2020 was unforgettable, especially for Bitcoin. To help commemorate our readers this year, we asked our network of contributors to reflect on Bitcoin price action, technological advancement, community growth and more in 2020, and reflect on what this could all mean for 2021. The writers responded this with a collection of thought provoking articles. Click here to read all the stories from our End of Year Series 2020.
This was not the year we wanted, looking back at the last 365 days. It started well, but as the hard reality began to kick in, the worst it got.
I was only a few weeks ago from Germany after a trip to visit a few fellow Bitcoiners when the new year brought news of an unknown infectious pneumonia virus spreading in Wuhan city on the Chinese mainland. I was still able to attend Guns n ‘Bitcoin Meetup in Switzerland before the world began to change, perhaps permanently.
As they say, “gradually, then all of a sudden” all these fancy walks stopped. I thought no one could stop Bitcoiners from meeting, discussing their views with each other and organizing in a meaty space, until the World Economic Forum’s “New Normal” arrived. (Remember that phrase: You’ll own nothing, and you’ll be happy.
The “New Normal”
The world economy fell off the rails and started to crash in the midst of a financial panic. A few months later, the bitcoin price saw an annual minimum at around $ 4,600 followed by a new all-time high in the same year, showing that bitcoin itself is resilient to natural disasters, even if higher volatility occurs during a crisis such.
2020 unveiled the bad side of centralized financial nationalism and monetary policy. The US Federal Reserve Bank inflated US dollars, with the New York Fed handing out more than $ 9 trillion in aid and printing tremendous sums of money. He created wealth out of thin air for banks and for himself to buy bonds and other financial junk products to inflate his own balance sheets, a move reminiscent of similar actions taken during the 2008 financial crisis, when the US Government imposed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are under guardianship. (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are real estate funders and government-sponsored investment entities that manage over $ 3 trillion worth of assets, and this federal conservatism remains in place today.)
You may have noticed that more people are now out of work in the US than at the beginning of the year, but they are almost invisible and the stock market continues to reach new heights. The latter fact is largely due to the money printing and US government’s practice of acquiring stocks and bonds on the market, pumping up the price of these assets, stocks and bonds. The Fed is pumping everything.
For Bitcoiners, this year was also a challenge. Our organizational structure changed and those who were more likely to attend conferences had to adjust to the year of restrictions. Anyone wanting to work together moved to the uncomfortable realm of Zoom and Jitsi – those lucky with a Headset VR can enjoy AltspaceVR or VRChat. (Seriously guys, have you ever heard of Second Life?)
And now, the biggest shock of the year, the victory of the 2020 Presidential Election by Joe Biden. Our American comrades can now expect further acceleration of social norms analysis. More locks will come and more people will soon lose their jobs.
We were already living in a world that was trying to control us, but now the virus gave it an excuse to overlap its legal boundaries and try to “protect” us by introducing these restrictions, and acquiring forced ownership in other companies and organizations. with money printing that the Federal Reserve is doing today. It was only a matter of time for the evil to show its true face, and it is happening today just as many predicted.
It is important to understand that we are already living in a volatile world that was ridden with social injustice founded by the US Federal Reserve. But now, these factors have forced many millions of Americans to steer off the path of being “American” and instead turn to left-wing Marxists who are currently trying to gain control of the United States. This is one of the problems that we cannot solve as long as central banking monetary policy remains in place, further driving those who are betrayed by the system towards socialism and communism.
Bitcoin As The Balance
If we are to survive the coming years, we must start educating people about the importance of personal finance and the importance of avoiding inflation by all means. Without this, we will have a bleak future where another Civil War could be on the horizon that will place the totalitarian communists against the capitalist liberals.
But for now, things are looking stable. Once the virus gets older, we will have more challenges, more and more complex issues that will have to be resolved, such as Bitcoin privacy, KYC, mining pools and the Travel Rule. The privacy war is ahead, and it’s going to be the most devastating episode of civil wars in Bitcoin history.
As we are slowly approaching Taproot activation, privacy will significantly improve and will allow the Lightning Network to continue to develop further.
But there are those who are against the Lightning Network because their interest lies in developing infrastructure on the chain that is slowly being threatened by the growing fee market. Many would love to see Bitcoin fail and we must draw the red line there and stick to our principles and continue to protect Bitcoin, even if we don’t need our help or anything at all.
Today we can see that there is renewed interest in bitcoin acquisition in the retail space, precoiners are arriving and their curiosity driven interest is looking for contacts. It’s only a matter of time before more people reach our sights and start using our communications on Twitter, Reddit and Telegram. These people will have less understanding of Bitcoin, they will probably be looking for a profit buzz, but since survival is the fittest, only those who have the ability to search why things like this are in the today’s world will wait and learn. These newcomers will learn about Bitcoin, may not have enough tools and coins stored on custodial exchanges, but we must be tolerant towards those who have just come into contact with BTC in this way and try to steer them to become real consumers.
The world around us is slowly becoming dystopian, the more we allow national central banks to continue to inflate their money, the more volatile the world will become. I do not want to speculate about the future, because its outcome can be completely unexpected. But I know for sure that the fight is not over yet.
We must maintain our personal vigilance and integrity if we are to act as full members of the new world order society that Bitcoiners are currently building. We must band together with others, strengthen those bonds and continue to organize. At present trust may be a shambles but, believe it or not, goodwill and determination will get us far ahead of our destiny.
This is a guest post by Karo Zagorus. The views expressed are entirely of their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.