Crypto goes up and down, still more secure than fiat

With the recent happenings in the world starting from the authoritarian power grab in Canada to the now war in Ukraine, the financial situation around the world has already been shaken up to a large degree. Even if you are not in the US and the inflation there is not currently affecting you, there will be some sort of a domino effect if the currency which was seen as a world reserve takes a dive. Not to mention the fact that the sanctions on Russia are already negatively effecting the rest of the world since dependency was so high on Russian exports. This could serve as a wakeup call for countries to be more self-reliant and most importantly energy independent but do we really trust our governments to make the right decisions or can we expect things to go similarly to how they have previously played out where people in charge refuse to learn from their mistakes? But putting aside fearmongering and worst case scenarios like a world war 3 or even a nuclear war, other scenarios that are very likely to happen and also quite disastrous should be carefully considered: like the fall of a national currency. What do you do if your country's money won't be worth the paper is printed on anymore? One solution would be to start buying gold as it has always remained a safe haven in cases like this. But gold is not easy to store in larger quantities mainly because it can be stolen. Not only that depending on your country it can be also taken from you by the government with some sort of silly excuse. Then what do you do?  

Crypto is freedom

Now this might sound like a buzz phrase or just a sentimental one, here to express some ambiguous notion but crypto really represents freedom. And we are not the only ones to think so. Many have realized it after what happened in Canada and now with a huge conflict brewing that crypto can offer people freedom in times like this. One of the people who recently expressed their views on this is prince Philip of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He recently talked about bitcoin on a Serbian TV show in which he stated that: "Bitcoin is freedom, and this is something I want for everyone." He also wanted to make it clear that he was not referring to crypto but only to bitcoin. This comes of course of that fact the bitcoin is the most valuable crypto and it will probably remain so for a very long time if nothing serious happens to the crypto community. We still think that bitcoin alone would not be able to offer people the freedom that the prince was talking about. There is a very simple reason for this: monopoly. Bitcoin is already being monopolized to a high degree by just a couple of entities and this situation will probably would not change in the future. This is why other cryptocurrencies are needed in order to have the desired freedom.   

The prince continued to say referring to the freedom offered by bitcoin: "This is something everyone has to learn. They will learn slowly. Some people will not want to learn it because they are not used to it. They want to protect the system that they do well in" and also "But they don’t realize that that system, well maybe they do, is not advantageous to everyone else in the world, so billions of people around the world are not having a good time right now." But as we previously mentioned, it is not bitcoin alone that will achieve this desired freedom. In fact all cryptocurrencies, big or small contribute to some degree to helping people achieve financial freedom by taking their money into their own hands and their hands alone. Just the simple fact that so many alternatives exist to national currencies is a great boon for people that want financial freedom in the future. But of course in the eyes of some crypto being able to give people absolute freedom with their finances is not a good thing. Some us regulators would like to restrict and sanction crypto with means deemed unconstitutional by others. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is maybe just one, of many, who would like to use the war in Ukraine and the fact that some sanctions on Russian people can be avoided with crypto as an excuse to pass a very restrictive bill on companies that operate with crypto and facilitate exchange. She was quoted as saying: "Putin and his cronies can move, store, and hide their wealth using cryptocurrencies, potentially allowing them to evade the historic economic sanctions the U.S. and its partners across the world have levied in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine." Of course, others can read between the lines and realize that this type of law and regulation can and will most definitely be used in the future to control crypto outside of the Ukraine - Russia conflict. There are many precedents of lawmakers using one incident, one conflict to usher draconian laws which will later hurt innocent people. 

Crypto is security 

Unless society at large experience a world-wide disaster which will make internet unavailable of mostly useless, crypto will always be a secure way to hold digital assets with no concern for what happens to traditional currencies. Fiat money can become useless amid increasing inflation; the buying power of traditional currencies could see a downfall that could last decades but crypto will always be there as an alternative. Just this fact alone will drive more people to it. But some people are concerned about getting into the crypto community to late since they only look at bitcoin and not at the entire sea of cryptocurrencies available. One of these people is the billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Peter Thiel. the co-funder of PayPal who recently stated: "The biggest mistake I made in the last decade was getting too late and too little into bitcoin." Again just because he is only touting bitcoin here, this doesn't mean that other cryptocurrencies are worthless. On the contrary it is because of the advent of other crypto that bitcoin can still go strong and enjoys the current success. And yes it is a success. Despite dropping in value from last year bitcoin as well as other crypto are still in our humble opinion more secure that traditional fiat money. And recent times and the way the economy is going seems to agree with us. People who were betting on the "dollar" as a safe haven in case anything happens to the world economy are probably starting to really regret their choice right about now when the US national currency, and one of the most reliable international currency is showing advanced signs of weakness. Of course the fact that cryptocurrencies have value is not the only reason that crypto represents security. The blockchain technology behind it which makes the entire system of peer-to-peer transactions with no additional interference possible is probably the main reason that we consider crypto to be secure. It makes almighty governments who could easily seize your assets on a whim unable to do so if your money is held in cryptocurrencies. 

 But if we refer back to what the co-funder of PayPal said, is it really to late to get into Bitcoin? It might be if you want to make your profits 100 times greater but that doesn't mean it is to late to profit at all. Some people still believe strongly in choosing bitcoin like the leader of the United People’s Party and member of St. Maarten’s Parliament, Rolando Brison who wants to become the first elected official of the Caribbean to have his salary paid in bitcoin. Considering how volatile crypto still is at the moment this move might shock some people while others might shake their heads in approval. It is amusing how many people still dismiss crypto as something ethereal over the internet that could disappear at any given moment without realizing that most of the things they do and will be doing are and will be on the internet. Their bank accounts could also easily disappear along with their digital identity. Even if you have physical proof for some of the things you own, it today's age a lot of our assets revolve just around the internet with little real paperwork behind. And this trends will only continue as some countries push to create their own digital currency as a response to crypto. Of course this will be no different from fiat money it will just not have a physical counterpart. But it will still have all of the weaknesses of fiat money such as being controlled by a central entity and by the government, thus being susceptible to being seized at any moment should some people in charge feel like it. 

The future of money, both fiat and crypto

Whenever we talk about the future of anything it must be taken with a grain of salt. Also, depending on the subject matter you might need a lot more salt. This is because the future is uncertain for all things and cannot be forthtold. In spite of this it can be predicted to a degree by learning from history, watching trends and understanding human psychology. Just looking at the last one, humans will always seek comfort and security. Even if these feelings might be, from time to time, sprinkled with the desire for conflict in the end, that conflict's purpose if to bring comfort to the people who initiate it. Now, if we take a quick look at the evolution of money we can see a tendency for simplification. First of all the term money itself changed with time because it just means something we attach a certain value to. In the past trading goods directly was the accepted way of using "money" for example exchanging livestock for other type of livestock or for different types of food or perishable, usable materials. But it became increasingly difficult to do so when larger quantities were involved so there was a need for an alternative. Over time this alternative became valuable metals such as gold. But carrying gold on you was also becoming hard for obvious reasons so a way to express that gold into an easier way to carry around was invented and that was paper currency. Then with the advent of the internet and the digital era "plastic" was invented as the ultimate form of trading. All transactions could now be possible with just a simple plastic card. No more encumbrance, easy and simple. Of course as a side evolution of plastic, with the help of the internet transactions could now be made by typing "stuff" on a keyboard. Basically all you need now is the digital in order to purchase and trade. So what would the next step be. After a process becomes easy and accessible people will look at other aspects such as security and freedom. Yes when people find enough comfort there is nothing more that they would like but that comfort to remain secure, in their hands and to have freedom to do what they want with that comfort, when they want. And so the blockchain technology was invented and with it cryptocurrencies appear as the ultimate form of money.