Future of money: the illusion and what you must know about cryptocurrency
I believe the future of money is going to be totally digitized and that the current emergence of cryptocurrencies is serving to “test” the people’s appetite of moving toward a totally digital monetary platform.
I use the word “test” because as with everything involving any “master plan” you need to test the concept first, gauge the response of the people and test the effect on the economy.
For those of you who believe the current generation of digital currencies is a sign of “freedom” from the governments and greedy bankers, I am not so convinced.
Conceptually anything created by the people for the people sounds great and when I first heard that a new currency called Bitcoin, was created in 2009, I was skeptical, as were many others at the time, but over the years it, along with other digital currencies, has created a ton of millionaires, so it has to be taken far more seriously.
But if you look at the technology that created the currencies and the platforms they are operated and transacted on, you can see that we are back to government-controlled infrastructure and that is where we return to the “hub” and it’s control.
Identities are being lost and money will be too – at least as we know it.
Currencies used to provide an aspect of identity – for France, the French Franc; Spain had the Peseta; Italy the Lira and so on… now they are collectively re-branded under the Euro.
The view I present here is my opinion and mine alone – whether you agree with me or not is unimportant, but I urge you to not simply take everything that is going on at face value, dig deeper, look at every piece of information out there and draw your own conclusions.
The Wonderful World of Retirement
There is no such thing anymore as a “job for life” and there is no certainty to retirement.
Around thirty years ago, if you were lucky enough to amass £1m over your working years, you could have made around £70-100k per year in annual income without touching your cash by holding it on deposit with a reputable financial institution.
A million today, will not yield you a fraction of that amount.
Just over ten years ago, the unthinkable happened, we saw the collapse of some of the world’s largest banking and financial institutions.
The world was in shock and many feared, including myself, that it was the start of a world meltdown and an economic collapse.
After all, we had learned to trust these institutions and isn’t the banking industry the very industry that fuels and ignites the economic world.
Surely these companies were beyond concern, beyond exposure to the day-to-day economic and other factors that threaten most of us!
I remember the scenes in the heart of the financial district in London UK, where people were being ushered out of their former working “homes” carrying boxes with their personal belongings spilling out onto the pavements with a look of total disbelief on their faces.
One of the causes, or the root cause depending what you want to believe was the Sub-prime mortgage crisis triggered by greedy lenders looking to make money out of people who were in no financial position to take out the mortgages in the first place.
The movie “The Big Short,” covers this perfectly, but from the other side of the coin and where someone had worked out the real risk, associated with providing these loans and that a collapse was likely.
Just after, we had the emergence of a new digital currency that was called Bitcoin (BTC).
It was created out of “thin air,” but that doesn’t mean your current currency isn’t either.
Bitcoin was created by a software algorithm and of course, the fiat money you have in your possession right now, from a printing press!
The Gold Standard
I don’t want to make this article an economic one, but I will give you the pointers to let you do your own deeper research and in simple terms, nearly all governments agreed to tie the amount of money that they printed, to the price of gold, based on their own reserves of gold or by linking their currency to another country’s gold value.
Any money that was printed would have a direct relationship to the price of gold and this is an over-simplification as it was far more complex in practice, but you can see how the supply of money would have a basis of control and value.
The standard was abolished however by Britain in the early 1930’s and other countries followed suit.
Why was the gold standard abolished?
There is a belief that the gold standard caused the Great Depression in the US and
If we look at the US for example, the abolishment was to combat the effects of the Great Depression by stopping people from cashing in deposits and depleting the gold supply.
The US and other governments had to keep interest rates high, but borrowings for businesses and people would be too expensive and in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt cut the dollar’s links with gold and then pumped money into the economy and lowered interest rates.
On the other side of the fence is the point that the gold standard was abolished before the Great Depression and in fact during World War 1, so it could not have played as much of a significant part as some suggest.
But this “alleviation” of the problem, now set up a potentially more dangerous one.
So now we had a situation where bankers and governments could print money, without the need for it to be gold-backed and, depending how that country fared economically, it would prove successful or not.
Fast-forward to today and let’s look at the current national debt of the US.
The USA is approximately 22 trillion in debt today and you can conduct your own deeper research and work out the more detailed consequences, as I want to deal with the issue in hand.
But let’s just cover briefly what the national debt means to the US people today.
In simple terms an out-of-control US national debt (it has been rising sharply over the years) will mean a lower standard of living, higher prices and with the potential risk of the US defaulting on its debt, the loss of social, economic and political power.
The Future of Money
So, what is the future of money?
Sadly, there is no future for “money” – at least as we all know and recognize it today.
And we are heading for a “cashless society” – just look at the amount of ATM’s that are being removed from the streets and the amount of bank branch closures.
Everything is moving online, whether we like it or not.
Let’s get back to Bitcoin and today and the concept of digital currencies – cryptocurrencies “cryptos).”
A Japanese developer named Satoshi Nakamoto, although this is believed to be a pseudonym, supposedly invented Bitcoin.
I am not going into deep detail in this article technology wise, because I want you to grasp the concept of what I am talking about and to “connect the dots” to what is really going on in the world today.
The concept of digital or “virtual” currencies is nothing new – computer scientist David Chaum, released the paper, Blind Signatures for Digital Payments, where he outlined his own alternatives to the electronic transactions in use by retailers at the time.
He went on to form his company, DigiCash, which ultimately ended up failing, simply because there were not enough “adopters” of the currency and there were several further attempts before we became familiar with the term and launch of Bitcoin.
Confidence is what you and I need to have in anything before we consider purchasing or adopting something and this is how Bitcoin gradually got off the ground, to where it is today – a powerful digital currency that has created a few multi-millionaires along the way.
But what is lurking behind it?
Blockchain
Blockchain is a distributed shared ledger that records financial and other transactions in “blocks,” where each block is digitally authenticated, so that no-one tampers with it, therefore giving the record of transactions greater integrity and credibility.
To amend one block, would require the cooperation of all previous blocks and it is easy to see its value to commerce in general – but confine your thoughts to payments, transactions and contracts to get the simple idea for now.
Digital money operates on blockchain technology so you can see now the basis of a future society, with smart, revolutionary technology and a potentially new currency that will be commonplace.
I talked earlier about a “hub” or control center and if we take blockchain, then you must understand that blockchain depends on critical infrastructure – telecommunications networks, servers, banks, power companies – who are all subjected to government control.
The Economy Today
We are certainly in one of the most volatile and uncertain economies ever – geopolitical issues are raging, and we really have “lost our way” when it comes down to using traditional economics to chart and predict our way through the uncertainty.
You have to look at the interrelationships between say stock market prices, the price of gold and other commodities, the value of global currencies and individual country economies to see how the dynamics have changed and we have established the national debt of the US.
I am not picking on the US specifically, it’s just that it is the benchmark economy of the world, so we might as well start and keep at the top.
Also look at the demise of the “high street” as we say in the UK and look around at the closure of shopping malls in the US.
High street-based retail operations for example, are facing fierce and unmatchable competition from their online counterparts and will now have to dramatically overhaul their operations and re-structure any debt accordingly.
Is There a Master Plan?
I believe there has been a global master plan for a very long time and call me a conspiracy theorist, but I am only seeking the truth, no matter what that truth is.
That is why I try to look at each aspect of everything and then “connect the dots.”
I once had a conversation with a high-ranking global banker who blatantly told me that the financial markets were “rigged”, and I should “thank my lucky stars” that they were.
He admitted he wanted to “get my attention,” which he certainly did and then went on to say a better word might be “controlled.”
I prefer the first term, but I asked them to explain further and the only answer that I got was that the world would be in “carnage” and “chaos” if they weren’t.
The problem for me lies with the Central Banks of the world, who control the money supply, by printing what is required (or not as the case may be) and distributing this money through the commercial banks.
What is more alarming is the veil of secrecy that surrounds the banking industry, especially the Central Banks.
Many people are not aware for example, that the Central Bank of the US, the Federal Reserve, is privately owned.
In 2009, congressman Ron Paul in the US, wrote a book which got to #6 on the New York Times Best Seller list, titled “End the Fed.”
Paul, deems the Fed, “Immoral, unconstitutional, impractical, promotes bad economics and undermines liberty.”
Paul further adds that the Federal Reserve was created to bail out banks when they get into trouble also lists the word “corrupt” alongside “unconstitutional.”
Ron Paul also advocates going back to a gold standard.
Both the Federal Reserve and the UK counterpart the Bank of England will state on their websites that they are regularly audited, but many people including myself, do not believe this or believe the audit itself is not as transparent as it should be.
Let’s make a simple point here – if we cannot properly audit the Central Banks, then how much money do we really know is in actual circulation, what are the real numbers of government debt? And we must link this back to the taxes we are all forced to pay and where ultimately, they end up.
The son of Ron Paul is Dr. Rand Paul, who keping true to his Fathers’ beliefs is recently campaigned for the auditing of the Federal Reserve.
He has tried to get a vote on his “Audit the Fed” legislation, but not surprisingly ran into a “few difficulties,” – I wonder why?”
Despite I might add, after polling the public he found 70 to 75% of the public agreed!
The Central Banks control of the worlds money system is widely documented, and they will use the commercial banking system and governments to distribute cash into the economy, but it is how that money is distributed that concerns me.
Ostensibly, it is to control the amount of money in circulation and is described as the “lender of last resort” when the commercial banks cannot cover a money supply shortage.
So, the Central Bank is in effect, a “wholesaler” and in the new Internet-driven and disruptive era of today, why can’t the wholesaler simply sell direct to the public?
And what’s more, if you are going to print money, then why not distribute that money directly to the industries that need it – the health services, education and create a few jobs in the process, rather than distribute it to fat-cat bankers who will distribute it to the corporations of their choice.
Again, an oversimplification and I simply urge you to look deeper into this subject and as I said earlier, I focus on the US, because it is the world’s economic “powerhouse” and at least for now.
So what about the master plan?
To me, the world financial systems are in a colossal mess and have been for a very long time.
The launch of a digital currency that has actually taken off, namely Bitcoin and its fluctuating publicity has been a convenience to say the least, as people have jumped in and out of the bandwagon, made and lost fortunes and are waiting for the next “boom” that saw a rise from obscurity to around $20,000 per coin.
You can understand the excitement and allegiance to an unknown currency when someone who bought is way beck when it was $100 per coin and cashed out at the max.
There has been a huge amount of publicity about the coin being tied to criminal activities and yet again, this is another “convenience.”
If you own the infrastructure that powers everything, then it is not beyond any possibility that every single transaction has been carefully logged and monitored, just as it is easily possible to do the same with your smartphone if required.
There is no “hiding”, and this is the illusion.
There is a rumor that the CIA created Bitcoin to “route out” and monitor criminal activity.
There is also the issue of having another source of taxation, which you don’t need me to explain!
I believe that the roots of Bitcoin and all digital currencies that gain traction lie with the same people that control the Central Banks and because those same Bankers want to take over and/or create digital currencies of their own.
They have simply tested the appetite in the meantime and there is another question that must be asked and that is:
How would they benefit from pushing the world to a digital monetary platform?
In short, it depends on how we transition to the “endgame.”
The trouble with fiat currencies and whether they are gold-backed or not are they are a currency with an “identity.”
Now I said earlier, that countries like France, Spain and Italy have lost their individual “currency identity,” but they still have an identity in the Euro and every country is in the same position.
The Euro has a relationship with the Dollar, which has a relationship with the UK Pound, which has another relationship with the Australian Dollar and so on.
Each of those relationships is economically driven and this is where Bitcoin differs.
Bitcoin has a value only to those who are willing to accept it as currency and the value rises and falls based on the true economic principle of supply and demand.
You have to also have an alignment of Bitcoin to a particular currency if you want to exchange Bitcoin for that currency, but you can choose when and if to do that, knowing that your Bitcoin will be held by you and not a Bank if you choose not to.
It’s really quite a creation and technically, you could have the whole world trade in Bitcoin and lose fiat money totally if the “powers that be” wanted it.
Alternatively, they could quash Bitcoin and associated currencies, reform the global Banking System and create digital currencies of their own.
Now this is my opinion, just to remind you, and I think that they may well set up a “global basket” of digital currencies and keep Bitcoin, simply because it was the first to get mainstream recognition, it made many millionaires and why bother to change it as their “test” worked.
But as I believe, they will bring in their own, regulate the entire system and make it taxable naturally.
The point I am making is that something has to be done.
Summary
I simply cannot see us following the same monetary policies and systems that we have followed for years – they are not sustainable, whatever way we look at it and that is why I use the term there is no “future of money.”
In the same light I use the word “illusion,” because I believe we are living in one!
The latest wave of digital currencies powered by Bitcoin is an illusion, in my opinion, a “test” and tool to “wet the appetite” for a full-scale transition to a cashless, digital monetary society.
All around us, there are events that are occurring where people flock to in isolation, without for one moment, taking a step back and interconnecting them.
Money is often portrayed as the “root of all evil,” but I disagree as “evil” is the root of evil, money is simply a commodity invented to progress the ancient art of “bartering” and provide a common means and ground to do so.
But money is the root of the system and we must go directly to the roots of money to start the process of evaluating where we are today – I have merely scratched the surface in this article, but hopefully provided you with some “food for thought.”
But the system has failed and was deliberately set up to fail, in my opinion.
Now, we are into what I will term the “final industrial revolution” and I am just hijacking the term to talk about the “new economy,” created by the Internet, but it is a massive change from what we have been used to.
The pieces of the puzzle are all there… just look to connect the dots!
-Neil