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  • Plan Bitcoin Is Inevitable if You Think About What the Fed’s Printing $6T Means

    Plan Bitcoin Is Inevitable if You Think About What the Fed’s Printing $6T Means
    Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

    Thinking about it for even 10 minutes will show you that it’s time to act.

    Just a week ago, the Federal Reserve made a stunning announcement. Determined to save the current monetary and financial system at all costs, the Federal Reserve unanimously decided to start a program of unlimited quantitative easing.

    Quickly after this announcement, Neel Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, was interviewed on the CBS program “60 Minutes”. He then made an even more incredible statement:

    “There is an infinite amount of cash in the Federal Reserve. We will do whatever we need to do to make sure there’s enough cash in the banking system.”
     — Neel Kashkari

    You read that right. Neel Kashkari boasts that the Federal Reserve can print an infinite amount of U.S. dollar.

    This infinite amount of U.S. dollar will benefit a minority of people because it will be destined for American banks, financial markets, and businesses.

    The American citizens who are hard hit by the economic crisis that is beginning are therefore the ones who have been forgotten by the Federal Reserve’s announcements. In order to correct this shortcoming, Donald Trump and the U.S. Senate have agreed on a package that is supposed to stimulate the U.S. economy.

    In this package of $2T, which will be financed by an increase in the U.S. debt, we find in particular a check of $1,200 which will be sent to each American. Once again, the goal is not really to help the poorest American citizens, but to try to boost consumption in the United States in order to support American companies.

    Of course, Donald Trump boasted at a press conference that he can afford to print the U.S. dollar ad infinitum, because it is the currency of the United States:

    “The beautiful thing about our country is $6.2 trillion, because it is 2.2 plus 4. It’s $6.2 trillion, and we can handle that easily because of who we are, what we are. It’s our money; we are the ones, it’s our currency.”
     — Donald Trump

    At the level of the Federal Reserve, a first estimate suggests that this unlimited quantitative easing program will exceed at least $6T. This figure is so high that many people don’t seem to realize what it means.

    This is a real shame, because if you really take the time to think about what this cash injection means for you as an individual, you will come to the conclusion that it is time to move to a plan B now.

    And that plan B is called Bitcoin, as I will explain in this story.


    Take the Time to Put Into Perspective These $6T

    The numbers announced by the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government as part of their measures to provide monetary stimulus are so high that you may find it hard to realize how large they are.

    Billions, you know. But here we’re talking trillions. The simplest way to give you a first idea is to write down completely the amount of $6T that the Federal Reserve is going to inject into the system:

    $6,000,000,000,000

    At the rate things are going, you’re going to have learning what the unit is to represent 1,000 trillion within a few years. For the record, it’s the quadrillion.

    It sounds like an immensely large number, and it is. To give you an order of magnitude, these $6T are:

    • The M2 Money Stock in USD from 2004.
    • U.S. GDP in 1990.
    • Enough money to buy 70% of the world’s gold stock.
    • 1.6 years of tax revenues in the United States.
    • More than 53 times the market capitalization of Bitcoin as of March 30, 2020.

    Think About What the Fed’s Printing $6T Means

    I think you’re now getting a better idea of what these $6T that’s going to be printed by the Federal Reserve in the coming weeks represent. At least you can understand that it’s a huge amount of money.

    This ability of the Federal Reserve to print as much money as it want is problematic from my perspective.

    The Federal Reserve is independent of the U.S. government, so its leader are not elected by any American citizen. Its decision-makers are not representative of the American people. All their decisions are purely arbitrary.

    When the Federal Reserve prints money, it increases the circulating money supply of the U.S. dollar. This money supply is represented by the M2 Money Stock Index.

    The money you have in U.S. dollar is included in this M2 Money Stock. When the Fed decides to increase this M2 Money Stock by $6T in a few weeks, it means a terrible currency devaluation of the U.S. dollar.

    What you own in U.S. dollar de facto loses value.

    To give you an idea, the purchasing power of $100 of an American in 2010 was already worth only $82 at the beginning of the year 2020:

    Buying power of $100 from 2010 to 2020

    Your purchasing power had already lost almost 20% in the space of 10 years. With this injection of $6T decided by the Federal Reserve, the drop in your purchasing power will be strongly accentuated.

    By creating all this money to save a minority of people, namely the banks and financial markets, the Fed is impoverishing a majority, namely all American citizens.

    To give you a strong image, the Fed can be compared to the antithesis of Robin Hood: it takes from the poor to help the rich.


    Discover the Bitcoin’s Monetary Policy

    Until now, you had no weapons at your disposal when the central bankers practiced this easy money policy so beloved of Alan Greenspan, who was president of the Fed from 1987 to 2006.

    Today, things are different. You have Bitcoin at your disposal. Many people don’t realize it yet, but Bitcoin is a real hedge against currency devaluation.

    Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin at the end of 2008 to offer citizens around the world an alternative to the monetary and financial system.

    The fact that he created Bitcoin in the aftermath of the economic crisis of 2008 is clearly no coincidence.

    Bitcoin has a monetary policy that does not depend on any human being. Its monetary policy is programmatic, because it is embedded in its source code. Everything is automatic and predictable with Bitcoin.

    You know that there will never be more than 21 million Bitcoins created. If you prefer to see what this looks like on a chart, here is the expected evolution of the maximum Bitcoin offering from 2010 to 2100 :

    Bitcoin Maximum Supply over time, 2010–2100

    I think this chart is eloquent enough for you to realize that Bitcoin offers you a unique guarantee: 1 BTC of 2020 will always be equal to 1 BTC of 2100.

    Bitcoin protects you from currency devaluation, and this is something that is essential at a time when the Federal Reserve makes monetary stimulus its only response to all the ills of the economy.

    If you need a comparison between the maximum supply of Bitcoin and the U.S. dollar which is unlimited as the Fed and Donald Trump explain, here it is through a powerful illustration:

    Comparison of maximum Bitcoin supply with M2 Money Stock USD

    Plan Bitcoin Is Your Best Chance to Opt-Out of This Fiat System

    So as an individual, you can’t just sit back waiting for the Federal Reserve and the other central bankers to continue devaluing everything you own. This is clearly your vision of the future.

    You have to realize that you are fortunate to have a plan B available to you in the face of this new economic crisis that is starting to unfold.

    This plan B did not exist in the past, but now it is there, and has been growing stronger every day for more than eleven years now. This plan B is the plan Bitcoin.

    Bitcoin is your hedge against currency devaluation. Your best chance to opt-out of this fiat system which after 49 years of experimentation clearly doesn’t seem to be working as it should.

    The inequalities between the very rich and the very poor have been growing since Richard Nixon de facto introduced this system in August 1971. It is time for every citizen to try experimenting with a new system that clearly gives them back their power.

    As such, everyone should at least realize the importance of buying even 1 Bitcoin to prepare for the future. It’s up to you as always, but make sure you educate yourself to go beyond what politicians want you to believe.

  • With Reserve Requirement for Banks Set to Zero by the Fed, You Need to Think Making Bitcoin Your Own Bank

    With Reserve Requirement for Banks Set to Zero by the Fed, You Need to Think Making Bitcoin Your Own Bank
    Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

    If you continue to trust the banks, it will be at your own risk.

    The month of March 2020 is forever etched in history. The strong spread of the coronavirus around the world will have played the role of trigger in the economic crisis announced for years by economists from all sides.

    The financial markets were the first to be shaken by this strong climate of uncertainty. Panic even gripped the markets during the week of March. From this panic came a liquidity crisis that spared none of the liquid markets.

    Concretely, a large majority of people wanted to recover as much liquidity as possible. Wall Street signed its worst month since 1987. Gold even lost more than 10% in the middle of March before recovering since then. Bitcoin had its Black Thursday on March 12, 2020. On that day, Bitcoin price dropped more than 50% from $8K to 3.8K.

    Like gold, Bitcoin has since recovered to see its price rise above $6K in a move that seems to prove its status as a hedge against currency devaluation.

    The big issue for individuals like you and me is precisely this large-scale currency devaluation that we will have to face in the coming weeks. This unprecedented currency devaluation in such a short period of time has been decided by the Federal Reserve in a totally arbitrary manner.

    Not elected by the people, the members of this institution simply decided to carry out a program of unlimited quantitative easing. Neel Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, even went so far as to say that the Fed had an infinite amount of U.S. dollar at its disposal to save the banking system:

    There is an infinite amount of cash in the Federal Reserve. We will do whatever we need to do to make sure there’s enough cash in the banking system.
     — Neel Kashkari

    To facilitate this easy money policy, the Fed had paved the way ahead in the previous days by cutting interest rates by 150 basis points in two steps: 50 basis points on March 3, 2020 and 100 basis points on March 15, 2020.

    With interest rates at zero, the Fed can now afford all the craziness even if it means devaluing even more what American citizens own. The current monetary and financial system must be saved at all costs.

    You are aware of this problem which makes the Bitcoin plan increasingly inevitable.

    Among the measures announced by the Fed during the month of March 2020, there is one that is just as serious, if not more, that has escaped many people so far.

    The measure of concern is the lowering of the reserve requirement for U.S. banks to zero. In what follows, I propose to explain to you why this is a major threat to your money, and especially what you can do to prevent against it.


    What Is the Reserve Requirement Rate for Banks?

    I don’t think many people have reacted when reading that the Fed was lowering the reserve requirement for banks to zero for the simple reason that it doesn’t speak to ordinary people.

    A lot of people don’t know what that means. Thinking that these are still technical matters in the banking world, majority of people preferred to move on.

    This is a mistake, and you should always try to go beyond what the powerful people at the head of the fiat system want you to know.

    So first of all, I’m going to explain to you what this famous reserve requirement rate is for banks. This rate is the percentage of what the banks have to keep in cash when a customer makes a deposit in their institution.

    Let’s take the example of the 10% rate that the Fed has been asking the banks to apply until now before these changes.

    Adam is going to deposit $1,000 in the bank. At the same time, the bank can then loan $900 to Nathan. With that $900 loan, Nathan will buy a smartphone from Syara. Syara will then have $900 that she will put in the bank.

    Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

    With this amount of $900, the bank will be able to grant a loan of $810 to Rachida.

    Needless to continue, I think you understand the mechanism. With $1,000 initially deposited, the bank is then able to make up to $9,000 in bank loans.

    To make you understand better, this is equivalent to creating $9,000 of debt.

    This all sounds very nice. Now, let’s imagine that the $9,000 of money comes to be withdrawn at the same time by the depositors. The bank would not be able to pay $9,000, since it really only has $1,000.

    The bank would therefore go straight to bankruptcy.

    However, the system is based on the principle that as people who have taken out loans pay back, the money will be available to the depositaries again. Furthermore, it is based on the principle that not everyone will withdraw all their money at the same time.

    To ensure this, the banks obviously have the power to prohibit withdrawals at any time in the event of a serious crisis.


    The Zero Reserve Requirement for Banks Is a Threat to You

    With a reserve requirement rate set at 10%, the risk was present, but still limited, since it was not possible to lend money infinitely from an initial deposit.

    On March 15, 2020, the Fed blew this safeguard by lowering the reserve requirement rate for banks to zero.

    The Fed justified this exceptional measure by arguing that it was intended to support the U.S. economy, which was about to be hit hard by the effects of the coronavirus.

    From now on, U.S. banks no longer need to have any reserves on deposits made in their institutions. In practical terms, this means that U.S. banks have the ability to create money ad infinitum in the manner of the Federal Reserve.

    Any U.S. bank can lend money to whomever it wants without having to account for its decisions. In fact, the regulations in force are based on the reserve requirements of banks. Now that they no longer have any obligation in this respect, they can do what they want.

    Some people say that this is a good measure because it will increase the chances of the poorest U.S. citizens getting mortgages or loans from banks.

    From that point of view, this measure will support the economy. Nevertheless, it will not be without risks.

    From now on, when a customer goes to see the balance of his bank account, and he will see $10,000, he will have no guarantee that the bank has this amount available if he wants to recover his liquidity.

    As explained earlier, if everyone wanted their money back at the same time, most banks could end up going bankrupt.

    The liquidity crisis we have seen is linked to this type of fear. In such a situation, it’s better to keep your money in cash with you, to make sure you have it available.

    In order to prevent all banks from going bankrupt in the event of a massive withdrawal by depositors, measures can be taken to limit the amount of withdrawals.

    If you doubt that this can actually happen, you should know that this has already happened in Greece during the month of July 2015. For several days, savers had their withdrawals limited to 60 euros per day regardless of the amount they had in their bank account.

    This is clearly unfair. You must be aware of this, and you are asking in the current situation what your options are to protect yourself from this major risk to what you own.


    Bitcoin Can Allow You to Become Your Own Bank

    With the economic crisis ahead of us, you are well aware that the Fed is going to do everything it can to save the current monetary and financial system. And this, regardless of the price to be paid by the citizens.

    As an individual, the Fed’s lowering of the reserve requirement for banks to zero puts the money you have deposited in your bank accounts at great risk.

    Your bank can now create infinite debt under the guise of supporting U.S. consumption. If you want to get your money back in full, it may well be impossible to do so in the coming weeks.

    There is no guarantee that this will happen, but it’s a risk you can’t rule out.

    To protect yourself from this risk, you must look for a suitable solution. Today, the only solution that guarantees that you will have what you have at all times is Bitcoin.

    Bitcoin works all the time. It doesn’t have a leader. No one will be able to stop you from using your Bitcoin the way you want it and when you want it.

    You also saw on March 12, 2020 that Bitcoin doesn’t even stop when everyone is looking to exchange it for fiat currency. The drop in price below $4K is the ultimate proof of this. Bitcoin is the only free market in the world.

    Bitcoin allows you to regain complete control over what you own. In the years to come, I sincerely believe that more and more people will consider making Bitcoin their own bank so that they can manage their money the way they want.

    Faced with the major risk that lowering the reserve requirement for banks to zero poses to your money, your best option for limiting the risk is again Bitcoin.

  • Bitcoin Highlights the Virtues of Quantitative Hardening

    Bitcoin Highlights the Virtues of Quantitative Hardening

    Bitcoin Quantitative Hardening is to be contrasted with the Quantitative Easing led by the Fed.

    Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

    Since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, you have probably heard several times about quantitative easing. If you find the economy, and particularly the monetary and financial system, too complex, you may not have reacted immediately when you heard this term come back into the limelight.

    However, the unlimited quantitative easing program conducted by the Fed since March 23, 2020, will have a strong impact on your daily life in the weeks and months to come. The inflation of the money supply in the U.S. dollar that this will necessarily induce is likely to lead to a strong currency devaluation.

    The U.S. dollar being the world’s reserve currency, the United States will once again export its inflation. Other central banks have already started to conduct quantitative easing programs.

    If we are far from the $8T of liquidity printed by the Fed, the European Central Bank is already above $1.3T printed, and the Bank of China is close to $500 billion.

    You must therefore absolutely try to understand what quantitative easing is in order to prepare yourself as well as possible for the consequences that it will have on your daily life in the weeks and months to come.


    Quantitative Easing Is the Fed’s Systematic Approach

    First of all, I’m going to start with a little bit of theory. Quantitative easing, often abbreviated to QE in the literature, is a monetary policy that can be followed by a central bank.

    Quantitative easing involves buying a predetermined amount of government bonds or other financial assets in order to add money directly into the economy.

    This unconventional monetary policy requires the central bank in question to first set the stage by lowering interest rates. As you may recall, this is what the Fed did in March 2020 by lowering interest rates by a total of 150 basis points.

    With interest rates at zero, the Fed was in an ideal position to conduct a policy of quantitative easing, which is like printing the U.S dollar.

    In fact, it had no choice once interest rates had been lowered to the previously taboo level of zero. Indeed, if the Fed had not acted, it would have intensified the liquidity crisis we experienced in mid-March 2020.

    This liquidity crisis was exacerbated by the fact that we were at the end of a bull market cycle in financial markets such as Wall Street.

    At the end of such a cycle, the majority of people have no more cash on hand because they have invested everything without keeping a minimum of cash on hand.

    With its unlimited quantitative easing program, the Fed will probably happen to exceed $10T of liquidity injection in the coming weeks.

    This quantitative easing monetary policy had already been the solution adopted by the Fed and other central banks at the end of the previous crisis. Nevertheless, at the time, the bill was more like hundreds of billions of dollars.


    Quantitative Easing Produces Fewer and Fewer Tangible Effects

    Unfortunately, quantitative easing is a monetary policy that comes with its own set of drawbacks. The first disadvantage of quantitative easing is that the induced increase in the money supply will lead to currency devaluation.

    Thus, people who own the majority of their wealth in cash will be penalized compared to those who own real estate, gold, or shares on the financial markets.

    For an individual, fighting against the effects of quantitative easing, therefore, consists of spending his cash to buy illiquid assets, shares, or gold. Unfortunately, a lot of people are unable to do this.

    Again, these are mainly the poorest people.

    People who are already rich and who have this kind of asset will be enriched by a quantitative easing policy. It will not surprise you to know that the powerful people at the head of the monetary and financial system are in a situation where they have a lot of assets that will increase in value under these conditions.

    A quantitative easing policy will therefore hit even harder those who would need even more support in times of economic crisis such as the one we are about to experience.

    The second problem with quantitative easing is that it only postpones the problems to later. During the economic crisis of 2008, the world’s major economic powers preferred to resort to this easy money policy rather than attacking the root of the evil.

    The result is disastrous because the problem will return in the future in an even more violent manner.

    The economic crisis we are experiencing today is therefore only the unfortunate and logical continuation of the 2008 crisis, which was not really resolved, but merely postponed.

    What complicates things is that with each postponement of the problem, the amounts to be injected within the framework of quantitative easing will increase greatly.

    If hundreds of billions of dollars had been enough in 2008 to plug the leaks on the ship, we are talking trillions of dollars today.

    With the quantitative easing programs being followed by the major central banks today, it is quite conceivable that in the next economic crisis 10 years from now we would be talking in quadrillions of dollars.

    So you have understood that these quantitative easing policies are just a never-ending story, which only pushes back the problem without really solving it. With one constant: with each postponement of the problem, it becomes even bigger the next time.


    Quantitative Hardening Is the Other Possible Route

    Now that you have become aware of the problems associated with quantitative easing, you must ask yourself if there is an alternative. Contrary to what powerful people in the monetary and financial system try to make us believe, an alternative to quantitative easing does exist.

    The alternative to quantitative easing (QE) is quantitative hardening (QH).

    Quantitative hardening consists in reducing the liquidity injected into a market over time by reducing the daily supply available. In this way, each unit of that market gains in value over time.

    This policy is clearly the opposite of quantitative easing where the daily supply keeps increasing, which further weakens the value of the units available on the associated market.

    As an example, the U.S. dollar money supply, represented by the M2 Money Stock Index, increased by 6.7% in March 2020 alone as a result of the Fed’s liquidity injections:

    M2 Money Stock and inflation, over 6 months in 2020

    If you imagine that you had $10,000 in cash at the beginning of March 2020, what you own has gone from $10K on $15.5T to $10K on $16.6T.

    You immediately understand that the purchasing power associated with your $10K will necessarily be reduced thereafter.


    Bitcoin Has a Quantitative Hardening Monetary Policy

    Now, the big question you have to ask yourself is what solutions exist with a quantitative hardening type policy. You must have heard about this solution for several years now: it is called Bitcoin.

    Created by Satoshi Nakamoto following the 2008 crisis, Bitcoin should be seen as a response to the excesses of the monetary and financial system.

    Bitcoin has a unique monetary policy:

    • A maximum supply is known in advance and set at 21 million.
    • A maximum offer that will never change.
    • The inflation of new Bitcoins produced on a daily basis will continue to decrease over time.

    In addition to these unique properties, Bitcoin’s monetary policy is automatic. It is written in Bitcoin’s source code and therefore does not depend on any human decision, which by definition would be arbitrary.

    With Bitcoin’s monetary policy, everything is predictable.

    The Bitcoin reward that is paid to miners who validate a block of transactions is what allows the creation of new Bitcoins. In order to decrease the inflation of the Bitcoin supply over time, this reward is divided by two for every 210,000 blocks of transactions added to the Blockchain.

    This decrease of the reward is called Halving.

    In order to ensure that this happens approximately every 4 years, the difficulty for mining new blocks on the Bitcoin Blockchain is adjusted every 2016 block, so that one block is added approximately every 10 minutes.

    Originally, the Bitcoin reward for miners was 50 BTC. After the first division of the reward amount in 2012, it was decreased to 25 BTC. After the second Halving in 2016, the reward decreased to 12.5 BTC.

    In May 2020, during the third Halving of Bitcoin, the reward will decrease to 6.25 BTC.

    Thus, with an average of 144 mined blocks per day, the production of new Bitcoins will now be around 900 per day, compared to 1800 since 2016.

    This Bitcoin monetary policy will lead us to annual inflation of the Bitcoin supply below 2% as soon as 2021. It will then be 1.8%:

    Bitcoin supply and inflation, over time

    Bitcoin’s quantitative hardening policy will bring the annual inflation of the Bitcoin supply below 1% as of 2024 at the fourth Bitcoin Halving.

    This inflation will continue to trend towards zero, reaching zero around 2140 when the 21 million Bitcoins will have been mined.


    Bitcoin Highlights the Virtues of Quantitative Hardening

    Quantitative hardening is a concept that will intrigue more and more people in the months and years to come. This monetary policy, which is Bitcoin’s policy, corresponds to a total paradigm shift from the current fiat system.

    Bitcoin encourages you to save what you own because it values your Bitcoins over time.

    Since the inflation of the Bitcoin supply is constantly decreasing over time, each unit of Bitcoin becomes more valuable as demand increases. The principles of the law of supply and demand explain this clearly.

    It is therefore in your interest to keep your Bitcoins for the long term. By becoming a Bitcoin HODLER, your support for the Bitcoin revolution will be rewarded with the appreciation of the price of each unit of Bitcoin.

    As you read this article, I hope that you have understood that there is another way out of the current monetary and financial system. This alternative path emerged as a result of the economic crisis of 2008, and it is our best solution in the face of the crisis that is now beginning.

    Bitcoin, which represents this other path, will still be there during the next economic crisis in 10 or 15 years, but I have a feeling that its price will no longer be $7K as it is today.

    To tell the truth, I think Bitcoin price will already be over 6 figures when the next economic crisis will occur in 10 years.

    Why? Simply because of its quantitative hardening policy which will give day after day, block after block, Halving after Halving, more and more value to the units of Bitcoin in circulation.

    Nevertheless, during the next economic crisis in 10 years, when central banks’ liquidity injections will be counted in quadrillions, you may unfortunately no longer have such an interesting opportunity to opt-out of the current system by buying Bitcoin.

    As always, the decision is yours. The most important thing is that you educate yourself properly in order to make the best decisions for your future so that you will have no regrets in 5 or 10 years’ time.

  • Master-Slave Dialectic Is the Reason Why Bitcoin Will Win at the End

    Master-Slave Dialectic Is the Reason Why Bitcoin Will Win at the End
    Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

    The freedom that Bitcoin gives you will make the difference.

    Bitcoin is a real revolution. It’s a multifaceted revolution that has been gaining momentum block after block for more than eleven years now. Once you really get a sense of what Bitcoin can do for the world, there is no turning back.

    It is impossible to turn a blind eye to the failures of today’s monetary and financial system once you have truly begun to see them.

    The more you learn about Bitcoin, the stronger your conviction about its win in the world of the future. You finally become a Bitcoiner who fundamentally believes in the success of Bitcoin. Like a missionary ready to accompany the Bitcoin revolution to the end, you become a HODLER of last resort.

    However, many people have not yet opened their eyes to the flaws of the current system, and the superiority of Bitcoin.

    In the midst of an economic crisis where central banks keep talking about quantitative easing, Bitcoin’s monetary policy is bringing the virtues of quantitative hardening to the forefront.

    The battle that is being played out before our eyes right now, and that will last throughout the next decade, is the one that opposes two philosophies:

    Bitcoin’s quantitative hardening is head-on opposition to the quantitative easing of the current monetary and financial system.

    This confrontation can be likened to the Master-Slave dialectic highlighted by the 19th century German philosopher Hegel.

    Better still, by studying more carefully Hegel’s interpretation of this dialectic in “Phenomenology of Spirit”, it becomes clear why Bitcoin will be the dominant force at the end.


    Master-Slave dialectic

    In “Phenomenology of Spirit”, Hegel portrays a master who does not work, but has his work done by the slave. He lives in the moment, taking advantage of the enjoyment of all that is consumable.

    The master knows only the passive side of things. He never takes action.

    On the contrary, the slave takes action permanently by working for his master. He transforms things by his will and his work.

    By dint of spending his life working hard to transform things, the slave transforms himself. The slave transforms himself at the same time as he transforms the world in which he lives. In fact, the slave gradually appropriates this new world which he helps to build.

    In the meantime, the master becomes more and more a stranger to this changing world without taking the real measure of it.

    According to Hegel, the slave ends up reversing the relationship of domination to find himself in the fundamental achievement of the human world: equality.

    Before this reversal of the relationship of domination occurs, a conflict will necessarily arise.

    In this critical moment, the master will be unable to evolve because he will not be able to take the risks necessary for that.

    Accustomed to having to adapt, the slave will be able to risk everything to free himself from the master’s domination. Hegel transcribes this imperative very well when he writes this:

    “Life is worth what we are capable of risking for it.”
     — Hegel

    By being able to risk his life, the slave gives his life a real value, which can enable him to free himself from servitude.

    The great moral to be retained from this dialectic is that by refusing to evolve, the master becomes dependent on the work of his slave. The master is in a way a slave of his slave.

    By working hard, and by giving value to the things of life, the slave attains that famous freedom which is a human ideal.


    The current monetary and financial system is an absolute master

    Unilaterally and temporarily introduced by Richard Nixon in August 1971, the current monetary and financial system was finally legitimized by the Jamaica Accords in August 1976.

    By putting an end to the convertibility of the U.S. dollar into gold, Richard Nixon gave birth to a system that is no longer based on anything tangible.

    The best proof of this is given to you now in April 2020. The Fed has just decided to carry out a program of unlimited quantitative easing in a totally arbitrary manner.

    Under the guise of supporting the U.S. economy in the face of the coronavirus crisis, the Fed has already printed more than $8T. In the month of March 2020 alone, the U.S. dollar money supply increased by more than 6%:

    M2 Money Stock and inflation, over 6 months in 2020

    At the same time, the United States decided on a $2 trillion stimulus package financed by public debt. This debt has moreover exceeded $24T, i.e. more than 110% of the U.S. GDP.

    This type of easy money policy is followed by most of the world’s major economic powers.

    The world debt has reached $70T, while the global money supply in circulation will soon be at the level of $100T. All these figures that used to make you dizzy in the past are now becoming the norm.

    Talking in trillions of dollars is the new norm in 2020. In 2030, who knows if the new standard will not be trillions of dollars.

    Quantitative easing is the easy way out of every economic crisis chosen by the powerful at the head of the monetary and financial system. By doing so, the monetary and financial system is comparable to an absolute master who jeopardizes what his slaves possess.

    We are all slaves to a fiat system that constantly devalues what we own. If you have any doubts about this, just look at the evolution of a $100 purchasing power since 1971:

    A purchasing power of $100 in 1971 is worth only $15 in 2020. If you had kept your $100 throughout that time, you would have lost 85% of the value of your money.

    By doing so, the powerful people who run the monetary and financial system are making you work hard for them. They treat you like slaves who have no word to say in their future.


    Humans are like slaves trapped in this fiat system

    Faced with this indigence of the fiat system, humans finally decided to organize themselves. At the head of these modern-day missionaries is the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto.

    Totally disillusioned by the monetary and financial system following the 2008 crisis, this mysterious character decided to create an alternative called Bitcoin.

    Aware of the importance of his invention, Satoshi Nakamoto gave Bitcoin to the world as a gift. Thus, Bitcoin has no leader. It is its users who will decide whether or not to make it a success.

    So it is the slaves of the fiat system who will be able to make Bitcoin a success through their unwavering support.

    While the powerful at the head of the monetary and financial system take away all value from the fiat money you own and indulge in the easy way out, the slaves are working hard to make the world evolve towards Bitcoin.

    The paradigm shift embodied by Bitcoin is underway.


    Bitcoin emerges from the people and restores value to essential things

    Many opponents of Bitcoin don’t realize this. They are missing the train. The day Bitcoin completes its revolution, the balance of dominance will be completely reversed.

    Hegel’s Master-Slave dialectic applies perfectly here to the opposition between the fiat system and humans who are making Bitcoin emerge as a credible alternative.

    Bitcoin makes the difference by giving value to essential things of the life. The quantitative hardening that is at the heart of Bitcoin’s monetary policy allows people to completely regain control over what they own.

    With Bitcoin, you can save money without risk, because the gradual reduction of the available supply gives more and more value to what you own.

    You can therefore consciously choose to keep your Bitcoins rather than being forced to spend them as you do with your fiat currency. As such, HODLING Bitcoin is a great way using Bitcoin.

    Supporting Bitcoin all the way through is not an easy thing to do.

    This is precisely what makes the work of Bitcoiners so valuable. By supporting Bitcoin, they will gain the freedom to live on their own terms.

    A freedom that the current system has deprived people of.

    History is on Bitcoin’s side. The current confrontation between the Bitcoiners and the powerful at the head of the fiat system represents the indispensable phase of conflict that Hegel’s Master-Slave dialectic speaks of.

    History does not say how long this conflict will last, but it makes it clear that the solution that seeks to restore the value of things by giving people more freedom is the one that will triumph in the end.

    Bitcoin embodies that solution. You know what that means for its future.


    (Disclaimer: This story contains an affiliate link for the book Phenomenology of Spirit. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking this link I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!)

  • Bitcoin’s Volatility: Myth and Reality

    Bitcoin’s Volatility: Myth and Reality
    Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

    Bitcoin protocol has not changed since its inception.

    Bitcoin is too volatile. It will never be a true store of value, let alone a currency. Like me, you must have read or heard opponents of Bitcoin state these untruths loud and clear.

    Earlier this year, Deutsche Bank’s research department published a three-part report on the Future of Payments. I will spare you the details of that report, but one of the things that came out of it was the following:

    “Bitcoin is too volatile to be a reliable store of value.”
     — Deutsche Bank Report on Future of Payments in 2020

    This type of completely false assertion about Bitcoin’s volatility is unfortunately too widespread. The problem is that the general public tends to take everything that politicians, bankers, or economists say at face value.

    This lack of questioning in order to directly verify things related to money becomes a major concern when an economic crisis like the one we are experiencing today takes shape.

    Indeed, in the midst of an economic crisis, you have to make the right decisions about money in order to best protect yourself against the great monetary inflation that the decisions of the Fed and other central banks produce.

    In order to help you see this more clearly, I propose to come back to the alleged Bitcoin’s volatility that all its opponents use as an ultimate weapon to discourage new people from entering the Bitcoin world.


    Myth: Bitcoin is volatile

    Bitcoin teaches you one essential thing: to question everything in order to check things for yourself. This is reflected in Bitcoin’s slogan:

    “Don’t trust, Verify.”

    When you have a doubt about Bitcoin, but it also applies to money, and the economy in general, you should check for yourself. It is by doing your own research that you will be able to find out what is true.

    So Bitcoin would be too volatile according to Deutsche Bank, but also according to many of its opponents.

    So we will check if Bitcoin and its protocol are really volatile. When it was created by Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin had a clear and precise monetary policy:

    • A finite quantity of Bitcoins, the amount of which was known in advance, since it was limited to 21 million units.
    • A creation of new Bitcoins automatically performed when a block of transactions was correctly mined.
    • An inflation of the creation of new Bitcoins that had to be halved every 210,000 blocks added to its Blockchain. This event is the famous Halving.
    • An incentive to secure the Bitcoin network for miners via the BTC reward, but also the transaction fees.

    Since the launch of Bitcoin, a new block is issued every 10 minutes on average.

    Satoshi Nakamoto had anticipated that the computing power available to secure the network could increase or decrease over time.

    With a sharp rise or fall in the Hash Rate, this average 10-minute delay between each mined block would not be respected, which would have prevented the predictability of new Bitcoins production over time.

    To avoid this, an adjustment of the difficulty to mine blocks on Bitcoin is made every 2016 blocks. Taking into account the average of one block mined every 10 minutes, this gives an adjustment every 2 weeks or so.

    A little more than eleven years after the creation of Bitcoin, this unique monetary policy is still present with unchanged properties. Virtues of this quantitative hardening’s policy is currently being highlighted.

    Indeed, the quantitative hardening on which Bitcoin is based is the opposite of the unlimited quantitative easing currently practiced by the Fed.

    In an increasingly uncertain world from a geopolitical point of view, Bitcoin gives you incredible certainty. The most important one being that 1 BTC of 2020 will still be worth 1 BTC in 2100.

    The guarantees on Bitcoin’s monetary policy are practically immutable as it would take a full consensus of the Bitcoin community to change its characteristics.

    I can assure you that this will never happen, because no one has an interest in changing the properties that make Bitcoin so unique. Bitcoin is a true democracy, because no user is more important than another.

    The next time someone tells you that Bitcoin is volatile, you can easily show them that it is just a myth. On the contrary, the Bitcoin protocol has been incredibly stable since its inception while everything tends to change constantly in the world we live in.


    Reality: Bitcoin’s volatility only concerns its price

    While Bitcoin’s volatility is a myth, its price is volatile. So the reality is that Bitcoin’s volatility is only about its price.

    It is important to understand that Bitcoin is an extremely young market.

    Many people tend to forget this, because Bitcoin has already managed to reach a market capitalization of more than 170 billion dollars in such a short period of time. However, its market is still very small when compared to gold and its 8 trillion dollars of global valuation for example.

    Moreover, Bitcoin is the only truly free market in the world.

    Bitcoin works all the time. You can buy or sell 24/7. In fact, no one can stop Bitcoin when its price falls or rises sharply. There are no circuit breakers like there are on Wall Street or other financial markets.

    Bitcoin lets its users find the true break-even price for Bitcoin themselves. This explains why Bitcoin was able to lose 50% of its value on Black Thursday in March 2020. The good side of this is that Bitcoin quickly recovered its previous value in just over a month.

    Bitcoin’s price volatility should therefore be seen as a feature rather than a bug.

    It is up to you to be smart enough to make Bitcoin’s volatility your greatest ally. The best way to do this is to choose to become a Bitcoin HODLER. By supporting the Bitcoin revolution at any cost, you will be truly rewarded, and the volatility of its price will not impact you any more than that.

    In the future, as the size of Bitcoin’s market cap grows, it is likely that its price will become less and less volatile.

    But this will take time. It will probably take many more years. In the meantime, this does not prevent Bitcoin from already representing a better store fo value for the masses than gold.

    Rather than looking at Bitcoin’s annual highs, you need to focus on its annual lows, which have been rising steadily since its inception:

    Bitcoin’s yearly lowest price in USD

    This easily proves that despite the volatility of its price, Bitcoin is a tremendous store of value.

    People who continue to criticize Bitcoin forget to mention that it is objectively superior to gold in many areas: divisibility, portability, recognizability, non-confiscable, greater scarcity, …

    By checking things out for yourself, you will be able to find out all this for yourself.


    Conclusion

    Contrary to what its opponents try to make believe to discredit it, Bitcoin is not volatile. In fact, its protocol has been extraordinarily stable for more than 11 years now.

    Bitcoin’s stability actually gives you essential certainty in an increasingly uncertain world.

    On the other hand, Bitcoin price is volatile. Nevertheless, this volatility is mainly due to the youth of Bitcoin. Furthermore, it should be seen as a feature of Bitcoin rather than a bug.

    This does not prevent Bitcoin from remaining the best store of value available in 2020 as great monetary inflation takes hold of the world. Rather than believing all the myths against Bitcoin, I now invite you to be more critical in order to discover the reality as it is.


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  • State-Backed Digital Currencies Are Like a Trojan Horse That Will Benefit Bitcoin

    State-Backed Digital Currencies Are Like a Trojan Horse That Will Benefit Bitcoin

    Bitcoin’s advantages over these digital currencies are countless.

    The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy by Domenico Tiepolo

    The digitalization of the world is inevitable. Currencies will not escape this phenomenon, which is taking over all sectors. Faced with the danger represented by Bitcoin, but even more so by the Libra that Facebook announced in June 2019, China has decided to accelerate in this field from the end of 2019.

    While its position on the subject had never been really clear, Xi Jinping decided in October 2019 that China should become the world leader in Blockchain technology.

    To give life to this desire, China decided to invest billions of dollars in the field. Xi Jinping also gave the order to accelerate the development of the Chinese digital currency, which had been under consideration for some time already.


    The race to create its own state-backed digital currency has begun

    While Western countries continued to hesitate, and fight to limit the scope of Facebook’s Libra project, China was already moving forward headlong in the creation of its digital currency. The Chinese project of a digital currency is so advanced that it is already being tested in several Chinese cities at the time of writing.

    Weibo, the Twitter made in China with more than 420 million users, will be used to accelerate the adoption of this digital currency. Many other companies with a presence in China, such as McDonald’s and Starbucks, will also take part in the tests conducted by China with its state-backed digital currency.

    Everything seems authorized in the business world to make the Chinese authorities happy.

    Aware that China is once again taking the lead in a strategic area, many other countries have announced that they want to follow China’s lead. Japan is talking about creating its digital currency, as are many European countries.

    Last week, the Bank of France even announced that it had achieved a first successful test of a digital euro. This test aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of such a project:

    “This experimentation was performed end-to-end using blockchain infrastructures…It demonstrates the feasibility of financial securities being digitally settled and delivered in Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for interbank settlements.”
     — Spokesperson for the digital euro project at the Bank of France

    The results of this test should then be used for the project of a digital euro which will be decided at the level of the European Central Bank:

    “The results of these experiments will be an important element of the Banque de France’s contribution to the more global reflection led by the Eurosystem on the interest of a CBDC.”
     — Spokesperson for the digital euro project at the Bank of France

    The United States is talking about it, but it clearly does not seem to be on the agenda if we listen to the statements of the American authorities. Many consider that the introduction of a U.S. digital dollar is a double-edged sword that could encourage the adoption of Bitcoin in the end.


    Many believe that these state-backed digital currencies are a threat to Bitcoin

    Initiated by China, this global movement to create this type of digital currency is considered by some to be a threat to Bitcoin in the future. Personally, I don’t think these state-backed digital currencies are a real threat to Bitcoin.

    State-backed digital currencies just don’t play in the same category as Bitcoin.

    In fact, these state-backed digital currencies are a total contradiction of the values defended by the Bitcoin revolution.

    Bitcoin is the first step in separating money from state. Bitcoin empowers its users by allowing them to be free to live on their own terms.

    With Bitcoin, every user can choose to save his or her money. They escape the risk of seeing the decisions of a few central bankers wiping out the value of what they own. As a money protocol for the Internet, Bitcoin allows its users having the right to true privacy when it comes to money.

    You have nothing to hide, but you don’t want governments to be able to come and monitor all your financial transactions without your consent.

    Furthermore, you want to be able to use your money as you wish. You don’t want a bank to be able to stop you from making a transaction with your money. You want to be free. Bitcoin allows you to protect this fundamental human right.


    State-backed digital currencies will pose a fundamental privacy risk

    The surveillance society that many countries want to create for the world of the future will only be strengthened with these types of currencies. For China, such a currency is the last piece of the puzzle missing from its Social Credit System.

    This Social Credit System is nothing more and nothing less than an instrument enabling the Communist Party of China to monitor massively all the actions of the Chinese people.

    Every citizen is graded as good and bad for every one of his actions. Depending on his scoring, a citizen then has more or less rights. The Chinese Communist Party also uses this system to make propaganda to the glory of Xi Jinping.

    With its state-backed digital currency, China will be able to better monitor each of its citizens’ financial transactions.

    China will also be able to better censor its citizens with regard to money. If cash disappears and citizens have their money mainly in digital form, it will be easier for the Chinese Communist Party to freeze the assets of what they call bad citizens.

    It will be the same in Western countries. You have the impression that you are protected because you live in a democracy, but you must bear in mind that the right to privacy is something very fragile. If you don’t fight to preserve it, you will lose it entirely in the future.

    Many people are not yet aware of the issues at stake. It will come in time, and when they want to regain control of their privacy, they will happily discover that millions of people have fought to make a formidable weapon of defense available to them.

    That weapon of defense against the abuse of government authority over privacy is Bitcoin.


    Education in the use of state-backed digital currencies will benefit Bitcoin

    In order for the state-backed digital currencies they develop to be truly adopted by their citizens, countries will have to do a great deal of education. Indeed, for many citizens, digital is not a natural process. 
    Using a digital euro or a digital dollar is not possible without adequate training.

    What makes it interesting is that once millions of people have been educated in the use of digital currencies, they will surely want to try out cryptocurrencies.

    Until now, the use of cryptocurrencies seemed too complex to them. But once educated in digital currencies, these people will be able to use cryptocurrencies.

    There is therefore a high probability that a large number of people will start testing cryptocurrencies.

    When a person gets into the cryptocurrency world, they always start by buying Bitcoin first. In the minds of the general public, Bitcoin is synonymous with cryptocurrencies.

    So people will mainly come to test Bitcoin.

    The challenge is to make the general public aware that Bitcoin is not only a technological revolution, but above all a weapon at their disposal to protect their privacy.

    Bitcoin was created to make life better for its users.

    The majority of people who use smartphones or the Internet don’t care about the technical details underlying these technologies. With Bitcoin, it will be the same.

    Rather than pushing the general public away by losing them with overly technical details, Bitcoiners must show why Bitcoin will improve the lives of millions of people. This is a crucial thing that should help promoting the adoption of Bitcoin in the future.


    Conclusion

    State-backed digital currencies will be an ideal gateway to Bitcoin for millions of people. Indeed, the education received from their respective governments on the use of digital currencies will allow these people to take the next step in understanding that Bitcoin is not as complex as they imagined.

    In this sense, state-backed digital currencies are a real Trojan Horse for Bitcoin.

    The funny part of the story is that it is the governments themselves that are pushing this Trojan Horse to millions of people. Whether they are aware of it or not, governments and central bankers will sooner or later follow this path for fear of letting China go it alone in this area.

    So you can rest assured. Bitcoin will not be threatened by these state-backed digital currencies. On the contrary, these digital currencies will help Bitcoin’s adoption to explode in the future.

  • Bitcoin Will Make Your Life Better, Just Like the Internet Did

    Bitcoin Will Make Your Life Better, Just Like the Internet Did
    Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

    It’s the only thing that matters to the general public.

    Everyone agrees that Bitcoin is the greatest technological revolution since the emergence of the Internet. When you are a developer, you are immediately fascinated by the underlying technologies that make the Bitcoin network work.

    For a technical person, reading Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper on Bitcoin is pure poetry.

    In just nine pages, Satoshi Nakamoto manages to explain perfectly how Bitcoin works. If you wanted to do the same for the current monetary and financial system, it would take hundreds of pages. The disruptive side of Bitcoin is so important that many Bitcoiners, and that goes for me as well, focus a bit too much on the technical aspects when they talk about Bitcoin.

    The result is that the general public generally feels that Bitcoin is too complex.

    Many people end up giving up on Bitcoin before they can really understand why it was created, and especially why it is essential for the world of the future. That’s a shame, because Bitcoin can really change your life.

    Rather than focusing excessively on the technical benefits of Bitcoin, I therefore think we should seek to present the purpose of Bitcoin to the general public without dwelling on the details first.

    Let me give you an example to help you understand what I mean.


    General public doesn’t care how Bitcoin works

    When a person asks you why Bitcoin is such an extraordinary invention, you tend to start with the technological prowess that Bitcoin does. A Bitcoiner will tend to answer that Bitcoin is the first digital currency to solve the problem of double spending in a totally decentralized manner.

    A Bitcoiner will then explain that Bitcoin achieves this technological feat by implementing a confirmation mechanism based on the Proof-of-work, and relying on a universal ledger system.

    If the Bitcoiner is not interrupted by its interlocutor, it will then start talking about the blocks containing transactions that are securely linked to each other thanks to the power of cryptography.

    A person who has no prior knowledge will be completely lost with such an answer. If the problem of double-spending is something you know, a majority of people have never heard of it.

    The only thing that matters to the general public in this case is to know that Bitcoin allows transactions to be made securely.


    Internet is a huge success, and the general public doesn’t know how it works

    The parallel with Internet is interesting in this respect. Internet has spread to the whole world since the early 2000s.

    Everybody uses the Internet to do research or send emails now. However, no one really wants to know how the Internet works.

    If you ask your parents what happens when they send an email to a friend on the other side of the world, they won’t be able to tell you what happens on a technical level.

    The only thing they are interested in is knowing that their friend will receive the email instantly wherever he or she is on Earth.

    In the general public, most people are unaware that the TCP/IP layer represents the set of protocols used to transfer data over the Internet. When you tell them about the HTTP protocol, they will best relate it to the beginning of the Internet addresses they type into their browser.

    Yet everyone has embraced the Internet.

    So the big question is this:

    Why has the Internet been adopted by the majority of people on Earth when its technical specificities are far from being accessible to all?

    The Internet has been adopted so widely because it simply makes people’s lives better. The Internet is a major disruption that nothing has been able to stop. Not even the owners of newspapers that said the Internet would never work.

    Bitcoin is also reminiscent of the losing battle between the disrupted and the disruptors.

    Each time, the disruptors win, because they make people’s lives better. The disrupted have no choice but to adapt, or else they will disappear. Paper newspapers have had to evolve by switching to a digital first strategy.

    Radio stations had to evolve in the same way when television appeared. The adage “Evolve or be extinct” is a reality.


    Internet is a success because it makes people’s lives better

    People around the world have massively embraced the Internet because its benefits were incredible. Do you want to learn how to program? Just go to the Internet and you’ll find hundreds of online courses. You’ll be spoilt for choice between written and video courses.

    Your son is going to school halfway around the world. Before, you would have had a hard time with this separation. Indeed, getting news back then was a difficult thing to do. Now you’ll be able to call him for free every day by choosing from the countless instant messaging applications available.

    The Internet also makes information available to everyone. You can follow in real time the riots that are currently taking place in the United States. When a tsunami hits Asia, you are informed in real time as well.

    In the field of health, the Internet is changing things too. More and more operations will be able to be performed remotely via robots controlled by a major surgeon on the other side of the world.

    I will stop there, but you have taken up the essential idea:

    A disruptive technology is all the more likely to be adopted by as many people as it makes people’s lives better.


    Bitcoin’s narrative must revolve around the better life it offers to its users

    With Bitcoin, I’m convinced that the narrative we need to adopt is this one. Bitcoin will make your life better. This is how Bitcoin should be presented to the general public for mass adoption.

    The revolutionary technical aspects of Bitcoin must stay with the people who can understand it. There is no point in losing the general public by explaining in detail how the Proof-of-Work algorithm works.

    The general public wants to understand why Bitcoin will make their lives better.

    To begin with, it seems obvious to explain that Bitcoin allows people to transfer money around the world securely in just a few minutes.

    Your son went to school in Hong Kong, and you live in New York. He calls you on Saturday morning. He tells you that he has a problem and needs $1,000 immediately.

    Since it’s the weekend, you won’t be able to make a bank transfer. Moreover, even during the week, the SWIFT global interbank payment network has a delay of 2 to 5 days at best for this type of transfer around the world.

    You therefore have no solution with the current banking system.

    Bitcoin works all the time. Transactions on the Bitcoin network can be carried out 7 days a week and 24 hours a day.

    With Bitcoin, you are able to send the equivalent of $1,000 to your son on the other side of the world. This applies regardless of the time of day, or day of the week. After ten minutes, the destination address on your son’s wallet will be credited with that amount in Bitcoin.

    I should add here that transfer fees will also be minimal. With SWIFT, the fees would have been much higher.


    Bitcoin protects your purchasing power

    You may not be aware of this, but your money in U.S. dollar keeps losing value over time. You can see this by looking at the evolution of $1,000 in purchasing power since 1971:

    Purchasing power of $1,000 over time, 1971–2020

    Your $1,000 from 1971 is only $151 in purchasing power by 2020. This represents a drop of almost 85% in your purchasing power.

    The decisions currently being taken by the Fed and other central banks in the fight against the effects of the economic crisis will aggravate this problem.

    The trillions of dollars printed by the Fe over the last few weeks are leading to a great monetary inflation, of which the poorest people will be the biggest victims.

    To hedge against this great monetary inflation, you have various options: real estate, the stock market, gold …

    All these options are more or less accessible depending on your level of wealth. For the poorest people, these options are difficult to access. In fact, many must continue to hold on to the U.S. dollar, which inevitably loses value over time.

    Bitcoin solves this problem by making available to everyone a great store of value that requires only a smartphone and an Internet connection to be purchased.

    Even better, you can buy Bitcoin in very small amounts. With gold, for example, this is impossible.


    Bitcoin gives you the freedom

    Bitcoin also makes your life better by giving you full control over what you own. Bitcoin has no leader, and no one can stop you from making the transactions of your choice. Your bank can and does.

    Your bank can also confiscate your assets by arbitrary decision. Since banks are private institutions, they can apply the rules of their choice.

    Once you have secured your Bitcoins on a hardware wallet, you are the real owner. No one can take them from you, or prevent you from using them as you wish.

    Best of all, with its pseudonymous network, Bitcoin helps you protect your privacy.

    With the surveillance society that most states want to build for the future, Bitcoin will be an essential weapon for hundreds of millions of people in the future. You will be able to keep all your financial transactions private.

    Bitcoin is a true democracy that empowers its users. The Bitcoin protocol will not change without a consensus of its community. Thus, Bitcoin’s monetary policy will remain the same no matter what happens in the future. No leader will be able to come and change the limit of 21 million Bitcoins.

    What you own in Bitcoin is protected. When you buy a Bitcoin today, you are guaranteed to own 1 Bitcoin out of 21 million in 10, 20, or 50 years.

    With the U.S. dollar, and fiat currencies, you have the opposite guarantee. The 3 trillion that the Fed has just printed since the beginning of March 2020 is proof of this.


    Bitcoin will make life better for millions of people in the future

    Bitcoin makes your life better by allowing you to hedge against monetary inflation. I have just given you a few examples of some of the key areas where Bitcoin makes your life better.

    I obviously couldn’t be exhaustive as the impacts of Bitcoin will be significant in the future.

    So I couldn’t tell you about the fact that Bitcoin enables banking services to be offered to unbanked people in Africa. I was also unable to point out that Bitcoin is already the only solution available to millions of people who have to fight against hyperinflation and the oppression of authoritarian regimes.

    However, I am sure that you have understood my message through the strong examples I have given you.

    Bitcoin is the missing brick of the Internet when it comes to money. Bitcoin is the money protocol for the Internet that will enable the financial inclusion of hundreds of millions of people around the world.

    As the Internet has done since the early 2000s, Bitcoin will make life better for hundreds of millions of people. This gives you a better idea of the extraordinary adoption potential for Bitcoin in the future.

  • Bitcoin Is Designed to Be Saved, U.S. Dollar to Be Spent

    Bitcoin Is Designed to Be Saved, U.S. Dollar to Be Spent
    Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

    It’s up to you to make the best choice for your future.

    Since the establishment of the Bretton Woods system in 1944 at the end of the Second World War, the status of the U.S. dollar as the world reserve currency has steadily strengthened. The end of the convertibility of the U.S. dollar into gold, unilaterally decided by Richard Nixon in August 1971, has even strengthened the hegemony of the U.S. dollar at the world level.

    While it is not based on anything tangible, the U.S. dollar inspires enormous confidence in hundreds of millions of people around the world. Many even swear by the U.S. dollar.

    This hegemony has allowed the United States to impose its law on the rest of the world for several decades now. In addition to these geopolitical considerations, the U.S. dollar, as well as all other fiat currencies, are formidable weapons that lock people into an infernal spiral.

    The infernal spiral I am referring to is the infinite spending of what you own in fiat money.


    The infinite amount of U.S. dollar makes savings useless

    The U.S. dollar was designed to be spent. If you want to exercise your fundamental right to save the money you earn, you are going to be a big loser.

    Inflation of the U.S. dollar inevitably erodes your purchasing power over time. Thus, $1,000 in 1971 represents today only $151 in purchasing power in 2020:

    Since Richard Nixon introduced de facto the current system in 1971, the U.S. dollar has lost 85% of its value. The worst thing is that this situation has become the norm: between 2010 and 2020, the US dollar has lost 17% of its value. That is huge.

    The current monetary and financial system, in which the U.S. dollar is the dominant currency, therefore gives you no reason to save the money you’ve earned so hard by working.

    When you ask a person to choose between $1,000 to spend immediately even if they don’t need anything, or $836 that will be available in 10 years when they really need to make a purchase, you know as well as I do what the person will choose.

    The person will obviously prefer to spend all or part of his $1,000 rather than lose money with inflation. They don’t need anything, but will eventually consume to fit into the mould of society that the current monetary and financial system has defined.

    The problem with the U.S. dollar, and this is true again of all other fiat currencies, is that it exists in infinite quantities.

    If you still had any doubts, Neel Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, admitted it without any shame at the 60 Minutes of March 23, 2020:

    “There is an infinite amount of cash in the Federal Reserve. We will do whatever we need to do to make sure there’s enough cash in the banking system.”
     — Neel Kashkari

    The money you have in U.S. dollar can therefore be devalued at any time on the simple decision of a minority of people who have not even been elected by the people.


    Economic crisis of 2020 exposes flaws in the monetary and financial system like never before

    Since the beginning of March 2020, the Fed has printed nearly 2.5 trillion dollars, bringing the M2 Money Stock above 18 trillion dollars for the first time in its history.

    The coronavirus pandemic began at the very beginning of March 2020. In eleven weeks, the amount of U.S. dollar in circulation increased by $2,486B. The previous increase of such an amount took 186 weeks:

    Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

    At the current pace, the $20 trillion is likely to be reached by the end of 2020.

    All this money printed by the Fed is injected directly into the monetary and financial system, which must be saved at all costs. The Fed Balance Sheet has increased by +66% over the same period of time. It exceeds 7 trillion dollars for the first time in its history now:

    All this money printed by the Fed is making the rich people richer, while it is the poorer people who really need help right now.

    In the midst of this economic crisis, Jeff Bezos’ fortune has increased by nearly $35 billion, Mark Zuckerberg’s by $25 billion, and Elon Musk’s by nearly $12 billion.

    Meanwhile, the poorest citizens are struggling to survive.

    The great monetary inflation that we are currently experiencing as a result of these actions by the Fed and other central banks is unfortunately not the only problem with the fiat system. At the same time, governments are carrying out stimulus plans financed by public debt.

    The public debt of the United States has just exceeded 25 trillion dollars. All of the world’s major economic powers now have a public debt-to-GDP ratio well above 100%.

    At last count, the sum of the stimulus plans decided by the G20 member countries amounts to more than 9,000 billion dollars.

    All of this places an extremely heavy burden on future generations. Indeed, it is the people who will have to pay for these colossal public debts. On the other hand, those responsible for these economic crises that follow one another at regular intervals always get out of them without any damage, because they are protected by the fiat system.


    The current system is unfair, but no one wants to change it

    The bankers are of course to blame in the first place. Corruption scandals involving banks have been going on for decades. It seems inconceivable to be able to trust these institutions, which have far too much power over what you own.

    For example, a bank may at any time seize your cash arbitrarily, or at the express request of a government. Banks also do not refrain from censoring their customers’ transactions in a totally arbitrary manner. Since they are private, banks will tell you that they apply the rules of their choice.

    You have no power with the U.S. dollar and fiat currencies.

    Everything I have just explained to you shows you that the U.S. dollar and the entire monetary and financial system around it have been designed so that spending is your best option.

    By spending your money quickly, you avoid all the problems associated with a decline in your purchasing power, or the confiscation of what you have. However, this is probably not what you want to do.

    Like any citizen, you would like to be able to live your life on your own terms by enjoying your hard-earned money. If this is the case, you should look for a way to opt out of this fiat system where the U.S. dollar is king.

    The powerful at the head of the current monetary and financial system know perfectly well that the current system is unfair.

    Jerome Powell confided this in a recent interview for the 60 Minutes program, during which he said that he knew very well that all the Fed’s actions to support the American economy impacted first and foremost those who needed help the most:

    “The people who’re getting hurt the worst are the most recently hired, the lowest paid people. It’s women to an extraordinary extent. We’re actually releasing a report tomorrow that shows that, of the people who were working in February who were making less than $40,000 per year, almost 40% have lost their jobs in the last month or so. Extraordinary statistic. So that’s who’s really bearing the brunt of this.”
     — Jerome Powell

    In spite of this, Jerome Powell has nothing to propose to fundamentally change a totally unfair system. He is not the only one to blame, since none of the powerful people at the head of the current system will take the risk to come and change the situation.


    Bitcoin is a people-led revolution that fixes the flaws of the current system

    As is often the case in this kind of situation, the solution can only come from the people. And that requires a revolution. This peaceful revolution is called Bitcoin.

    Created by Satoshi Nakamoto following the banking crisis of 2008, Bitcoin should be seen as a response to the flaws of the current monetary and financial system.

    Bitcoin is a unique invention in the history of mankind that Satoshi Nakamoto gave to all the inhabitants of the Earth as a gift.

    It is up to its users to make Bitcoin a success or a failure.

    Bitcoin gives the weapons to the citizens of the world to regain control over what they own. It is up to them to seize this extraordinary opportunity.

    I have shown you the fact that the U.S. dollar exists in infinite quantities is a major problem. Bitcoin corrects this because it exists in finite quantities: only 21 million Bitcoins will be put into circulation.

    The scarcity of Bitcoin is one of its major strengths.

    Even better, Bitcoin’s monetary policy is written in the network’s source code. Thus, it does not depend on any human decision. By definition, humans are prone to corruption, which leads them to make bad decisions for the community as a whole by letting their greed take precedence over their morals.

    Bitcoin runs automatically, and no one can change its monetary policy, which is therefore predictable. The number of new Bitcoins produced each day is halved for every 210,000 blocks mined. This allows existing Bitcoin units to increase in value over time.

    Bitcoin highlights the virtues of quantitative hardening, which you have to contrast with the unlimited quantitative easing conducted by the Fed and other central banks.


    Bitcoin is a savings technology that gives you the power

    In fact, Bitcoin is a savings technology. A formidable store of value whose superiority over gold is slowly beginning to appear to more and more people.

    When you decide to enter the Bitcoin world, you can make the choice to save without risk, since you are guaranteed that 1 BTC of 2020 will always be equal to 1 BTC of 2100.

    With the U.S. dollar, you have the opposite guarantee as I showed you earlier.

    Even better, Bitcoin allows you to become your own bank. As long as you take responsibility for the security of what you own, Bitcoin will give you total control over your wealth.

    You don’t need any permission on the Bitcoin network to make a transaction. You can send money to a friend on the other side of the world without risking your bank asking you intrusive questions about why you are sending money.

    These are your Bitcoins, you can do whatever you want with them as long as you have the associated private keys. It’s not for nothing that Bitcoin remains the best solution for making cross border money transfers in terms of security, speed, and transfer fees.

    Finally, Bitcoin allows you to resist any kind of censorship since no one can confiscate your Bitcoins. This allows you to save money with peace of mind.

    Your Bitcoins are yours and yours alone as long as you have the associated private keys.

    For people living in authoritarian regimes, Bitcoin is vital because it is their best chance to protect their wealth. First of all from the hyperinflation that is ravaging countries such as Iran, Venezuela, Lebanon and Zimbabwe.

    Secondly, if people living in a country like Afghanistan are forced to leave their country because they are threatened, they will be able to transport their wealth to their host country without any worries. With fiat money, or even worse gold, it is very likely that these people will no longer have their assets when they arrive in their host country.

    In the course of their journey, unscrupulous people will have taken everything they own. With Bitcoin, this is impossible. All you have to do is memorize your 24-word recovery phrase. Then you can recover your Bitcoins from anywhere in the world.

    So Bitcoin was designed to give you the ability to take full control of your money destiny. As such, it is totally opposed to the U.S. dollar.


    Conclusion

    A majority of people still see the U.S. dollar as the ultimate symbol of wealth. Unfortunately, not all of these people realize that the U.S. dollar, like all other fiat currencies, has been put at the center of a system that aims to make you spend more and more money.

    By taking away your interest in saving your money, the monetary and financial system pushes you to consume more and more against your will.

    Until now, many people thought that there was an irremediable side to this. The emergence of Bitcoin over the past decade has changed all that. With Bitcoin, you have a secure and reliable savings technology at your disposal.

    You need to make the best choice for your future by picking the most protective solution that respects your desires. From my point of view, Bitcoin is clearly that solution. It’s up to you to decide if this is the case for you as well, or if you prefer to have blind faith in the US dollar.

  • Bitcoin Works for You, While You Work for the U.S. Dollar

    Bitcoin Works for You, While You Work for the U.S. Dollar
    Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

    This is a fundamental truth that you need to understand.

    Triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the economic crisis of 2020 plunges us into a recession of a magnitude not seen in decades. The fact that this economic crisis was caused by a health crisis has accelerated things.

    Lockdown of most of the world major economies will have long-lasting consequences, the effects of which we barely measure today.

    Many are satisfied to see the stock market return to pre-crisis levels. I think this is a deception. Right now, the stock market is facing the iceberg illusion.

    Stock Market facing the Iceberg Illusion — by Sylvain Saurel

    The current state of the economy is very worrying

    There are many reasons for concern:

    1. A global pandemic far from being resolved.
    2. The beginning of a New Cold War between the United States and China.
    3. Growing political divisions in the United States.
    4. A social malaise that leads to riots in the United States.
    5. A public debt heading towards $30T in the United States.
    6. The Fed, which keeps printing more and more money and artificially inflates the financial markets.
    7. The number of job seekers had not increased as rapidly in 3 months since the Great Depression.

    We are witnessing a decoupling of the real economy from the financial markets. Personally, I believe that this decoupling will not last. Sooner or later, the stock market will fall back to the reality of the real economy.

    The Fed won’t be able to hold its current position of printing more and more U.S. dollar, and injecting them directly into the financial system.

    This policy of unlimited quantitative easing now makes the Fed the largest asset manager in the world ahead of BlackRock with over $7 trillion under management:

    Fed Balance Sheet evolution since one year

    This increase in the Fed Balance Sheet is the result of the unprecedented increase in the amount of U.S. dollar in circulation in such a short period of time.

    In just 3 months, the Fed has printed over $3 trillion out of thin air. This now takes the M2 Money Stock beyond $18 trillion. At the current rate, the $20 trillion is expected to be reached by the end of the year 2020.

    At the same time, the U.S. government is steadily increasing its public debt to finance stimulus packages that only benefit the richest. While the poorest citizens see the U.S. public deficit exceed $26 trillion, they have to make do with crumbs: a stimulus check of $1,200.


    The great monetary inflation will devalue what you own in U.S. dollar

    The current actions are inducing a great monetary inflation that will devalue what you own in U.S. dollar. What many Bitcoin advocates have been pointing out for years is in that is emerging as a revelation to a growing number of people:

    You’re working for the U.S. Dollar, while Bitcoin is working for you.

    This ugly truth can be demonstrated by a simple example.

    Imagine a person owning $1,000 in 1920. In order to still have the same purchasing power, this person would have to own $12,819 in 2020:

    $1,000 in 1920, adjusted for inflation

    Without it, this person would not have been able to beat the effects of monetary inflation.

    Your purchasing power in U.S. dollar is being eroded by this great monetary inflation. If you take a closer look at the figures, you will see that a purchasing power of $1,000 has lost 85% of its value since 1971:

    The worst thing is that this situation has become the norm: between 2010 and 2020, the U.S. dollar has lost 17% of its value. That is huge.

    With the U.S. dollar, and that goes for any fiat currency as well, you are doomed to witness a decline in your wealth. If you simply wish to maintain the same purchasing power, you will have to work much harder.

    So you are working for the U.S. dollar.


    The current system is flawed, and not fixable

    You are a slave to a monetary and financial system that does not respect you. Within that system, decisions are made by a minority of people who are not representative of the people. You have understood here that I am talking about central bankers.

    Two things have particularly shocked me since the beginning of this economic crisis concerning the Fed.

    The first is to hear Neel Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, boasting in an interview for the 60 Minutes program on March 23, 2020 that the Fed had an infinite amount of U.S. dollar at its disposal:

    “There is an infinite amount of cash in the Federal Reserve. We will do whatever we need to do to make sure there’s enough cash in the banking system.”

    — Neel Kashkari

    A little more restraint on his part would have been welcome.

    The second thing that shocked me was what Jerome Powell said during his interview for the same show 60 Minutes on May 17, 2020. Jerome Powell confirmed what we all know without any shame:

    “The people who’re getting hurt the worst are the most recently hired, the lowest paid people. It’s women to an extraordinary extent. We’re actually releasing a report tomorrow that shows that, of the people who were working in February who were making less than $40,000 per year, almost 40% have lost their jobs in the last month or so. Extraordinary statistic. So that’s who’s really bearing the brunt of this.”

    — Jerome Powell

    The Fed thus knows perfectly well that its monetary policy benefits a minority of people while putting a majority of poor people in difficulty. Nevertheless, the Fed will not change its way of acting.

    Jerome Powell is aware of the problem, but he will not seek to change the system, even if it is unfair. His only advice is to say that we will have to be strong in the coming months, which will be extremely difficult.

    Jerome Powell then asked to the American government for pursuing policies to help the poorest as best they could.

    Everybody is passing the buck, but nobody is taking action.

    In contrast to the current system, where the U.S. dollar is the hegemonic currency, we have Bitcoin.


    Bitcoin is a democratic alternative to the current system

    Bitcoin is an emerging solution from the people. With no leader at its head, Bitcoin belongs to all its users. It is a true democracy that responds only to its source code.

    No arbitrary decision can be made by a minority with Bitcoin. Everything must be based on a consensus of its community. All Bitcoin users have equal weight. Every user can decide to become a node in the network.

    The monetary policy is written in Bitcoin source code. It is therefore automated and predictable.

    When buying Bitcoin for the first time, you know that it is available in limited supply. There will never be more than 21 million Bitcoins mined. Furthermore, the inflation of the supply of new Bitcoins is halved for every 210,000 mined blocks.

    The third Halving of Bitcoin took place on May 11, 2020. Since then, Bitcoin has an annual supply inflation of less than 2%. It is currently 1.8% which puts Bitcoin just ahead of gold and its yearly inflation of 1.6%.

    After the next Bitcoin Halving in a little less than 4 years from now, the annual inflation of the supply of new Bitcoins will fall below 1%. Eventually it will reach zero when all Bitcoin has been produced by 2140.

    As you can see, everything is clear and precise with Bitcoin.

    You won’t have the unpleasant surprise of someone deciding to add the equivalent of $3 trillion to the available supply of Bitcoin. In fact, Bitcoin offers you an incredible guarantee:

    1 Bitcoin purchased in 2020 will still represent 1 Bitcoin out of 21 million in 2100.

    Bitcoin highlights the virtues of quantitative hardening.

    This unprecedented monetary policy contrasts with the quantitative easing of central banks. The more time passes, the more the Bitcoin units already in circulation increase in value. This is confirmed by the evolution of Bitcoin price since 2010:

    Bitcoin price evolution over the past decade

    In 2010, a Bitcoin was worth less than $1. In 2020, it is worth more than $9,000.


    Bitcoin works for you by allowing you to think long term

    So Bitcoin works for you. It allows you to preserve your wealth. It is a tremendous store of value with qualities objectively superior to gold for the masses: divisibility, portability, recognizability, not confiscable, and a much greater scarcity.

    All you need to buy Bitcoin is a smartphone and an Internet connection. Then you can start buying it for as little as $10 if you wish. With gold, that’s impossible.

    By becoming a Bitcoin HODLER, that is, by having complete confidence in Bitcoin to keep it no matter what, you will see the initial value of your purchase grow over time.

    By doing nothing but trusting Bitcoin, your wealth will grow. So Bitcoin literally works for you.

    The best part of all this is that Bitcoin will then allow you to preserve your wealth without any risk of censorship. No one will be able to stop you from making the transactions you want to make, or confiscate what you own.

    Unlike the fiat system which uses you completely without ever giving you a say, Bitcoin needs you just as much as you need it.

    This interdependence between Bitcoin and its users is essential to me.


    Conclusion

    Bitcoin is still at an early stage. Its growth potential for the coming years is immense. Those who will seize the unique opportunity that Bitcoin represents will be able to truly benefit from its revolution.

    Unlike the U.S. dollar, where you have to work harder and harder to maintain your purchasing power, Bitcoin works for you. All you have to do is be a Bitcoin HODLER, and then fundamentally believe in its revolution.

    If you succeed, you will be able to free yourself from the current monetary and financial system. You will take complete power over your wealth. You will be able to seize the unique opportunity that Bitcoin gives you: to live your life on your own terms.

  • The Key Point on Bitcoin Scarcity That Few People Understand Today

    The Key Point on Bitcoin Scarcity That Few People Understand Today
    Photo by Dmitry Demidko on Unsplash

    That should spur you into action.

    Bitcoin is hard money. Unlike the U.S. dollar, and other fiat currencies, which can be printed ad infinitum if a few central bankers decide to, Bitcoin exists in finite quantities. Thus, there can never be more than 21 million Bitcoins in circulation.

    For this number to increase, there would need to be a consensus of the entire community on a Bitcoin source code evolution concerning this limit.

    You can rest assured that this will never happen. The finite supply of Bitcoin is an incredible strength. It gives Bitcoin users an essential certainty when buying Bitcoin.

    When you buy 1 Bitcoin, you buy 1 Bitcoin out of a maximum of 21 million units. This is true in 2020, and it will be true again in 2050, and 2100.


    The U.S. dollar can be printed ad infinitum

    If you look at the evolution of the amount of U.S. dollar in circulation, you will quickly understand that there is a fundamental difference in this respect:

    With $100 in 1990, you had $100 out of $3,164 billion in circulation. By 2020, that same $100 is $100 out of $18,329 billion.

    No need to draw a picture, you have understood that the U.S. dollar is devalued over time. A purchasing power of $100 in 1990 represents only $48 in 2020.

    The value of what you own in U.S. dollar has lost 52% in only 30 years.

    In order to beat the effects of monetary inflation, you should have been able to turn that $100 into $196.

    The total lack of scarcity of the U.S. dollar is therefore problematic for the people.

    While Bitcoin is working for you, it is clear that you are working for the U.S. dollar. The approaches are not the same. On the one hand, you have a hard money that protects its users, and on the other hand, we have the US dollar.


    87.69% of all Bitcoins have already been created

    It is June 27, 2020, and 18,416,125 BTC have already been mined since Bitcoin was launched on January 3, 2009. A quick subtraction allows us to deduce that there are only 2,583,875 BTC left that can be produced by 2140.

    87.69% of all Bitcoins have already been mined.

    The issuance rate of these new Bitcoins is predictable because Bitcoin’s monetary policy is written in its source code. One block is issued every 10 minutes on average on the Bitcoin network. The adjustment of the mining difficulty on the Bitcoin network every 2,016 blocks issued allows the network to stay as close as possible to this average over the long term.

    When a block is issued, a BTC reward is offered to miners who have validated this block correctly. New Bitcoins are created at this time. This reward is divided by two for every 210,000 blocks mined. This process called Halving is automated, and therefore inevitable.

    The next Bitcoin Halving will take place at block height 840,000, in the first part of the year 2024.

    The inflation of the supply of new Bitcoins for the coming years can therefore be planned for:

    Bitcoin supply and inflation, over time

    You can see that inflation in the supply of new Bitcoins tends towards zero over time. This figure will be reached around 2140.

    From that date on, there will be no more New Bitcoins that can be mined. All users will have to make do with the Bitcoin supply already in circulation.


    If Bitcoin supply is hard-capped, the potential number of Bitcoin users continues to grow

    While the Bitcoin supply is hard-capped, the number of potential Bitcoin users will continue to grow. The number of potential Bitcoin users is equal to the number of people on Earth today, and in the future:

    Today, there are 7.8 billion of inhabitants on Earth. This means that there is 1 Bitcoin for every 371 inhabitants.

    In 2015, the United Nations estimated that the world population would be around 9.7 billion in 2050. This gives 1 Bitcoin for 461 inhabitants.

    In 2100, the Earth should have 11.2 billion inhabitants. This gives 1 Bitcoin for 533 inhabitants.

    Taking into account the current distribution of wealth on the Bitcoin network, we already have 820,098 people who own at least 1 BTC :

    People who already own 1 full Bitcoin are therefore starting with an incredible advantage for the world of the future. It is no coincidence that I frequently explain that the race to own at least 1 full Bitcoin has already begun.

    If you are interested in the Bitcoin world, you are already more or less aware of everything I have just explained.


    The key point that is often overlooked is the number of Bitcoins gone forever

    On the other hand, you may not have in mind a key element which is the number of Bitcoins that are considered to be lost forever.

    This number can only be estimated.

    In November 2017, Chainalysis, a company that analyzes the Blockchain, published a very interesting report, taken up by Fortune magazine, explaining that the number of Bitcoins definitively lost should be in a range between 2.78 million BTC and 3.79 million BTC:

    Estimated number of Bitcoins gone forever in Novembre 2017

    As we are in June 2020, it can be estimated that the number of Bitcoins gone forever must have risen further to 4 million units.

    Using the assumption of 4 million Bitcoins gone forever, this means that the maximum supply of Bitcoins really usable will actually only be 17 million.

    This does not change the number of Bitcoins still to be mined. However, it does change the number of Bitcoins that are actually usable at the moment. This number would not be 18,416,125 BTC, but earlier 14,416,125 BTC.

    This only further reinforces the scarcity of Bitcoin which is truly absolute.


    Bitcoin scarcity is even greater than a lot of people think

    Since only 17 million Bitcoins will actually be usable when all Bitcoins have been mined, the calculations I presented to you earlier are even more spectacular.

    In 2050, there will be only 1 Bitcoin for every 570 inhabitants on Earth. And in 2100, there will be only 1 Bitcoin for every 658 people on Earth.

    With a real usable Bitcoin supply of around 17 million units, this means that only 0.21% of the population can own 1 Bitcoin at a time in 2020.

    As Confucius put it so well, a picture is worth a thousand words. For you to visualize what this represents, I have prepared the small illustration below:

    Illustration by In Bitcoin We Trust

    Each blue square represents 10 million people on Earth in 2020. With a population of 7,800,000,000 people, you see that this makes 78 squares.

    In yellow, I’ve given you the number of people who can actually own 1 Bitcoin each given that there are only 17 million BTC left that can actually be used in 2020.

    In 2100, only 0.15% of the population will be able to own 1 BTC each at the same time.

    The little demonstration I just gave you is there to make you aware that the scarcity of Bitcoin is much greater than you thought.


    Conclusion

    To talk about the scarcity of Bitcoin, it is customary to base it on its maximum supply which is 21 million BTC.

    However, since it can be estimated that 4 million BTC are already lost forever, we should already base our reasoning on a maximum usable supply of 17 million units of Bitcoin.

    With this reasoning, and when 820,098 addresses already own at least 1 BTC, you will better understand that buying 1 Bitcoin in 2020, if you can afford it, is an incredible investment for your future.

    If Bitcoin were to fail, you would lose a little fiat money I grant you.

    But if Bitcoin were to succeed in its revolution, which I am convinced it will, you would be rewarded more than you can imagine today. In my opinion, Bitcoin is the best investment you can make in 2020 in terms of risk/reward asymmetry for the upcoming years.

    You take a small risk if you buy Bitcoin when you can afford it, and your reward possibilities are immense.

    As always, it is up to you to make the best decisions for your future. I just hope that you will now incorporate the key point I just made in this story about the scarcity of Bitcoin.