Control thru Track and Trace
Don’t fall into the crypto trap of CBDCs. Learn from these common misunderstandings!
Most people do not understand Crypto! I will be the first to state that I do not fully understand them either. Anyone who claims to is likely either A) lying and/or B) trying to sell you something. The buzzwords of “blockchain and fungible tokens” makes my ears bleed. Here’s why:
1. Crypto Currencies are not private nor anonymous
That is correct. Most Crypto Currencies are not private or anonymous. To understand this we have to go into the very top level of how Crypto works: The Blockchain. Treetops speaking transactions after verification are written into a block. Think of just a small segment of a ledger, such as a page within a paper ledger. Once that is filled or the time to fill has been reached the “page is finished” and you move on to the next. As you move from “page” to “page” you form a chain of blocks that would resemble the ledger book if continuing the metaphor. The blockchain is a public ledger in a peer-to-peer topology. Meaning that items written to the blockchain remain available to the entire world as long as any single machine with the blockchain remains active. There goes privacy.
The way the transactions are recorded are through the use of digital wallets. A wallet holds the currency and is what interacts with the blockchain. Transactions show, for example, Bitcoin being transferred from Wallet A to Wallet B. With only one Wallet to tie you to your money you can kiss anonymity goodbye as well. Anyone with the proper knowledge and a few simple tools can find any transaction you have ever done on the blockchain. Not only the fact that the transaction occurred but the time and the amount as well. Finances done in Bitcoin and others are less private than using a credit card.
2. Most Cryptos are not immune to price manipulations
A common selling point of cryptos like Bitcoin are their supposed immunity to price manipulations. No central figure or authority can unilaterally effect the price of the currency thereby instilling stability within the system. The problem with that is this isn’t true. Speaking to BTC again it is capped to a limited number of tokens. This does produce an amount of artificial scarcity to the price but it also limits mining potential. The fewer tokens available the higher the demand for compute power to mine. The more this “power creep” inches along the easier it is for one group (not necessarily a government group) to seize a majority of the mining capacity and control the future or the currency.
A easier example of this is the Chia coin. This one is mined from storage devices such as Hard Drives. I am not well versed in the specifics but it favors someone with very large storage capacity to mine. Storage is expensive. It would be easy for a massive company like Microsoft to just turn a data center or two over to mining Chia and then control the currency.
3. Token Fungibility usually means nothing in practical terms
What is fungiblity? It is simply the ability of a currency to be interchangeable. This can be in the sense of a token’s ability to be divided without effort such as you can convert $100 USD into 5 $20 USD. Or even, exchanging a hundred dollar bill for another hundred dollar bill. A modern economy requires this ability. Bitcoin does not have this property. Not every BTC is worth the same. Seeing the previous discussion about the traceability of BTC on the blockchain, BTC that was used in crime has a negative connotation and carry a lower price tag as a consequence. Not being able to trust that every BTC is worth the same as any other BTC degrades the ability to use it as a currency.
4. Use as an asset as opposed to a true currency
This last one isn’t really a knock on the technology behind most Crypto Currencies but on the limited adoption by some investors. The purpose of a crypto currency is to be that: a currency. To be exchanged in the place of another good or service. Its value comes from its representation of other holders of value. A currency does not hold its value within itself as an asset does. Gold is an excellent example of an asset. It is not easily broken down into smaller denominations, it is heavy and difficult to protect when carrying it and it is simply valuable not matter what. (I could argue that last point but not for today) BTC on the other had is easy to carry around since it isn’t physical, it can easily be broken into incredibly small denominations to pay for anything but it does not hold value in itself. Since it is not physical you can’t do anything with it by itself. Sitting on and hoarding Bitcoin is worse than hoard gold as a dragon. It keeps it out of circulation and artificially inflates the value.
5. Crypto held in an exchange is not really your money
If you do not hold the seed you do not hold the deed. This saying is relating that if you do not control the seed phrase to your wallet you don’t really own the wallet. Crypto exchanges regularly hold your wallet seed and prevent you from accessing it. This prevents you from either taking your business elsewhere or taking it out of their control in general. This was how the Canadian Truckers who had their funds confiscated had that happen. Those with their own seed phrase and not in exchanges did not have funds/tokens seized due to the government having no ability to do so. Without the cooperation of the exchange the fed bois can’t touch your crypto. This is the key selling point of crypto. Another not related to the technology but in how people use it. I thought it was worth mentioning.
The trap of the Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)
It may have sounded like I am totally dogging on crypto and Bitcoin in particular. I am not trying to. They are fantastic technologies. They are the future however there are flaws and drawbacks I want to point out. Clearly the powers at be think they are the future as well. Central Banks are looking to implement their own Crypto Currencies in the form of CBDC. The danger here is threefold. 1) There is no privacy or anonymity for any transaction legal or otherwise. 2) There are no safe guards to outright manipulation of inflation/prices. 3) your life savings could become inaccessible to you for any reason or even without reason. These dangers are only amplified when the conversion to completely cash-less societies is complete. Resist CBDCs at all costs. The biggest benefit to crypto is by being decentralized no single person or entity can control who you transact with as a middle man or even if you have funds in general. This is why they are the future.
How do we solve these issues with crypto?
The answer to the issues laid out with most crypto is a coin called Monero. Monero does not have a limit to the total number of coins available but it does have a limit to the rate Monero is mined. This ensures miners keep mining and price stability remains. Monero is also extremely private. It uses wallet aliases to essentially prevent a pattern being detected. One can have different wallet address aliases for different tasks if they so choose. They can even create a new one for each transaction to make sure there is nothing to tie to them. Assuming your OPSEC remains good there is no known way to track individuals through Monero’s blockchain like you would with BTC. The NSA currently has a bounty on anyone who can crack it. Monero and projects similar to it are the future. Try to support them.
This was not meant to describe in detail the inner workings of blockchain based crypto currencies. I encourage everyone to investigate this topic more and become informed. The bankers are always up to nefarious tasks. We must resist them.
Relevant Links
On Blockchain: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp
On Fungibility: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungibility
Canadian Trucker Convoy Confiscations: https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/02/16/canada-sanctions-34-crypto-wallets-tied-to-trucker-freedom-convoy/
Monero official site: https://www.getmonero.org/
Video explaining Monero: https://odysee.com/@AlphaNerd:8/how-monero-works-and-why-its-a-better:a
I do accept donations in Monero on the Contact page if like what I am doing here and would like to support.
