Bitcoin Helped Me Escape A Doomsday Cult – Bitcoin Magazine

That is an opinion editorial by Jonathan Leger, a software program developer and writer of the Concerning Bitcoin publication. A model of this text was initially printed on Substack.

I used to be raised in a doomsday cult that taught that God was on the point of wage the battle of Armageddon and produce in regards to the finish of the present world order. The governments, all dominated by the satan, would get replaced with the Kingdom of Heaven dominated by Jesus Christ. The cult discouraged any form of actual monetary planning due to this worldview. In spite of everything, what was the purpose of investing in a system going through imminent destruction?

This excessive non secular upbringing — and my eventual escape from it — helped me in my path to understanding Bitcoin Maximalism.

Discovering Bitcoin

My Bitcoin expertise started with a shedding commerce in the summertime of 2014. After studying a number of articles about this “magic web cash,” I purchased my first entire coin for about $500. I wasn’t ready for a way risky the value swings could be, although, and offered at a loss later that yr. If solely I had identified…

The final 5 years have been an intense studying expertise for me. On the finish of 2017, I left the cult with my spouse, who’s at present shunned by her total household (as required by cult doctrine). I misplaced all of my “pals” as properly. We needed to learn the way the true world labored and the best way to construct a social community outdoors of the ready-made set of “pals” handed to us by the church, as getting near non-members was deeply discouraged. All non-members have been going to die by God’s hand at Armageddon anyway, so there was no level in getting too acquainted. Plus, their depraved methods may rub off on you, so it was greatest to maintain your distance for worry that you simply may get hit by a stray fireball when the tip got here.

After leaving the cult, I embraced life with the fervor of a wrongly-jailed prisoner embracing freedom upon exoneration. I studied politics for the primary time, since members didn’t vote or take part in any type of campaigning because of the perception that each one earthly governments have been Satanic. I learn books on how far humanity had superior and the way significantly better off all of us are than in centuries previous, nevertheless imperfect the present world could also be. I used to be excited and optimistic for the longer term.

In 2004, I had began and grew a profitable enterprise as a software program developer and web advertising coach. The instruments our staff developed helped folks compete with bigger corporations for getting web sites to the highest of the search ends in Google, in addition to different associated use circumstances. For a few years, looking out Google for “coolest man on the planet” returned my web site because the primary consequence, demonstrating the significance of the Bitcoiner mantra, “Don’t belief, confirm.”

Regardless of making thousands and thousands of {dollars} in profitable software program product launches, I misplaced most of it by way of poor monetary selections coupled with intensifying competitors from significantly better capitalized corporations. On high of that, I went by way of a really costly, acrimonious divorce.

“Love is grand,” they are saying, “however divorce is 100 grand.” I grew up poor and had little formal or private schooling in the best way to correctly handle cash or what cash even actually was, so once I lastly “made it” I didn’t know the best way to correctly deal with it.

As you may think, it wasn’t all unhealthy. The cash afforded me many unimaginable private experiences. However my private and residential life have been a large number, I used to be nonetheless a real believer within the doomsday cult praying for the tip of the world, and on stability was very sad. I felt like the rich author of Ecclesiastes, “I’ve seen all of the works which can be completed beneath the solar; and, behold, all is vainness and vexation of spirit.”

In 2019, I used to be 42 years outdated, had escaped the cult and was remarried to a beautiful girl whom I like. I spent a lot of my time learning markets to stop repeating previous errors and dealing to develop a retirement plan. I did properly with shares that yr however stored listening to about Bitcoin and the way it was like nothing else. After studying “The Bitcoin Normal,” I lastly understood why sound cash was necessary and why fiat was doomed to fail. I once more purchased into BTC, this time at round $9,000.

Contagion Hits

When COVID-19 first reared its ugly head in early 2020, I did what many individuals did: hearken to the “consultants.” However because the scenes of pandemic theater performed out, I started to grasp that politics exhibited lots of the identical attributes because the cult I got here out of. There have been leaders that would not be questioned and members who would disgrace and shun anybody who dared to talk up. Their god was “The Science,” their Pope, Anthony Fauci, their clergy, the CDC and politicians. Rights have been eroded and small companies shut down whereas large field chains and mega-corporations raked in report income, together with Massive Pharma. Trillions of {dollars} have been printed out of skinny air, proving true the Cantillon impact that claims the most important beneficiaries of adjustments in cash provide are the folks and firms closest to the cash printers.

In contrast to many hardcore Bitcoiners, my funding objectives have been purely monetary, not philosophical. Like so many others within the crypto on line casino, I used to be chasing positive factors. Due to this, I offered my bitcoin at $45,000 and jumped into altcoins with the assumption that I might multiply my funding, which I did. Actually, I did properly sufficient to have the ability to cease writing software program for a couple of yr and a half, which was a much-needed hiatus and gave me much more time for the analysis I used to be doing.

Then got here the market crash of 2022. With inflation clearly not “transitory,” the cash printer was halted, and the Federal Reserve started to boost charges at a historically-unprecedented tempo. Markets reacted negatively, bringing all cryptocurrencies down with them. The value of bitcoin cratered together with every little thing else. Low costs uncovered the weak spot of overleveraged schemes like Celsius and Three Arrows Capital, sending them out of business. Terra collapsed together with a bunch of different smaller crypto operations.

The purportedly second-largest centralized crypto trade on this planet, FTX, stepped in with a promise to rescue the business, solely to become the most important fraud of all of them when its personal stability sheet was leaked. FTX’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), was accused of stealing traders’ and customers’ cash and sending it to its buying and selling arm, Alameda, the place it was gambled away on high-risk trades that spectacularly didn’t the tune of $10 billion.

A large “hack” of FTX adopted shortly thereafter, the repercussions of that are nonetheless taking part in out. Proof of political intrigue emerged, supported by the truth that most mainstream media protection handled SBF with child gloves, some even portray him as a sufferer reasonably than a predator. As of this writing, no person has been arrested. By means of comparability, Bernie Madoff was in handcuffs the day after his fraud was uncovered.

Bitcoin started flying off exchanges whereas Bitcoiners shook their rattling heads at how many individuals had once more ignored considered one of their most simple truths, “Not your keys, not your cash.” Whereas I used to be glad to see folks lastly listening, the harm completed was super, each in monetary and reputational loss. Since my begin with Bitcoin, I at all times self-custodied my baggage and so was unaffected by any of the collapses, at the least so far as shedding any of my holdings.

Although I by no means misplaced my respect for Bitcoin or the ideas of decentralization and sound cash, these occasions returned them entrance and middle to my consciousness. I resumed listening to Bitcoiner podcasts, studying long-form articles, watching movies and reminding myself simply how badly off the present world monetary system actually is.

“It’s simply math,” say the Bitcoiners, and I imagine they’re right. There’s no stopping the debt spiral now. The top is certainly coming, simply not in the best way I had been taught rising up.

I Lastly Get It: ‘Don’t Belief, Confirm’

Throughout the time I used to be buying and selling and HODLing altcoins, I believed Bitcoin Maxis have been too excessive. Despite the fact that I agreed with their views on sound cash and decentralization and agreed that almost all cryptos have been simply vaporware rug pulls ready to occur, I didn’t perceive their disdain for each crypto that wasn’t bitcoin. This was very true for initiatives that have been actively being utilized in the true world to seemingly useful impact.

As a software program developer myself, I’m conscious that there is no such thing as a single device that covers all use circumstances. There’s Home windows, or MacOS X, or Linux for computer systems, Android or Apple’s iOS for telephones, and numerous completely different apps that run on all of these platforms that carry out completely different features, lots of them competing for market share. This competitors encourages innovation which in the end makes all software program higher. That free-market precept is one thing Bitcoiners honor, so I didn’t perceive why they jettisoned it when it got here to cryptocurrencies. My assumption was they did so out of self-interest. If folks invested in different initiatives, they wouldn’t put their cash in bitcoin, which damage the Bitcoiner’s personal portfolio.

Then there was proof of labor. It’s energy intensive and relatively sluggish, even when far superior to financial institution applied sciences like SWIFT by way of pace and assured settlement. Even when the “inexperienced” argument was simply worry, uncertainty and doubt (FUD), why stick to proof of labor when different tech had confirmed far quicker and extra environment friendly, making it way more viable for funds methods?

Immediately, ultimately, after every little thing that’s occurred over the previous three years, I lastly get it.

“Don’t belief, confirm.”

The entire Bitcoiner philosophy comes right down to these three phrases. Belief has at all times been abused, even when solely by a small minority. However all it takes is a minority of individuals abusing and misusing your belief to trigger you, and everybody else who trusts them, grave hurt. So don’t belief, confirm.

How does this relate to Bitcoiner’s referring to all different cryptos as “shitcoins” and dismissing them outright? It’s easy. All the fiat foreign money system is a Ponzi scheme. Fiat is “cash by decree” — it’s not backed by any actual asset and solely has worth as a result of the federal government says it does. Governments use fiat to rob residents by printing cash with out residents’ consent. That is, in impact, a tax that has not been accredited by or voted on by the folks. It’s theft.

For instance, previous to fiat, governments would wish precise exhausting foreign money (often gold) to fund the wars they wished to struggle. In the event that they didn’t have the cash, they couldn’t struggle the wars with out elevating taxes, which is rarely a preferred proposition. With fiat, nevertheless, the federal government can print as a lot cash as they need, pulling the cash to fund their self-serving conflicts out of the pockets of the individuals who use that fiat foreign money: no permission obligatory, and with out most individuals realizing what’s taking place.

Fiat additionally retains folks on a perpetual hamster wheel by way of inflation. If you recognize the cash you could have within the financial institution will probably be price much less subsequent yr than it’s this yr, it’s essential to preserve making an attempt more durable to earn extra money, yr after yr, simply to maintain your head above water. This retains the vast majority of folks as perpetual wage slaves, by no means fairly capable of get forward, at the least not sufficient to cease and revel in their lives.

With out inflation you can reside beneath your means, save your more money, and belief within the deflationary results of expertise to make your cash stretch a lot additional when you determine to retire. In spite of everything, with expertise continually making provide chains extra environment friendly by way of enhancements in transportation and automation, every little thing ought to price much less over time, no more. And but costs preserve rising. Why? Inflation.

So what does fiat need to do with cryptocurrencies apart from bitcoin? All different cryptocurrencies are working throughout the present monetary system making an attempt to enhance it, make it extra environment friendly, present higher privateness, and many others. This has some optimistic results. As an illustration, stablecoins give entry to the U.S. greenback to folks in international locations whose foreign money is present process extreme inflation and whose banking methods are corrupt or unreliable. But it surely nonetheless requires the fiat Ponzi to perform.

You’ll be able to speak till you’re blue within the face about how a highly-efficient cryptocurrency might give entry to the monetary system to billions of unbanked people, enhancing their lives by serving to them escape their very own inflationary currencies and bypassing their corrupt governments. But it surely doesn’t matter since you’re solely offering these folks entry to a different fiat foreign money, and fiat is murdering the free market. You’ll be able to speak about how issuing tokens give small companies the power to boost cash with out having to pay billions to large banks to IPO. Doesn’t matter. You’re nonetheless working throughout the fiat system, and the fiat system is the basic root of all the issues to start with.

To the Bitcoiner, cryptocurrencies are decks being constructed onto the Titanic because it sinks, whereas Bitcoin is the life raft folks must get on to avoid wasting themselves. The tech of some cryptos may be nice, however it solely delays the inevitable demise of the sinking ship. Maxis imagine that bitcoin is destined to interchange fiat, not shore it up, returning sound cash to the world. As they typically say, “Bitcoin fixes this.”

For Bitcoiners, this isn’t nearly cash. It’s a guidestone that influences each side of life. It’s a perception system, although I’ll cease in need of calling it a faith, since folks of each conceivable faith additionally subscribe to its tenants. To those that aren’t Bitcoiners, maxis can look like in some form of cult, however it’s not a cult. Fairly the alternative, in truth.

Bitcoiners are individuals who, like me, have escaped a cult: the cult of fiat. As soon as they have been like everybody else, brainwashed into believing that the federal government could possibly be trusted with management over the cash printer, that the Fed was able to central planning of the economic system, and that inflation was obligatory for financial development.

Plato’s well-known Allegory of the Cage describes a bunch of people that have lived chained to the wall of a cave for his or her total lives. All they will see is a clean wall and the shadows solid upon it from a fireplace burning behind them. They provide the shadows names, believing them to be precise representations of the true world. One of many prisoners escapes from the cave and, having skilled the precise world, realizes that the shadows usually are not true representations of it. He returns to the cave to attempt to persuade the opposite prisoners, however they don’t imagine him as a result of the shadows are all they’ve ever identified. Bitcoiners are the escaped man.

The Bitcoiner tribe will be rowdy and crass and harsh, however it’s essential to contemplate what they’re out to realize and what they’re up in opposition to. Their endeavor shouldn’t be for the faint of coronary heart. It’s an actual David and Goliath second. The Bitcoiner stands, golden cash in hand, wanting the enormous within the eye with a defiance that onlookers often understand as insanity. Perhaps it’s insanity, however with out that dauntless high quality, Bitcoin wouldn’t have come so far as it has. And I, for one, will cheer them on as the enormous collapses.

This can be a visitor submit by Jonathan Leger. Opinions expressed are solely their very own and don’t essentially replicate these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.