These days I find myself preaching the merits of crypto way too often but while the conversation is always intriguing, I sometimes struggle to find the right words to express concepts. Partly, because these things are complicated and I'm learning every day, but also because, as they say, you should never use seven words when four will do and that's a superpower I still don't have. Working on it.
But anyway, what I thought I'd do is put together 8 key bullet points to remember (and bear in mind) whenever I'm having a conversation with somebody who puts way too much trust in FIAT money and can't see how important crypto will be. In random order.
1. FIAT, as in FIAT money, derives from Latin and it means 'let it be done'. It basically means 'because I [the issuing bank/government] said so'.
2. The U.S. Dollar is not backed by anything because the Bretton Woods system is de-facto dead.
3. The Bretton Woods system was implemented after WWII and in short, this is what it entailed: the U.S. Dollar is backed by gold, all other currencies are backed by the U.S. Dollar
4. In 1971, President Richard Nixon unilaterally cancelled the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold. Until then, U.S. Dollars could be redeemed for gold BUT since then, it can't, which means there's no underlying asset to guarantee the value of the U.S. Dollar
5. The Federal Reserve is NOT 'federal' and it has no 'reserve'. It is a private company created by five bankers, a Senator of the U.S. and the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Teasury Department. They came up with the idea on Jekyll Island (Georgia) in 1910 and officially founded it in 1913.
6. Nearly 50% of all U.S. Dollars in circulation has been printed since the start of the Pandemic.
7. Bitcoin is not anonymous, it is pseudonymous, which means that tracing the identity of the owner of an address to the activity of said address is yes, extremely difficult, but technically not impossible.
8. Bitcoin and Ethereum alone represent around 57% of the market (40% and 17% respectively).
Is there anything you wanna add to the list? Let me know in the comments.
I've crossposted this article on my blog bitcoinea and LeoFinance
