“But still, there’s a glow around the Bitcoin people that is really not all that holy.”

_________

Okay, but what does that mean?

Is this just a feeling you are trying to describe?

I watch videos about Bitcoin (and other cryptos to a lesser extent) every day, by multiple content providers (at least 9 or 10 now), and there is nothing religious about any of them, neither holy nor unholy, because it doesn’t have anything to do with religion.

If anything, it has to do with Austrian School of Economics, the ideas of Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk, and Friedrich Hayek. It is practically the polar opposite of Keynesian Economics.

Austrian Economics is about the rules and economic laws of hard money, which is what all the gold (and silver) bugs follow.

Most of the older people involved in Bitcoin are former gold bugs, and they were gold bugs because they are aware of all the problems with unsustainable debt, fiat currency debasement, the Federal Reserve, etc., all the stuff that we talk about here regularly.

These older gold bugs have looked at the data, and gold has actually lost purchasing power over time, when you account for inflation / debasement.

The gold price is clearly manipulated, and the big bullion banks have been fined for ‘spoofing’ and other illegal tactics in the bullion markets, so it isn’t an unfounded conspiracy theory.

The gold and silver markets are anything but transparent, so no one knows how much there is, or who has what. There is no way to determine the value of an asset whose value is based on scarcity, when no one knows how much there is 😂

Over time, the S&P 500 returns around 14% per year, and the actual inflation numbers by independent sources like TruFlation is around 14%.

So if one is using the S&P 500 as an investment vehicle, making around 14% gains per year, you’re only breaking even, until you pay taxes on the gains, at which point you are actually losing purchasing power.

And it’s much worse if your money is sitting in a low (or no) interest checking or savings account, then it’s like a melting ice cube, losing about 14% per year.

So many of the gold bugs, understanding these things, realized they needed something else, because the tools available to them (precious metals, stock market) were not providing any real return on investment. At best, they were only keeping up with inflation.

As a businessman, founder and CEO of MicroStrategy, this was the exact same problem Michael Saylor was struggling with. They had tens of millions of dollars in their company treasury, and it was losing 14% of its purchasing power every year, like a melting ice cube.

That’s the problem with fiat currency. Even if you invest it in U.S. Treasuries earning 5%, you’re still losing around 9% in purchasing power every year.

That’s not sustainable.

He considered property investment, but it’s not liquid enough to hold large quantities of real estate on a company balance sheet. He looked at all of the available options, and the only investment that delivered a positive CAGR over time that beat inflation and debasement (by a LOT!) was Bitcoin.

So he spent a lot of time researching it, talking with experts about it, learning about it. For whatever it’s worth, he’s an MIT graduate. He’s not an idiot.

Here is the ‘Life’ part of his bio from his Wiki page:

……………….
Saylor was born in Lincoln, Nebraska on February 4, 1965, and spent his early years on various Air Force bases around the world, as his father was an Air Force chief master sergeant. When Saylor was 11, the family settled in Fairborn, Ohio, near the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

In 1983, Saylor enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. He joined the Theta Delta Chi fraternity, through which he met the future co-founder of MicroStrategy, Sanju Bansal.

He graduated from MIT in 1987, with a double major in aeronautics and astronautics, and science, technology, and society.

A medical condition prevented him from becoming a pilot, and instead, he got a job with a consulting firm, The Federal Group, Inc. in 1987, where he focused on computer simulation modeling for a software integration company.

In 1988, Saylor became an internal consultant at DuPont, where he developed computer models to help the company anticipate change in its key markets. The simulations predicted that there would be a recession in many of DuPont’s major markets in 1990.”
……………….

When he was satisfied that Bitcoin was not some ponzi scheme or other scam as trustworthy MSM always tries to portray it, he invested $20 million (IIRC) of his own money in Bitcoin.

It was not long after that when he began investing MicroStrategy treasury money into Bitcoin, becoming one of the first listed companies to do so.

Since then, under Saylor’s leadership, as of yesterday, MicroStrategy has accumulated 214,246 Bitcoin, at an average cost of around $35.5k each for a total investment of about $7.6 billion dollars.

Right now, the price of Bitcoin is $67,575 so the value is about $14.5 billion dollars. So he’s doing all right. Better than anyone who’s invested in the S&P 500, or U.S. Treasuries.

Does anyone care? Is any of this information going to change anyone’s mind?

No, it’s probably not, because human psychology clearly doesn’t work that way. Most people believe whatever they want to believe, and logic, and reason, have almost nothing to do with what people want to believe.

We see that even here, every day of the week.

Every single day.

Most of the younger ‘Bitcoin people’ were never gold bugs, but they are interested in Bitcoin for the same reasons as the gold bugs, outlined above.

Young and old, they all see the same problem with the fiat currency system, and with manipulated (and non-transparent) precious metals.

The ship is sinking.

TPTB have corrupted the system SO MUCH that the traditional tools do not work anymore.

So what are they supposed to do?

Blindly and unquestioningly cling to tradition, and go down with the ship?

Many will.

But many decided to look for a better tool.

And after actually learning about it, researching it, studying it (not swallowing MSM narrative about it, or old wives tales), they reached the same conclusion as Michael Saylor did.

The best tool, the best life boat, is Bitcoin.

Is that, or anything else I could say, going to change your mind?

Hell no! 😂

Only YOU can change your mind.

Do you want to?

If you do, then you can.

If you don’t, then you won’t.

Only you can decide 🙂