Why I Mine!
Mining is more than just collecting Bitcoins
There are many articles lately declaring Bitcoin’s demise, most presenting as evidence the collapse of Mt. Gox, a Bitcoin exchange. This is far from the truth, as the exchanges are just a small part of the Bitcoin ecosystem.
The free market to me is nothing more than a peer to peer network, individuals engaging of their own free will to cooperate with another individual or individuals. What attracts me to Bitcoin is its peer to peer decentralized nature. I googled Bitcoin and came across Bitcoin.org, where I encountered Satoshi Nakamoto’s White Paper, which describes setting up a peer to peer network to solve the issue of double payment through the creation of the Bitcoin protocol. I won’t get into the specifics of how the protocol works, as I would do a poor job and wouldn’t give it the justice it deserves.
Cryptocurrencies will not replace fiat currencies as some people fear, and they don’t need to in order for Bitcoin to function. Bitcoin has many applications and it will change how we interact with each other for the better. I mine with a small 5G ASIC miner connected to a raspberry pi. I have no delusions that I will get rich off such a small operation and at the current difficultly and Bitcoin price it will take over a year to recuperate the money spent, and for me that is okay.
I am not the most tech savvy person, probably more savvy than most but still a far cry from a computer/tech guru. So why on earth would someone such as myself get into mining Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies? A great question! I have always enjoyed economics, legal history, and politics proven by my Bachelors degree in History. Over the years I have read Austrian School economic giants such as Hayek and Mises. I have also read Keynes and contemporary economist from the Keynesian school.
Financial market manipulation through poorly understood derivative trading, among other things, continues to throw the global economy into disarray. And the major players in this manipulation — who both assumed and encouraged taking great risk — are still up and running after their positions failed, by receiving enormous bailouts. While the homeowners were kicked to the curb with their property resold to negate the losses incurred by those financial institutions. Seeing how third-party financial institutions and central banks operate, I see the benefit of having an asset class not based on a central governing body. And maintaining the integrity of the public ledger, or Blockchain, even to a small extent is the main reason I mine. For me that is Bitcoin! or cryptocurrencies.
