Sunday, November 23, 2014

Bitcoin, cryptocurrency: freedom is around the corner



“As with many breakthroughs, most people think about bitcoin as an alternative to something they already know, as opposed to an enabler of something they never considered,” a comment by Adam Ludwin a co-founder of chain.com a bitcoin developer platform. Computers are more than just for typing, who ever thought of all these apps on a smart phone even a decade ago, digital age has so much potential.

The age of crypto currencies is here to stay. Once something is discovered or created, the knowledge cannot be undiscovered. When the likes of Richard Branson, founder of Virgin group support crypto currency say in an interview with Bloomberg that bitcoin “is working and there will be other currencies like it that may be even better, but in the meantime there is a big industry around bitcoin.” It is now time to consider the future seriously.

Adventurers of money like Richard Branson use money and understand better for practical purposes, this is why control of money must move away from monetary economists and be free from central bankers that use money for the purposes of controlling a society. Central bankers believe they understand the bigger picture than the humans who have to abide by their decisions. Or maybe central bankers through the banks want to decide who gets loans and thereby control who gets to be a big business person.

Joseph Schumpeter at the beginning of the capitalist age talked about creative destruction as part and parcel of the capitalistic system. That is what happens when the human mind is unleashed, society will keep on adapting to new knowledge and resulting change in modes of production and living.

Nobody wants a typewriter today, people born a decade ago have never seen a typewriter.. True with change there are always vested interests that will try to undermine the future. Stage coach operators bad mouthed the coming of the railways, as if stage coaches are safe. Who today prefers a book for a street map or GPS. There are still newspapers out there but the likes of Google have taken away much of their advertising revenue, and the trend will continue, advertising budgets will more and more flow to internet based companies. Those with vested interests in a present mode of living usually put up a good fight.

As central bankers and their underlings believe they have resources that would make a stage coach operator confused, because at the least the stage coach owner was an honest operator. Central bankers believe they can protect their vested interests far better than stage coach owners, the right to control money supply for their own ends. The main beneficiaries of central banks, the commercial banks obviously have a disdain for crypto currencies just as luddites feared the coming age of machinery.

The early railway men did not chase stage coach operators away. They welcomed them to the new age, sell your stage coaches while you can and put your money into railroads. Nobody wants yesterdays Blackberry let alone last years Nokia. Soon nobody will want the farce of money that can be printed at a whim for the advantage of a very few who have the most interest in keeping the farce going on for as long as possible. Nobody is chasing bankers away especially their shareholders, the future has arrived and they are very welcome to participate in it like Richard Branson.

The digital age is at its infancy, it will continue to grow making our lives more convenient, and allowing us to have access to minds that would be barred by traditional media. This is a freedom for mankind. Those with the urge to control society of course are fighting this digital age at its infancy before they lose purpose for controlling, besides freedom of speech that the internet has allowed, heavily controlled with policing in most countries, Snowden revealed this to be true not just in communist China but in  the most unexpected of countries the USA. Honest money is further loss of control for humans with twisted minds.

Nobody knows the future, but the digital age will demand a most honest form of money, always delicately balancing itself, in this more enlightened tomorrow too much interference will knock the entire system of balance. We need to trust human development and evolution, need to trust society not a few who want to control society for their benefit, slowing down human progress.

No more Tesla’s will die in poverty after contributing so much because it suites those who control money. Nobody will dominate theoretical physics, talk of wormholes, future space travel yet those who discover the maths are shunned for ideological reasons, this age must and is coming to an end there will be no money for social engineering, one need not be a cripple, transsexual, one should be allowed to be a straight black male to voice out their discoveries, one must show the knowledge. Humans to reach full potential need a free market, there is no such thing as a free market when so few determine the supply of money. Money is meant to be neutral so that we can understand price signals.

The age of crypto currencies is here, like it or not. Do not try to fight it, you will be wasting your valuable resources, join in, nobody is chasing anybody, it is just the future, why desire to control others. Think about it, an age in which every transaction is recorded as it happens, destination of every coin known, encryption ensuring confidentiality, this is the dream of economic scientists, when GDP is calculated daily, less need for government statistical departments, more need for private sectors to higher best, those who know how to gather the right information in an age full of data that will all be available to all on the internet. As Branson implied, the bitcoin is the tool of now, possibly something better will take its place, but crypto currencies are here to stay and dominate the future.

Bhekuzulu Khumalo

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Bhekuzulu Khumalo

I write about knowledge economics, information, liberty, and freedom