Excerpt
I know it can feel dark right now with a credit-driven money system that fuels inflation and “solutions” like stablecoins that are just like the current financial system. I explain why I’m still optimistic: Bitcoin has a fixed supply, is open to everyone, and can help protect your savings. I also share exciting innovations you can try today: Self-Custody, Streaming Sats, eCash for offline use, and Nostr. Watch now!
Transcript
It’s really difficult in most cases to explain to people why Bitcoin might be very life changing and important for them, and not only for them, but for the whole community and the whole country. So yeah, a lot of people have the same motivation as you have, like escaping inflation, because I mean every African country basically has a higher inflation than European countries or the US, although we all sit in the same boat, you know. Inflation in Europe and in the US is also rising, because the problem is the underlying financial system. Our money system is the problem. Our money system now is built on credit, and if you give out credit to someone, you only give it to someone who has the securities. But most of us don’t have enough securities or don’t own anything, like a house or other property, to be able to receive a credit or a loan. But those who already have something always get some credit, and that’s the way how the rich are becoming richer, and those who have less have less, and they can’t make it upward. And that’s the big difference with Bitcoin, because with Bitcoin, if you start earning it, if you start saving it, even in tiny bits over time, it will most likely increase. And it’s really difficult to explain to people who have never learned about the current monetary system, how it works and how it’s exploiting people actually, not only people, it’s only also exploiting countries, like the whole international monetary system, the IMF, the credits they always give to African countries, for instance. They in depth these countries, and then these countries are depending on the countries who gave them the loans, be it the US Americans, be it Europeans, be it the Chinese now, who are very big into African countries. So that’s the current system. And with Bitcoin, it’s right, it’s not built on credit. There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin, and no one can make more out of that, as it’s now in the current system. So this permanent production of new money is heating up the inflation, because inflation is basically meaning the value of your money goes down. You can pay less with it, you get less with it. And in Bitcoin, actually, in the first 15 years, since it’s start, it has been quite the opposite. Things are getting cheaper in Bitcoin. Like I had a graphic about how the price of an iPhone has changed in Bitcoin compared to euros or your currency, a fiat currency. So that means in Bitcoin, the iPhone gets cheaper and cheaper and cheaper and cheaper over time. So the great thing about Bitcoin is that if you are able to hold a little bit and add a little bit over the years, the benefit will be there. It won’t be like in the current system, that the money itself loses value all the time. So you might add savings all the time, but you don’t get more for it. You always get less. And so there are so many reasons that play into Bitcoin, why it’s such a unique tool and why it’s such a chance for humanity, actually. You can’t put that into a 10 minutes explainer, because you would need to start with the problems of the current system, which is bringing us all down and even climate change. I believe it’s a result of our monetary system. And so yes, Bitcoin gives hope. A lot of people say that. And I also feel a lot of people get that or understand that. And that’s how it keeps them Learning, trying to earn Bitcoin with initiatives or by selling stuff and building circular economies where people can learn something. So learning, I want to add that too. Learning is the most important thing because everything you learn about Bitcoin now will help you in the future because it’s not only about Bitcoin, it’s also knowing about the differences between what’s the difference between your currency, Bitcoin and maybe a stable coin like Tether. What is eCash? How can I use it? You can use eCash even without having an internet connection. So there are so many topics and so much innovation that is inside of Bitcoin that needs to be found out and how shall I say? Blooming, you know, it needs people like you who understand how it can be uplifting, that you build innovations, solutions around Bitcoin that can uplift your community, yourself and your country. And so yes, we can have a future, in future a Bitcoin economy. I don’t think it will be only Bitcoin. For many, many years we will still have fiat currencies, we will have stable coins, we will see the nation states and the central banks holding on to their systems. You know, Tether is much more used than Bitcoin, but Tether is basically the same as the banking system. There’s no difference. It’s the same people who gain power, who gain money. It offers you an easy to use way to send money globally. That’s true. But it has the same inflation as fiat currency and it’s also controlled by the same people who are controlling fiat money. So it’s not really how shall I say, egalitarian or it doesn’t have this peer to peer idea like Bitcoin has. It’s very much top down. And so yes, Bitcoin enables a global free market with a lot of automation. You might also speak about AI. Yes, it might be possible that I mean, even now there are already AI tools that pay themselves with Bitcoin and also the concept of streaming money that we are using for podcasting or the concept of SAPs that are being used on Nostr. Nostr is by the way a great platform that you could look into. It’s a decentralized internet basically where you can have your own account where you are not depending on a centralized company like Facebook, for instance. So there are also tools where you can run a community group on Nostr and zap each other. So yeah, I’m coming from, you see, there are so many things I could talk about and there are so many things that are looking promising into a great future even if it doesn’t look like it at the moment for the most of us because everywhere, especially also in Europe and the US, we feel that it’s going nowhere. All the things get more and more expensive, but our salary isn’t rising and so it looks very dark in a way. But Bitcoin for me has been really an exciting new technology that enables you to for once in a life really try to save money and you have something, you gain something from it and it’s not only the monetary aspect, it’s also the aspect of the permissionlessness. You can use it without an ID. You can use it without using your phone number which then connects your Bitcoin with your phone number. So these are all very much freedom technologies that help you to lose basically these shackles, I think you say, that hold you back in a way. And so I feel Bitcoin is really exciting. And so I hope you feel the same in a way because if you feel similarly that will give you the breath you need for the next years because it’s not an easy way. Like Bitcoin adoption is not like going smooth and everybody feels that Bitcoin is great. It’s a lot of politics. It’s a lot of US American influence again. But that’s exactly the great thing about Bitcoin. You are not depending on the US. If you have your Bitcoin in self custody, if you run your own node, if you own your Bitcoin, you’re not depending on anyone actually because that’s the great thing about Bitcoin. If you own the keys, it’s your money and no nation state, no central bank can bring the value down.
