From democracy to decentralization: Bitcoin as a personal revolution
«I think the Bitcoin white paper is one of the works
most seminal in computing in the last twenty or thirty years.
Jack Dorsey.
The nice people at CriptoNoticias asked me to write something in commemoration of the Bitcoin white paper. And since I don’t want to deny food to the basilisk, here I come to pay my debt.
I can’t think of anything to say about that whitepaper that hasn’t already been said, so instead I’ll take the space to tell my personal story of how I found out about Bitcoin through your white paper.
Around the year two thousand thirteen or fourteen I spent my life as a traditional lawyer in a city near Buenos Aires, Argentina. Despite being a Democrat and a Republican at the time, I was very disillusioned with the traditional political parties. Objectivist libertarianism, the school of Ayn Rand, helped me understand reality but did not satisfy me regarding the achievement of goals. necessary tools to be able to modify it, permanently, effectively and sufficiently valuable.
The public path made no sense because it was co-opted by populists, while the private path did not make sense either because, as Rand demonstrates, businessmen are the most punished by the prevailing collectivism.
In this context and after having closed the cycle of militancy in a traditional -mainstream- political party, I dedicated myself to supporting the national libertarian cause. Specifically, I joined in supporting the Libertarian Liberal Party (PLL) Buenos Aires.
The first PLL there was, the only one I know with authentic ideology. That human group that in the middle of the stocks exposed the shortcomings of compliance selling dollars on the black market at the door of the Central Bank. The only party that AFIP closed and that he did it without needing to come to power and without opening an agency that under another name would do exactly the same as the previous one.
My ideological coincidences with the party were complete but their methodological approach was not. Although the PLL was totally ideologically disruptive, its methodology of seeking to modify reality was essentially the same as that of any other traditional party. That is to say: participate in the democratic system, accept its rules, make proposals, hope to get enough votes, once they have achieved power, wait for the rest of the political apparatus to recognize you in power and from one or more seats make the pertinent regulatory modifications. .
I was not yet an anarchist, but upon re-experiencing the democratic system firsthand I realized that this path was not mine. Therefore, after a time of militancy and already beginning to perceive the insurmountable contradiction of the republican system, I definitively abandoned democratic politics.
After leaving the party I maintained contact with several of its members whom I continued to follow on the networks. The human quality of that group was vastly superior to anything I had experienced in traditional parties. A point that helped me put aside my democratic militancy more easily, but it did not fill the void I had.
After that last democratic experience I saw firsthand how the system rejects the decent and promotes the indecent. Through experiential knowledge, I managed to demonstrate how every democracy inevitably evolves towards a cacocracy, that is, the government of the worst. As HH Hoppe aptly portrays in “Democracy, the God that failed”.
Then, the year 2015 arrived and after having left the PLL aside, I found myself once again dissatisfied with the system, suffering from inflation – like any Argentine -, spinning the hamster wheel without moving in any direction.
In that context, on a day like any other, looking at the networks, like so many other times, I read a post from a former PLL colleague. Franco Amati post about some kind of currency, token or something like that. A type of financial product that begins with B. I read the post, I don’t understand it and I move on. Financial matters never interested me.
Weeks later, on another ordinary day and again exercising the regular ritual of looking at the news on social networks I came across a new post by Amati that also talks about this guy. bit-coin or something similar. On this second occasion I pay more attention and see that it is something along the lines of a new currency. Since at that time I was not interested in economic issues, I put it aside again.
Weeks later, on another ordinary day and occasion, I come across for the third time a post by Amati that deals with a certain “Bitcoin”. What at that time I perceived as a kind of digital currency? I mean, is it possible that something like that exists? Distrusting that such a thing could exist, but trusting that it was time to pay attention to this topic that appeared on my timeline about three times, I decide to pay attention to it to see what it consists of.
Although I don’t remember what the post was about, the interesting thing about it is that it had a link to a whitepaper or white paper. Which was very practical for someone who didn’t know anything about the subject and who wanted to know what the crazy libertarians were posting about.
I enter the link and find a technical document written in the typical scientific publication format. My interest at that point was only to know what the issue was about. Understand why these libertarian circles were talking about this issue. Then I take the necessary minutes and carefully read the document completely. I do it with maximum suspicion since its content was generating more doubts than certainties in me. At the same moment that I complete its reading, without even making an effort to think about it, I notice that: What this white paper says is false because it is merely a well-written idea but cannot be developed in reality for some reason, or it exists in reality. And if it exists they are going to lower it, because if they don’t lower it, if they can’t lower it, it will radically disrupt the entire current global economic system.
Being naturally skeptical and also ignorant of the material reality of the Bitcoin network at that time, I was mainly inclined to believe the first option. So I closed the whitepaper and began to investigate whether what was stated there corresponded to any tangible practical development. That is, if the magical network described in the white paper actually existed in reality. So at that point I start studying Bitcoin in depth, which I later discover is known as “falling down the rabbit hole.” Day after day and in every possible free moment I approach the subject from a scientific perspective. Trying to falsify the claim that “the Bitcoin network exists and works.”
It turns out that not only did the network exist and function as the white paper described it, but it had even been doing so practically without interruptions for about seven years. Therefore, after a period of study I came to the conclusion that what was stated in the white paper is consistent with reality. What the phenomenon -Bitcoin network- effectively fulfills by translating the theory of the white paper into reality. And therefore, unfailingly is breaking with the current economic system. And it will continue to break it unless it is stopped. So I dedicate myself to continuing to study how they could stop it and then come to the conclusion that there is no way to stop it. His game theory is insurmountable.
From that moment I saw it as evident that Bitcoin and fiat cannot coexist for long. That one of the two must disappear or change radically. And, after having analyzed the first seven years of bitcoin, I come to the conclusion that what will change will be fiat. Since if Bitcoin could be changed or disappeared, they would have already done so. However, at the time I was not satisfied with that knowledge. But I needed to ratify it on several occasions. So since 2016 I continued to fall down the rabbit hole, always exploring how bitcoin could fail. How could they lower it, which side is it going to break, where “the ponzi” explodes. Eight years later I still cannot find valid answers to these questions. Everything continues to indicate to me that Bitcoin will continue to exist and therefore The change occurs on the other side, on the fiat side. The continuous increase in the price of Bitcoin in USD adds one more argument in this regard. Each block added to the timechain adds additional certainty to the permanence over time of the superior currency that, because it is superior, will inevitably end up eating all the competition, taking the human race to a higher stage known as hyperbitcoinization.
Just as in today’s Argentina there are politicians who claim to be defenders of freedom but in practice only assume power to perpetuate the fiat system; There are also politicians – literally people who transform reality – who actually believe in freedom and therefore promote true tools of transformation. In this case a tool based on economic and technical superiority that highlights the futility of votingof the existence of majorities, of republican formalities, of legislative and executive seats.
Fortunately, after encountering the Bitcoin phenomenon, I finally found the angle I needed to face the reality transformations I wanted. Therefore, from that moment and gradually I dedicated myself to learning more about technology in order to appreciate it, disseminate it and also take advantage of it even from a professional point of view. Thus abandoning the fiat world, at least from a professional perspective.
I take advantage of this new anniversary of the publication of the white paper to thank all those true freedom activists who, following Satoshi’s example, spread ideas and technologies that allow us to live in a freer and fairer world.
Camilo JdL for Criptonoticias at 867,170 timechain
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to its author and do not necessarily reflect those of CriptoNoticias. The author’s opinion is for informational purposes and under no circumstances constitutes an investment recommendation or financial advice.