LETTER #14: THE WORLD IS WAKING UP TO THE BEAUTY OF BITCOIN
For years, media and the government has denounced Bitcoin, but the recent events have proved its value to the entire world.
To the Freedom Lovers,
The world has constantly ignored and criticized Bitcoin for the past 13 years.
We have now reached a point in history where not paying attention to Bitcoin comes with a cost. A HUGE cost, in my opinion.
Here are the events happened in last two weeks alone that highlight the value proposition of Bitcoin:
CANADA’S DICTATORSHIP DISGUISED AS DEMOCRACY
It all started on Feb 14 when the Government of Canada invoked the Emergencies Act on the peacefully-protesting Canadians at the parliament hill in Ottawa. It gave banks the power to freeze the bank account of a person who either donated or was a part of the freedom protest.
This led to a good chunk of people realizing that the numbers shown in their bank account are not actually theirs. The government can take away your money at any time and cut you off from the financial system.
After the donations made through the GoFundMe platform were frozen, protestors used Bitcoin as an alternative method to raise funds which can’t be shut down.
RUSSIA’S INVASION OF UKRAINE
As Russia invaded Ukraine, many Ukrainians started fleeing the region leaving behind any belongings.
As the panic rose, banks got closed, ATMs ran out of cash, and the use of electronic currency got suspended. As a result, only the ones with a little bit of cash in hand and self-custodied Bitcoin were able to buy some food or other services along the way.
As of Monday, more than $20M worth of Bitcoin had been donated to Ukrainian army from all over the world.
On the other side, in Russia, the sanctions from the Western world basically excluded Russia from the global financial system which led to Russian ruble’s crash of more than 25% on Monday. In other words, the savings of more than 100M people of Russia got devalued by more than 25% overnight.
The citizens are now unable to use Apple or Google pay due to the sanctions and there are long queues of people outside the ATMs to withdraw cash.
The Russian people are suffering the pain of sanctions even though they have nothing to do with the war.
Two years ago, Bitcoin was nothing more than a money-making speculative asset for many of the Ukrainians and Russians. Today, it’s a way for everyone to protect their wealth behind the encrypted wall of energy where everything else has failed to do so.
I expect this trend to accelerate and spread all around the world - not war but mistrust in the government and central banks.
Bitcoin has been hope for Canadians, Ukrainians, Russians during the past two weeks. As the trust in the legacy financial system erodes, more and more people will look around for something that provides them full control over their wealth.
Consequently, the Bitcoin revolution will reach escape velocity.
FINAL THOUGHT…..
Bitcoin will win.