where we live to what we think and do give power to others or keep it for ourselves. Stefan's older stuff was pretty good (philosophical parenting, etc), but lately I've not been a fan.
had a smile reading those lines, cos this is what went through my mind... when I watched the first video here in your great article it took me a couple of minutes to recocnize Stefan Molyneux voice... cos I haven't been watching/listening him/to it for quite a while...just as you say, lately not much of a fan any more. will go on tonight watching the other vids you enclosed - thank you for all the tips you share! Just told my husband today to stop looking at "bitcoin droping down" - asking him not to put it into relation to (in our case) Euro any loner! Important thing is, we started to move away from the "system" also in the currencies now... important step and together with growing our own food and many other things, I believe we are on the right track for all future developments... My main reason for joining here a couple of days ago, was to find out more "back door - sneak out" possibilities - and I am amazed how many great and helpfull tips I find every single day!!! Cheers from Germany and glad I found you! follow you now, resteemed and upvoted :-)
@lukestokes Thanks for sharing :-)
I am following
Best of Luck ! Followed.
Fascinating story. Hope you receive what you wish from this venture. Possess a good day. Followed.
I knew this was coming eventually @lukestokes simply because they are seeing how the cryptocurrency world is advancing and the amount of money invested is increasing. They just greedy and want they share in it so they create bullshit coins and I'm sure some newbie is going to buy them and get screwd and try to talk bad about the cryptocurrency world altogether. Sad that they would use such low measures to continue screwing the people but I hope people don't fall for the banana in the tail pipe trick.
Bankers helped humans move from the farming age to the industrial age so you can't suddenly hate the hand that feeds you while laying back in your cozy house using a computer.
Cryptos are providing banking services as well just decentralized.
I didn't throw all bankers under the bus. I'm all about competing currencies and competing banks. I'm not about the central banking system because what I learn about it disgusts me and is a moral outrage. I think innovation like steam power and energy from oil is what brought about the industrial age.
Did you know that central banks ensure settlements occur between other banks and resolve any issues. They also stablize currency by trading and producing it. What part disgusts you about it? I am pro decentralized and crypto, i just dont suddenly hate my history because something better comes along.
One of the main goals of central banks is to keep inflation under control. Before they were introduced it was wildly fluctuating up to 20% a year.
Cryptos are wildly fluctuating up to 20% a day. Sometimes I prefer a stable currency.
Also, you said "stable" again without answering my question. On what timescale are you considering? USD has been terrible on a long timescale as far as purchasing power goes. Bitcoin is the opposite. Many believe (as do I) that once the market cap of cryptocurrencies grow, the stability will come because it will be too big of a market to manipulate easily.
Have you considered the possibility the bankers themselves were attacking local bank currencies in order to bring about the First Bank of the United States or the Second Bank of the United States (both of which were fought bitterly against by the people who understood them)? There's a lot of history here to dig into. Many economists are beginning to agree the FED caused and prolonged the Great Depression, as an example.
I understand you have a narrative that makes sense to you. It's the same one that made sense to me for most of my life as well. Once I started doing more research on how we got here and the impact of central banking... well, I hope you can appreciate there are other narratives which, to me, are well supported.
I'm always open to entertaining new concepts without accepting them. I am amazed and concerned of the current leftwing attacks on history just because something is out of fashion. I really hope this mentality can be put back in its place with decentralization and less censorship.
Wonderful post my friend!, i have been thinking a lot about the fall of USD lately, many people is saying the end is near...
This is why i think crypto is the safest way to invest and protect your money, actually i am moving a good portion of my USD income into crypto...
I believe Yuan could overtake USD anytime in the future... China been holding and accumulating gold, contrary to EEUU who only print worthless money paper... In any case, i think FIAT money overall should decline, that system just doesn't work...
USD allows worldwide trade and, arguably, progress; while cryptocurrencies at the current stage are too volatile. I don't understand this need for beating "the enemy"; both centralized and decentralized financial systems are going to cohabit in the near future and we are fortunate enough to reap the benefits of both.
I'm pretty thankful for having a centralized authority issuing and maintaining a stable currency; if we look back a couple hundred years... well, I don't want to go back to that.
I've look into that and Bitcoin seems pretty uncorrelated to all traditional assets... just moves on its own :D
I didn't mean a moral/ethical argument but the psychological division between us and them.
I was comparing it particularly to the decentralized banking system in the US before the FED. I think it's dogmatic to deny some of the benefits that centralized authorities provide... just for example, if you lose your keys you lose your Bitcoin, but if a centralized authority like Coinbase is providing you access to the wallet, then you can recover it!
But right now cryptos don't fit the main use of money, both storage of value and medium of exchange. I don't find useful to look upon long periods of time while talking about payment methods but day-to-day volatility :)
if a centralized authority like Coinbase is providing you access to the wallet, then you can recover it!
We have a completely different view of the benefits of centralized authorities. I think mine is based on reasoned evidence and historical precedent. If you don't own your private key, you don't own your bitcoin. History shows over and over and over again how dangerous it is to trust central authorities with your wealth. There are much, much better ways to securely store and backup your private keys than trusting them to someone else. Central exchanges create a huge target for hackers and have a horrible track record for avoiding security issues. I mention some of the steps you can take as an individual in episode 3 of UBF.
I personally know too many people who lost their bitcoin investment when MtGox went down. I can not agree with centralized thinking for a decentralized system. Opposing the view you have was why Bitcoin was invented in the first place. I hope you recognize this and take responsibility for those who may lose again in the future based on information they get from you.
I agree we disagree, and I'll still argue your perspective can (and has) harmed people. I think we can do better and teach people personal responsibility when it comes to cryptocurrency.
BTW, regarding to this Maybe trade your BTC for an Amazon Gift Card via https://www.gyft.com/, we can now actually buy in amazon directly with BTC in Purse , which is awesome!
Unfortunately only humans can determine value , I been pondering issuing my own cryptonote currency for months now based on the fact that I myself am valuable ... I hear giggles , but its true...even Bishop Tutu crosses the road to greet me ... so regardless of schemas inflation p2p or whatever , the real value of digital currency is actually the intelectual capital and personalities that drive it .
This is an outstanding group of videos all of which I have seen over the years but to have them grouped like the is impressive and educational. Maybe there should be a law that requires everyone in America to watch them. Just kidding :)
The videos have some interesting viewpoints. Having a strong financial background I think he nails some squarely (dangers of fractional reserve banking), but I wasn't buying some of the other ones. One thing to be familiar with is "Fiscal Repression". Basically, interest rates will be low for a long time as it is necessary to try to inflate away the national debt.
Even negative interest rates and the "bank bail-ins" they've been talking about since the financial crash of 2008 will not unwind this mess. See what happened in Cyprus. Also, low interests rates create massive speculative investing bubbles where people will borrow huge amounts of money because any return at all will be better than the interest they are paying which creates even bigger boom/bust cycles. Who wouldn't use nearly free money to invest in wildly crazy things, especially if you're "too big to fail"?
Totally agree. The 10+ years of low interest rate environment since 2008 bust have built up a lot of bubbles that are going to have to pop at some point.
Feel free to do so. If you wouldn't mind linking to the original and requesting those who appreciate it give me an upvote, that would be much appreciated. I love to get some of those Chinese whale votes. :)
Thanks! I have translated as Chinese and add my understanding about that. Here is it: https://steemit.com/cn/@skenan/20 . Also I have voted you as witness~
I think it woul even better as a joke to call the "USFederalReserve Coins" aka dollars that have less backing that Chuck-E Cheeze Tokens! Honest to god Luke, everytime I hear "bitcoin is a scam" - I think "Just how ignorant does somebody have to be about the Federal Reserve to believe Fiat money isn't a scam but bitcoin is!????"
When you describe USD as a cryptocoin, it truly comes off as a scamcoin. I have no doubt that FIAT markets will completely collapse in the future, being replaced by crypto.
As per open ledger and privacy concerns:
One of the points often made is being able to find patterns in a users transactions and comparing them to user patterns. They could then compare them to figure out the identity of the user. I was always intrigued by the concept used for Z Cash.
I never invested in it but the idea is interesting. The issues come when verifying transactions. There is much more computations involved so it is a more difficult process. There is a great podcast on how they came up with the unique encryption code to ensure it wasn't hacked. You can check it out on radiolab HERE
The idea is that the transaction would be more like using cash. Very hard to trace.
I laughed and neary shit my pants as I saw the title of this post which is reality and not a funny issue. @lukestokes good job indeed (always up for your posts) . The control freak and tax junky govrenment does not allow American participage in great ICOs and against cryptos due to fear of losing out of USD..however people will always circumvent them and succeed.
Good one indeed and feel free to see my latest post on civil war going on here at steemt and send in your thoughts. More success to you.
Was inspired to write an article about the monetary slavery we live in! It amazes me how few people actually understand how this system works. I will follow you for more posts!
If you are interested you can read my post here: It will mean allot to me! Thanks @lukestokes
Cryptocurrency can bring a more voluntary system to the United States.
First. We create a cryptocurrency that is designed to be used by the government, It has to be a currency government cannot create but only government spend.
Second. The currency is equally distributed to all the people in the society.
the currency is not created from the wealth of the people it is not a tax.
Third Government creates a "fund me" account for every part of the government.
the people can then use that currency to fund any part of government they want to support.
this can also be done on the local level
create a currency for your local Town
The currency pays pay the entire cost
the people of the Town back the currency in in lieu of taxes and fees.
the town creates a fund me page
then people fund it with the currency.
The government can then spend the currency or they can trade it for US dollars. But the fund me page is a contract and is open to the public.
Great post, i'll take time for the videos soon. Like @damira wrote even academics doubt or don't understand cryptocurrencies. They are more on the "Jamie-Side" without knowing what darkness behind it.
We are so trapped in fears and habits that our mind is closed. The example with the debt is great because it shows on one hand exactly in which crazy system we live and there are on the other hand many loyal people who bring their hard earned money to the banks for no interest (negative interest due inflation and much to high fees) and they think they own real money which is just debt, printed fiat money and the banks continue playing games until the next crash..
I talked today to a colleague about current developments, like the mining frenzy and he said something funny but also something i thought a litte longer about: "Tell that to your mom.. try to explain all the things like mining farms, alternative currencies." i answered quickly "I must not do that!"
But the thing is, if just a small percentage understand at least the basics of cryptocurrencies who will get freedom? The lifestock farmers or their cows or how unequal is a new distribution of wealth?
WOW. Fantastic post. And you are absolutely correct. One of the biggest hurdles is getting more people to use the currencies. But we are seeing more and more "normies" come over to crypto. I think that Steemit is a wonderful example of how you do not have to be very tech inclined to start earning some crypto.
There are initiatives such as yours, that attempt to give people the info in an easy to understand fashion. Bitcoin and other cryptos will only get more popular as time progresses. Many people understand the flaws in thh fiat currency system, but also do not know that there is a way to distance yourself as much as possible from it . . . by staying in crypto as much as possible.
One thing I may add to the great description of the USD alt-coin . . I heard that the pre-mine is out of this world.
The problem with cryptocurrency development is that so many people still don't understand what it even is.Some are sceptical and super conservative, it will take some time before people will realize that this is a "chain breaker".Hopefully, the word will spread in every corner of the world.Thank you for explaining things,it's very helpful for those who are new here;)
I agree, which is why I've been trying to help people understand with my @ubf project.
You write in a very nice easy to understand way.Thank you🙂
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Indeed, we need to explain people what crypto is and why it is a gamechanger...
I completly agree... By the way, you have a very nice and cool name;-)
Yeah,it's like the coolest name there is😁😁😁
I'm from Croatia and here Damir is quite comon name, as myself, but Damira is very very rare. Nice to hear that somwhere else it is a ladies name thats used obviously quite more than here in Croatia...
I'm from Kazakhstan and we have as many Damirs as Damiras there,actually I'm not sure now what's the origin of this name?!;)
I just went to explore the name :)) Here it is what Wikipedia says: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damir
Have a nice day, Cheers, Damir
What can I say, we are made of steel who are giving peace to other people😁😁😁Thank you!
The problem we have today is a very small group have taken advantage of a western civilization worship of Adam Smith, the so called "Father" of economics. Adam in single handed manner turned our understanding of what money is upside down. There is however hope in groups such as the likes of you @lukestokes and many others. A very interesting group making efforts in monetary reform is the American Monetary Institute.
www.monetary.org
If you are in the Chicago area, they are having their yearly symposium this month from the 14th-17th.
For an interesting read by one of the presenters at this years' AMI conference is professor Yamaguchi. See one of his working papers here:
http://www.muratopia.org/Yamaguchi/doc/P2P-PM-System.pdf
Good luck to all of the reformers here and around the world!
I remember hearing about Stephen Zarlenga and his book 'The Lost Science of Money' on a Gnostic Media podcast many years ago. His concept behind debt-free fiat currency is appealing, however I am more enthusiastic about non-state solutions with cryptocurrencies.
But a debt-free dollar would be a great start for the state, regardless.
It's funny, my dad sent me an article about how Bitcoin was a massive bubble, and it reminded me that the most massive bubble in the world is the dollar itself.
Interesting times.
Your commentary on fiat currencies is directly on the mark. If this concept were to be instituted from scratch, the purveyors of which would be laughed out of the room.
Cryptocurrencies will continue to suffer from misinformation, both un- and intentionally, and will take longer than we'd like to become mainstream. The good news is that it IS happening.
One of the threats to Bitcoin and other solid cryptocurrencies, however, derives from the cryptocurrency world, itself. The advent of ever flimsy and extraneous currencies, and the news of their resultant fraud and misuse, could disrupt the advent and adoption of established ones. Guilt through association, if you will.
This is perhaps the largest threat to the cryptocurrency revolution, and I'm not exactly sure what can be done to avoid or mitigate it.
Great point. One thing which can help is for all of us to reign in our own greed and stop chasing every random ICO we come across. Or, if we do invest in something stupid, own it. Don't expect someone else to come along and bail us out. Be public about our mistakes and our successes.
The ICO are very interesting. They also are potentially a huge platform from fraud. Steemit is the perfect platform for distributing information on the ICO's. It will allow a permanent record. Note: Stock fraud has gone on for a long time and continues to go on. I would love to see a whitelist and a blacklist of ICO's.
You're right... this entire perspective can be confusing to people born into the pervading system. That's one reason I'm writing a fantasy novel set in medieval Ireland, to illustrate the problem you mention here: "My biggest concern with fractional reserve fiat debt-based currency is how it is used to fund wars that would otherwise be impossible." In the story, one of the three Gaelic deities/faeries known as "war starters" (this is actually a Gaelic thing) will start a war by funding it much like a central bank would. The idea being, debt funding is "magic"... it belongs in the realm of faeries and goblins. Title: To Coin a War. (Celts were famous for poetry and coining a phrase.) Anyway, your entire post was well stated!
That sounds really interesting! Please ping me when you make it available.
Thanks. I'm serializing it here on Steemit, so the first four parts are available here. And the Steemhouse Fiction Trail ( @sft ) has expressed interest in creating a publishing imprint for authors here and publishing To Coin a War when it's finished.
If a cryptocurrency was created to fund government we would have no need for debt or taxes.
money controlled by government makes them go crazy with power.
Cryptocurrencies can solve that problem
By creating a currency that only government can trade but the government cannot produce it.
the coins are divided up among citizens equally and the government creates a fund me page for each and every part of government.
The people can then choose which parts of government they want to fund with coins.
The coins are created specifically to fund government its not created out of the wealth of the people.
It is not a tax.
I love this idea. I've often thought if we truly want to get rid of the power of government, we should take their entire budget and go through it line by line. Then open it up via a shared spreadsheet and let the 300 million people in this country add private alternatives to the ones being done currently through monopolies backed by violent force. We'd see efficiencies increase overnight. I like the idea of a token specifically used as a way to vote for services we want. The military spending would, hopefully, go out the window so we could focus more on building instead of destroying.
Awesome article and I agree a hundred percent. Politicians are not the ones in power, the bankers are, the more war the more money printed, the more happy the bankers are. Whenever the economy has stagnated war has been the solution and considering the current economic situation these times are scary. A debt based currency is definitely what we should fear as it enslaves us and many people have started borrowing to afford to pay of their debts and usually these lenders have higher interest rates so it's a slippery slope. Finally thanks to cryptocurrency the people are holding the right end of the stick and I am hopeful for the future ! Great post 👍
Hi @dandesign86! You have just received 0.15 SBD tip from @cardboard!
@tipU - send tips by writing tip! in the comment, get share of the profit :)I almost included the documentary All Wars are Banker's Wars. Whenever I start talking about this stuff I want to mention democide and Smedley Butler's War Is a Racket as well. One thing at a time, I guess. Great comment, thank you. :)
It is quite scary the truth about who really turns the wheels of society. I actually haven't seen this documentary yet, but I definitely will do that this upcoming weekend. I have seen Zeitgheist some years ago and it definitely had an impact on me.
It feels like, with Steemit, Cryptocurrency and the blockchain, we are holding the Bankers Cryptonite. Change is coming and I have a feeling it's good !
This. Tip!
Thank you very much !
This^
I am not sure that politicians create wars to fix banking problems. While at times it can help. People have been fighting for a long time, for a lot of other reasons. The American Indians fought wars before central banks were around. Wars typically make everyone poorer. Yes, it helps if you can loot gold, crops, cattle or women from a neighboring village, but war is less than a zero sum game. That said. It is also interesting to look at the history of Wars. We go to war about every 20 years. I think that is more of one of mankind's inherent weaknesses.
Have you read Steven Pinker's Better Angeles of Our Nature? Violent death per 100,000 people has gone down significantly in the last 100 years even including WWI and WWII. As we move up Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we understand the value for cooperation of competition. Those who do want to fight wars (usually the sociopaths who get voted into office) must align with banks to get the funding they need. It's a sick symbiotic relationship of greed and destruction.
The concept of government-backed, inflationary fiat money is so cemented in the psyche of the ordinary citizen, that any challenge to the idea is somehow perceived as a personal attack.
This phenomenon is much more prevalent in the older generations. I find it crazy how my parents always look for some authority to tell them what is legit and what isn't.
Most of the older generations are brainwashed beyond belief. The light at the end of the tunnel is that the millennials are much sharper, observant and ready to act on their disgust of central banking and the fake money system they were born into.
So true. I have had conversations in years' past with a close relative regarding central banking. His attitude was "Well, central banking was just a natural progression that evolved over time organically". What a bunch of garbage!
That's exactly how the banksters have been able to get away with their fiat money racket for so long: the dumbing down of the population. An ignorant, intellectually lazy electorate is exactly what the banker overlords desire.
The newer generations have wised up considerably.
I think the Internet has played an important role. It removed the gatekeepers of information. It also gave all the tin-foil-hate wearing crazies a platform to spread their craziness, but at least those who work at improving their epistemology can find the information out there for what's really going on.
What's funny to me is to think about how our kids will describe us.
Heheh. Who knows. :)
Let's not put all millenials into sharper and more observant category. Many are not.
I suppose that is a fair statement.
Cryptocurrency needs good marketers, people who can educate on Blockchain and help them understand. I think this article is brilliant, the George Orwell quote to open and close is awesome. I would like to translate your article to Spanish and put on my blog, giving you credit of course, if you don't mind ^^
Go for it! Thank you. If you wouldn't mind, please include a request to upvote the original if your readers enjoyed it.
Deal ;)
There you go, hope you like it in Spanish haha ;) https://steemit.com/spanish/@arturomdg/la-estafa-del-dolar-supera-los-20-trillones-en-deuda
Cool. :)
If you could add a short note about voting up the original, that would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Done! I would appreciate also an upvote. Thanks ^^
Any concerns that majority of BTC mining is occurring in China, and at the appropriate moment, the Chinese military could decide they want to run all the Chinese miners, as one group, that controls more than 50% of hash rate?
Seems like a non-zero probability of being the end of BTC
No real concerns because, as we've already seen this year, if BTC doesn't provide value in a competing currency market, others will rise up to do so.
Maybe the cryptocurrency world will shift to STEEM and SBD where they can do 10's of thousands of transactions a second with 3 second block times and zero transaction fees. I wouldn't mind that one bit. :)
Upvoted myself to see if I could get Luke's attention and a comment in response
Take a look at my comment history. You don't need to upvote yourself for my attention. I'm quite active with over 8,000 posts and comments.
Very cool post. Packed with very valuable information.
Good point.
Thank you. I thought you might enjoy it. :)
Jamie Dimon just came out and said bitcoin is stupid. I guess we all better sell it now! 😁
May Jamie spend his final days in a cell trading ramen for toilet paper.
Hahaha!
Such a vivid visual.
I know. I've been thinking about all this ridiculous FUD lately and just had to write this post to get my thoughts out there.
Waiting understandingblockchain web to indonesian... Really hope for next blockchain
Budget deficit more than USD 525 Billions? That means the government needs to borrow more to fill the deficit gap thus increasing the national debt.
But the government has to pay back..taxpayers have to pay more and more tax each and every year..still the national debt is going to skyrocket.
The USD is up against the ropes right now, there're scared of crypto's. Fuck the fed. reserve! Have a great day yall and great post!
Scam is always common in any trade. We just have to be careful.
AHAHAHAH, "USD Scam Coin" I think I will also start referring to it as a scam coin too, so funny (but also sad and true).
Why is it that almost every friend I know dosen't understand some of these basic facts?
Good stuff, following!
LOL what a funny headline! And so damn true - I know the first vid since a while..... actually a really shocking one, when you see it the first time.
Nice, you watch Stefans videos too, just watched the one about your enslavement couple months ago already. But yeah, Fiat currency is the cause for so much shit in this world, ruled by greed. If wealth would've be shared better, it could end allot of suffering. Maybe crypto can, but government is Fiat, government and the banks will never give up on control.
Maybe they won't have to give up control, we'll just stop giving them power via our use of their money. Our choices from what we buy to where we live to what we think and do give power to others or keep it for ourselves. Stefan's older stuff was pretty good (philosophical parenting, etc), but lately I've not been a fan.
had a smile reading those lines, cos this is what went through my mind... when I watched the first video here in your great article it took me a couple of minutes to recocnize Stefan Molyneux voice... cos I haven't been watching/listening him/to it for quite a while...just as you say, lately not much of a fan any more. will go on tonight watching the other vids you enclosed - thank you for all the tips you share! Just told my husband today to stop looking at "bitcoin droping down" - asking him not to put it into relation to (in our case) Euro any loner! Important thing is, we started to move away from the "system" also in the currencies now... important step and together with growing our own food and many other things, I believe we are on the right track for all future developments... My main reason for joining here a couple of days ago, was to find out more "back door - sneak out" possibilities - and I am amazed how many great and helpfull tips I find every single day!!! Cheers from Germany and glad I found you! follow you now, resteemed and upvoted :-)
Thanks for sharing. :)
Yeah, things are changing quite a bit, hopefully for the better.
@lukestokes Thanks for sharing :-)
I am following
Best of Luck ! Followed.
Fascinating story. Hope you receive what you wish from this venture. Possess a good day. Followed.
I knew this was coming eventually @lukestokes simply because they are seeing how the cryptocurrency world is advancing and the amount of money invested is increasing. They just greedy and want they share in it so they create bullshit coins and I'm sure some newbie is going to buy them and get screwd and try to talk bad about the cryptocurrency world altogether. Sad that they would use such low measures to continue screwing the people but I hope people don't fall for the banana in the tail pipe trick.
#circleoffriends
The "bullshit" coin I'm talking about is the paper in the wallets of hundreds of millions of US Citizens right now.
Thanks. I don't like all of Stefan Molyneux's work, but that video was quite thought provoking.
The first Money as Debt film was one of the things that woke me up to the true state of the money system.
Yeah, I'm not really a fan of his stuff lately, but his philosophical parenting and universally preferred behavior content is good, IMO.
Yes, I used to listen quite a bit, but I think he (like quite a few others) seems to be acting as a right gatekeeper lately.
Very nice @lukestokes ...upvoted... Thank you... Very helpful and interesting... Blessings
Bankers helped humans move from the farming age to the industrial age so you can't suddenly hate the hand that feeds you while laying back in your cozy house using a computer.
Cryptos are providing banking services as well just decentralized.
I didn't throw all bankers under the bus. I'm all about competing currencies and competing banks. I'm not about the central banking system because what I learn about it disgusts me and is a moral outrage. I think innovation like steam power and energy from oil is what brought about the industrial age.
Did you know that central banks ensure settlements occur between other banks and resolve any issues. They also stablize currency by trading and producing it. What part disgusts you about it? I am pro decentralized and crypto, i just dont suddenly hate my history because something better comes along.
One of the main goals of central banks is to keep inflation under control. Before they were introduced it was wildly fluctuating up to 20% a year.
Cryptos are wildly fluctuating up to 20% a day. Sometimes I prefer a stable currency.
Also, you said "stable" again without answering my question. On what timescale are you considering? USD has been terrible on a long timescale as far as purchasing power goes. Bitcoin is the opposite. Many believe (as do I) that once the market cap of cryptocurrencies grow, the stability will come because it will be too big of a market to manipulate easily.
Have you considered the possibility the bankers themselves were attacking local bank currencies in order to bring about the First Bank of the United States or the Second Bank of the United States (both of which were fought bitterly against by the people who understood them)? There's a lot of history here to dig into. Many economists are beginning to agree the FED caused and prolonged the Great Depression, as an example.
I understand you have a narrative that makes sense to you. It's the same one that made sense to me for most of my life as well. Once I started doing more research on how we got here and the impact of central banking... well, I hope you can appreciate there are other narratives which, to me, are well supported.
I'm always open to entertaining new concepts without accepting them. I am amazed and concerned of the current leftwing attacks on history just because something is out of fashion. I really hope this mentality can be put back in its place with decentralization and less censorship.
Yup, when it comes to fiat currency. Once we went off the gold standard it basically become "funny money" and it's been used that way ever since.
Since we can never go back to that (and it had its limitations for sure), crypto is the best alternative that currently exists.
or you could get gold directly, and then you wouldnt have to worry about a fiat intermediary
I may or may not already have some of that ;-)
Wonderful post my friend!, i have been thinking a lot about the fall of USD lately, many people is saying the end is near...
This is why i think crypto is the safest way to invest and protect your money, actually i am moving a good portion of my USD income into crypto...
For USD to fall, there needs to be a lot of other fiats that rise. You have more faith and confidence in the other fiat's in comparison to USD?
If they are all phucked, and you are just picking the worst of a bad bunch, then USD may not have that far to fall.
I believe Yuan could overtake USD anytime in the future... China been holding and accumulating gold, contrary to EEUU who only print worthless money paper... In any case, i think FIAT money overall should decline, that system just doesn't work...
USD allows worldwide trade and, arguably, progress; while cryptocurrencies at the current stage are too volatile. I don't understand this need for beating "the enemy"; both centralized and decentralized financial systems are going to cohabit in the near future and we are fortunate enough to reap the benefits of both.
I'm pretty thankful for having a centralized authority issuing and maintaining a stable currency; if we look back a couple hundred years... well, I don't want to go back to that.
I've look into that and Bitcoin seems pretty uncorrelated to all traditional assets... just moves on its own :D
I didn't mean a moral/ethical argument but the psychological division between us and them.
I was comparing it particularly to the decentralized banking system in the US before the FED. I think it's dogmatic to deny some of the benefits that centralized authorities provide... just for example, if you lose your keys you lose your Bitcoin, but if a centralized authority like Coinbase is providing you access to the wallet, then you can recover it!
But right now cryptos don't fit the main use of money, both storage of value and medium of exchange. I don't find useful to look upon long periods of time while talking about payment methods but day-to-day volatility :)
We have a completely different view of the benefits of centralized authorities. I think mine is based on reasoned evidence and historical precedent. If you don't own your private key, you don't own your bitcoin. History shows over and over and over again how dangerous it is to trust central authorities with your wealth. There are much, much better ways to securely store and backup your private keys than trusting them to someone else. Central exchanges create a huge target for hackers and have a horrible track record for avoiding security issues. I mention some of the steps you can take as an individual in episode 3 of UBF.
Agree to disagree :)
I personally know too many people who lost their bitcoin investment when MtGox went down. I can not agree with centralized thinking for a decentralized system. Opposing the view you have was why Bitcoin was invented in the first place. I hope you recognize this and take responsibility for those who may lose again in the future based on information they get from you.
I agree we disagree, and I'll still argue your perspective can (and has) harmed people. I think we can do better and teach people personal responsibility when it comes to cryptocurrency.
BTW, regarding to this Maybe trade your BTC for an Amazon Gift Card via https://www.gyft.com/, we can now actually buy in amazon directly with BTC in Purse , which is awesome!
I have yet to use that myself, but I've heard great things about it.
Unfortunately only humans can determine value , I been pondering issuing my own cryptonote currency for months now based on the fact that I myself am valuable ... I hear giggles , but its true...even Bishop Tutu crosses the road to greet me ... so regardless of schemas inflation p2p or whatever , the real value of digital currency is actually the intelectual capital and personalities that drive it .
Proof of Politician algorithm... hahahaha... nice one ;-)
This is an outstanding group of videos all of which I have seen over the years but to have them grouped like the is impressive and educational. Maybe there should be a law that requires everyone in America to watch them. Just kidding :)
Great post! We are the firsts to be in this great community and it feels great!
The videos have some interesting viewpoints. Having a strong financial background I think he nails some squarely (dangers of fractional reserve banking), but I wasn't buying some of the other ones. One thing to be familiar with is "Fiscal Repression". Basically, interest rates will be low for a long time as it is necessary to try to inflate away the national debt.
Even negative interest rates and the "bank bail-ins" they've been talking about since the financial crash of 2008 will not unwind this mess. See what happened in Cyprus. Also, low interests rates create massive speculative investing bubbles where people will borrow huge amounts of money because any return at all will be better than the interest they are paying which creates even bigger boom/bust cycles. Who wouldn't use nearly free money to invest in wildly crazy things, especially if you're "too big to fail"?
Totally agree. The 10+ years of low interest rate environment since 2008 bust have built up a lot of bubbles that are going to have to pop at some point.
I have resteemed. I may translate it into Chinese.
Feel free to do so. If you wouldn't mind linking to the original and requesting those who appreciate it give me an upvote, that would be much appreciated. I love to get some of those Chinese whale votes. :)
Thanks! I have translated as Chinese and add my understanding about that. Here is it: https://steemit.com/cn/@skenan/20 . Also I have voted you as witness~
Thank you! I really appreciate your support.
Very well put sir... USD coin = scam
The title of this post made me spill coffee out my nose! Thanks for the laugh. I needed that! :) Cheers!
HAhahaha! Nice. :) I hope it didn't burn too much on the way out. :)
I think it woul even better as a joke to call the "USFederalReserve Coins" aka dollars that have less backing that Chuck-E Cheeze Tokens! Honest to god Luke, everytime I hear "bitcoin is a scam" - I think "Just how ignorant does somebody have to be about the Federal Reserve to believe Fiat money isn't a scam but bitcoin is!????"
"fractional reserve fiat debt-based currency" - good one :-)
Thanks. :)
Best post ever buddy ! Thanks
Thank you! :)
Proof of Politician! Haha! That right there already assures everyone it's a scam coin! Decentralize all the things!!
When you describe USD as a cryptocoin, it truly comes off as a scamcoin. I have no doubt that FIAT markets will completely collapse in the future, being replaced by crypto.
As per open ledger and privacy concerns:
One of the points often made is being able to find patterns in a users transactions and comparing them to user patterns. They could then compare them to figure out the identity of the user. I was always intrigued by the concept used for Z Cash.
I never invested in it but the idea is interesting. The issues come when verifying transactions. There is much more computations involved so it is a more difficult process. There is a great podcast on how they came up with the unique encryption code to ensure it wasn't hacked. You can check it out on radiolab HERE
The idea is that the transaction would be more like using cash. Very hard to trace.
Darryl (@dadview) resides in Canada. He is an active member of steemparents and teamcanada
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I laughed and neary shit my pants as I saw the title of this post which is reality and not a funny issue. @lukestokes good job indeed (always up for your posts) . The control freak and tax junky govrenment does not allow American participage in great ICOs and against cryptos due to fear of losing out of USD..however people will always circumvent them and succeed.
Good one indeed and feel free to see my latest post on civil war going on here at steemt and send in your thoughts. More success to you.
Was inspired to write an article about the monetary slavery we live in! It amazes me how few people actually understand how this system works. I will follow you for more posts!
If you are interested you can read my post here: It will mean allot to me! Thanks @lukestokes
https://steemit.com/money/@elliotmeijer/red-pill-or-the-blue-pill-or-how-money-is-made-or-why-you-should-care-or-why-the-monetary-system-is-modern-slavery
Great post, very well done!
Thank you so much!! This means allot!
Congratulations @lukestokes!
Your post was mentioned in the hit parade in the following category:
Cryptocurrency can bring a more voluntary system to the United States.
First.
We create a cryptocurrency that is designed to be used by the government, It has to be a currency government cannot create but only government spend.
Second.
The currency is equally distributed to all the people in the society.
the currency is not created from the wealth of the people it is not a tax.
Third
Government creates a "fund me" account for every part of the government.
the people can then use that currency to fund any part of government they want to support.
this can also be done on the local level
create a currency for your local Town
The currency pays pay the entire cost
the people of the Town back the currency in in lieu of taxes and fees.
the town creates a fund me page
then people fund it with the currency.
The government can then spend the currency or they can trade it for US dollars. But the fund me page is a contract and is open to the public.
most local governments are very cash-strapped.
Thanks for following me.
Great post, i'll take time for the videos soon. Like @damira wrote even academics doubt or don't understand cryptocurrencies. They are more on the "Jamie-Side" without knowing what darkness behind it.
We are so trapped in fears and habits that our mind is closed. The example with the debt is great because it shows on one hand exactly in which crazy system we live and there are on the other hand many loyal people who bring their hard earned money to the banks for no interest (negative interest due inflation and much to high fees) and they think they own real money which is just debt, printed fiat money and the banks continue playing games until the next crash..
I talked today to a colleague about current developments, like the mining frenzy and he said something funny but also something i thought a litte longer about: "Tell that to your mom.. try to explain all the things like mining farms, alternative currencies." i answered quickly "I must not do that!"
But the thing is, if just a small percentage understand at least the basics of cryptocurrencies who will get freedom? The lifestock farmers or their cows or how unequal is a new distribution of wealth?
Amazing post @lukestokes . Really great work. Keep it up bro! Story of enslavement....sad but true
Thanks Jan!
@lukestokes Thanks for publishing this Charming instant in time for yourself..
Bots like you destroy what we're working hard to build here. Please, stop.