Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

If you entered the crypto sphere to get rich in a few months, pay off all your debts, and retire to live without working, as I read in many posts with these objectives, I want to tell you that you are missing 89% of the sunken iceberg.

As you progress in understanding what the disruption of cryptocurrencies means, you realize that the problem is far from being economic, and becomes philosophical, political, social, and seminal for civilization.

It is like we are going from witchcraft that used the natural elements, earth, water, air, and fire, as the witches of the Middle Ages did, and entering a totally unknown path, which can logically arouse fears, anxieties, anguishes, and FUD in people who don't want or can't understand what it's all about. In the same way that medieval witches were burned at the stake, banks and international organizations brimming with bureaucrats who studied in universities where they are taught to preserve the model that enriches only an elite and from which they draw some little crumbs, today they intend to burn at the stake those who intend to oust the medieval slave-owning centralizing system. The first thing they tell us, repeating like parrots, is “Bitcoin has no fundamental value”. It makes me laugh a lot because that statement implies that the fiat money that they print at will to save banks or corporations that fall apart due to shady, scandalous, and corrupt businesses, had some “fundamental value”. (?!)

When the child begins to study mathematics in primary school to learn to count and calculate, without knowing it, he/she is laying the foundations of fundamental knowledge, which has more to do with philosophy and the nature of things than with calculations, triangles, and rectangles. The philosophy that is derived from mathematics allows us to better understand the world around us.

In school and university, you learn a whole series of theorems that are proven and irrefutable. It could easily be believed that there are no more questions to be asked of mathematical logic, investigations to be carried out or problems to be solved. The common human being tends to think that in mathematics everything is solved. However, there are still many problems in mathematics and its related theories that have never been solved, and even the most important researchers have not been able to find solutions.

Mathematics is so vast that it is necessary to specialize in something to be able to say that we have made some progress in understanding this fabulous universe. In my case, I chose game theory. That is why, in 2011, when a student named Bitcoin to me, I fell deeply in love with a brief, concise, and forceful White Paper that solved the problem of the Byzantine generals in a pragmatic and definitive way. That is Bitcoin. Bitcoin is not the second-by-second price reported by Coingecko and Kucoin.

Game Theory is the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between different people. It is used in economics, business management, strategy, psychology, and even biology. The basis of game theory is that before acting we must think about what the other agents involved in the situation or problem are going to do. The so-called “Byzantine fault tolerance” is a property of systems that are capable of resisting failures arising from the Byzantine general's problem. A BTF system is capable of continuing to operate even when some nodes failed to communicate or communicated maliciously. This brings us to the great cornerstone of the crypto sphere: You don't need to trust anyone to operate, as the system is immune to attack and control.

The Bitcoin network is insured against malicious behavior through the PoW consensus algorithm that uses cryptographic techniques that make it possible for a category of incentivized competitors called miners to exist within the transaction validation process, creating a competitive mining environment among them to solve a math problem in exchange for bitcoins. Mining nodes that display behavior that is not expected are expelled from the bitcoin network. Therefore, the best decision for a miner is to perform the functions correctly and keep bitcoin safe. The role of game theory in Bitcoin is to analyze how nodes behave and make decisions based on rationality. Bitcoin works because every participant in the Bitcoin network is acting selfishly. As long as the nodes continue to act selfishly, they are also supporting the security and structure of the network as a whole. In this way, Bitcoin is an "unhackable" entity because it depends on the incentives that miners have, who are much better off being loyal than traitors.

The underlying philosophical concept is, can a distributed network of nodes agree to a decision so that it doesn't have to rely on a third party to validate it, especially when that third party is a bank? This is the fundamental question of the so-called Byzantine general's problem, which gave rise to the concept of Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT).

The Byzantine general's problem is mental speculation assuming that each general has his own army and that each group is situated in different locations around the city they are trying to attack. The generals must agree to attack or retreat. It does not matter if they attack or retreat, as long as all the generals reach a consensus, that is, they agree on a common decision to execute it in coordination. So each general has to decide whether to attack or not, but all the generals have to agree on the same decision and execute it in a synchronized way. After the decision is made, it cannot be changed. A general can only communicate with another through messages that are sent by mail. Messages can be delayed, destroyed, or lost. But the main problem is that, once the message is received, one or more generals may decide to act maliciously and send a fraudulent message to confuse other generals, causing a catastrophe. Even this can be brought about by the top general being a traitor himself/herself.

In the context of a blockchain, each general represents a network node and the nodes must reach a consensus on the current state of the system. Most of the participants within a distributed network have to agree and take the same action to avoid complete failure. Therefore, the only way to achieve consensus in these types of distributed systems is to have at least two-thirds or more trusted and honest network nodes. This means that if the majority of the network decides to act maliciously, the system is susceptible to failures and attacks (eg, the 51% attack).

From this analysis arises the concept of Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT). Byzantine fault tolerance is the property of a system that can withstand the class of faults derived from the Byzantine generals' dilemma problem. This means that a BFT system can continue to function even if some of the nodes fail or act maliciously. There is more than one possible solution to the Byzantine General's Problem and therefore multiple ways to build a BFT system. Similarly, there are several different approaches for a blockchain to reach Byzantine fault tolerance and this brings us to the so-called consensus algorithms.

A consensus algorithm is a mechanism through which a blockchain network reaches a consensus. The most common implementations are Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS). The concept of Proof of Work is older than cryptocurrencies. What Satoshi Nakamoto did, and here is his genius, is to develop a modified version that allowed the creation of Bitcoin as a BFT system. Even though the PoW algorithm is not 100% tolerant of Byzantine faults, due to the cost of the mining process and the underlying cryptographic techniques, PoW has proven to be one of the most secure and reliable implementations for blockchain networks. In that sense, the Proof of Work consensus algorithm, designed by Satoshi Nakamoto, is considered by many to be one of the coolest solutions to Byzantine faults.

Do you understand what it means to solve the problem of the Byzantine generals?

Discovering a practical and simple way to solve the Byzantine general's problem, which plagued game-theoretic brains, opening up unexpected avenues for human coordination. In fact, today BTF is used by the aviation industry, nuclear energy, and, of course, the war industry. Soon we will see more applications that will solve problems in many other industries that will decentralize their organization as humanity moves in this direction, and that need resistance to catastrophic possibilities of malfunction. This is the 89% of the iceberg that those who are only interested in playing Wall Street with cryptocurrencies are missing.

The establishment and its lackeys, the mass media, are candlemakers talking about electricity. Some do not understand a damn what is the scope of having solved the problem of the Byzantine generals. Those who do understand it are right to be scared and not know what to do, knowing that the issue of cryptocurrencies is much more than an economic problem and has become a problem of changing the basic rules in all aspects of civilization. No need for hierarchies anymore, guys. We no longer need to trust someone to operate.

But all this is ignored by the elites harmed by a decentralized system. At this point in my life, I cannot believe that banks, being predatory as they are, charge extremely high fees for transfer operations, charging hidden fees for using ATMs, charging ridiculous fees for account maintenance, charging ridiculous fees for sending statements for email, even charging to breathe at the front door, and giving a lousy service because they have less and less staff to attend to their clients, still want to defend themselves and say that they are necessary to maintain the stability of the predatory international financial system.

The only thing they tell us is that crypto assets have no fundamental value, that they are used for speculation, and that they are not backed by any entity. But boy, is that exactly what gives them value! Isn't it essential to value the fact of having put together a self-coordinated system that eliminates intermediary vultures? I ask once again, what is the fundamental value of a piece of paper issued at the discretion of a central bank? Can someone in their right mind explain it to me?

They also tell us that the strength of the dollar lies in very important factors such as trust in institutions and in the legal system, factors that cryptocurrencies do not have. Once again I repeat, the crypto sphere does not need to trust anyone, and that is the big change. That is the great news that terrifies those who think that human beings are going to kill each other in the streets if there is no state that protects our rights. Is it understood that having solved the problem of the Byzantine generals is not an economic problem but much deeper? Are they trying to make us believe that inflation is good?

Oddly enough, they keep telling us about the energy consumption of the Bitcoin network. It would be better if they calculated how much the international banking network consumes and then compare. It seems totally ridiculous to me at this point in the game to continue saying these stupid things.

And they continue to lash out at us with CBDCs, telling us that they will make the payment network much more efficient. What is going to make it more efficient is the absolute control of our lives, eliminating all kinds of liberties to do what we want with our money. They say that CBDCs can ensure that payments align with the principles of human rights, democratic values, and privacy. Privacy? It is the climax of misinformation. It is the climax of the Orwellian nightmare. Through years of corruption, market dominance, sanctions, embargoes, wars, and occupations, we are tempted to believe that power is unbeatable. Unbeatable?

Friends, we reject CBDCs because they are the exact opposite of what we want to be free. We don't need to trust anyone, just math and Byzantine generals who can't screw themselves because of consensus mechanisms and highly incentivized miners that protect us with BTF.

Okay, keep thinking that the crypto sphere is a passing curse and that the fiat toilet paper printing system is going to prevail over the madness of a few nerds. See you in the next few years.

CONCLUSION

Candlemakers cannot or do not want to understand that we are facing a change in technology, probably the biggest change in technology that humanity has experienced, which has always built its models on a centralized hierarchical basis. By solving the problem of the Byzantine generals in a practical, simple, and self-controlling way, Satoshi Nakamoto broke an ancient model that was already successfully implemented by the pharaohs.

I have a problem that sometimes torments me. No matter how hard I try, I still can't convince my family and circle of close friends about the suitability of the crypto sphere for all aspects of our lives. Of about 15 close friends, only 2 entered the ecosystem. And in my family (a large Italian family!), only my wife accompanies me. But when I calmly reflect on walking by the sea, I think that this is good because we are not talking about a small change, but about a 180-degree turn, and the influence of the media is still extraordinarily strong on the planet, thanks to the centralized control of the corporations that manage them. So, I get un-tormented and I charge myself with the energy to continue fighting for what for me is a very deep belief. After all, nobody disputes today the formula E=mc2, at first unintelligible.

In my previous post, I described how I am collecting daily sats for my newborn grandson. Many laugh when they see the small amounts that I harvest per day. Of course, they laugh because they associate them with a currency that when my grandson reaches full age will not exist. They remind me of when I started mining Bitcoin in 2011 with my laptop and a series of fan-cooled graphics cards, and some people laughed because the amounts I mined were so small. Those today, don't laugh anymore.

Thank you for reading! Decentralize yourselves as much as you can, and much more! Work for yourselves, not for others. When you work for someone else, they pay you what YOUR POSITION is worth, when you work for yourself, they pay you what YOU are worth. No one achieves financial independence by working as an employee. Live long and prosper!

Never forget:

As usual, none of the things written in this post are financial advice and are not intended to replace personal research. My sole intention in writing this post is informative. Several of the things discussed here could be wrong, so in no way can this post be construed as financial advice, and in no way should it replace your own research.

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