Another great piece by Parker Lewis, that cuts through the bullshit often spouted by main stream media morons and state apologists that “Bitcoin is only for criminals!” By god, won’t someone think of the children!?!
Please.
Bitcoin is a neutral, amoral technology. It cares not if you are galactic emperor or ragamuffin, sinner or saint, Zimbabwean or Canadian, yellow or black, vegan or carnivore, gay or straight, liberal or conservative, anarchist or communist. Should I go on? Bitcoin is for everyone.
Bitcoin’s entire value proposition is that it cannot be censored by anyone, for any reason whatsoever. That is the revolution at hand—an open monetary system, controlled by no one, available to everyone. If Bitcoin could be censored, the entire experiment is over.
Therefore, by definition, Bitcoin must be available to criminals. And, yes, some small percentage of transactions are indeed used by criminals. Should this surprise you? No! Many technological innovations have been adopted early for illicit purposes—be it bank robbers using automobiles as getaway cars or smut peddlers on the early internet—precisely because the new technologies offered advantages to keep them one step ahead of those trying to stop them. Eventually, the same technologies used by early adopting criminals are used by everyone precisely because the same advantages recognized by the criminals were later acknowledged and seized upon by the general populace.
The admission that Bitcoin works for criminals, who are under constant pressure from resourceful authorities, is a glowing endorsement that the technology simply works, and by extension works for everyone on earth.
The fact is the US Dollar is the preferred currency for drug dealers, human traffickers, and countless other criminal enterprises worldwide. Yet, terrible as these things are, the net benefit provided to human civilization by monetary goods (even shitty fiat currencies like the USD) are far in excess of the harm wrought. The same terrible crimes perpetrated using legacy moneys will likely happen using Bitcoin, however, the net benefit to humankind of shifting to the sound, equitable monetary system Bitcoin offers will be immeasurably greater.
Ultimately, bitcoin represents a technological advancement in the global competition for money; it is the superior successor to existing fiat monetary systems, even if not well or widely understood today. …
if bitcoin is functional in facilitating commerce associated with illicit activities, and despite the best efforts of a powerful regulatory authority, ipso facto, it can be functional in facilitating any other form of commerce as well, including by law abiding citizens.
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The competition for bitcoin is global. Over time, those that produce the most relative value will accumulate the greatest share of bitcoin.
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We accept the good with the bad, recognizing that due to the very nature of bitcoin, we do not get to decide. There are always trade-offs, and in this case, that bitcoin will unavoidably be used for illicit purposes is the trade-off we gladly accept in exchange for the economic stability that an unmanipulable global currency will provide. As with every technology, value will accrue to those that utilize bitcoin in its highest and best use, a function which only the market can determine. The net benefit will not be zero-sum and just as the internet is not for drug dealers and terrorists, bitcoin is not for criminals. It is for everyone.