Bitcoin’s Opponents Are the Symbol of the Losing Battle Between the Disrupted and the Disruptors
Disruptors always win in the end.
The economic crisis in which the world is currently immersed is completely reshuffling the cards. Everything that seemed impossible before seems to be possible now. In the last 10 weeks, we have seen the Fed cut interest rates to zero, before printing over 3 trillion U.S. dollar.
The other central banks have done the same in slightly lower proportions. As for governments, they have continued to accumulate even more public debt to support their respective economies.
The American public debt thus exceeded $25 trillion as a result of the various actions taken by the American government, which exceeded $3 trillion. A $1,200 stimulus check was sent to all eligible U.S. citizens.
Everything that has already been done is clearly not enough given the extreme poverty of millions of people
Some are even beginning to talk about the need to put in place some sort of universal basic income in the United States until the economy returns to its pre-crisis level of coronavirus.
In the meantime, the price of U.S. crude oil has even been on the negative side at minus $38 when the May futures contract expired at the end of April 2020.
Mindset about Bitcoin is starting to change
In a world where everything seems to be turned upside down, you shouldn’t be surprised to see some of Bitcoin’s opponents starting to radically change their position towards the cryptocurrency king.
We haven’t yet gotten to the point where Warren Buffett would have dubbed Bitcoin. Nevertheless, we are at the beginning of a journey of a thousand steps, to paraphrase Lao Tzu.
It all started in early May 2020, when Paul Tudor Jones, a famous American hedge fund manager, announced in a letter to his investors that he would now prefer Bitcoin to gold to protect himself from the risks of the great monetary inflation that we are currently experiencing.
This great monetary inflation is a direct consequence of the trillions of dollars currently being printed by the Fed and other central banks in order to save the current monetary and financial system no matter what the cost.
Millions of poor people are bearing the brunt of this unreasonable spill of fiat money, as Jerome Powell confirmed in an interview for 60 Minutes :
“The people who’re getting hurt the worst are the most recently hired, the lowest paid people. It’s women to an extraordinary extent. We’re actually releasing a report tomorrow that shows that, of the people who were working in February who were making less than $40,000 per year, almost 40% have lost their jobs in the last month or so. Extraordinary statistic. So that’s who’s really bearing the brunt of this.”
— Jerome Powell
The Fed knows full well that its unlimited quantitative easing program is hurting those who need help the most right now.
Despite this, central banks continue to respond to all the ills of the economy in the same way: printing more and more money to support the economy of their respective countries.
Donald Trump is even currently putting pressure on Jerome Powell to go further by switching to negative interest rates.
The Fed is resisting for the time being, because such a decision would be far from being the “gift” that Donald Trump imagines.
If the Fed set negative interest rates, it would ultimately benefit Bitcoin in my opinion. I think Jerome Powell and many others are aware of this. That’s why I think they won’t do it.
With interest rates at zero since mid-March 2020, individual investors, but also institutionals investors, are looking for new investments that offer them more attractive returns.
Pragmatism was in mind of Paul Tudor Jones when he opted for Bitcoin. Gold remains an excellent store of value, but Bitcoin’s potential in this area is objectively superior.
Furthermore, Paul Tudor Jones points out that Bitcoin is clearly undervalued at the moment with a price below $10,000.
JPMorgan follows in the footsteps of Paul Tudor Jones
Many macro investors are expected to follow in the coming months and years. Earlier this week, JPMorgan has even just started to put a foot in the Bitcoin world.
The bank headed by Jamie Dimon has announced that it is extending its banking services to Bitcoin using the Gemini and Coinbase trading platforms.
It seems a long time ago that Jamie Dimon was extremely aggressive towards Bitcoin. However, that was less than three years ago in September 2017. Jamie Dimon said then:
“Bitcoin is a fraud. I would fire in a second anyone at JPMorgan found to be trading in Bitcoin. It’s not a real thing, eventually Bitcoin will be closed.”
— Jamie Dimon
It would appear that Jamie Dimon has come a long way since those statements made at the Delivering Alpha conference.
Goldman Sachs, another banking heavyweight in the United States, is offering a conference call on May 27, 2020 to allow its clients to get a clearer picture of the current economic situation. This is nothing new. What is new, however, is that Bitcoin appears roughly in the title of this conference:
You know as well as I do that famous quote:
“Only fools and dead men don’t change their minds. Fools won’t and dead men can’t.”
— John H. Patterson
So it seems that JPMorgan would rather change their mind about Bitcoin than stay on the side of the fools. It’s the same with Goldman Sachs. And many more will follow in the future.
Everything that’s happening right now is extremely positive for the adoption of Bitcoin in the months and years to come. Things are slowly getting in place and then we will see a lot of institutional investors coming in.
Many are finally beginning to understand that Bitcoin is here to stay. It’s never too late to do well, as they say.
The Bitcoin revolution will happen whether you support it or not.
If you choose to waste your time opposing Bitcoin, you will be among the big losers of the Bitcoin revolution. It’s always the same in life. Those who embrace a major technological revolution before others do have an incredible advantage.
For Bitcoin, it’s exactly the same thing.
Fierce opposition to a major disruption like Bitcoin is déjà vu
Thinking about it, I think it is possible to draw a parallel between Bitcoin and many other major technological disruptions in recent decades.
When television was really able to develop after the Second World War, all the major radio station executives were unanimous. For them, television was a bad idea.
Some even went so far as to say that television would have no success, and that radio would remain dominant.
Today, we can see what the situation is like. Television plays a dominant role in the lives of billions of people on Earth. Nevertheless, radio has not disappeared. Its uses have evolved, and the most resistant have been forced to undergo the television revolution.
When the mainstream Internet began to become widespread in the late 1990s, many newspaper bosses took to the streets, saying that the Internet would not be successful.
They said that newspapers could never be replaced.
When I was looking for old newspaper articles from the mid-1990s, I found an article in Newsweek with a rather tasty headline when you read it in 2020:
The Internet? Bah!
Hype alert: Why cyberspace isn’t, and will never be, nirvana
If it is true that it was rather difficult to quickly find what you wanted on the Web at the time, the arrival of Google has changed the situation and made the Web extraordinarily practical.
From now on, when someone has a question about any subject, his reflex is always the same: he turns on his computer, or goes to his smartphone, and does a Google search.
Newspapers haven’t disappeared, but they have had to evolve. The ones that took the longest to evolve are the ones that finally had the hardest time surviving. Most newspapers have now a digital-first strategy.
You don’t stop a major technological disruption just because you feel threatened. The revolution will happen with or without you.
The evolution of the species that have inhabited the Earth for millennia has taught us at least one essential truth:
Evolve or Be Extinct
The examples obviously do not stop there. I could have cited taxi drivers who resisted the arrival of Uber, hotel owners threatened by the incredible rise of Airbnb, or Spotify against which all record labels have been fighting for years.
The situation for Bitcoin is exactly the same.
Bitcoin is a perfect symbol of the losing battle between disrupted and disruptors
Bitcoin is a major technological disruption that threatens the absolute power of the central bankers, banks, and rulers over money to give it back to the people.
All the people who benefit from the current monetary and financial system therefore naturally feel threatened by Bitcoin. The total paradigm shift Bitcoin represents scares them.
Bitcoin represents the first step in separating money from the state. People at the head of the current system obviously don’t want to see that happen.
Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for the inhabitants of Earth, history shows that disruptions always end up overtaking disrupted. The latter have no choice but to evolve sooner or later.
The opponents of Bitcoin, represented perfectly by Warren Buffett, are the perfect symbol of this losing battle between the disrupted and the disruptors.
In the end, Bitcoin will triumph. This is consistent with history.
The monetary and financial system will not disappear, but it will have to evolve as all the other disrupted I have just mentioned had to do.
In the future, it is very likely that Bitcoin will co-exist with the fiat system, as well as being the protocol for money on the Internet. An alternative allowing citizens around the world to have the choice to switch to a more protective and respectful system.
The fiat system will have to adapt, regardless of the personal feelings of central bankers and governments towards Bitcoin.
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