ONE FOR THE ROAD
James Deakin
Brace yourselves. The next phase of the digital revolution has just kicked into hyperdrive; the battle to decentralize money and power through technology has entered its next crucial phase and I can’t think of a more exciting time to be alive. I’m talking about cryptocurrency, and yes, I know it’s taken a beating over the last few weeks, but unless you’ve been living in a bubble as big as the US$, you would have heard from some of the wealthiest and most influential people in the world that, despite all that volatility (which is a natural correction as it looks for its true value) this is the start of the most groundbreaking financial disruption since the invention of currency and stored value.
Commonly referred to as the digital gold rush, I prefer to look at crypto as the red or blue pill moment for investors. Because even more significant than the prospect of personally striking it rich, or the transparency of using a far more efficient medium to represent and underpin the core properties of money––durability, portability, scarcity, uniformity, divisibility, acceptability and fungibility––the real game changer and bigger picture here is, because of its peer-to-peer verification process, it renders a trillion dollar industry of gatekeepers and manipulators completely redundant, which not only frees up that money, it in effect decentralizes power and puts it back where it belongs––in each of our hands.
Now if you don’t know how the blockchain works, I strongly encourage you to learn. I would try to explain it here but I honestly think that any three-minute YouTube video will do a better job. But to sum it up, decentralized blockchain technology like Bitcoin will disrupt finance in the same quantum leap forward that the Internet did to communication and information.
Try and imagine the leap from cassette tapes to Spotify and you’re starting to see the picture. Now you’re probably wondering, if this is the ultimate game changer to decentralize finance and power, as well as free ourselves from usurious fees, manipulation and inflation, then won’t the people who invented the current game simply not allow it? After all, they write the rules, right? Why would the the powers that be sign their own suicide notes by allowing this? And you would be right. In fact, that is the biggest indicator that it is the game changer. Government retaliation. But unless you’re a country with complete totalitarian and authoritarian control (like China, who is already cracking down on it) resistance is futile. It would be like trying to ban the Internet. (Which, for the same reasoning, China kinda did, too)
So for the rest of the free world, the only real step for government to do is to create their own digital coin (which some have already announced) to ward off this looming asteroid. But regardless of what technology they use to mint it, or what sanctions they place on its competitors, it will always come with one inherent flaw––it is still centralized. Which loosely translated means, just trust us. You know, like in 2008.
But crypto is more unstable! It crashed over 50 percent in a month! Yes, and so did the Internet when it first started. You couldn’t even maintain a connection if someone picked up the phone while you were online and almost every webpage would take 10 minutes to load. But it never devalued the idea or its potential. And that’s what I’m investing in. Not the coin, per se, but a future that slowly migrates the power back to the people by removing the oppressive barriers that prevent one third of the world’s population from experiencing financial inclusion and independence.
Besides, for every 50 percent drop, it has always been followed by a 5 or 10 times rise. So if you just dollar cost averaged, you’d be way ahead in Bitcoin versus any currency on planet earth. Even with the dips. But again. I’m not here to sell you crypto. That’s not what I’m excited about. The main reason I’m supporting this and investing is because of the disruption.
We live in a digital world but are still trying to force a centuries-old, financial system on top of it. The biggest draw of Bitcoin is that it decentralizes finance and cuts out all the politics and middlemen; so even if the central banks come up with a coin, they would simply be providing a digital version of the same problem. It was like how when the cab drivers tried to come up with an app to beat Uber and Grab. That was never the edge that ride sharing brought in. The power was in the peer to peer model. Just like how the rise of Bitcoin and other cryptos is not fueled by convenience, but rather from the idea of a P2P encrypted platform that has the power to not only safely store our digital assets, but restore our personal sovereignty as well, which, like inflation, has been leaking year on year with our rise in digital dependency.
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