Get ready, because in this video and the one after it, we intend to do nothing less than
blow your minds.
We’re going to talk about what is perhaps the most disruptive innovation since the invention
of the Internet.
But first,l we’re going to ask you one thing: to let your imagination fly, to dare to think
unconventionally…
Are you ready?
Then, let’s start with some questions:
Can you imagine a new form of money?
Can you imagine companies run by non-human owners?
Can you imagine a company whose owner is a few lines of code in the cloud?
Can you imagine a company or an NGO with no human workers?
Folks, 2018 wasn’t Bitcoin’s year, I think we all know that.
Lately, every bit of news related to this currency has sounded extremely worrying:
(“Bitcoin’s Crash Looks Like a Real Currency Crisis.
Bitcoin is in crisis.
You can never really declare it dead but its price has slumped 80 percent in less than
a year, wiping about $700 billion off cryptocurrency markets.
Bloomberg)
(“Bitcoin biggest bubble in history, says economist who predicted 2008 crash.
Nouriel Roubini calls cryptocurrency the ‘mother of all bubbles’.
The Guardian)
(“The only currency worse than bitcoin is Venezuela’s”.
Washington Post)
But wait just a second, because in spite of everything it brought about, Bitcoin is more
than just a currency.
Blockchain – the technology that supports it – could become nothing less than the
operating system of an entirely new economy, a key instrument for organizing the society
of the future.
We’re talking about a system that could allow us to create a very different society
than the one we all know, a society organized in innovative ways, without hierarchical entities,
without borders.
A new, perfectly decentralized society.
Just like the Internet.
For the first time in the history of mankind, this technology can render politicians, banks,
governments and large corporations as we know them, nearly obsolete when it comes to our
money.
Here on VisualPolitik, we’ve already talked about the applications and changes that cryptocurrency
and blockchain are causing.
We’ve even told you about how some Swiss canton wants to become the new world capital
of the "ICOS".
Well, now we aim to look towards the future.
Let's talk about cryptocurrencies, Blockchain and smart contracts.
Because folks, saying that this technology is simply money is like saying that the Internet
is just e-mail.
But, just a second, before we move on we need to know the exact meaning of Bitcoin and what
it brings to society.
Not in the least!
First, we’ll take a look at money: What exactly is money?
What problems does it pose?
How useful is cryptocurrency?
Listen up!
THE ORIGIN OF MONEY
Folks, you use it every day, but…
Have you ever asked yourself what money really is?
Why do we value these little pieces of paper so much?
What’s the difference between Monopoly bills and actual paper money?
Why is one worth more than the other?
How is its value determined?
For example, if you ever got lost in a desert, which would you value most?
A $100 bill, a diamond or 5 liters of water?
In other words, how much would you pay for a nice cold drink in the middle of the Sahara?
No need to really think about it, these aren’t serious questions.
What we want to get across is that we value things completely subjectively.
The money we all know, all those coins we carry in our pockets, have a certain value
simply because we all agreed to give them that value.
Of course, we’ve never held a meeting to discuss it, we’ve never voted or agreed
on anything.
Paradoxical, isn’t it?
By the way, for those tempted to think that money’s value is set by governments… just
think about what happened to the Bolivar in Venezuela
But… what exactly is money?
Don’t be deceived, money is nothing more than a language, a linguistic abstraction.
With money, we transmit the idea of value to each other.
For example, that’s what we do when we say that a house is worth so much in euros or
dollars.
In other words, the value of things is very personal, and depends on how useful and worthwhile
that thing is to each of us.
And money is no different.
It’s value isn’t set in stone.
It depends on the decisions we make every day, every hour, every instant.
That is, the paper itself is worth next to nothing.
Therefore, saying that a cryptocurrency can’t have value because it’s in the cloud doesn’t
make much sense.
It can have the same value as any other currency.
Having said that, folks, let’s take a look at a slightly scarier feature, one where there’s
a huge difference between cryptocurrencies and conventional money.
Did you know, that no matter where you live, every day you’re all victims of a small
robbery?
Yes, you.
Listen up, because this is probably modern money’s largest defect.
(AN UNSTOPPABLE DEPRECIATION)
We’ve said it plenty of times here on VisualPolitik... the money we all use every day, the paper
currency, those chromes we have in our pockets, have a huge defect:
it’s issued by governments and public institutions.
And yes, the Central Bank is also a public institution.
That is, ultimately, politicians control how much money is issued…
And let’s not deceive ourselves, these politicians will always want to speed up the money-making
machine.
Which poses a huge problem, it’s like being robbed without noticing it.
Allow me to explain myself, when a government prints more money, it creates inflation, that
is, money loses its acquisitive power, money’s value dilutes.
That is, all the money and savings you’ve gathered in that currency.
(“Venezuela’s currency plumbs unknown depths.
Hyperinflation has seen the bolívar lose 99.9% of its value in two years”.
The Economist)
But you may be thinking…
Ok, ok, Simon, fine, but I’m sure this only happens in developing countries or those with
populist governments.
Well no, that’s not the least bit true.
Yes, evidently, in these sorts of countries the process tends to be quicker, but historically,
no currency has ever maintained its value for more than a generation.
Let’s take a look at the dollar, the most popular world currency today.
Well, nowadays the dollars is worth 2% of what it was worth a century ago.
That is, that due to the decisions made in Washington, in the last 100 years the dollar
has lost 98% of its value.
Surprised?
Well you shouldn’t be, this isn’t new at all.
This problem also existed in ancient Rome.
Emperor Diocletian, for example, was infamous for creating soaring inflation rates and then
trying to fix them by setting maximum prices.
But... at this point, you mightl have a couple of questions:
If the result is always the same,
Why the hell does the government have a monopoly on money?
Is there a way to prevent politicians from being tempted to print more money?
Or to create more and more digital money, which is even quicker and easier.
Well, this is where an almost insurmountable obstacle automatically arises:
See, it’s hard to stop a politician from being tempted to print bills.
And this has been attempted in several ways… for example by “formally” turning Central
Banks into “apparently” independent entities.
But, no, this didn’t work much either.
Among other things, because politicians end up appointing the people who run the central
banks, and you can tell.
You can definitely tell.
But…
What if we separated Money and State?
Allow me to explain, this isn’t actually that odd.
I think most of us believe that separating the Church from the State was a good idea;
or separating powers to guarantee an independent judiciary;
Then, why not do the same with money?
What if we, the people, everyday citizens, created our own currency behind politicians’
backs?
In a way, this is precisely what many people who support the gold standard want, that is,
they want to go back to using gold as currency.
Because gold can’t be created out of thin air.
But hold on a second.
Besides how inconvenient this could be, it isn’t clear that it would solve the problem.
Historically, banks, politicians, and others, have always managed to make more money.
But… this is the twenty-first century, isn’t there a better solution?
What if we think in a disruptive way?
Well, this is exactly where cryptocurrencies come in.
Listen up.
(WELCOME BITCOIN, WELCOME SATOSHI)
Day, January 3rd 2009, Greenwich time, 18:45.
In an unknown location, an unknown programmer nicknamed Satoshi Nakamoto, created the first
blockchain.
The so-called genesis block of the blockchain.
Bitcoin was born.
Now, a lot has been said about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
You can find all sorts of technical information online… so no, that won’t be our mission.
On VisualPolitik, we want to deal with it differently, we want to see the entire thing
from a point of view that takes all of this technology’s future implications into account.
Because, folks, Bitcoin has some very special characteristics that make it quite unique.
And it isn’t just that with Bitcoin you can pay for something at the other side of
the planet almost instantaneously, or that it’s a deflationary currency, because no
one will never be able to create more than 21 million Bitcoins.
Perhaps the most important thing is that Bitcoin is controlled by nothing and nobody, not even
its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Nobody is in charge of Bitcoin: no scientist, no corporation, no bank, no company.
It’s a completely decentralized system.
It’s people, us, who freely and spontaneously give it or remove its value…
Do you understand what this means?
Nobody controls it, nobody censors it, nobody can limit it.
With bitcoin, you don’t even need to identify yourself, which means that nobody can know
what you spent your money on.
This is very different from what happens when we pay with Visa or American Express.
All the information about our expenses, the way in which we spend our money, what we do
at all times, is within these companies’ reach, and of course, they give it to the
country’s current politicians.
But, what if we want to spend our money without people finding out what we do with it?
In Europe and the US, this might not seem that important…
But… think about what this could mean for the people in countries like Cuba, Nicaragua
or Saudi Arabia.
There, you don’t trust local politicians as much, do you?
And of course, don’t forget about inflation, which vanishes with bitcoin.
Can you see these cryptocurrencies’ huge advantages?
And it’s not only Bitcoin.
There’s also Ethereum, Monero, Cardano, Iota, Ripple and many others.
In fact, it’s very probable that in the future, several cryptocurrencies will coexist,
and will be valued freely by the market.
And, of course, some will become very valuable, and many others will simply disappear.
But there’s no doubt about it: cryptocurrencies are here to stay.
Folks, in this video, we’ve explored what money is, what problems come along with it,
and why cryptocurrencies are here to stay.
But this is only the beginning.
Now that we know what we’re talking about, it’s time to look at a completely different
future.
But we’ll do that in the next video.
So I really hope you enjoyed this video, please hit like if you did, and don’t forget to
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Don’t forget to check out our friends at the Reconsider Media Podcast - they provided
the vocals in this episode that were not mine.
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And as always, I’ll see you in the next video.