Introduction
Finally, a website that I have dreamed about and slowly but surely got to exist. This will be weird for me, the author, to read personally as I am drafting this still months out of the actual launch of this website, but I feel like I have an adequate reason for a first blog. It'll be long as it collects my thoughts I have thusfar of my research, but that is, afterall, one primary reason why I propped up this digital tent.
Foreword, Motivations
With how much there is in the world, I want to focus on the validity and stability of cryptocurrencies for the long haul. I want to know if they are actually here to stay, to make some kind of impact, and/or to provide new avenues for people to live their lives outside of the further commodification of everything under the sun. As someone who seeks to strike no substantial deal with the government, I will always value directions to circumvent them. However, cryptocurrencies so far appear to only be for gamblers and speculators or venture capitalists and the ultra wealthy, who intend on staying the way they are.
Thoughts Accumulated On February 13th, 2023
It may be leaning more towards instruments for the rich in order to stay rich. As much as there can be the utility in transacting digital currencies free of an intermediary, with how many venture capitalists, billionaires, and similarly far-right people (most notably, Peter Thiel) are looking into this as a new opportunity to circumvent taxes and to further assert their own control. For example, Ethereum. This is the biggest interoperable blockchain and has audacious goals. It wishes to host information on its blockchain that isn't just transactions. Whatever that information that these people want to be stored on a publicly auditable blockchain should be met with serious criticism as I've heard there could be driver's licenses, medical IDs, and similar being advocated for to be placed on chain. It's a freaky possibility as it further lays bare our information that already is being picked apart by advertising firms.
It's as if these attempts to find applications to fill the void in these blockchains seems rather hasty. But it's because of the nature of the community that care about the chains. Those with tremendous capital / early investors would like for more utility to exist, regardless of what it is, because that would incentivize more people to join in. This would inflate the price, allowing them to cash out with even more than what they started with. The line goes up, and it benefits the investors. The magnification of this line going up is the basis of the web3 movement that ultimately proliferated after the advent of Bitcoin. Its fans fantasize becoming millionaires and maintaining the staus-quo, or for those already rich to maintain their wealth.
And if we look at the utility of sending payments digitally peer-to-peer, then you will run into the extra trouble of actually cashing that out to a currency that is viable where you intend on using it. Cryptocurrencies can work well on their own in very, VERY limited circumstances as they are not made as available payments in places like traditional stores. Their price remains volatile, so upon sending payment, there may be a drastic change in its value upon receipt, either falling short of or overpaying the payee. For more illicit products, it does make more sense for this market because of its already uncertain nature.
Thoughts Accumulated On February 17th, 2023
After giving more thought on the idea as I fully consider that Peter Thiel is backing certain projects that I had my eyes on (Reserve), I believe it isn't as heinous as I once thought. Afterall, I believe there are different sides to this token, though one substantially dwarfs the other. And that monstrous side is Peter Thiel, the world of reactionaries, and their wonderfully complacent venture capitalists. Reserve is eyed at being a way to potentially bring back "good" money as there is supposedly a grand conspiracy at play. But on the other hand, there could be genuine freedom achieved through the utilization of money that isn't rendered through an intermediary and subject to federal policies of whatever nation issues it. And as we are looking at it right now, the United States seems to have a substantial foothold in the world's economy as many other nations base their economy off of its legal tender.
Final Thoughts
With so much given to the idea that maybe this technology can offer monetary freedom from global governments, it simply does not accomplish this. It instead asks for users to shoulder tremendous burden of money management in an inherently volatile ecosystem while its biggest players try to get away with what they can while nations slowly wake up to what cryptocurrencies are actually being used for. They are great machines for money laundering and empowering the rich as whoever starts, or initially invests in, a token, which then takes off, they will inevitably make money at the cost of whoever buys in after. It is reciprocation of capitalism with the monetization of everything in a malformed, frustrating space.
Conclusion
I will not be having a specific format for my blogs, each one will be its own machine that I build onto which will give it its own little identity. But I will have to follow some kind of flow at the beginning to entice myself to actually write entries.
This concludes my beginning analysis of cryptocurrencies. The section for it in the wiki will further flesh out certain topics I covered while being a space I will constantly update, tweak, and grammatically correct.