The Bitcoin Revolution
All over the world, millions of people are having the exact same conversation that I had with John today as I helped him to set up his Coinbase account. He had managed to overcome his fear that the whole site was set up by little Huan Carlos from Bogota, a 15 year old – living in John’s imagination- who had also worked out how to hack into the Pentagon.
What pushed him over the edge was his most recent tax bill. He is a public sector employee who needs to do private work to supplement his income and yet pays almost a third back in tax. OK we may not all feel sympathy for him but he is one of many who are seeing prices and taxes rise, with no increase in income.
‘People are having this exact conversation all over the world right now’ I said as we sipped our coffees. And some people will buy BTC as a result and some won’t. In fact if they know what day it is, people in board rooms across the world are also having this conversation and some companies will buy and some won’t. The point is that everyone will buy eventually. Its just that those who arent buying now are waiting to see what everyone else does. As the old saying goes: ‘some people make things happen, some watch things happen and some wonder what happened’
What pushed me over the edge is the memory of seeing my housemates learning HTML in the early 90's and proceeding to make a mint, selling their services as ‘web designers’ to their employers. I somehow knew that they had got into the internet craze at the right time and I had been one of those who had ‘watched it happen’ from the sidelines. I was determined not to let that happen again.
It literally feels like we, as a society are in a once in a generation – or rarer- event. A ‘great re-set’ is being discussed around the world, sped up by the pandemic. Things are happening at speed. Central Banks are touting their own digital currencies. Who would have thoght 18 months ago that you would not be able to use cash in many stores?
We used to trade shells. Paper money is still paper. The promise it bears is contingent upon many caveats. Pandemics were not included in them. Value is bestowed upon what we decide should be the token. Most people now live on their phones – all banking is via app. Bitcoin is the perfect answer, which is why central banks are trying to copy it.
There will be winners and losers in this reset. To my mind, you literally cannot afford to be a loser and the winners stand to profit massively.
Come back to me in ten years and tell me that I was wrong.
