Bitcoin Is Already a Plan A for Millions of People
Bitcoin is already making a huge difference for millions of people.
Launched in 2009, Bitcoin has since achieved 99.98% availability. Bitcoin has been running virtually non-stop for over 11 years now. Bitcoin is building a fairer system, block after block and day after day, on a continuous basis.
Originally used by a few cypherpunks, Bitcoin has grown in popularity to the point where it has become a hot topic in recent years. Most people who discovered Bitcoin realized that an alternative to the current monetary and financial system was possible.
The rise of Bitcoin as a credible alternative to the current obsolete system has made many people feel that it is time for a Plan B. You will have understood that this is a pun and that plan B they are thinking about is of course Bitcoin.
Today, I have the feeling that Bitcoin is already much more than a plan B. For millions of people around the world, Bitcoin is already a plan A and their only hope for a better world in the future as I will show you.
Bitcoin Is the Only Bulwark Against Authoritarianism
You live in the U.S., in Canada or maybe in Europe. For you, democracy is something you take for granted. You don’t really understand the people who spend their time fighting to preserve this precious right.
You must be aware that the rights you enjoy today were hard-won by your ancestors.
Many people in Western countries consider democracy to be an unwavering achievement.
This is a mistake because nothing in life is taken for granted.
Real awareness is needed here because democracy is a precious thing that you have to fight for all the time.
The latest figures published by the Human Rights Foundation on this subject speak for themselves:
- 40 competitive authoritarian regimes that rule 1.2 billion people
- 53 full-fledged dictatorships that oppress 2.8 billion people or 30% of the world’s countries
- The world currently has a little over 100 democracies that govern over 47% of the world’s population
These figures show that nearly 4 billion people on Earth live under the constraints and threats of authoritarianism.
Half of the world’s population has to cope with the excesses of authoritarian regimes.
That number is phenomenal and must come as a shock to you. Yet it is the reality as we move into 2020.
The victims of these authoritarian regimes are in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, and Venezuela.
The list is far from exhaustive, unfortunately.
The rulers or dictators of these countries confiscate everything people possess and deprive them of most of their individual freedoms.
Bitcoin is probably the only bulwark they have at their disposal to emancipate themselves from the authoritarianism of their rulers.
Bitcoin gives them the opportunity to own something that cannot be confiscated by their leaders.
Bitcoin allows them to take their wealth, however meager, with them when they make the decision to leave their country and become economic or political refugees.
For these populations, Bitcoin is already Plan A.
Bitcoin Helps People Fight Surveillance and Censorship
People in Western countries generally do not have the same problems as people in countries living under the authoritarianism of corrupt rulers.
People in Western countries have to deal with the ever-increasing willingness of their leaders to monitor their every move.
It all started with China, whose regime is authoritarian, which decided to set up true generalized state supervision with its social credit system.
A Chinese can hardly do anything without being monitored by the authorities of his country.
China’s desire to create a state-backed cryptocurrency is a clear step in the direction of strengthening the monitoring of all transactions carried out by the Chinese population.
This desire is not new, since China, for example, is pushing for the use of WeChat as an online payment system in order to better monitor the transactions carried out online by its population.
This massive surveillance allows the Chinese authorities to decide arbitrarily to freeze the assets of any of its citizens but also to block some of their transactions.
The most worrying thing is that this type of surveillance is becoming widespread in Western countries where private companies, such as the GAFA, are storing an incredible amount of data about you.
The fact that the GAFA are now moving into online payment systems, and soon financial services, should alert you as a citizen.
More and more people living in Western countries are facing censorship decisions by their banks that prohibit them from making certain transactions.
In Greece, the country’s authorities had limited bank withdrawals to 60 euros per day for the country’s citizens in 2015 when the country was hit by a major economic crisis.
This is just one example among many, but it shows why more and more people no longer believe in the current system.
You too are among those who feel that it is not your responsibility to pay the consequences of the mistakes made time and again by rulers who do not live up to their commitments.
With Bitcoin, you can carry out the transactions of your choice without any risk of censorship.
Bitcoin also protects your anonymity since only the addresses of the participants in a transaction and the amount is made public.
As long as you do not give the list of your addresses on the Bitcoin Blockchain, you remain anonymous and protected from the mass surveillance that is spreading around the world.
Bitcoin Provides Access to Banking Services
If you live in a developed country, opening a bank account may be a trivial matter. All you have to do is go to a local agency near you and give your identity document for opening an account.
In the poorest or authoritarian countries, opening a bank account is impossible for many people.
Many people are unable to provide identity documents to open such accounts.
This is the case of political or economic refugees who have had to flee their country of origin and have lost everything in the process.
People who manage to open bank accounts in these countries also run the risk of having all their assets frozen for purely arbitrary reasons.
This is the case in Russia, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela, where governments hold the banking system in a tight grip.
In these countries, the very high level of corruption of rulers makes the current monetary and financial system totally inefficient for people.
Bitcoin gives them access to basic but essential banking services.
With a simple phone and Internet connection, these populations can receive Bitcoins that no one is in a position to confiscate from them.
Family members who have fled abroad can send them Bitcoins to enable them to survive on a daily basis.
In Venezuela, the dictatorial regime of Nicolas Maduro has led to record inflation, leaving the population without any solution.
To give you an idea of the problem faced by Venezuelans, the price of a coffee rose from 0.2 bolivars in 2017 to 30,000 bolivars in 2019.
This represents inflation of almost 150,000% in just two years.
Bitcoin is helping the Venezuelan population to survive in the face of Nicolas Maduro’s oppression.
Venezuela has the highest rate of merchant adoption of Bitcoin as a means of payment in the world.
It’s clearly no coincidence.
Venezuelans are massively using Bitcoin to protect themselves from the irrational increase in the money supply of the bolivar decided by Nicolas Maduro.
For Venezuelans, as well as millions of other people around the world, Bitcoin is already a Plan A. It is their only solution to survive.
Bitcoin Protects What You Own
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, current prices are 212% higher than average prices in 1980. Thus, the U.S. dollar has experienced average inflation of 2.96% per year over the past 40 years.
The real value of the U.S. dollar has declined steadily since 1980.
An American must, therefore, have $312 in his possession in order for his buying power in 2019 to be equivalent to his buying power of $100 in 1980:
In other words, the U.S. dollar of 2019 lets you buy fewer things than the U.S. dollar of 1980.
To fully understand the loss of buying power that you are experiencing, this second graph shows the evolution of a $100 buying power over time since 1980:
U.S. dollar’s value evolution over the last forty years clearly shows that you have no guarantee that 1 USD = 1 USD for the future.
Bitcoin is available in finite quantity. The number of Bitcoins that will be put into circulation is 21 million.
That’s a fact that everyone can verify.
When you buy Bitcoin, whether you are in a rich country or a poor country, you have an essential guarantee:
1 BTC of 2020 will always be equal to 1 BTC of 2100.
You will still own one in 21 million Bitcoin in the future. What you own will not be arbitrarily devalued.
Bitcoin is in fact increasingly seen as the best investment solution for the future by people in developed countries.
Bitcoin Is No Longer a Plan B but a Plan A for Millions of People
In Western countries, Bitcoin is mainly seen as a store of value at the moment. Because of its scarcity, decentralized nature and lack of a leader, Bitcoin is perfect for protecting what you own.
Many therefore see in Bitcoin the system towards which the world must evolve in order to overcome the limitations of the current monetary and financial system.
In countries living under corrupt rulers or dictators, Bitcoin is already more than just a Plan B.
The pun is fun, but it diminishes the importance of Bitcoin for millions of people around the world.
Bitcoin is a reality that helps millions of people survive.
By building block after block, a more fairer world, Bitcoin is already making a huge difference and giving universal access to money to millions of people.
It allows instantaneous non-censurable cross-border payments at reduced fees.
Bitcoin is already playing a vital role in promoting the freedom of peoples in general.
What I find most interesting is that we are only at the beginning of the Bitcoin revolution. The future is its own and Bitcoin will increasingly become a Plan A for new people in the years to come.
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