Brilliant. A substack definitely worth subscribing to, imho. Let the ostrich-like uneducated fools continue to earn their financial Darwin Awards.
Anyone who understands Btc knows a powerful truth. The rest would have to assert and prove that the people of all those adopting countries are just plain naive or brainless. You know. Like drivers wearing masks. But that’s another story, and even Btc can’t save them.
Everyone has an opinion, nothing is certain, and everything is a risk. The promise of BTC is that for a few percent of your portfolio, it's an assymetrical bet. This dip might be the end but likely it's just another bump. Best and thanks.
Thanks for writing this excellent intro of bitcoin for new people! I've been in bitcoin since 2017 and it is the only way out of a crumbling fiat system.
A couple of things I want to add:
Gold may be a store of value, but it has failed as a medium of exchange. This is why bitcoin is the compelling case in the age of the internet.
Bitcoin's greatest threat to the establishment is something that even gold can't do. It is disintermediating the middle man, aka banks and credit card companies. Once merchants realize they could use bitcoin lightning network instead of Visa, they can save the 3% fee. This huge globally and it is being introduced in various jurisdictions such as El Salvador, Lugano (Switzerland) and Madeira (Portugal).
Bitcoin's success is guaranteed since the devaluation of the dollar and all other fiat currencies is already baked into the cake.
Bitcoin's current fair value should be north of $500,000 per bitcoin based on the fact that gold's market cap is 12 trillion and bitcoin's ability to put all credit card companies out of business (you can add up the total market cap of all credit card companies and add those of money transmitters such a as Western Union).
Get educated folks before the train leaves the station without you.
Everyone realizes that the gov't of Canada took control of bitcoin accounts and froze them during the Canadian "truckers" event, right?
Explain, because none of this is true if Chrystia Freeland (literal Nazi deputy Prime Minister) has control of your bitcoin account(s). If she can, for a bunch of truckers protesting, why would I ever trust anything anyone says about bitcoin?
You're 100% wrong. If you keep your bitcoin in your custody, which is the whole point of bitcoin, nobody can freeze or seize it. What about your gold coins, are you gonna give them to somebody else to hold for you? In that case, your gold coins can be frozen and seized.
The truckers were uninformed and handed over their bitcoin to third parties which then stole their bitcoins. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
If someone has a “bitcoin account” they were duped at the outset. A true Bitcoin wallet is under your control alone and no one can “freeze” it. It’s OK to dislike Bitcoin—that’s a valid opinion. However, Bitcoin, held properly, is not subject to censorship or seizure.
You’re correct. Those people trusted an online exchange and they assumed that their property was safe.
Bitcoin held in a hardware wallet, a paper wallet, or a brain wallet cannot frozen or seized. If you can remember 24 words (your bitcoin “keys”, aka “seed phrase”), you can transport your property over state lines without fear of seizure.
I’m not saying Bitcoin will save the world. What I am saying is that the philosophy behind it (protection of personal property) intends to.
How do you transact in dollars without power? How do you do anything without power? If power globally were to go down permanently, you have bigger issues. Local power outages don't affect bitcoin in the least. As soon as power is up everything is back, just like your bank account which disappears from your screen during a power outage.
Robert Yoho, why would someone like me ever say anything critical? YOu are giving us valuable informaiton, and I for one am grateful I wanted to buy bitcoin years ago, was discouraged by my broker, and still want to buy it. I am old, and not sure where I can learn how. I do know I want a cold wallet, but if you could point me in the right direction to get step by step instructions on how to purchase real bitcoin, I would be for one forever grateful.
Small amounts of a few thousand dollars can be purchased for cash in many gas stations. Exchanges such as Kraken or many others can accept bank wires. If you buy some, you will start to study because you will have a little skin in the game. It's interesting. See the suggested references.
The best way to learn about Bitcoin is to find local meetup groups of Bitcoin Maximalists. These people believe in the promise of Bitcoin to act as a hedge against inflation, censorship, and seizure of one’s property. A Bitcoin maximalist will tell you that money in an exchange is not really your property, as you don’t hold the “keys” to the wallet. A maximalist will also steer you from sh!tcoins, exchanges, and other scams.
Try Swan bitcoin. I know it's hard to get started. Stay away from all altcoins and only buy bitcoin. If you have a brokerage account, you can invest in a stock called Microstrategy. MSTR holds a lot of bitcoin on their balance sheet and the CEO is an MIT graduate who is a big believer in bitcoin.
Thank you I will look into. I have NO desire to buy anything but bitcoin, because of the way it was created and mined. I will look at the stock...but I want a cold wallet with a reasonalbe amount of bitcoin...because I will be damned if I will go quietly into CBDC. Even if I have to hook up a bicycle to my computer. Of course, if there is an EMP, then all bets are off, but like I said Reasonable Amount.
So far the ledger Nano has been great as a hardware wallet for "cold storage". it's less than $100 but you need to buy only direct from the manufacturer (French). Don't buy second hand or any other websites.
The beauty of a HW wallet is that your "keys" are never online. If something isn't online, it can't be hacked (they could still hold a gun to your head and force you to turn it over if they know you have a HW wallet. But the HW wallet itself is protected by a PIN).
Also keep your seed phrase (24 words) written down on a piece of paper or steel and divided into 2 or 3 pieces and keep them in separate safe locations. I think keeping all 24 words in a bank safe is not secure nowadays that we know police and FBI break into those boxes nilly willy).
Many use Binance to purchase because of lower fees. You must check out a few vendors to see fee structures. Fees may vary depending on how you exchange your cash. It's now nearly impossible to simply feed $20 bills in a slot and stay unknown.
You’re correct. I’ve been involved at the personal, developer, Meetup, and conference level that I forget how hard it is for newcomers to make a person-to-person connection. Perhaps the best way to acquire Bitcoin is to get paid for your services in BTC.
There might be a few who buy cryptos for the perceived security. But most are purely speculators. It's basically a video game. Actually, some people speculate on property in video games. Zuckerberg hopes to become a broker in that "metaverse." Like the cryptos, he'll find a few investors. Look up tulip mania to see how it works.
As for security, sophisticated hackers may have failed, but they don't have acres of computers. Let's see, who has acres of computers?? No algorithm is truly secure.
Cryptos are not bitcoin. Cryptos are scams that try to imitate bitcoin.
No algo is safe? Sure but how do you simultaneously hack the code that is running on over 14,000 computers (nodes) globally, many of which you cannot identify because they are running behind TOR? Can't be done and hasn't been done, despite nation states like China trying their best.
They're all the same. Different marketing, different UI, same concept, probably the same central algorithms. Every piece of software ever written is hackable. Every developer assumed theirs was not, until it was. The best hacks are undetected.
The algorithm runs on over 14,000 different servers owned by private individuals behind TOR for the most part. You would have to hack at least 51% of those nodes and alter the code separately on over 7000 machines. It's just not doable regardless of what people say. And even if it was doable, the moment it is discovered, all the honest nodes simply fork away. The most such a hacker could accomplish before being discovered is maybe one or 2 blocks, impacting a relatively small amount of money.
The amount of money it would take to stage such an attack would be far greater than any possible benefits derived therefrom.
BTC is near its max now, that remaining bit might be hard to come by at current pricing in that the mining cost has been exponential. Owning some BTC may be quite wise but only in your personal wallet, be sure your keys are replicated and known to any survivors should you pass. We have no idea how much BTC has simply vanished from lost keys. ETH may be also useful in terms of web money and BTC - ETH has few fees. BTC ATMs are horrid places often with 15%+ fees.
Anybody that think it's private, think again the blockchain lives forever. TOR travels may help obscure your tracks and claims of shuffle transfers may help, but detection can trap many. But your wallet is safe from spying.
The whole point of bitcoin is that you actually don't have to trust anybody. The code runs on over 14,000 computers (many behind TOR) including a couple of nodes on satellites. There is no central authority, no single point of failure, so it cannot be brought down.
There is no "there" there? Yes there is. This technology is eliminating the 3%+ fees charged by credit card companies and eliminates wiring fees and FX exchange fees charged by the banksters and money transmitters such as Western Union.
Maybe you should look into why the old Buffet hates bitcoins. Could it be that he is heavily invested in banks and other financial institutions?
And yes even countries like China, who "banned" bitcoin and tried to take it down, failed miserably.
Unless you have read a couple of books on the subject written by experts and have read and understood Satoshi Nakamoto's seminal Whitepaper written in 2008, you are woefully uninformed on what Bitcoin is and how i tworks.
It's totally different from the dollar. Couldn't be further from what the fiat ponzi is.
Dollar inflates your purchasing power away. All fiat trends to zero.
Bitcoin has 1.7% inflation right now and this rate is cut in half every 4 years. Next halving is May 2024. At that point inflation will be less than 1%.
Also dollars are controlled by psychopaths and central bankers.
Bitcoin is a decentralized mathematical code that cannot be altered unless everybody in the network goes along with it. There have been many attempts by people trying to change bitcoin, including Elon Musk, and it failed each time.
I agree, bur if you are looking to transact away from the coming CBDC..bitcoin might be a good alternative. I gotta at least buy groceries when they shut my wallet down. And it is coming at the speed of a freight train. I am just looking for enough to be able to buy my groceries .....
Except, I can't possibly buy gold and store it (remember Gerald Celente? Took his gold in the warehouse under his name and I am not sure he ever got it all back)...my house/condo is too small, it would probably collapse the floor. And of course, fire. And of course, they go through the safety boxes now. Without your permission. Where do you put it?
Brilliant. A substack definitely worth subscribing to, imho. Let the ostrich-like uneducated fools continue to earn their financial Darwin Awards.
Anyone who understands Btc knows a powerful truth. The rest would have to assert and prove that the people of all those adopting countries are just plain naive or brainless. You know. Like drivers wearing masks. But that’s another story, and even Btc can’t save them.
Everyone has an opinion, nothing is certain, and everything is a risk. The promise of BTC is that for a few percent of your portfolio, it's an assymetrical bet. This dip might be the end but likely it's just another bump. Best and thanks.
Thanks for writing this excellent intro of bitcoin for new people! I've been in bitcoin since 2017 and it is the only way out of a crumbling fiat system.
A couple of things I want to add:
Gold may be a store of value, but it has failed as a medium of exchange. This is why bitcoin is the compelling case in the age of the internet.
Bitcoin's greatest threat to the establishment is something that even gold can't do. It is disintermediating the middle man, aka banks and credit card companies. Once merchants realize they could use bitcoin lightning network instead of Visa, they can save the 3% fee. This huge globally and it is being introduced in various jurisdictions such as El Salvador, Lugano (Switzerland) and Madeira (Portugal).
Bitcoin's success is guaranteed since the devaluation of the dollar and all other fiat currencies is already baked into the cake.
Bitcoin's current fair value should be north of $500,000 per bitcoin based on the fact that gold's market cap is 12 trillion and bitcoin's ability to put all credit card companies out of business (you can add up the total market cap of all credit card companies and add those of money transmitters such a as Western Union).
Get educated folks before the train leaves the station without you.
Everyone realizes that the gov't of Canada took control of bitcoin accounts and froze them during the Canadian "truckers" event, right?
Explain, because none of this is true if Chrystia Freeland (literal Nazi deputy Prime Minister) has control of your bitcoin account(s). If she can, for a bunch of truckers protesting, why would I ever trust anything anyone says about bitcoin?
You're 100% wrong. If you keep your bitcoin in your custody, which is the whole point of bitcoin, nobody can freeze or seize it. What about your gold coins, are you gonna give them to somebody else to hold for you? In that case, your gold coins can be frozen and seized.
The truckers were uninformed and handed over their bitcoin to third parties which then stole their bitcoins. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
How do you block on this?
If someone has a “bitcoin account” they were duped at the outset. A true Bitcoin wallet is under your control alone and no one can “freeze” it. It’s OK to dislike Bitcoin—that’s a valid opinion. However, Bitcoin, held properly, is not subject to censorship or seizure.
Yeah well, that is not what happened. Good luck to you. No thanks.
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6366975
You’re correct. Those people trusted an online exchange and they assumed that their property was safe.
Bitcoin held in a hardware wallet, a paper wallet, or a brain wallet cannot frozen or seized. If you can remember 24 words (your bitcoin “keys”, aka “seed phrase”), you can transport your property over state lines without fear of seizure.
I’m not saying Bitcoin will save the world. What I am saying is that the philosophy behind it (protection of personal property) intends to.
Cult. Good on you, enjoy your CBDCs.
CBDCs will crush crypto. And your kings and queens are backing CBDCs.
Yeah, the templars are going to give up control after a thousand or so years... Catch up.
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1604-john-titus-on-central-bank-digital-currencies/
https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-community-condemns-canada-for-freezing-dissidents-bitcoin-wallets
Buy gold and silver.
Looking forward to someone engancing an electron in bitcoin to achieve a heightened state. Oh wait, you can only do that with gold?
Looking forward to someone creating colloidal bitcoin that has so many medicinal properties. Oh wait, that is only with silver.
Manna. Ambrosia. Look into it. A rock has more value than an "on/off" signal from a piece of silicon.
No one is trading their gold for bitcoin. Hahahahahaaa
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/chrystia-freelands-granddad-was-indeed-a-nazi-collaborator-so-much-for-russian-disinformation/wcm/11196169-fd23-4643-94b4-08039235c595/amp/
Freeland: next up to run NATO. Literal Nazi routes. Anarchist since high school.
You guys are idiots.
https://coat.ncf.ca/research/Chomiak-Freeland/freeland_1989_articles.htm
How do I trade bitcoin with no power? Anyone? Buehler. Buehler. Buehler.
How do you transact in dollars without power? How do you do anything without power? If power globally were to go down permanently, you have bigger issues. Local power outages don't affect bitcoin in the least. As soon as power is up everything is back, just like your bank account which disappears from your screen during a power outage.
Robert Yoho, why would someone like me ever say anything critical? YOu are giving us valuable informaiton, and I for one am grateful I wanted to buy bitcoin years ago, was discouraged by my broker, and still want to buy it. I am old, and not sure where I can learn how. I do know I want a cold wallet, but if you could point me in the right direction to get step by step instructions on how to purchase real bitcoin, I would be for one forever grateful.
Small amounts of a few thousand dollars can be purchased for cash in many gas stations. Exchanges such as Kraken or many others can accept bank wires. If you buy some, you will start to study because you will have a little skin in the game. It's interesting. See the suggested references.
The best way to learn about Bitcoin is to find local meetup groups of Bitcoin Maximalists. These people believe in the promise of Bitcoin to act as a hedge against inflation, censorship, and seizure of one’s property. A Bitcoin maximalist will tell you that money in an exchange is not really your property, as you don’t hold the “keys” to the wallet. A maximalist will also steer you from sh!tcoins, exchanges, and other scams.
Thank you very much Tony. I will try and find such a group.
Thank you everyone here. Don't know what I would do without the
generous and smart people on Substack.
"Simply Bitcoin" is a great YouTube podcast. Just be careful that you stick to bitcoin only and don't fall for any of the thousands of imposters.
Try Swan bitcoin. I know it's hard to get started. Stay away from all altcoins and only buy bitcoin. If you have a brokerage account, you can invest in a stock called Microstrategy. MSTR holds a lot of bitcoin on their balance sheet and the CEO is an MIT graduate who is a big believer in bitcoin.
Thank you I will look into. I have NO desire to buy anything but bitcoin, because of the way it was created and mined. I will look at the stock...but I want a cold wallet with a reasonalbe amount of bitcoin...because I will be damned if I will go quietly into CBDC. Even if I have to hook up a bicycle to my computer. Of course, if there is an EMP, then all bets are off, but like I said Reasonable Amount.
So far the ledger Nano has been great as a hardware wallet for "cold storage". it's less than $100 but you need to buy only direct from the manufacturer (French). Don't buy second hand or any other websites.
The beauty of a HW wallet is that your "keys" are never online. If something isn't online, it can't be hacked (they could still hold a gun to your head and force you to turn it over if they know you have a HW wallet. But the HW wallet itself is protected by a PIN).
Also keep your seed phrase (24 words) written down on a piece of paper or steel and divided into 2 or 3 pieces and keep them in separate safe locations. I think keeping all 24 words in a bank safe is not secure nowadays that we know police and FBI break into those boxes nilly willy).
Many use Binance to purchase because of lower fees. You must check out a few vendors to see fee structures. Fees may vary depending on how you exchange your cash. It's now nearly impossible to simply feed $20 bills in a slot and stay unknown.
You’re correct. I’ve been involved at the personal, developer, Meetup, and conference level that I forget how hard it is for newcomers to make a person-to-person connection. Perhaps the best way to acquire Bitcoin is to get paid for your services in BTC.
There might be a few who buy cryptos for the perceived security. But most are purely speculators. It's basically a video game. Actually, some people speculate on property in video games. Zuckerberg hopes to become a broker in that "metaverse." Like the cryptos, he'll find a few investors. Look up tulip mania to see how it works.
As for security, sophisticated hackers may have failed, but they don't have acres of computers. Let's see, who has acres of computers?? No algorithm is truly secure.
Cryptos are not bitcoin. Cryptos are scams that try to imitate bitcoin.
No algo is safe? Sure but how do you simultaneously hack the code that is running on over 14,000 computers (nodes) globally, many of which you cannot identify because they are running behind TOR? Can't be done and hasn't been done, despite nation states like China trying their best.
They're all the same. Different marketing, different UI, same concept, probably the same central algorithms. Every piece of software ever written is hackable. Every developer assumed theirs was not, until it was. The best hacks are undetected.
The algorithm runs on over 14,000 different servers owned by private individuals behind TOR for the most part. You would have to hack at least 51% of those nodes and alter the code separately on over 7000 machines. It's just not doable regardless of what people say. And even if it was doable, the moment it is discovered, all the honest nodes simply fork away. The most such a hacker could accomplish before being discovered is maybe one or 2 blocks, impacting a relatively small amount of money.
The amount of money it would take to stage such an attack would be far greater than any possible benefits derived therefrom.
Optimists make the world a better place. But they're usually the most surprised to learn their optimism was a mistake.
BTC is near its max now, that remaining bit might be hard to come by at current pricing in that the mining cost has been exponential. Owning some BTC may be quite wise but only in your personal wallet, be sure your keys are replicated and known to any survivors should you pass. We have no idea how much BTC has simply vanished from lost keys. ETH may be also useful in terms of web money and BTC - ETH has few fees. BTC ATMs are horrid places often with 15%+ fees.
Anybody that think it's private, think again the blockchain lives forever. TOR travels may help obscure your tracks and claims of shuffle transfers may help, but detection can trap many. But your wallet is safe from spying.
Thanks, but NO thanks on Bitcoin for me. I'll buy gold and silver for now, at least. I'm just not 'there' yet, I guess.
Your loss. You will get on board the bitcoin train when it hits $500,000 per bitcoin in 5 years. Instead you could hop on now and benefit.
The whole point of bitcoin is that you actually don't have to trust anybody. The code runs on over 14,000 computers (many behind TOR) including a couple of nodes on satellites. There is no central authority, no single point of failure, so it cannot be brought down.
There is no "there" there? Yes there is. This technology is eliminating the 3%+ fees charged by credit card companies and eliminates wiring fees and FX exchange fees charged by the banksters and money transmitters such as Western Union.
Maybe you should look into why the old Buffet hates bitcoins. Could it be that he is heavily invested in banks and other financial institutions?
And yes even countries like China, who "banned" bitcoin and tried to take it down, failed miserably.
Unless you have read a couple of books on the subject written by experts and have read and understood Satoshi Nakamoto's seminal Whitepaper written in 2008, you are woefully uninformed on what Bitcoin is and how i tworks.
Just like the dollar …bitcoin is no different ….
It's totally different from the dollar. Couldn't be further from what the fiat ponzi is.
Dollar inflates your purchasing power away. All fiat trends to zero.
Bitcoin has 1.7% inflation right now and this rate is cut in half every 4 years. Next halving is May 2024. At that point inflation will be less than 1%.
Also dollars are controlled by psychopaths and central bankers.
Bitcoin is a decentralized mathematical code that cannot be altered unless everybody in the network goes along with it. There have been many attempts by people trying to change bitcoin, including Elon Musk, and it failed each time.
I agree, bur if you are looking to transact away from the coming CBDC..bitcoin might be a good alternative. I gotta at least buy groceries when they shut my wallet down. And it is coming at the speed of a freight train. I am just looking for enough to be able to buy my groceries .....
Except, I can't possibly buy gold and store it (remember Gerald Celente? Took his gold in the warehouse under his name and I am not sure he ever got it all back)...my house/condo is too small, it would probably collapse the floor. And of course, fire. And of course, they go through the safety boxes now. Without your permission. Where do you put it?
PS that was a rhetorical question :-)