Is Bitcoin the Road to Financial Freedom?

On November 18, 2013, the first Congressional hearings on virtual currency --technology-based currency--took place before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Tom Carper.  According to the Washington Post, the hearings were lovefests, with it being stated that Bitcoin was a "legal means of exchange" and that "online payment systems, both centralized and decentralized, offer legitimate financial services".

The big questions should be: Why is Bitcoin so acceptable to the Feds? Why, all of a sudden, is it being promoted by mainstream media, and powerful 0.01% financial elites--Forbes, Fox Business, Time Magazine, MasterCard, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, the CFR, DHS, etc? If that doesn't make you nervous, nothing will. So, is there a strategic plan for the replacement of the US dollar, and/or the debt-based fiat money system, with a global reserve currency? And will that currency be Bitcoin?

Bitcoin, to quickly explain, is a pseudo-anonymous protocol, a decentralized digital currency based on software by "Satoshi Nakamoto" (a pseudonym for the unknown person or people who designed the original Bitcoin protocol in 2008) where the transactions (entries on some type of global ledger) require a peer-to-peer network. The original amount of Bitcoins mined--involves solving complex mathematical problems that require a lot of computer power--is said to be 21 million, therefore limited, but that's easy to change with a few clicks of a mouse I would think, not to mention, the controllers do not have to account to anyone for any additional amount of Bitcoins created. Bitcoin can be subdivided into 100 million smaller units called satoshis and is also created by a process called mining. The difficulty of mining ranges depending on the systems being used, and that--the difficulty-- in addition to the market, decide it's worth, which is about $801.80 per bitcoin today at 12:54 AM EST. Now, the total crypto currency market--Litecoin, Peercoin, Quark, Namecoin, Primecoin, etc.--including Bitcoin is worth approximately $13 billion in total.

Now, keep in mind that DARPA created the Internet--which Bitcoin is totally dependent on--initially promoting it as an open, innovative information infrastructure. Fast forward to today and Verizon beat the FCC (Verizon v. FCC) where net neutrality regulations were vacated by all three DC Circuit judges. This marks the second time in four years the FCC had its net neutrality enforcement struck down.  Then there is the software that supposedly hides user identities on the Internet, the TOR Project, which was developed by the US Naval Research laboratory and endorsed by Senator Hillary Clinton. According to the Tor Project Annual Report 2010, the U.S. Government supplied over 80% of its funding.

Gavin Andresen, the Lead Core Bitcoin Developer and founder of The Bitcoin Foundation is slated to address the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on Thursday, February 16, 2014, as he did the C.I.A. a couple of years ago when Bitcoin wasn't as big as it is now. This, in and of itself, may not be a big deal, but it's apparent to anyone with eyes to see that this foundation is seeking government acceptance to insure  a seat of power in what might become the new highly globalized Bitcoin economy.



And then there is the potential Bitcoin Greenlist that will determine the people who are allowed to conduct trade online.  While the Greenlist predates Bitcoin, this patent filing incorporates Bitcoin into its features. Think about it. If the U.S. government acquires access to the owners of even ten percent of Bitcoin addresses, they'll gain a large amount of financial data about the entire world!

Links:

Obama Initiative Spawns Identity Based Bitcoin Greenlist

“In April 2011, President Obama signed (PDF) the NSTIC or the National Strategy For Trusted Identities In Cyberspace where public and private players are collaborating on the creation of an “Identity Ecosystem” to address “(1) the insecurity and inconvenience of static passwords and (2) the cost of transactional risks that arise from the inability of individuals to prove their true identity online.”

BitLegal is the easiest way to explore the evolving legal and regulatory status of Bitcoin and virtual currencies around the globe.

MasterCard tracks global 'cashless journey'

“The study focuses on the value of all consumer payments ($63 trillion in total spend), including those that happen beyond retail point-of-sale. In 2011, 34 percent ($21 trillion) of total global consumer spend was done with cash, with cashless payments accounting for 66 percent ($42 trillion)[...]Countries such as the United States (where an estimated 80% of the value of consumer spend was cashless) and Singapore (69%) are approaching the "tipping point" to becoming nearly cashless, and remaining cash use is largely a product of consumer habit.

HOW TO MAKE A MINT: THE CRYPTOGRAPHY OF ANONYMOUS ELECTRONIC CASH by Laurie Law, Susan Sabett, Jerry Solinas, National Security Agency Office of Information Security Research and Technology, Cryptology Division, 18 June 1996

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The Impoverished Elite

After watching, Johnson and Johnson heir, Jamie Johnson's documentary, The One Percent, which explores the "political, moral and emotional rationale that enables a tiny percentage of Americans - the one percent - to control nearly half the wealth of the entire United States" it reminded me of a conversation I had years ago, while attending college.

"Today's wealthy have become an increasingly isolated elite....rather than using their wealth for good, they have used it to restructure the economy, lower their taxes, cut social programs for the middle and lower classes, and amass ever more wealth." - Jamie Johnson

I remember talking to a very wealthy friend who told me how lucky I was to be middle class. In so many words, he told me that those born into great wealth have a lot in common with those born into poverty. Both sets of children starve for the basic necessities in life, that is, if you consider love, and a sense of purpose, a necessity. 

As we continued to walk along the tree lined streets of the campus, he then pointed to a building up ahead,  "You see that building?"  I nodded.   He said, "My father donated the money for its construction...to keep me in school... I was flunking out."  I asked him if  he improved his grades.  He shook his head, and told me, "Why? My father already paid."  As if getting good grades would render the money his father paid to keep him in school, a waste.  As if the only thing that really mattered was his father's money, and what it could buy.

In the film, Warren Buffet's severe response to his granddaughter, Nicole's participation in the documentary, The One Percent, illustrates just how "impoverished" the elite can be, and often are. You see, the value of money is lost if it becomes your master...your god. Nicole Buffet, much wiser than her grandfather, is one of the few born into the prison of immense wealth, courageous enough to break free.  

So, as much as we may feel like the shackled,  perhaps we're the fortunate ones, as most of us don't have enough of it to enslave us, whereas the wealthiest amongst us, are reduced to $erving it, as is very evident in Johnson's film.

"You might think I'm an idiot. My family's one of the richest families in the world. But not with money...with love, tolerance, kindness and patience...qualities worth more than money, and you can't buy that. They taught me how to love people as they are, not how I want them to be. They taught me how to get along with people. They taught me to treat people the way I want to be treated. They taught me to treat each person for who they are and not clump them together because we're all different in our own ways...that's the richness that I was brought up in." -- Truck driver in the documentary, The One Percent

Yep, there are riches, even more precious than money. And the best part is that these riches can't be taken from you by any robber, or any enemy, no matter how powerful.

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All the Bank's Fault?

Recently, while visiting Madrid, as part of a European tour including Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Spain, Warren Buffet blamed the banks for the credit crisis.

"The banks exposed themselves too much, they took on too much risk .... It's their fault. There's no need to blame anyone else",

Warren Buffet went on to say he didn't think conditions would continue to worsen in the financial markets, only general conditions in the business world and that he had no idea when an upturn would occur.

"I don't think the situation will get worse in financial markets. General conditions in the business world will get worse, but it will only last a while",

Keeping in mind, Warren Buffet may know a little more than me when it comes to the world of finance, I respectfully disagree with him. Yes, the banks are at fault but they are not the only ones at fault...far from it.

There is plenty of blame to go around including we, the American people. We let things get out of hand perceiving reality through the prism of deliberate ignorance and greed allowing politicians to gloss over the harshness of what exists objectively and in fact.

As long as we're (my loved ones and I) doing OK, we blind ourselves to those Americans who having very little to begin with and who must adapt to getting by with less and less as we not only permit but champion legislation created, amended and destroyed over the last 30 years that we thought mistakingly would line our pockets. However, now that we may be facing the grim truth we only thought applied to others, we start to tune in and find out what's going on.

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Jesus Who?

Names like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Martha Stewart, Howard Hughes and every other wealth-creating titan's name normally roll off our tongues as if they were part of our family. However, a physician, who revolutionized the delivery of health care around the globe and is responsible for saving millions of lives in Rwanda, Haiti, Peru, Russia, United States, Malawi and Lesotho? Never heard of him. That is, until 60 Minutes aired a 10-minute segment on Dr. Paul Farmer, tonight.

Jesus Christ, or Jesus H. Christ as some people like to refer to him, is spoken every day, all over the world, and uttered more than all the household names in history combined, yet Dr. Paul Farmer's work resembles Jesus Christ's work a hell of a lot more than any of the titan's names I just mentioned. I guess it's a good thing Jesus Christ lived 2,000 years ago because if he lived today, Mr. Jesus Christ would come and go just like any other Tom, Dick, or Harry.

But, thanks to 60 Minutes, I now know who Dr. Paul Farmer is and I know about his pet project, Partners in Health (PIH), which he started twenty years ago, but please don't ask me who this man is next year, next month, next week and possibly even tomorrow...I will have forgotten.

The PIH Vision: Whatever it takes
At its root, our mission is both medical and moral. It is based on solidarity, rather than charity alone. When a person in Peru, or Siberia, or rural Haiti falls ill, PIH uses all of the means at our disposal to make them well—from pressuring drug manufacturers, to lobbying policy makers, to providing medical care and social services. Whatever it takes. Just as we would do if a member of our own family—or we ourselves—were ill.

PIH has been ranked as one of the top three charities for saving lives reliably and cost-effectively by Givewell.net. The charity research group cited PIH as "the 'lowest-risk' charity available" because "its model is extremely logical and tangible, and we have high confidence in it."

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