Independence Is Taken, Not Granted
I saw this post
and wrote this long rant in response so I decided to post it as a long-form article.
I read the declaration of independence and the u.s. constitution on the 4th of july every year for like 7 years, until 2020.
the people of the enlightenment had such great ideas. money had to be minted from gold and silver. it wasn't a bad rile, it's just the government decided not to follow that rule. or maybe they were incapable of following that rule. it didn't scale.
the post office was the best idea to facilitate private communication. people like james madison and thomas jefferson obtained even higher levels of privacy using encryption like the jefferson wheel. the founders, in many ways were analog cypherpunks. that's why we have the bill of rights. the anti-federalists fought for those rights and won...for a little while.
people forgot about cryptography. they started using email. private communication became part of history. when was the last time you sent a letter over snail mail? you might send a christmas card here or there, but the biggest ad companies in the world are like santa clause. he knows whe you are sleeping. he knows when you're awake. he knows whrn you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.
cbdc's are a real political issue nowadays. it's strange. it's not as if the masses started reading david chaum or something. they don't want cbdc's, but how is that system much different than credit cards?
frankly, most people don't give a damn, but they feel as if they can't get ahead. the complain about inflation, but take nonsteps to save fiat. why would they? saving fiat means getting less stuff in the future.
satoshi thought #bitcoin could help people achieve freedom.
i view bitcoin and public key cryptography as a way to achieve the rights guaranteed by the us constitution on the internet...at least for a little while, but if we do it right, we can achieve freedom for a long time. one time, i bought a tv. then i tried to buy groceries the same day and my credit card wouldn't work. i understand why and a quick phone call cleared it up, but it shows how easy they can cut people off of the financial rails.
as costs rise, more people will be cut off from those rails. that's the problem with the double spending problem.
#bitcoinfixes this.