BITCOIN — THE OPEN MONEY AND ITS ENEMIES
Bitcoin is a digital open money for the modern open society — a society free of hereditary hierarchies — that is accessible to anybody.
Bitcoin is frequently subjected to numerous criticisms (about speculation, volatility, money laundering, terrorism, pollution, etc.). However, anyone who takes the time to examine such criticisms, or objections, to Bitcoin will find a massive body of evidence and analysis rebutting these claims item by item on the internet.
So why do the same charges keep reappearing, despite the fact that similar refutations have been published for years? Some denigrators’ intellectual laziness does not explain everything. The evident prejudices of those whose power or business model is threatened by the rise of cryptocurrencies don’t help matters either.
There is a deeper cause, one that is ideological in character.
The great philosopher Karl Popper writes in “The Open Society And Its Enemies” (1945) that civilization is the gradual acceptance of a few key principles: equal rights, freedom of expression, intellectual pluralism, critical rationalism, property rights, individual responsibility, mutual tolerance, exchange, and cooperation. The term “open society” refers to a dynamic social structure that frees people from inherited hierarchies.
However, Popper believes that the development of civilization is fundamentally fragile. Innovation upsets the conventional order’s comfort and security because it promotes mobility, unpredictability, and complexity. The position of each individual in the social order is no longer assured. Tribal society’s simplicity, certainty, and permanence are brought into question. As a result, anxiety, fierce rejection, and reactionary behaviors are fueled by this process.
Too much freedom, according to those who pine for a “closed society,” leads to anarchy. Tradition must take precedence over innovation, and the collective must take precedence over the individual. Allowing the open society to develop is impossible. It is important to re-establish submission to unchangeable traditions, unquestionable beliefs, set hierarchies, and permanent position. They must establish community primacy, mutual observation, and social control.
According to Popper, Western political theory is confronted with the dichotomy between open and closed societies. Theoretical attacks of coercive holism, anti-individualism, tribal collectivism, and the temptation of dictatorship must be countered by philosophers in each century.
Another expression of this friction is the Bitcoin controversy. Bitcoin is the open society’s currency. It irritates me since it is a freely given currency. It is intolerable for freedom skeptics.
Everyone has access to the Bitcoin network. Nobody is obligated to utilize it. No previous authorization, discrimination, or censorship are required for anyone to participate and leave at any moment. Bitcoin may be received, stored, and transmitted by anyone.
Everyone may help secure the system by either helping to validate transactions for free (by downloading the software and database) or by “mining” for information (being paid to provide computing power to the network). Everyone can help with the protocol’s verification, auditing, and completion. The latter is open source, which means it can be freely consulted, copied, and utilized.
Bitcoin transactions are public communications that anybody can read. The accounting register (the well-known “blockchain”) is likewise open to the public. It is replicated on tens of thousands of computers all across the world, with no single computer having more power than the rest.
The monetary issuance regime of Bitcoin is transparent, automated, predictable, and uncontrollable. Bitcoin is a decentralized, open, and acephalous device. This system is controlled by no one. It does not have a leader or a manager. It belongs to everyone and no one at the same time.
These features combine to generate a highly inventive whole that is the polar opposite of systems based on hierarchy, authority, legal monopoly, authorization, privilege, secrecy, centralism, control, arbitrariness, politicization, dirigisme, planning, and coercion.
Bitcoin possesses all of the characteristics that make it suitable for use as money: it is homogenous, divisible, portable, exchangeable, uncommon, and expensive to generate. Its technology can be upgraded. It’s programmable, which fits the digital age’s paradigm. The Lightning Network, a similar protocol, allows for a limitless number of micropayments with no additional energy consumption. Bitcoin adoption is a slow process. It’s a currency on the verge of becoming one.
Should the monetary system be imposed, piloted, and manipulated? Are you being held captive by an oligarchy? Is it being used for political gain? Are you ready to mobilize to manage the economy and keep an eye on your personal life? Should it be free, impartial, inventive, and open (as opposed to future “central bank digital currencies”)?
The free Linux software was mocked in the 1990s as silly and unrealistic since it was open to anyone and did not require intellectual property. It is now commonplace, even in the most closed computer systems, like as Microsoft’s. Open systems are generally viewed with suspicion and animosity, but they always triumph because they are more adaptable, robust, and innovative. Like open money.
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