The Human Rights Foundation’s Bitcoin Development Fund has announced a new set of grants to go out across the globe to support builders in the industry.
According to the announcement sent to Bitcoin Magazine, “Areas of focus include Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and South Asia.” The grants include:
$50,000 to Gleb Naumenko for his work on Bitcoin Core, the release of Coinpool, a concept for scaling Bitcoin and for conducting research on SIGHASH_ANYPREVOUT and Eltoo as potential Bitcoin scaling solutions.
$50,000 to Furzy for his work on Bitcoin Core, mainly addressing stability, security and performance features.
$25,000 to Bitcoin4India for support for community initiatives and local meetups, education, translation projects and support of local artisans.
$25,000 to Bitcoin Mountain for their building of circular economies, meetups, conferences and training in Cameroon.
$25,000 to the We Are All Satoshi project, “an Africa-based organization that aims to identify teenage women and men from all religious backgrounds interested in tech and help steer them to contributing to Bitcoin,” which will aid them in development of curriculum, organizing support networks and sponsoring projects.
$25,000 to Tor relay operator associations to support increased network reliability and performance, as recommended by the Tor Project. The goal is to help support increased network reliability and performance, especially in light of recent DOS attacks, as a key privacy tool used by people around the world.
$25,000 to Bitcoin Magazine Ukraine to support regular Bitcoin meetups in Kiev, which continue even in the midst of the war — funding will also help support the release of the first print edition of Bitcoin Magazine Ukraine.
$25,000 to Dusty for his work on Lightning Splicing, which allows nodes to resize Lightning channels, allowing Bitcoin wallets to have “one balance” where the wallet could pay to both legacy on-chain destinations as well as make payments on Lightning. Lightning Splicing has the potential to dramatically improve the user experience on the Lightning Network.
$25,000 to Raseef 22, the leading independent pan-Arab media covering the 22 Arab countries. Published from Beirut since 2013, its 40 journalists work from the 4 corners of the world to bring relevant coverage of life in the Arabic speaking world, with a focus on freedoms, democracy and human rights, including the social impacts of bitcoin.
$25,000 to New Belarus, a digital democracy platform that aims to provide the framework for activating direct and representative democracy and preparing a new generation of politicians and democracy-savvy citizens, including programming that will focus on building a bitcoin-based financial infrastructure.
$15,000 in travel grants to support students, activists, and developers at the Africa Bitcoin Conference, with travel accommodations and flights, allowing men and women from all over Africa to attend and build on adoption in the continent.
And $10,000 to support bitcoin ++, a Mexico City based Bitcoin developer conference that has a specific privacy focus, with lectures and workshops.
Over the past two years the HRF has introduced grants amounting to $1.8 million in BTC and USD, supporting more than 60 developers, educators and open-source initiatives across the world.
HRF is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law. You can donate at HRF.org/DevFund, while proposals for where that support might go can be submitted to dev.fund@hrf.org.
This is an opinion editorial by Josef Tětek, the Trezor brand ambassador for SatoshiLabs.
The inaugural Africa Bitcoin Conference (ABC) took place earlier this month in Accra, Ghana. Some events in your life are so impactful that you find it hard to get back to a day-to-day reality after you go through them. My visit to this event was one such experience.
Images throughout courtesy of official ABC photographer Nana Twum.
Pre-Conference Orange Pilling On The Beach
For some time now, I’ve been an avid fan of Alex Gladstein and his perception of Bitcoin as a tool for empowering the unprivileged, the exploited and the suppressed. This spring, I gulped down his new book called “Check Your Financial Privilege,” and a few weeks later I had the good fortune to visit his organization’s Oslo Freedom Forum. But even though I understood rationally that Bitcoin is a necessity for billions around the world, I never really experienced adoption from this perspective, and never met the very people for whom Bitcoin can be a life preserver. That changed for me a few weeks ago in Ghana.
Curiously, the most eye-opening thing for me in terms of local Bitcoin adoption wasn’t the conference as such, but rather, it was interactions with ordinary Ghanaians in the city of Accra, most of whom learned about Bitcoin for the first time from us, the conference goers.
Several other Bitcoiners and I, including Hermann Vivier (the organizer behind the south-African circular economy project Bitcoin Ekasi) visited the local beach a day before the conference began, and spent the whole afternoon discussing Bitcoin with locals. What we found out was that Bitcoin becomes a very real thing once the locals are shown that they can receive value instantly, without any registration, and immediately spend it on airtime via Bitrefill. Whoever we talked to — fishermen, souvenir merchants, taxi drivers, artists — we witnessed the same cognitive process: from disregard and suspicion to excitement, within minutes. All that was required was to showcase a real-life immediate use for Bitcoin, and it all clicked.
Now, this might sound trivial to some readers, but the fact is that in many places, there is no easy way to conduct digital payments. Western Bitcoiners are mostly used to viewing bitcoin as a long-term store of value — which is, of course, a valuable use case everywhere around the globe — but in many countries, bitcoin serves as an incredible medium of exchange as well. And often, the only thing that is missing is knowledge about the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Bitcoin: The Pan-African Hope
One theme that resounded throughout the three-day conference was the notion that Bitcoin can serve as a tool of liberation from the post-colonial systems of control in the form of the IMF, World Bank, the CFA franc system and similar constraints.
Gladstein explained in his keynote the precise nature of the debt slavery that most of the African nations find themselves in, with the IMF and World Bank happily lending billions of dollars to dictators, while it’s the citizens who are later forced to repay these debts, even though the loans only served to fill up the personal coffers of the kleptocratic dictators. Gladstein’s talk was based on his latest essay for Bitcoin Magazine, where he outlines the frustrating details of the IMF/WB exploitation scheme.
Africa may very well be the continent most damaged by fiat money. Fourteen countries still have their currency managed by the French government (the CFA franc regime), two countries are currently experiencing inflation near or over 100% (Zimbabwe and Sudan), almost half of the African countries face inflation higher than 10%, and cross-border payments are often expensive or impossible. Many speakers pointed out that Bitcoin is the only viable way out, and the only practical chance for uniting the continent.
Ray Youssef of Paxful in a fireside chat with Farida Nabourema: Bitcoin has the potential to unite the 54 countries of Africa and pave the way to tremendous prosperity.
The pan-African nature of Bitcoin was touched upon often: in the many talks, panel discussions and off-stage networking — it didn’t really seem to matter which country the particular speaker was from; Bitcoin was generally understood as a pan-African phenomenon.
On the other hand, the lessons learned from Bitcoin adoption on the African continent are invaluable to Bitcoin itself and its potential for hyperbitcoinization — in Africa, Bitcoin is tested to its very limits: many countries are openly hostile to Bitcoin, the infrastructure of all kinds is often unreliable, people are often lured into bitcoin affinity scams; yet the adoption is following an exponential curve.
Obi Nwosu of Fedi summed up the perspective of many attendees in his keynote, when he stated that “Africa wins with Bitcoin. And Bitcoin wins with Africa.”
A strong theme throughout the conference was the necessity of African Bitcoiners being the ones to build tools for Africa, the reason being that developers from the Western world often have an understandable blind spot for the needs and circumstances of Africans.
A prime example is this year’s rollout of Machankura, a service that makes Lightning Network payments accessible on feature phones. Machankura is being developed by Kgothatso Ngako, a programmer from South Africa, where feature phones are still widespread (as is the case in most other African countries). It’s hard to fathom Machankura being developed and adopted in Europe or the U.S., since people in these regions simply do not have the need to use Lightning on feature phones; but in Africa, it’s a game-changer for millions.
A panel on African startups. Left to right: Tochi Onyia (Paxful), Ola Atose (KoinKoin), Kgothatso Ngako (Machankura), Osideinde Adewale (Bitnob).
A network of Bitcoin tool builders is expanding in Africa. Over the past several years, education and grant programs such as Btrust and Qala have emerged, and more and more developers from the African continent are able to work on Bitcoin full time, either through grants or by finding employment in many of the African Bitcoin startups.
Abubakar Nur Khalil (Btrust, Qala) and Okjodom (Fedimint) discussing what solutions African Bitcoin developers are focusing on.
Obstacles On The Road To Africa’s Hyperbitcoinization
The exploding Bitcoin adoption in Africa has had its fair share of problems as well.
First: the infrastructure. As one of the speakers aptly put it: “Every Ghanaian knows — when it rains, the internet goes down.” The good news is that Africans are actively working on alleviating these problems; one of the interesting projects featured at the conference was Gridless, a bitcoin mining company that leverages stranded energy, such as local hydro power plants that are not connected to the national grid. During the course of the conference, a fresh $2 million investment into Gridless was announced, helping the project expand beyond Kenya, its home country.
A second obstacle is that scams and exploitative schemes are widespread. A prime example is Worldcoin. Some time ago, the global Bitcoin community was outraged by this project, which onboards new users via airdropping tokens in exchange for a retina scan. After the initial wave of disapproval, things went quiet and the general impression was that Worldcoin was abandoned. To my surprise, I found out that the project is very much alive and the eye-scanning orbs are being deployed across the African continent. Bitcoiners worldwide have a duty to shine light on such disgusting data-harvesting experiments, and ensure that Africans are well-informed about the difference between Bitcoin and everything else.
Third: corporate conquest. It would do no good for the African continent to get rid of the neo-colonial monetary schemes such as the CFA system, only to be replaced with their corporate equivalents. From several discussions, I understand that Binance and other major exchanges are muddying the waters about what it means to actually hold bitcoin, discouraging newcomers from self custody, and instead promoting exchange accounts as the only option. The other alarming area of a corporate conquest is the widespread reliance on WhatsApp; as one Twitter commenter recently stated, WhatsApp is “Africa’s e-mail.” This should be a reminder that education efforts should focus not only on Vitcoin and self custody, but also on the likes of Signal, encrypted email, password managers, VPNs and other similar tools of digital empowerment.
All Eyes On Africa
The Africa Bitcoin Conference was hands down one of the most inspiring events I’ve been to. Everyone I met — the entrepreneurs, the human rights activists, the circular community builders, the developers — was full of energy to orange pill the African continent. But their excitement wasn’t naive and didn’t stem from any kind of ideology or heterodox economic school; on the contrary, theirs was a very practical approach. Africa has its fair share of problems, and Bitcoin can help fix them — if we do things correctly.
Many speakers throughout the conference reminded us of the crucial ingredient of the Bitcoin revolution: the people. If ordinary people can’t understand and easily use the technology to alleviate their day-to-day problems, Bitcoin won’t get too far. Bitcoin doesn’t need to onboard politicians and central bankers, but rather taxi drivers and street food vendors. Thankfully, there are many grassroots communities emerging on the continent, spearheading the bottom-up adoption of the orange coin. To name just a few, there are Bitcoin Ekasi, Bitcoin Mountain, Bitcoin Cowries, Bitcoin Village, Exonumia and DigiOats. And many more are emerging.
Personally, I can’t wait for another chance to visit a Bitcoin conference on the African continent, the optimism for a better future is simply unmatched. The next upcoming conference seems to be the Nigeria Bitcoin Conference, happening in March. Since Nigeria has one of the most orange-pilled populations worldwide, I’m sure it will also be a wild, unforgettable experience.
Note: live streams from day two and three of the Africa Bitcoin Conference are available at the conference YouTube channel.
This is a guest post by Josef Tětek. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
A local Nigerian newspaper has reported that Babangida Ibrahim, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and Institutions of Nigeria, claimed the country will soon pass a law making the usage of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies legal. The bill would amend the 2007 Investments and Securities Act and would recognize bitcoin as legal capital for investment.
Back in February of 2021, Nigeria effectively banned the usage of bitcoin with a letter prohibiting regulated financial businesses from “dealing” with cryptocurrencies. In the same year, Bitcoin Magazine reported Nigeria soaring to the largest volume of bitcoin peer-to-peer trading in the world, and Chainanalysis reports showed that Nigeria had greatly accelerated bitcoin adoption.
The newspaper report described how Ibrahim pointed to Nigeria being behind in regards to regulation of the industry, saying “Like I said earlier during the second reading, we need an efficient and vibrant capital market in Nigeria. For us to do that, we have to be up to date global practices.”
If the proposed regulation properly addresses the growing bitcoin usage within the country, it could be a major catalyst for the African continent’s most populated country.
Home for the Holidays Adoption Special: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, through Dec. 31, Burlington Animal Services, 221 Stone Quarry Road, Burlington. Adopt any dog or cat for $15. Adoption fees include spay or neuter and vaccinations. www.burlingtonnc.gov/pets. Animal Services is currently full and at capacity. Fosters are needed too. BAS supplies food, supplies and all medical care for pets in foster homes. www.burlingtonnc.gov/foster.
Free Cat and Dog Adoptions: 1-4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, through Dec. 31, Rockingham County Animal Shelter, 250 Cherokee Camp Road, Reidsville. Adopt any cat or dog without paying any adoption fees. In partnership with Best Friends Animal Society. 336-394-0075, rockinghamcountyanimalshelter.org, bestfriends.org/rockingham-county.
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Adoption Event: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Jan. 7, Greensboro Science Center, 4301 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Guilford County Animal Services. Also, free rabies clinic in the front entrance circle for cats and dogs. Guest animals are not allowed inside the GSC. City of Greensboro Waste Reduction and Recycling will be on site demonstrating ways to reduce waste when purchasing pet products.
Wellness Clinic: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. second Saturday, RCSPCA Building, 300 W. Bailey St., Asheboro. Wellness checkups, skin and ear checks, heartworm tests, pet weighing, microchips, vaccines, preventative medicine. 704-288-8620 or info@cvpet.com.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush, interact with pets, gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 2641 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Triad Independent Cat Rescue. Visit www.triadcat.org or email meowmire.yahoo.com.
Low-cost Rabies Clinic: noon-2 p.m. third Saturday, SPCA of the Triad, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. www.triadspca.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
SPCA of the Triad: Open for adoptions from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Submit an adoption application and wait for approval email. www.triadspca.org, www.facebook.com/TriadSPCA, www.instagram.com/spca_of_the_triad/. Funds are needed for SPCA’s new 9,000 square foot, $3 million facility which will hold more than twice as many homeless pets than the current shelter.
This is an opinion editorial by Mark Maraia, author of “Rainmaking Made Simple” and Holly Young, a builder within the Portuguese Bitcoin community.
We’ve all been there. You’re at a social event and a friend, acquaintance or relative comes up to you and says “you were into Bitcoin, right?” You know you only have a brief period of their attention to give them an overview and pique their interest. So how can you give them an intelligible take on such a complex, multifaceted subject?
Here are a few ideas for you to pick and choose from for the next time you find yourself in that situation!
Centralisation Is The Enemy Of Property
Any currency which is centralized can be taken away from you in two ways. It can be done directly, by simply skimming it off your bank account as happened in Greece when people lost 20% of whatever was on their account to a government haircut in 2015 and 16, or by cutting your access to your own assets, as has just been shown by America and the U.K. doing this to Russian corporations or individuals during the current crisis in relations around the Ukraine. Secondly, because all our fiat currencies are centralized, this can be done through inflation — the government simply prints more money which means that whatever you have in your bank account will lose its value — also effectively robbing you of your purchasing power.
Bitcoin is a new kind of digital money that will never be issued or controlled by a corporation or government. It is a new form of money, unlike anything we’ve ever seen before and is a 21st century hedge against inflation and central bank money printing. Unlike the US dollar, it is a provably scarce digital asset that is backed by a wall of encrypted real world energy. These coins reached parity with the U.S. dollar ten years ago and are now worth 20,000 times more than the dollar.
Because it is both scarce and totally decentralized, it is deflationary, and no one can take it away from you as long as you keep it in a storage which is not connected to the internet.
What Is Bitcoin?
The term bitcoin can really mean two things: bitcoin the asset (currently worth 20,000 times more than the USD) and Bitcoin the network which is growing faster than the internet or Facebook or Amazon. Bitcoin the asset travels along digital rails (a shared distributed ledger where a record of all the Bitcoin transactions is kept) that are decentralized onto tens of thousands of devices and computers. This digital asset is a 21st century savings technology which uses military grade encryption and permits you to store value and wealth on a smartphone or hardware device called a wallet.
It allows those who buy it to store the fruit of their labor (or life force) and wealth using software, math and energy that is almost impossible to steal directly or indirectly (through inflation) Once you learn the language of bitcoin, you realize that anyone holding government issued currency (which is all of us) is watching their wealth melt like an ice cube in the sun as the fiat value inflates, and hyperinflated when measured against bitcoin. Anyone who cares about keeping their wealth in the future ( and that should be all of us, especially those of us who have children and intend to leave them an inheritance) needs to wake up and smell the coffee. Fiat currencies are losing their value fast, and although Bitcoin is still volatile, everything points towards it holding its value long term.
The Bitcoin Network Has Never Been Hacked
In 13 years. The Bitcoin network is rock solid.
How Bitcoin Works In A Nutshell
Bitcoin runs on a blockchain. As its name suggests, a blockchain is made up of blocks. Each time a new block is confirmed it gets added to the blockchain. Bitcoin blocks are confirmed by computers known as miners and each time a miner solves the math problem which confirms a block, it gets a reward in new Bitcoin, a process written into the original Bitcoin code. This takes a lot of energy and is the system which keeps the Bitcoin blockchain safe.
Bitcoin mining is the energy intensive process which both creates new coins and maintains a log of all transactions performed on the bitcoin network since its inception. Bitcoin miners take real world energy (stranded and renewable) and convert it into monetary energy that will outlive your grandchildren. The more energy used by bitcoin miners, the more secure and unhackable the network becomes.
The protocol has a fixed supply schedule that issues 6.25 coins into the network about every 10 minutes. In 2024 the supply issuance will be cut in half to 3.125 coins every 10 minutes.
Each time a Bitcoin transaction is made, it’s recorded into the next block. Once that block is confirmed and added to the blockchain it can never be deleted.
Who Uses Bitcoin?
More and more individuals are using Bitcoin. It’s been estimated that in the first half of 2021, the number of people using Bitcoin grew by just under 165 per minute (“How Fast Is Bitcoin Growing?”). That’s a lot of people and a lot of growth.
Bitcoin is the first and only digital asset to be named as legal tender by a nation state. Bitcoin is the first and only asset in history to be named a primary treasury reserve asset by a Fortune 500 company, Microstrategy, an intelligence software company.
Here’s what their CEO, Michael Saylor, had to say about it:
“We converted our balance sheet from a depreciating asset to an appreciating asset. So we have two businesses. One is enterprise software business and the other is digital property business. So why did we do it? Defensively, I don’t want to lose money or destroy the value of the company. Wealth is destroyed. Stage two is opportunistic, we could buy high quality property. Digital property is better than analog property. Stage three is strategic. It’s a good idea to buy up cyber Manhattan before everyone else moves here. If bitcoin is appreciating at 100% per year and I can borrow fiat at 5% then my arbitrage is 95%. Why would I NOT do it?”
There’s A Lot Of Negativity About Bitcoin In The Press
If we look back at history, it’s been pretty rare for a king to be deposed from his throne by a newcomer without putting up a bit of a fight. The fiat banking system has been king almost since its invention by the Medici. It’s not going to go quietly. The fiat system has been able to dictate the terms and its employees profit massively from doing so. Until, that is, Bitcoin came along, the upstart King Arthur who, against all odds, has pulled the sword from the stone. And do the central banks and the governments like that? They do not.
It’s a key reason why central bankers attack and spread untruths about bitcoin.
What are those lies? It’s not backed by anything. It wastes energy. It’s volatile. It is controlled by billionaires. It has no practical uses. It’s primarily used by criminals and terrorists. It’s a Ponzi scheme.
Rubbish. Bitcoin has the potential to upset the current status quo — hence why it’s so maligned by those currently holding the microphone.
You Can Buy A Fraction Of A Bitcoin
Sure, most of us don’t have 20,000 odd dollars just lying around which we could spare to buy a whole Bitcoin with. One Bitcoin divides into one hundred million Satoshis – which means that you can invest 10 dollars in Bitcoin as a start investment, should you so desire.
“Bitcoin is our peaceful weapon of choice against central bank driven time theft.” — Ross Stevens
“Bitcoin is a currency for the people backed by the people.” — Sylvain Laurel
This is a guest post by Mark Maraia and Holly Young. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
This is an opinion editorial by Brooks Lockett, a freelance writer and Bitcoiner who fell down the rabbit hole in 2018.
Have you ever inspired someone to get into Bitcoin? What worked?
Have you ever accidentally repelled someone away from Bitcoin? What didn’t work?
The frustrating reality that 99 out of 100 people on the street still don’t “get” Bitcoin is driving a lot of Bitcoiners to conclude that there is no cure for Cassandra’s Curse other than time and patience. Cassandra’s Curse meaning that — despite the dangerously-close-to-collapse state of the fiat monetary system — the masses still haven’t discovered that a viable solution exists in Bitcoin.
Yes, it’s early. Embryonic, in fact. But that shouldn’t mean we can’t create more vibrant conversations with those “pragmatists, conservatives and skeptics” who are unfamiliar with the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Close your eyes and think: How many conversations across the globe — online and offline — do you think happened in the past 24 hours where Bitcoin was mentioned?
Hundreds of teachable moments?
Thousands of teachable moments?
Tens of thousands of teachable moments?
Each of those moments represents an opportunity to properly apply persuasion and behavioral psychology to explaining Bitcoin.
Just because the person isn’t equally as receptive to a monologue about the Byzantine Generals Problem doesn’t mean they should “have fun staying poor.”
The fact that Bitcoin naturally challenges widely-held preexisting beliefs makes it especially vulnerable to the Backfire Effect. It’s up to the Bitcoin community to frame the technology in ways that aren’t perceived as unwelcome evidence or threats to their ideology.
Minimizing Bitcoin’s “Backfire Effect”:
In the Bitcoin community, we love distributed networks, Lightning channels, multisig setups, decentralization and the merits of a sound money standard.
The collective jargon, shared goals and shared values unify industry insiders who’ve spent years in the space. It’s fun to get together and say “hoorah!”
But outside the community — which is currently the vast majority of people on the planet — these are terms that might as well be a galaxy away.
It’s not unsimilar to your jacked friend who really wants you to join his CrossFit gym. The fact that he looks fit and healthy is still not enough to get you to join.
Case Study: How I Got My Lawyer Friend Into Bitcoin
A good friend of mine is an intellectually-curious guy. He’s sharp, works in legal and always enjoys discussing economics, finance, politics, etc.
For years he’d ask generic questions in passing about Bitcoin because knew I was active in the space. And for years I’d try to give my most thorough, soup-to-nuts overview.
Each time I got the same subtle, discouraging, eyes-glaze-over reaction.
But one day I tried the inverse approach and sent the questions back his way. After some discovery I noticed all he wanted to talk about was Bitcoin’s potential role during wartime. Something we’d never discussed before.
I explained how a Bitcoin sound money standard could very well make wars significantly less affordable for authoritarian governments to finance.
I also walked him through how refugees who are able to memorize or hang on to their seed phrases can transport 100% of their net worth stored in the network with them while fleeing their countries.
Once he realized that Bitcoin is a universal language — a network that can be tapped into from anywhere in the world with 24 words — was what inspired him to do his own research and gravitate towards the space.
“Brooks, this is so obvious… why does this matter?”
I know. But had I gone on about mining, digital signatures or the importance of the software being open-source … I would’ve gotten the inevitable eyes-glaze-over moment, and we’d probably have one less Bitcoiner in the space.
What seems obvious in your head could be the light-bulb moment for another person.
If an opportunity comes up to discuss Bitcoin with a newbie, instead of jumping into an explanation of who Satoshi is, inflation graphs, or hash rate growth – I highly recommend starting with probing questions instead:
– “What are your opinions on the legacy financial system?”
– “Have you ever had a frustrating experience or delay with your bank?”
– “How large of an impact would you say the world wide web has had on the world?”
– “If you were in a position of high power, how would you go about making wars more difficult to finance?”
– “Do you feel as if your overall purchasing power has increased or decreased in the last decade?”
– “Would you consider yourself an early, middle or late adopter of new technology?”
Asking simple, but related questions will uncover the information you need to have a more vibrant conversation that helps build the other person’s knowledge base instead of reinforcing your existing knowledge base.
It’s theIKEA Effect in action: for the same reasons consumers place disproportionately high levels of value on products they’ve assembled themselves, people attribute more value to conversations where they’ve been an active participant in.
Let’s look at some example scenarios of how to get to the IKEA Effect.
The Counter-Productive Approach:
Other person: “Bitcoin is going to get shut down by the U.S. government.”
You: “That’s actually technologically unachievable. It’s a distributed network of computer nodes and if you don’t understand basic computer science then you’re not really allowed to have an opinion on this.”
Other person: “The government can shut down anything they want. They have the top hackers in the world working for them.”
You: “Whatever, you just don’t get it and you’re going to miss out on Bitcoin with that mindset.”
Net: Nobody wins.
The More Productive Approach:
Other person: “Bitcoin is going to get shut down by the US government.”
You: “I thought that at first too. You’d actually be really interested in it. Have you ever looked into distributed networks or cryptography before?“
Other person: “Not really. I’m not super tech savvy.”
You: “Would you say the separation of money and state is a good or bad thing?“
Other person: “I’d say it’s a good thing. Inflation is really doing damage and pricing younger generations out of society. It’s funny how much money older generations paid for nice homes with land versus what the situation is now. It’s honestly super unsustainable in my opinion, but I’m no expert.”
You: “Do you see that continuing or improving?”
Other person: “At this point, probably continuing.”
You: “What do you see as a viable alternative?”
Other person: “I’m not sure. Maybe you could explain to me how Bitcoin works?”
Net: Other person talks themselves into Bitcoin.
Of course, it won’t always be straightforward. But this simple shift in your approach can be the difference between a newbie spending 8 months of their life shitcoining instead of starting out Bitcoin-only in the first place.
Robert Cialdini discusses in his book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” which states that humans have a deep psychological need to be perceived as consistent.
How can we leverage this principle when explaining Bitcoin to others?
Doing the work to understand the other person’s specific context will lead to a lot less frustration than getting aggressive & annoyed when they fail to see Bitcoin from your perspective.
It’s the polar opposite of the high-pressure salesperson that jumps straight to the signature on the dotted line.
The best possible emotion you can invoke in someone when it comes to adopting new technology is curiosity.
Personal relevance is one of the biggest factors in those early conversations, says Joshua Guest, who provides Bitcoin education at The HiFi Bitcoin Letters. He explains, “There are few forces in the world that have a greater capacity to change individuals and society for the better than Bitcoin does. So helping new and veteran entrants to the space learn how Bitcoin can be personally relevant to them can have profound results.”
You’re already savvy with Bitcoin as a technology. Why not be equally as savvy at explaining it to newbies?
The higher our collective conversion rate as a community, the faster the network spreads, and the faster fiat dies.
Conclusion:
1. In Bitcoin, persuasion is better than force
2. Persuasive psychology is extremely complex, so the time to start experimenting heavily is now
This is a guest post by Brooks Lockett. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Winterfest 2022! Positively one of the most joyful events of the holiday season! Happiness + memories created for over 500 kids in foster care.
Press Release –
Dec 11, 2022 18:00 EST
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., December 11, 2022 (Newswire.com)
– Speak Up For Kids of Palm Beach County is honored to host the eighth annual Stanley Klett Sr. Winterfest Carnival at 4620 Summit Blvd., West Palm Beach on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 10 a.m. This complimentary private event for foster youth and their caregivers includes a full carnival, interactive craft stations, food, music, face painting, activities, and a visit from Santa Claus and Christmas Belle!
Event founder, Stanley Klett Sr., donated endless hours as a Guardian ad Litem volunteer advocating for hundreds of children and families over his twenty years of service. Though he passed away in 2009, his Stanley Klett, Jr., has vowed to ensure this event continues, preserving his father’s legacy of service and bringing holiday magic to Palm Beach County youth.
“Our business partners work together to keep this event free for our children and their families,” says Coleen LaCosta, Speak Up for Kids Executive Director. Over 70 volunteers help make the day special for foster kids by transforming the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) grounds into a winter wonderland. Local sponsors, IBEW, Domnick Cunningham & Whalen, Networking to Help Children, Gold Law, Tire Kingdom, Jones Foster, Kiwanis of Palm Beach Gardens, Brett Colby Group, and The Happy Princess Club have extended their support to make Winterfest 2022 a magical event.
“I spend most of the holiday season shedding tears of joy,” says LaCosta. “Experiencing the outpouring of love from our community and watching kids’ faces light up are two of my favorite things. The day is amazing.”
About Speak Up for Kids: Speak Up for Kids champions best-interest child advocacy. Through effective advocacy, the cycles of abuse, violence, and crime are being broken one child at a time, and children’s futures are being rewritten.
Home for the Holidays Adoption Special: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, through Dec. 31, Burlington Animal Services, 221 Stone Quarry Road, Burlington. Adopt any dog or cat for $15. Adoption fees include spay or neuter and vaccinations. www.burlingtonnc.gov/pets. Animal Services is currently full and at capacity. Fosters are needed too. BAS supplies food, supplies and all medical care for pets in foster homes. www.burlingtonnc.gov/foster.
Free Cat and Dog Adoptions: 1-4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, through Dec. 31, Rockingham County Animal Shelter, 250 Cherokee Camp Road, Reidsville. Adopt any cat or dog without paying any adoption fees. In partnership with Best Friends Animal Society. 336-394-0075, rockinghamcountyanimalshelter.org, bestfriends.org/rockingham-county.
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Breakfast with Santa: 9 a.m.-noon Dec. 10, Church of The Epiphany, 538 Henry St., Eden. With Friends of Eden Animal Rescue. www.friendsofedenanimalrescue.com.
Wellness Clinic: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. second Saturday, RCSPCA Building, 300 W. Bailey St., Asheboro. Wellness checkups, skin and ear checks, heartworm tests, pet weighing, microchips, vaccines, preventative medicine. 704-288-8620 or info@cvpet.com.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush, interact with pets, gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 2641 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Triad Independent Cat Rescue. Visit www.triadcat.org or email meowmire.yahoo.com.
Low-cost Rabies Clinic: noon-2 p.m. third Saturday, SPCA of the Triad, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. www.triadspca.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
SPCA of the Triad: Open for adoptions from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Submit an adoption application and wait for approval email. www.triadspca.org, www.facebook.com/TriadSPCA, www.instagram.com/spca_of_the_triad/. Funds are needed for SPCA’s new 9,000 square foot, $3 million facility which will hold more than twice as many homeless pets than the current shelter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear a case involving a scam that falsely promoted adult adoptions as a path to U.S. citizenship.
The case tests whether a section of federal immigration law is unconstitutional because it is so broad it violates the First Amendment’s free speech guarantees. The high court two years ago heard arguments on the same issue in a different case, but the court’s ruling ultimately did not reach the question.
The new case the high court agreed to hear involves Helaman Hansen, who operated a Sacramento nonprofit called the Americans Helping America Chamber of Commerce. The government said that between 2012 and 2016 he persuaded at least 471 people to join his adult adoption program even though he knew the adoptions he was promoting would not lead to citizenship. People paid between $550 and $10,000 to participate.
Hansen’s victims included noncitizens already in the United States on visas whom he convinced to remain in the country illegally, and noncitizens outside the United States whom he convinced to travel to and live in the United States illegally to participate.
A jury convicted him of a series of charges and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. His conviction, however, included two counts of encouraging or inducing illegal immigration for private financial gain. Hansen argued that those counts should have been dismissed because the section of immigration law he was convicted under is overbroad and unconstitutional. An appeals court agreed. The Supreme Court will review that ruling.
The high court also granted three other cases Friday, including an arbitration case involving cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission will investigate the cases of dozens of South Korean adoptees in Europe and the United States who suspect their origins were falsified or obscured during a child export frenzy in the mid- to late-1900s.
The decision Thursday opens what could be South Korea’s most far-reaching inquiry into foreign adoptions yet. Frustration over broken family connections and laundered child statuses and identities grew and demanded government attention.
The adopted South Koreans are believed to be the world’s largest diaspora of adoptees. In the past six decades, about 200,000 South Koreans — mostly girls — were adopted overseas. Most were placed with white parents in the United States and Europe during the 1970s and ′80s.
After a meeting Tuesday, the commission decided to investigate 34 adoptees who were sent to Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and the United States from the 1960s to the early 1990s. The adoptees say they were wrongfully removed from their families through falsified documents and corrupt practices.
They were among the 51 adoptees who first submitted their applications to the commission in August through the Danish Korean Rights Group, led by adoptee attorney Peter Møller. The applications filed by Møller’s group have since grown to over 300, and dozens of adoptees from Sweden and Australia are also expected to file applications on Friday, which is the commission’s deadline for investigation requests, Møller said.
The investigation will likely expand over the next few months as the commission reviews whether to accept the applications submitted after August. Cases that are seen as similar will likely be fused to speed up the investigations, commission official Park Young-il said.
The applications cite a broad range of grievances that allege carelessness and a lack of due diligence in the removal of scores of children from their families amid loose government monitoring.
During that time, the country was ruled by a succession of military leaders who saw adoptions as a way to deepen ties with the democratic West while reducing the number of mouths to feed and removing the socially undesirable, including children of unwed mothers and orphans. South Korea was a rare country that enforced special laws aimed at promoting adoptions, which allowed profit-driven agencies to manipulate records and bypass proper child relinquishment.
Most of the South Korean adoptees sent abroad were registered by agencies as legal orphans found abandoned on the streets, a designation that made the adoption process quicker and easier. But many of the so-called orphans had relatives who could be easily identified and found.
Some of the adoptees say they discovered that the agencies had switched their identities to replace other children who died or got too sick to travel, which often made it impossible to trace their roots.
The adoptees called for the commission to broadly investigate agencies for records falsification and manipulation and for allegedly proceeding with adoptions without the proper consent of birth parents.
They want the commission to establish whether the government was responsible for the corrupt practices and whether adoptions were fueled by increasingly larger payments and donations from adoptive parents, which apparently motivated agencies to create their own supply.
Home for the Holidays Adoption Special: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, through Dec. 31, Burlington Animal Services, 221 Stone Quarry Road, Burlington. Adopt any dog or cat for $15. Adoption fees include spay or neuter and vaccinations. Animal Services is currently full and at capacity. www.burlingtonnc.gov/pets. Animal Services is currently full and at capacity. Fosters are needed too. BAS supplies food, supplies and all medical care for pets in foster homes. www.burlingtonnc.gov/foster.
Free Cat and Dog Adoptions: 1-4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, through Dec. 31, Rockingham County Animal Shelter, 250 Cherokee Camp Road, Reidsville. Adopt any cat or dog without paying any adoption fees. In partnership with Best Friends Animal Society. 336-394-0075, rockinghamcountyanimalshelter.org, bestfriends.org/rockingham-county.
Breakfast with Santa: 9 a.m.-noon Dec. 10, Church of The Epiphany, 538 Henry St., Eden. With Friends of Eden Animal Rescue. www.friendsofedenanimalrescue.com.
Wellness Clinic: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. second Saturday, RCSPCA Building, 300 W. Bailey St., Asheboro. Wellness checkups, skin and ear checks, heartworm tests, pet weighing, microchips, vaccines, preventative medicine. 704-288-8620 or info@cvpet.com.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush, interact with pets, gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 2641 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Triad Independent Cat Rescue. Visit www.triadcat.org or email meowmire.yahoo.com.
Low-cost Rabies Clinic: noon-2 p.m. third Saturday, SPCA of the Triad, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. www.triadspca.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
SPCA of the Triad: Open for adoptions from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Submit an adoption application and wait for approval email. www.triadspca.org, www.facebook.com/TriadSPCA, www.instagram.com/spca_of_the_triad/. Funds are needed for SPCA’s new 9,000 square foot, $3 million facility which will hold more than twice as many homeless pets than the current shelter.
This is an opinion editorial by Roy Sheinfeld, the cofounder and CEO of Breez, a Lightning Network mobile app. A version of this article was originally published on Medium.
It’s almost tautologically true that specialization within a social system increases with sophistication. In fact, increasing specialization could be one way to define social sophistication.
Example One:
Our global society is pretty sophisticated. I know how to create products, ace a trivia contest about “The Wire” and find the best shawarma joints in Tel-Aviv, but I have no idea how to knit, design an efficient photovoltaic cell or where to go rock climbing around Maputo. We’re all experts at something, learning more and more about less and less.
Compare that with hunter-gatherer societies, where everyone can basically do everything. Everyone can weave a basket, catch a fish, light a fire, sing a song, recite the rules of the tribe, make a shelter, etc. Though their worlds are complex, their societies are simple, with very little internal differentiation or specialization.
Example Two:
In the early days of the web, companies like CompuServe and AOL were basically one-stop online shops. They were ISPs providing basic connectivity: email; social media (i.e., chat rooms); content in the form of news, weather and so on; and search, often in the form of an actual curated directory.
As the web has become so much more complex, we engage with multiple companies for each of those functions. Including all the writing, editing, commenting, revising and so on — even a simple post like this one will involve the services of a few ISPs, a few email providers, a few cloud storage platforms, a few cloud text editors, a few image repositories and who knows how many background services.
And now it’s happening to the Lightning Network. Like any social system, our network is constantly evolving, and it looks very different now compared to how it looked in the beginning. Activity related to Lightning is becoming more specialized, and that specialization is both a symptom of and catalyst for the growth of the network.
What the invention of the first net must have looked like. How far we’ve come… (Image: Hans Splinter).
And Then There Was Lightning, And It Was Good
Back in the early days of Lightning (we’re talking, like, 2018), there were basically only two kinds of company. First were the infrastructure companies that built the early implementations of the network. Lightning Labs got started early with lnd. Further north on the same coast, Blockstream was working on c-lightning, which it has since rebranded as Core Lightning. Half a world and a hop or two away, Eclair was emerging in France.
Then there were the “wallets,” which came in roughly three flavors. The early custodial wallets, like Wallet of Satoshi and BlueWallet, offered relatively-simple UXs, but they took custody of users’ funds. The early non-custodial wallets, like Eclair, Zap and SBW, presented the opposite tradeoff: full user custody with a sometimes rocky UX.
Fortunately, the second-generation wallets, like Phoenix and Breez followed close behind, and they started treating the user experience holistically, considering both users’ desire to self-custody their bitcoin and to move it without manually opening, funding and balancing channels.
This was Lightning’s proof-of-concept phase. We proponents of Lightning were claiming that it was peer-to-peer money — bitcoin for everyday purchases — and these were the basic technologies needed to transfer bitcoin from one peer to another over the network. If the wallets and protocol implementations had proved unfeasible, there would have been little point in continuing.
In effect, it was a community of dozens, maybe hundreds of people, everyone knew everyone else, and we were all working on the same, relatively fundamental problems. It was a simple social system, and there was little internal differentiation. We hunted. We gathered.
Domesticating The Nodes
Around 10,000 years ago, our hunter-gatherer ancestors got sick of chasing the animals and plants they needed to survive. And who could blame them? Talk about exhausting. So they switched tack and started domesticating plants and animals to have them closer to home. It must have been a great idea because it happened independently in several locations around the world. And this change had momentous consequences: the steepest growth in population ever, the advent of civilization (in the sense of a city-based society) and an explosion of technologies from the wheel and architecture to centralized political systems and writing.
The basic idea is that when people tame their environments, they have more time to work on complicated things like tax codes, fad diets and open protocols.
Lightning users’ environment consists of nodes because nodes mediate all the inter/transactions on the network. Domesticating them was the next step in Lightning’s evolution.
Once you start domesticating, it’s hard to stop — incidentally another case of vertical specialization. (Image: Cinty Ionescu).
Just as those early wallets were picking up steam, node-management tech for full nodes started to appear. Some, like ThunderHub and Ride The Lightning, among others, were effectively second-layer, node-management tech, helping users execute operations and adjust the configuration of their nodes. Others, like RaspiBlitz and Umbrel, were designed to help users install and configure nodes.
Such node-management tech is easy to overlook in the evolution of Lightning, but it’s important because it fosters decentralization, which is a value in itself and a vital means of maintaining the network’s robustness.
And the next phase of that evolution has already emerged. Voltage, for example, offers scalable, enterprise-grade cloud nodes. Instead of a handy tool to run a node, companies can now rent a fully operational node with the capacity and connectivity they need on demand.
Note that the benefits of node-management tech are largely unintended. Just like whoever invented the wheel did not have high-speed rails and Swiss watches in mind, those who started working on node-management tech probably just wanted more features for their own use. However, they’re facilitating new network features that are vital to Lightning’s robustness and growth (liquidity triangles, LSPs), not to mention how they flatten the learning curve for incoming users.
Just like hunter-gatherers achieved a quantitative and qualitative leap in the complexity of their societies when they tamed the things their societies depended on (plants and animals), the second phase in the evolution of Lightning was a process of domesticating the nodes upon which our network depends.
Going Vertical
Early in the agrarian revolution, and in many places in the world today, farmers actually refine their own products. That is, a shepherd family might make and sell yarn, leather, milk, cheese, meat, sausages and so on that they make themselves. Generally though, the best sausage maker and the best cheese maker specialized to better serve their respective markets. After a few generations, neither can shear a sheep, but together they can compose a charcuterie board that would have shocked their ancestors with its decadence and refinement.
The fruits (and meats! and cheeses!) of vertical differentiation and specialization. (Image: Shelby L. Bell).
After a few more generations, we have the current scenario where I cannot make cheese or sausage, but I can debug in seven different languages.
Just as civilization inevitably underwent (and is always undergoing) a process of vertical differentiation and specialization, which makes it more sophisticated, the current, expected and vital trend in Lightning is that companies are specializing in ever-smaller niches to provide ever-better user experiences. These niches are both functional and geographical.
After a little more sophistication, the second phase of building infrastructure began, and ever-more infrastructure companies arose in ever-more vertical niches. For example, some offer PoS with fiat on-ramps (e.g., Strike) and fiat off-ramps (e.g., CryptoConvert, IBEX, etc.). There are also self-hosted, bitcoin-only, PoS solutions operated locally (e.g., lnbits, BTCPay, LNPay, etc.).
To serve the variable amounts of liquidity that merchants and users might need (think Spirit Halloween in April versus in September), liquidity marketplaces have opened up. Bitrefill’s Thor began selling channels quite early on. Now, liquidity management and channel funding have become a cottage industry in their own right, counting such participants as lightning network+, Magma from Amboss and Lightning Pool. Synonym’s Blocktank is on track to become a multi-purpose Lightning service provider (LSP) with a broad palette of services. And bolt.observer is a service tailored to LSPs that helps them to monitor the state of their nodes.
Beyond the functional differentiation, there is also geographical specialization, which makes sense given regulatory differences and localization needs. Bitcoin Beach, though not exactly a company, famously helped to foster the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador by priming the local circular economy in El Zonte. Bitnob is helping Africans stack sats and accept remittances. Vietnam is leading the world in bitcoin adoption for the second year in a row, and one reason is that Neutronpay has been feeding the market with Lightning-based solutions. Also in South East Asia, Pouch.ph has been bringing Lightning to the Filipino masses.
So where is this trend of increasing specialization leading?
It’s no exaggeration to say that there are now more vertical markets, each containing several companies, in the Lightning ecosystem than there were Lightning companies only five years ago. As a social system — a technology and organizational structure through which we interact with each other — Lightning is becoming far more sophisticated.
The Future Of Functional Differentiation
Specialization is so widespread in social structures because it increases efficiency and productivity, which in turn fosters growth. Although the web of 1995 was structurally far simpler than the web of 2005 or 2015, it became easier to use with each passing decade. As a result, the pool of 16 million early adopters grew by an even billion in a decade, and now nearly 70% of the world’s population use it regularly.
It might sound counterintuitive, but greater specialization and sophistication feeds growth.
Proliferating verticals and functional differentiation are necessary because her problems are not my problems, but we both need Lightning. (Image: Arian Zwegers).
And it’s how Lightning will grow too. As more and more experts from more and more different fields of activity discover Lightning and integrate it into the solutions they’re providing anyway, more and more users will be onboarded — often without even knowing about it.
Take Synota for example. They connect Lightning payment apps to smart meters to help make energy payments instantaneous, final and based on real-time prices. Gas and electricity flow in one direction, sats flow in the other. It’s a great idea, whatever means of exchange it uses, and it just happens to make more sense with Lightning. If they can deliver efficiency gains to their users, then they’ll be onboarding people onto the network who may have never heard of Lightning and not care in the least about multipath payments or anchor channels.
For us on the Lightning side, the challenge is going to be making adoption easy without sacrificing the technological integrity of our solutions and to keep the barriers as low as possible for all incoming users, be they LSPs, merchants, consumers, Lightning wizards or complete n00bs. Of course, one way to meet this challenge is with more specialization — different offerings for different user groups. If we get this right, growth will come organically, naturally and inevitably.
This is a guest post by Roy Sheinfeld. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
This is an opinion editorial by Don McAllister, a technologist who has made several video tutorials on Bitcoin.
At its inception, bitcoin was worthless; it had no monetary value. Early adopters could mine hundreds, if not thousands of bitcoin on simple laptops. As such, there was no need to enumerate it in other units than whole bitcoin. The Bitcoin protocol was designed to accommodate smaller fractional units but there was no need to use them in the early days as tens, hundreds and even thousands of bitcoin were the norm. The first known purchase using bitcoin was 10,000 bitcoin for a couple of pizzas.
Using whole bitcoin to enumerate was logical and necessary. As bitcoin adoption and its monetary value increased, there was still no need to use the smaller fractions of bitcoin — these fractions being the bit and the sat. A single bitcoin can be divided into 1,000,000 bits or as small as 100,000,000 sats (short for satoshis).
However, as bitcoin has increased in value to tens of thousands of dollars for a single bitcoin, a reset is well overdue for how we quantify value using the Bitcoin protocol. A reset is needed to foster familiarity for new adopters as bitcoin edges ever closer to being used as a medium of exchange.
We are still so early in the bitcoin adoption cycle. Although it’s estimated that up to 100 million people hold the asset, most people yet to adopt bitcoin are both suspicious and confused as to what bitcoin actually is. At this point in the adoption cycle, it’s probably safe to say that the vast majority of individuals introduced to bitcoin in the retail space will never accumulate one whole bitcoin.
As bitcoin issuance slows down and as institutional investors jump in and as the price invariably increases, this will only be reinforced over time. If you hold one or more bitcoin at this point in time, you’re in a very fortunate position that will be unattainable for most individuals moving forward. Not even every millionaire in the world will be able to own a single bitcoin. It’s estimated there are over 50 million millionaires in the world, but there will never be more than 21 million bitcoin.
To be honest, bitcoin is a terrible name. For the uninitiated, a bitcoin could be a reference to a physical object, i.e., a bit coin. Obviously, bitcoin is a digital asset, but this is in conflict with its name. In addition, bitcoin can be used to describe two things: the monetary network (Bitcoin) and the monetary asset (bitcoin).
Bitcoin the monetary network is one of the largest and most secure computer networks in existence. It is the core technology that provides the necessary framework and communications channels for bitcoin transactions and runs on thousands of nodes around the globe. The Bitcoin network is unparalleled for reliability and security.
Bitcoin, the monetary asset, is both confusing and alien to those who have yet to adopt it. Its current high value leads many people to think they cannot afford to adopt bitcoin or that they have missed the boat. This is because most people still hear about bitcoin priced as whole units with an unaffordable price tag.
Even though current early adopters of bitcoin are comfortable breaking down bitcoin and using eight decimal places, e.g., 0.00002345 or 2,345 sats, this method is completely alien and off-putting to non-holders.
To understand why, let’s apply some of the mechanisms and nomenclature of bitcoin to familiar fiat currencies. Let’s start by applying this existing method of bitcoin enumeration to the U.S. dollar.
Let’s invent an imaginary USDcoin.
USDcoin = 100,000,000 cents. (Let’s ignore the fact that in reality, 1 dollar = 100 cents.) Now let’s say that the USDcoin has been adopted and is used as a medium of exchange. Imagine the average person walking into a store to purchase a fridge and seeing it priced as: Fridge = 0.00030000 USDcoin or 30,000 cents.
This is totally alien and unfamiliar. So let’s banish the USDcoin moniker completely.
Instead, let’s enumerate using dollars at their actual value of 1 dollar = 100 cents.
So 30,000 cents = $300.00.
See how much more familiar and comfortable that feels?
You have the dollar symbol so you can instantly see it as dollars and you have the decimal point so you can clearly differentiate between dollars and cents.
So a USDcoin is 100,000,000 cents or $1,000,000 dollars.
Why use the USDcoin label at all? Everything can be enumerated in dollars and cents. Instead of 3 USDcoin you have $3,000,000 dollars.
Why do we impose the former methodology on new entrants to bitcoin? It’s totally alien and unfamiliar, but this is exactly what we are expecting people to adopt with bitcoin.
Bitcoin = 100,000,000 sats.
If adopted as a medium of exchange, the fridge would be priced as: fridge = 0.00030000 bitcoin or 30,000 sats.
Instead, let’s keep the bitcoin moniker for the Bitcoin network and start to use “bits” for the currency and remove the complexity.
100 sats = ₿1.00 or 1 bit.
The fridge would now be priced as: 30,000 sats = ₿300.00.
See how much more familiar and comfortable that feels? The ₿ symbol has been historically used to enumerate whole bitcoin and is highly familiar to people. I would suggest that we now adopt the ₿ symbol for bits. It’s highly unlikely anyone will confuse whole bitcoin with bits. If you see a price tag of ₿300.00 you’re not going to think it’s 300 whole bitcoin. If you want to deal in whole bitcoin, you can go back to eight decimal places, e.g., 3.09367835 BTC.
But most normal people will never need (or be in a position) to transact in whole bitcoin. If they are fortunate enough, they can transact in millions of bits. Remember 1 BTC is ₿1,000,000, so 3.09367835 BTC is ₿3,093,678.35. This is what we do with USD or GBP: we use millions of units, e.g., $1,000,000 or £1,000,000.
We need to move away from talking about the price of bitcoin in bitcoin and start talking about the bit price, just as we talk about things priced in dollars or pounds. Let’s leave the name Bitcoin for the network and let’s focus on bits.
Adopting bits to enumerate bitcoin has other benefits. A bit is a “bit” of a bitcoin. People are more likely to associate the word “bit” with bitcoin and are more likely to understand that a bit is a part of a bitcoin. A “sat” means nothing to the average person.
If this terminology is adopted by exchanges, people will perceive lower prices because bitcoin would be priced in bits making bitcoin appear more affordable. People would be encouraged to buy and spend in bits.
As previously mentioned, nothing new is required. No changes are needed to the underlying monetary asset or Bitcoin network. Bits are already built in and they were included for a reason. Do you really think the fact that they mirror dollars and cents, or pounds and pence, is a coincidence? I think Satoshi Nakamoto was already looking to the future when bits would become the new global currency and built this familiarity into the protocol.
This is a guest post by Don McAllister. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
Home for the Holidays Adoption Special: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, through Dec. 31, Burlington Animal Services, 221 Stone Quarry Road, Burlington. Adopt any dog or cat for $15. Adoption fees include spay or neuter and vaccinations. Animal Services is currently full and at capacity. www.burlingtonnc.gov/pets. Fosters are needed too. BAS supplies food, supplies and all medical care for pets in foster homes. www.burlingtonnc.gov/foster.
Free Cat and Dog Adoptions: 1-4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, through Dec. 31, Rockingham County Animal Shelter, 250 Cherokee Camp Road, Reidsville. Adopt any cat or dog without paying any adoption fees. In partnership with Best Friends Animal Society. 336-394-0075, rockinghamcountyanimalshelter.org, bestfriends.org/rockingham-county.
Breakfast with Santa: 9 a.m.-noon Dec. 10, Church of The Epiphany, 538 Henry St., Eden. With Friends of Eden Animal Rescue. www.friendsofedenanimalrescue.com.
Wellness Clinic: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. second Saturday, RCSPCA Building, 300 W. Bailey St., Asheboro. Wellness checkups, skin and ear checks, heartworm tests, pet weighing, microchips, vaccines, preventative medicine. 704-288-8620 or info@cvpet.com.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush and interact with pets. Gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 2641 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Triad Independent Cat Rescue. Visit www.triadcat.org or email meowmire.yahoo.com.
Low-cost Rabies Clinic: noon-2 p.m. third Saturday, SPCA of the Triad, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. www.triadspca.org.
Virtual Adoption Fair: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. third Saturday. With Tailless Cat Rescue, SPCA of the Triad, Helping Hands 4 Paws and other local cat adoption groups. www.facebook.com/pg/taillesscatrescue/community.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
This is an opinion editorial by Alexandria, a citizen of Zimbabwe and a second year business administration student at Liaoning Shuhua University in China.
Have The Majority Of Africans Ever Had Access To Wealth Like Bitcoin?
If the question were to be posed, “Do many people in Africa have shares in Google, Amazon or Microsoft?” or “Have many people, from Africa, built wealth from any of the above listed public companies?” The answer, for the majority of individuals in Africa, would be a resounding “No.”
The main reason why a lot of Africans are not able to participate in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is that one has to have banking interoperable with American systems. Within this American system, individuals operate and deal with either American brokers or American banks that are all part of an exclusive and impenetrable closed monetary network. These financial institutions and organs almost always require sizable amounts of money from foreigners for the minimum account opening deposits or balances.
In recent years another crippling stipulation posed to non-American applicants is that their country of citizenry must presently have good bilateral relations with the United States of America. If, like myself, you were born in a sanctioned country, you will suffer from unilateral illegal sanctions imposed by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) which will block any access to the NYSE and many other Financial markets and services.
“I was born in 1930 the odds were probably 40/1 against me being born in the United States. I did win the ovarian lottery on that first day and on top of that I was male and if I’d been female my life would have been far different. So put that down as 50/50 shot and the out of the odds are 80/1 against being born a male in the United States and it was enormously important in my whole life.” — Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett states that it was enormously important that he was born in the USA. This is true because if you were to Google search Warren Buffett’s annual report you would see that his returns, over the last 57 years, averaged 20% returns on compound interest alone. This resulted in Warren Buffett achieving a compounded 3,641,613% return on his investments.
Warren Buffet demonstrates the numerical importance of accessibility and the importance of participation in financial markets, especially markets as liquid as the NYSE. This, for the most part, excludes Africans.
Accessibility To Wealth Through Credit For Africans And African Americans
The Great Depression may have started because of a stock market crash, but what hit the general economy was a disruption of credit — every citizen was unable to borrow money, rendering them incapable of doing anything. Credit has the ability to build a modern economy, but lack of credit has the ability to destroy them, swiftly and absolutely.
Let’s start off with the subject of discrimination that has lead to part of the impoverishment of my people.
African American Access To Credit:
Redlining: The term came about when the government created color-coded maps that told banks where they could give out housing loans. Green sections were a go ahead and red sections populated by black people were deemed too risky. Redlining blocked off entire black neighborhoods from access to public and private investment. Banks and insurance companies used these maps for decades to deny black people access to loans and other services based purely on race. Home ownership is the primary driver of wealth but African Americans in their neighborhoods paid higher insurance premiums, higher interest rates and were denied mortgages more often.
“You can’t get a loan, you can’t own a home, you can’t start a business. Which means you can’t build wealth. You’re excluded from the American dream. Why is it so important to you to exclude an entire race of people from the American dream?” — Anthony Mackie in, “The Banker”
African Access To Credit:
In 1930 the land apportionment in Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe) made it illegal for native Africans to purchase land outside of the established native lands. The native African population was above 1 million while that of the Europeans was less than 50,000. That put the European population at only 5% of the population yet they had more than 51% of the land while 95% of the population only got 28% of the dry rocky lands which were called “reserves.”
In 1980 Zimbabwe became independent, after a long war. They then began negotiations for a settlement at the end of the war which led to an agreement termed The Lancaster House Agreement. The Lancaster House Agreement stated that the new government could not draft legislation to compulsorily take land for the next 10 years. The only way landless black people could be resettled is if they were to buy from whites that wanted to sell. Only a few white farmers did sell. Up until the 1990s less than one million hectares of land was given up for resettlement only.
“Only 19% of the almost 3.5 million hectares of resettled land was considered prime or farmable. 75% of the best land was still about 4500 white farmers.” — Human Rights Watch
In 2000 land reform programs began, white farmers were forcefully displaced from farms and were replaced by new black farmers. This was a massive deal internationally and historically. It had never been attempted before. Zimbabwe also challenged imperialistic powers by joining the fight for an apartheid-free in South Africa. Zimbabwe also joined the fight against imperialism in The Congo. So in 2001 the United States of America reacted by enacting two types of sanctions.
The first were Congestional Sanctions: ZIDERA , Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act Stops Zimbabweans from getting loans from multilateral lending institutions. Especially restructure and development loans.
The second are Executive Order sanctions. America has tried to call it targeted sanctions but when you look at the list of targeted sanctions you see a prohibition for any company in the world to do business with Zimbabwe. Otherwise those companies will be penalized or face jail sentences according to the International Economic Emergency Powers Act.
These were unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States of America. These unilateral sanctions were only possible because the United States currency dominates the world’s payment systems and a major portion of the world’s global business is done in America. So anybody that wants to do business often has to do it with America and has to cooperate with America. They need to have a bilateral agreement and relationship with America. Yet these bilateral relationships are the ones that America uses to enforce its sanctions or what we call the executive order Sanctions and these ensure that other countries across the world implement those sanctions or suffer secondary sanctions.
Executive order sanctions actually state that if a country or company assists the government of Zimbabwe with software, finance, logistics, machinery, equipment in trade that company can also face sanctions because the Americas are trying to make the sanctions effective. However, those who place international sanctions argue that our sanctions are actually self imposed sanctions due to the fact that even before the ZIDERA sanctions of 2001 — in 1999 Zimbabwe failed to pay its debts to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which meant that Zimbabwe was banned from access to credit from these two multilateral institutions. Then again there is a misconception that sanctions in Zimbabwe did not start in 2001 but rather actually started in 1980 when we got independence. At independence Zimbabwe was left with Rhodesia’s debt. Additionally Zimbabweans were not given reparations for the destruction made by the Rhodesians that cost the nation over a trillion dollars.
Another Case Of Self-Imposed Sanctions
In Zimbabwe the interest rate is 30% per month. In only four months the interest paid on the loan would be more than the principal. This is because Zimbabwe’s interest rates have to continuously be re-adjusted in order to compensate for the hyperinflation which peaked at a whopping 600%. In addition — Zimbabwe does not have a sovereign credit rating from the three international credit rating agencies. The government has not yet solicited a rating from the big three rating agencies. It is among the African countries that are yet to request an international sovereign rating. A favorable rating enables governments and companies to raise capital in the international financial market. Institutional investors in both the developed and developing world rely heavily on rating agencies in making investment decisions.
Being unrated makes it harder for the government to get funds for big debt projects or to get debt relief. It makes it harder for entrepreneurs who are struggling to grow their businesses due to lack of funding. Individuals who lack funding cannot get a mortgage and hence cannot own a home of their own. The end result is that under these circumstances one cannot build wealth.
Can Bitcoin Finally Grant Africans Fair And Free Access To Wealth?
For centuries, Africans and African Americans have suffered from severe discriminatory policies in regards to access to credit through redlining and sanctions which both prohibited credit or increased the cost of credit. The innovation of Bitcoin was imperative for Africa and African Americans as it allowed anyone on earth access to it, and this time it includes Africans. It is not a surprise at all that Sub-Saharan Africa is leading in Bitcoin adoption.
This time Africans and African-Americans don’t have to worry about discrimination. Thanks largely to the innovation of DeFi on bitcoin, this is the long awaited-for innovation and crucial step in Bitcoin scalability and utility in Africa.
Home for the Holidays Adoption Special: 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, through Dec. 31, Burlington Animal Services, 221 Stone Quarry Road, Burlington. Adopt any dog or cat for $15. Adoption fees include spay/neuter and vaccinations. www.burlingtonnc.gov/pets. Animal Services is currently full and at capacity. Fosters are needed too. BAS supplies food, supplies and medical care for pets in foster homes. www.burlingtonnc.gov/foster.
Free Cat and Dog Adoptions: 1-4 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, Rockingham County Animal Shelter, 250 Cherokee Camp Road, Reidsville. Adopt any cat or dog without paying any adoption fees. In partnership with Best Friends Animal Society. 336-394-0075, rockinghamcountyanimalshelter.org or bestfriends.org/rockingham-county.
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Breakfast with Santa: 9 a.m.-noon Dec. 10, Church of The Epiphany, 538 Henry St., Eden. With Friends of Eden Animal Rescue. www.friendsofedenanimalrescue.com.
Wellness Clinic: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. second Saturday, RCSPCA Building, 300 W. Bailey St., Asheboro. Wellness checkups, skin and ear checks, heartworm tests, pet weighing, microchips, vaccines, preventative medicine. 704-288-8620 or info@cvpet.com.
Volunteer Days: 10 a.m. Sundays, Carolina Veterinary Assistance and Adoption Group, 394 Cook Florist Road, Reidsville. Walk, brush and interact with pets. Gardeners are welcome to help in the community garden. 336-394-4106 or www.cvaag.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 2641 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. With Triad Independent Cat Rescue. Visit www.triadcat.org or email meowmire.yahoo.com.
Low-cost Rabies Clinic: noon-2 p.m. third Saturday, SPCA of the Triad, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. www.triadspca.org.
Adoption Fair: noon-3 p.m. Saturdays, PetSmart, 1206 Bridford Parkway, Greensboro. With Juliet’s House Animal Rescue. julietshouse1@gmail.com.
Cat Adoptions: Sheets Pet Clinic, 809 Chimney Rock Court, Greensboro. $100 for one cat, 6 months or older; $150 for two adopted together to the same home, 6 months or older. $125 for each kitten, $200 for two kittens adopted at the same time. Fees includes spay/neuter, microchipping, testing for feline leukemia and/or feline immunodeficiency virus, current and age-appropriate vaccinations, FeLV vaccinations for kittens, flea treatment, and deworming. All adoptees receive an “exit exam” from a veterinarian before going home. Every cat or kitten adopted from Sheets Pet Clinic receives half-price vaccinations for the rest of its life, if brought in for yearly wellness exams. Every cat receives one-month free pet insurance. Also, adoption fairs, 1-3 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month. petadoptions@sheetspetclinic.com or www.sheetspetclinic.com.
SPCA of the Triad: Open for adoptions from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 3163 Hines Chapel Road, Greensboro. Submit an adoption application and wait for approval email. www.triadspca.org, www.facebook.com/TriadSPCA, www.instagram.com/spca_of_the_triad/. Funds are needed for SPCA’s new 9,000 square foot, $3 million facility which will hold more than twice as many homeless pets than the current shelter.
This is an opinion editorial by Nesrine Aissani, cofounder of the Zonebitcoin blog.
I was born in the ‘80s in an African country that had a so-called “non-convertible” currency. I think that forever marked my way of thinking about “currency” and I felt that was an injustice. This also became more and more evident when I discovered Bitcoin and when I used it as a medium of exchange.
Here, I will try to explain what I mean.
A non-convertible currency is one that one cannot exchange that currency on the international foreign exchange market. Outside the country, this currency has no value — it may also be referred to as locked money. For example, the Indian rupee is a semi-non convertible currency outside of India while dollars can be exchanged in all countries around the world.
It may sound crazy, but most countries in the world have a non-convertible currency. In 2022, only 18 countries (or regions) have a convertible currency. As you can see, not many do.
Beyond the macro-economic dimension, the non-convertibility of currencies has concrete repercussions on people’s lives. Tourism, for example, becomes a complex business due to the need to exchange its currency (and incur the exchange fees and conversion rates).
Why Do Some Countries Opt For Non-Convertible Currencies?
If governments decide to opt for a non-convertible currency, it is mainly to prevent capital flight abroad. In effect, by preventing convertibility, residents are then “forced” to use the currency in the country. Although the currency cannot leave the territory, it is nevertheless possible via complex financial instruments such as non-deliverable forwards (NDFs).
Thus, in theory, it may seem appropriate for a country to prefer non-convertibility. However, there are some drawbacks to this process which some countries seem to be tied up against.
When a currency is not convertible, it limits trade with other countries. This adds administrative and financial complexities to these partners. Also, when you have a non-convertible currency, the demand for it is relatively low (unless you have a comparative advantage on exports or it’s a sought-after tourist destination). This weak demand inevitably translates into a depreciation of the currency.
Naturally, the countries that benefit the most from international trade are those that have convertible currencies. With each transaction, demand increases and strengthens its legitimacy.
Therefore, it is clearly necessary — even essential — and all the more so in the era of globalization to have a currency that everyone can use and refer to.
Since the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944, it has been agreed that the U.S. dollar will be the reference currency in international trade. This is called “exorbitant privilege” as it gives great advantages to the United States.
Bitcoin Is Already Used As An International Currency
Nowadays, people all over the world are sending bitcoin to each other as a means of payment. Many freelancers and remote workers are now paid in bitcoin. Migrants that send money to their families back home are another example of its usage.
This is especially true in countries with the most unbanked populations. Bitcoin brings financial infrastructure to entire populations, as is the case in India, Africa and Latin America.
All it takes is a phone and an internet connection to send money to someone on the other side of the world. In this regard, bitcoin is already used as a universal currency. Some might say it’s just as easy to send dollars. One only has to have lived in countries with non-convertible currencies to know the extreme difficulty of opening a dollarized bank account.
The Idea Of A Single World Currency.
Since then, the idea of a single currency or a return to the gold standard has been put back on the table. It’s not a new idea, actually.
During the Bretton Woods agreement, John Mayard Keynes proposed the creation of an international currency called the bancor, fixed by a basket of strong currencies of industrialized countries. His proposal was not accepted but his idea has continued across generations of economists.
For example, in 1969, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) set up special drawing rights (SDRs). The value of an SDR is based on a basket of major currencies. However, the SDR is not a currency in the classic sense but serves as an international reserve asset.
However, this “international currency” is hardly known by the world population. It is only used by international organizations. What about the rest of the population? What about companies?
What Would Be The Benefits Of A World Currency?
If there were no more national currencies, foreign exchange market-based problems and conversion fees would end immediately. Countries would no longer have a monetary barrier and could trade more freely. This would improve and increase international trade. All nations would benefit, especially countries with fragile currencies because there would be no more exchange risk.
Economic data indicates that the change over to the euro for the European Union has a positive impact on trade, increasing bilateral exports by ~5.5%.
In addition, the global rules of finance would be leveled and all countries would be on equal footing. For example, China has undervalued its currency for years to make its export prices more competitive with other countries. This manipulation of its currency would be obsolete with the use of a single global currency.
Countries with a weak currency could benefit from a stable currency. It would certainly help the economic development of many countries.
If Bitcoin is used as an international currency, most developing countries could see a positive impact on their economies.
Countries as geographically distant as El Salvador and Morocco for example could do business. On a local scale, new businesses and startups could exist in countries that are currently cut off from the rest of the world.
In some ways, using bitcoin as an international currency would immediately align the countries of the world in terms of financial equity. Access to the economy would be the same for everyone.
Why Some Oppose A Single Global Currency.
It is true that on paper, the advantages seem obvious. Still, some economists have said it would not be a desirable situation. For Robert Mundell, Nobel laureate, “the optimal currency area is not the world,” because cohesion between all countries would be complicated if not impossible.
In the wake of Mundell’s argument, a single international currency would make it impossible to practice different monetary policies. Since countries are different from an economic point of view, this could benefit and destabilize other countries.
However, if stuck there, which approach shall we take?
Bitcoin As The Currency Of The World?
Saifedean Anemous has advocated the idea of a Bitcoin standard.
He explains in his book “The Bitcoin Standard” that bitcoin could bring the same advantages as gold in the history of world trade. Bitcoin would have all the attributes of “sound money,” and in this way it would provide the new basis for a functioning economy that would avoid recessions and debts.
We can only agree that the current global monetary system is not fair or equitable. This system creates more losers than winners.
The worst part is that it doesn’t seem to be getting better. On the contrary, it seems that we have arrived at the end of our rope. You can’t print money forever.
Would it be so inconceivable for humanity to finally have a single global currency that is not controlled by anyone, but belongs to everyone at the same time?
This is a guest post by Nesrine Aissani. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
This is an opinion editorial by Mickey Koss, a West Point graduate with a degree in economics. He spent four years in the infantry before transitioning to the Finance Corps.
I’m going to use the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) as a proxy for your general pension system. According to investopedia, the CalPERS invested roughly a third of their money into bonds with a target annual return for the fund at 7%. Bonds are referred to as fixed income because of their predictable coupon payments. They’re used for income, not capital gains.
Recycling a chart from one of my previous articles — let’s assume the weighted average of coupon rates on government bonds is 2% to simplify some math (because it is according to the Treasury). At a 2% income rate on a third of your money, that means pension funds need to make 9.5% annual returns on the rest of their money, every year, without fail or they run the risk of not being able to fund their pension payments. There is no room for error.
So what happens when you start to feel the pressure but need to keep buying bonds by mandate, despite the lack of income? You start to lever up your positions, a technique that nearly blew up the pension space in the UK just a few weeks ago.
The Washington Post has a pretty good roll up of the situation but in essence, pensions were forced to lever their positions to increase yields and cash flows because of the prevalence of quantitative easing and low interest rates.
Channeling my spirit animal, Greg Foss, by levering a position 3x you can increase your yield from 2% to 6%, but leverage cuts both ways. A 50% loss turns into 150% and starts eating into your other positions and investments. This is exactly what happened in the U.K., necessitating a bailout to prevent pension fund liquidations and systemic impact to the banking and lending system.
Enter bitcoin, stage left. Instead of leveraging positions to increase yield I think pension funds will be forced to adopt alternative investments like bitcoin to help grow their fiat denominated asset base and service their payouts to pensioners.
I wrote an article recently about the debt spiral concept. While central banks are raising rates right now, they can’t keep going forever, inevitably putting pension funds right back into the low-yield environment that caused the systemic problems before.
Bitcoin has no risk of liquidation. Bitcoin does not require leverage. Instead of making risky bets, perpetuating the culture of moral hazard and socialized losses, pension funds can use bitcoin as an asymmetric opportunity in order to bolster their returns.
I see this as an inevitability as more and more asset managers come to the realization that it is their duty to return pensioners what was promised. Once one sets the precedence, the dominoes will fall. Don’t be last.
This is a guest post by Mickey Koss. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.
