I first came across the concept of Bitcoin about 2 years ago when the media was filled with reports on the crazy bull run Bitcoin was having where it went up to $20,000. After the following crash in January I started reading more and more to understanding what exactly is Bitcoin in more details. I found 2 separate set of views- 1st group which were claiming BTC to be the next big thing in investment and the 2nd group which had people like Andreas Antonopoulos, a Greek Bitcoin enthusiast who had made it his life's mission to educate people about what is Bitcoin. It was through his book and videos I got a better understanding of how BTC was created by Satoshi, why did he create it and what was his vision. I was really amazed by the genius of Satoshi and was convinced that Bitcoin is going to completely change the world sooner or later. However when I looked around at how people were perceiving bitcoin and what where their expectations I found a stark contrast in the Vision of Satoshi and the grim Reality of Bitcoin which can be summarised as below:
VISION OF SATOSHI
- Create a global currency to protect us from Greed of bankers and Fed reserve
- Currency which can be accessed by everyone irrespective of race, country and social status
- Central global currency which cannot be manipulated by any country or a group of people
- Blockchain backbone to eliminate scope of fraud and cheating
- Create a equal world where the rich cannot exploit the wealth of the poor
REALITY OF BITCOIN (at least as of Oct 2019)
- Bitcoin is primarily being used as a speculative tool by the Whales
- Big cycles of pump and dump which make the Whales richer and many newbies of market poor
- Concentration of Bitcoin in USA, Europe, Australia, Singapore
- Minimal adoption in developing world- Africa, Asia
- Most of countries with large poor populations have banned Bitcoin- India, China which hold almost a third of world's population
At the rate things are going it seems BTC is headed in the opposite direction of the vision with what Satoshi created it.
The rich seem to be getting richer and the poor still don't have access to Bitcoin. This situation really disturbs me but when I thought deeply about it dawned upon me that I have 2 choices - either keep feeling bad about it or actually get up and do something to fix the situation for the better in whatever way possible.
I have decided to create a platform to help people in developing countries with restricted access to Bitcoin. Whether it's information or means of getting BTC.
I will publish a follow-up post once I have the platform ready.
Meanwhile feel free to let me know through your comments any ideas you have related to this.