We've been talking a lot about rogue nation states turning to Bitcoin in this rag in the past couple of issues. Today, we congregate to beat a dead horse. Now I'm typically not the kind of guy to beat a dead horse, but when we have friends like The Bitcoin Observer dropping hot Carl Menger snippets that help prove the point we've been trying to make over the last few days, my hand is forced.

In a world dominated by the G10's economic, political and militaristic ambitions, those who find themselves on the wrong side of their policies are those most likely to turn to Bitcoin. The hyperconnected, surveilled and centrally controlled panopticon of a financial system that we've erected in the dawn of the Digital Age has allowed a select few to decide who can and cannot participate in commerce on a global scale. Over the course of the last century and change, the powers that have manipulated the monetary system to such a point that it is essentially controlled a few individuals with perverse incentives. Money is no longer a creature of the market but something that is issued top-down from authority.

Most don't know it, but this is a historical anomaly that was enabled by the castration of the Gold Standard. As we've moved to the Dollar reserve system, control over money has wholly transitioned from a product of the market to a product of central banking (The State). Now, to buy oil if you don't produce it locally every state needs to convert their currency to dollars. Helping drive demand for the Dollar and helping to cement its status as reserve currency of the world.

Couple this fact with the fact that it is very trivial to cut individuals and States off from this system due to how centralized the levers of control are and you have a perfect impetus to push others to seek alternatives. When you impede enough economic activity from participating within your system you open up the door for those marooned actors to begin attempting to create an economic system of their own. This leads to gold accumulating, attempts to price oil contracts in currencies other than the USD, and, now, hoarding bitcoins.

As we’ve discussed before and as Carl Menger points out in the above excerpt, monetary goods have certain properties that make them good monies. We here at the Bent believe that Bitcoin’s properties are such that it is the best monetary good the world has seen to date. While the G10 countries scramble to keep the facade of the dominant monetary system in tact as they simultaneously isolate more and more people from said system by the day, we believe that Bitcoin’s apolitical nature will shine and its digital essence will enable it to succeed where gold has failed.

It’s just a matter of time and antagonization...

Final thought...

The ferry is supremely more pleasant than the subway.