Bitcoin — A logical tender!

The importance of money in human life is similar to the importance of food for the body. But what exactly is money? Is it the currency issued by central banks, gold, silver or something else? Before answering that let us look at the main functions and properties of money. Any item that can be distinguished as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value can function as money. To fulfill its various functions, money must have certain properties like portability, scarcity, stability, fungibility, unforgeability, cognizability and durabilty. Money is a language to express value to each other.

In the history of money, gold alone had acted as best form of money. But it had a downside — portability. Fiat currencies were introduced, which had all the properties of money (I’d still question their ability to be unforgeable ;) ).

And then banks came into existence, which added another property to money — ‘System of control’.

Most of things in the world which are important to our survival aren’t free, which means we have to pay for them. How do we pay for anything? By using “our” money, right? What happens when our money is no longer our money or when we don’t have control over it or when it is depreciated?

These are very worrisome situations. Like it or not, it has happened or is happening in many countries of our world, like in Venezuela, where you can’t get your own 1 Dollar out of the bank, in Zimbabwe, when most of their money became worthless.

We have placed our trust on banks, they have been doing good job as well. But the problem in placing trust on a centralized system is that it also makes it powerful, powerful enough to control us, refuse our transactions, refuse to give us an account, limit our participation, based on our religion, caste, color, etc — A direct result of centralizing money. At that point the system of control aspect starts corrupting everything. A special system is formed where some have better access, some have immunity. Some can commit crime, launder Billions with no questions asked. Why? This system of control corrupts the very basic property of money until it can no longer function as a medium of exchange. And then money stops flowing freely.

Most of us have the inclination or need to trust a centralized system and believe in it without asking questions or having knowledge about the system. What happens when that belief system erodes? When there is a mistrust and breach? Well, then everybody starts asking questions, everyone wants to know everything and then we demand for a solution from the people who were elected or appointed to prevent such crisis, and who often turn out to be directly responsible for it. Eventually, we are given a solution, but only in the form of fake promises and false hopes.

So what are our options? I think there are two — Raise voice or exit the system!

Welcome to the world of Bitcoin — A peer to peer electronic cash system. It holds all the properties of money.

It is bigger than fiat currency. Trillion of dollars flow through the Bitcoin blockchain. It operates 24/7. It opens a payment channel to anyone with access to internet, enabling everyone to become part of this trustless system that doesn’t require permission to participate. It helps the unbanked. It is purely decentralized where the validation of transaction doesn’t require an intermediary. It does better as medium of exchange than any fiat currency. It can not be shut down by anyone. It solved the problem of double spending in a digital world without needing to trust a 3rd party and that was revolutionary. It enabled the free flow of money just like internet enabled the free flow of information.

We never lived in a world where the system of trust could be guaranteed without centralization, well we do now. We now live in a world where we can send value to anyone, anywhere, anytime without restriction.

It is fundamentally challenging the way we allocate trust on this Planet.

Bitcoin will never become a ‘system of control’. By design it refuses to do so. It is censorship resistant, neutral and borderless currency.

3rd generation blockchains and crypto projects like Cardano, IOTA etc. are promising to deliver more advanced features than the existing protocols.

In many countries of the world like Bangladesh, Bolivia, China, Ecuador, Iceland, Russia, Sweden, Thailand, Vietnam, India, crypto currencies are either not considered as legal tender or are even banned.

Why? Because it can be used to finance terrorism, for money laundering or is it because it takes the control of money from the centralized authorities and puts it back to common people???

Should a system that is innovative, secure, trustless, borderless be banned?

It is high time for us to decide if Bitcoin is an illegal tender, a fake currency or a logical tender and a real one, because our money belongs to us and nobody else!