This is an editorial by author and high school teacher Dan Weintraub who first became interested in Bitcoin while teaching economics.
Recently, I’ve been watching indifferently while being puzzled CNN’s Donald Trump Charade at City Hallanother one on an endless list of spooky political and social zombie dances.
To tell the truth, I’m talking about party politics, about the next presidential election cycle, about the supposedly heartfelt liberal and conservative political expression in the American national body, about the stalemate over America’s bleak future. And so on, I don’t really care anymore.What I think of as democracy do However, what is worrisome is how easily humans can be manipulated and believe lies.
we are all All of us, sheep, blind followers with little discernment, are fully programmable and fully susceptible. History itself may not repeat itself, but as the endless record of followers chasing leaders over proverbial cliffs proves No reason other than that I was really good at lying), it certainly feels like this. Deja vu again.
please do not worry. This is not an article about Trump, nor an article about ideological grievances. Trump is just one man in a human melodrama spanning thousands of years. The focus of this article is on the role Bitcoin can play in restoring faith and ending the human sleep ambulance. It’s about how to strip the power of disinformation. And it is also a warning that those in power will do whatever it takes to maintain their hypnotic dominion over humanity.
Why Governments Are Afraid of Bitcoin
So the first question we have to consider is why do governments seem so afraid of Bitcoin? Interestingly, it’s not just because Bitcoin could end government monetary monopolies (which is certainly a pretty big problem in its own right). No, the underlying reason actually points to something more fundamental. Governments fear Bitcoin as a construct because they can only govern by deception and injustice.
As you know, the most powerful and successful governments throughout history have been (and still are) the most crafty and best at lying. The U.S. government, the bastion of democratic justice, is actually a compelling example of this principle. From Vietnam to Iraq to Joseph McCarthy, Lyndon Johnson, Jerome Powell, and more, American history is filled with examples of the power of lies and the resilience of benevolence, patriotism, innocence, and hopeful, lost national minds. is overflowing.
Bitcoin exposes lies
Let’s go back to Trump for a moment. this is, BBC:
“Mr. President Trump has questioned the legitimacy of the election process in a series of tweets, the latest of which tweeted on Monday, “Of course there is massive voter fraud going on on and before Election Day…why the GOP Will the leadership deny what is happening?” Very naive! ”
The quote above is no This was in 2016, when then-candidate Trump was running against then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the general election. Let’s not forget, Mr. Trump has been alleging election fraud for years.A skilled and indeed very sophisticated practitioner in the art of exploiting human neurological vulnerabilities, Trump has done admirably (and Continue to leverage his skills as a disinformation provider.In fact, tens of millions of Americans keep believing Trump was right in claiming the 2020 election was rigged and the presidency was stolen from him and his supporters.
I find this both fascinating and terrifying at the same time.
The point isn’t whether Trump’s claims are accurate. And to be honest, I have to admit that I have no way of knowing if President Trump’s claims are true. (In fact, if I reject his claim, I may simply be choosing to believe the narrative presented by the other side. Both sides are persistently adhering to their data. Both sides live within echo chambers that reinforce their narratives, both sides suffer from anti-intellectual effects caused by human neuroplastic vulnerability, and both sides Consisting of millions of human servants, they are unaware of the power their human leaders wield through their manipulations, operations, and deceit.)
The point here is that without the ability to verify Trump’s claims, we are all potential prey. Without the ability to know beyond a doubt what really happened in the last election cycle, there is no way to trust the election results. In fact, there is absolutely no way to trust our political process.
Bitcoin and neuroplasticity
Neuroscience 101: If you hear something enough, you will believe it to be true. Kneel and pray to God for an hour each day. Then within a few months, perhaps even a few weeks, even the hard-core atheist will believe in God. If you only read articles from Breitbart and The Gateway Pundit, and listened only to podcasts by Tucker Carlson and Glenn Beck, then in your heart you will believe beyond a doubt that the election has been stolen. If you only read articles in Mother Jones, HuffPost, and Slate Magazine, you would have no doubt in your mind that the election was valid. If you only listen to his YouTube channel broadcasting the opinions of Michael Thaler, Balaji Srinivasan, Mark Moss, and Jeff Booth, it’s inevitable that Bitcoin will become his $1 million and hyperinflation will Come on, you will believe that all the banks will go bankrupt. If you only listen to YouTube channels promoting the views of Warren Buffett and Peter Schiff, you will believe Bitcoin is a pyramid scheme and a scam.
Humans are sheep because we are designed to be sheep. We believe ourselves to be critical thinkers and great discriminators of truth, but we are all just ingesting and internalizing the stories we hear over and over again. is.
Without verification, we could all be victims of lies from those in power.
Enter Bitcoin again.
As I said in my last article, we need to have a certain amount of imagination. We need to be willing to understand that the Bitcoin network could eventually serve as the foundation layer for all digital interactions. And it is quite possible that in time such networks will be able to verify each transaction, each interaction, each news article, each government claim, each tweet, etc., beyond any doubt. .
But the point here is that we really do. no It takes a good deal of imagination to realize that elections and blockchain technology are present tense, not future tense.
Imagine a system where every ballot is stamped with a digital private key/signature. All voting records are stored in an immutable ledger. While this does not deprive people of their right to use lies and disinformation as a means of manipulating neurologically sensitive populations, it does stand against Trump’s allegations of voter fraud. We will go in the opposite direction. And perhaps, as Bitcoin and the Bitcoin network proliferate, there will be more such forms of verification, potentially undermining the liar superpower.
i recognize it this At the moment, Bitcoin is feared more for its ability to circumvent financial regulation than for its inherent veracity. U.S. leaders fear the dollar may lose its status as a global reserve currency and therefore question the legitimacy and accessibility of anything that facilitates that possibility, I would do almost anything to spoil it. (For example, today we hear much more about China’s evil and RNB dominance than we hear about Bitcoin.)
but Can you see why our leaders are so afraid of Bitcoin in a future where it can be harder and harder to lie? Do you know that they go to great lengths to stop sex? I have little doubt that as the Bitcoin network can scrutinize all forms of data and verify that all forms and claims are true, leaders around the world will do just about anything. . All! — in their power to destroy this network — because without the ability to lie and manipulate us, the sheep, all governments, all centralized power brokers, by their very nature, fail. Because it must be
In time, Bitcoin could become more than just a financial network. It can be more than just a store of monetary value. It can be more than property. Over time, the Bitcoin protocol and Bitcoin network could become exactly what those in power fear most. truth.
Where there is truth, the sheep will wake up.
World Trump Must Be Responsible
As I said at the beginning of this article, this is not a political doctrine. Politicians lie, regardless of ideology. Left-wing leaders are just as adept and equally adept at using disinformation and fraud as right-wing leaders. The point is, without the ability to objectively verify the truth, humans continue to throw their foolish selves into the conflict, believing wholeheartedly the lies offered by those who profit from such duplicity. It means deaf.
I think many of you reading this will see my take on the evolution of the Bitcoin network as a figment of the imagination. Now let me ask, isn’t it that throughout human history all advancements have been simultaneously considered great? Bitcoin is just getting started. When our leaders realize that the Bitcoin network and protocol could turn into a global, impenetrable lie detector in the not-too-distant future, they will go to great lengths to crush it. I guess. Because they are as powerful as the credibility of their lies.
This is a guest post by Dan Weintraub. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of his BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.