I watched an excellent interview featuring Lynette Zang a couple of days ago on Kitco news. Throughout the show, both her and the host discussed the current risks to the banking sector, the increasing velocity of US dollars, and how nearly all countries are working on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to replace fiat currencies.
Although I agree with her on all problems they discussed regarding the traditional financial system, and I think the entire interview is well worth watching, I disagree with her opinion that Bitcoin was likely created by the government, or the CIA in particular.
A lot of people are discomforted by the fact that the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, is an anonymous figure with unknown origins. The true identity of Satoshi has never been revealed, and that has made a lot of people wary of Bitcoin itself, and speculate over who might be behind its creation.
However, at this point, the question "who is Satashi" doesn't really matter, because "the cat is out of the bag", as they say.
First of all, the decentralized ledger that keeps track of everyone's Bitcoin is totally transparent, and it can be audited by anyone in the world who has Internet access. Moreover, Satoshi released Bitcoin as completely open-source software, meaning there is no funny business surrounding how it works. In fact, plenty of people have used the code behind Bitcoin to launch their own cryptocurrencies.
Due to its decentralized nature, Bitcoin is disruptive software that cannot be stopped or controlled, because it transcends national borders and regulatory authorities. In effect, the invention of Bitcoin has taken power away from existing institutions, and placed it into the hands of international cryptocurrency communities. Ask yourself, why would governments want something like this to happen?
In the interview, Lynette argues that Bitcoin was created to get people used to the idea of using purely digital currencies, so that they will more readily accept government-issued CBDCs when they are finally launched. While there is some merit to this argument, it fails to address to fact that there has already been a re-balance of power that threatens traditional institutions.
All you have to do is look at a long-term price chart of Bitcoin to see that a lot of wealth has already been transferred from the old system to early Bitcoin adopters, including miners and investors. Those who have held onto their Bitcoin since the early years now have a lot more influence in the world, and the government never had control over who was mining or investing in Bitcoin. Why would the CIA want a bunch of random people to obtain wealth and power?
Not only is power shifting to the early Bitcoin adopters, but also to the early participants of other cryptocurrencies, which are all based on Bitcoin's code. It begs the question, why would people in traditionally powerful roles, who are probably not very technically inclined anyways, want to release a technology into the wild that cannot be controlled? More than likely, they are becoming more and more fearful of a technology that they once mocked and dismissed.
Let's say their plan all along has been to get the population used to a digital currency, launch their CBDCs, and then outlaw decentralized cryptocurrencies. The major problem with that plan is getting all worldwide governments, states and cities to ban cryptocurrencies. How would they do that as countries like El Salvador, Central African Republic, and states like Texas and Florida take a positive stance towards Bitcoin? The short answer is that they cannot.
Given the fact that Bitcoin was released as open-source software that can easily be copied, innovated upon, and used to produce an unlimited number of uncontrollable cryptocurrencies, I highly doubt that traditional power structures were behind the creation of Bitcoin. After all, it is a disruptive technology that is a threat to conventional governments and banks.
In all likelihood, Bitcoin was founded by a brilliant software engineer who combined a number of prior innovations to invent a new form of money that makes traditional banks irrelevant. Due to its uncontrollable nature, governments will try to ban crypto over and over again (as we have already seen in countries like China), but eventually come to realize that blockchain technology is unstoppable, and that they must adapt to it.
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out my other articles on finance and crypto here on the HIVE blockchain. You can also follow me on InLeo for more frequent updates.
Until next time...
