How can one be compelled to accept slavery? I simply refuse to do the master’s bidding. He may torture me, break my bones to atoms and even kill me. He will then have my dead body, not my obedience. Ultimately, therefore, it is I who am the victor and not he, for he has failed in getting me to do what he wanted done.

-Mahatma Gandhi

The most powerful weapon that we have is refusal. Our obedience within this system of State-sponsored capitalism, where we are made debt slaves for wanting a better education, getting sick, or having a home, is far from a fair system–it is criminal in everything but name. If we are to stop this kind of abuse we first must refuse to participate in this kind of abuse.

For the first time in human history, we have the option of rejecting and refusing this economic system, and replacing it with something better–with digital currencies. By using digital currencies over dollars, we can refuse debt that is usurious, and challenge the state’s monopoly on the issuance of money. This places within our hands the ability to directly challenge the legitimacy of the State, as money is law; and if we can make their money be questioned, we can destroy this monster.

Refusal

The first step is refusal. Bitcoin offers us a way to refuse the debt bondage that this system has bequeathed to us, and allows us an avenue toward negotiation, if we choose to negotiate. By simply refusing to pay our debts, while keeping our savings and the money we earn in bitcoin, we can fight back.

Defaults are painful, and as we saw in the 2008 crisis, it can call the whole system into question. If enough people started defaulting on the $1.2 trillion dollars of student debt that is owed to the Federal government, we can force them into negotiating a jubilee. Through defaulting you can use direct action to make it clear that this debt is usurious and will not be paid. There is more power in showing your willingness to not pay them to make a point, than there is to paying them and begging for the terms to change–they will not.

Rejection

The second step is rejection. Bitcoin is a direct challenge to the financial system and the legitimacy of the State itself. We can unilaterally reject participating in their economy by rejecting their money and the taxes that accompanies that money. By rejecting the fiat money we can take direct action to the economic system itself.  We can refuse to have the humble amount we contribute to this economy to be taxes, and to prop up this government. There is no longer a need for my money to go towards war, or any institution the State uses to oppress people. I do not approve of it, and I will not let them use my hard earned money for such evil purposes. To surmise why we should do this, I offer a quote from Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience:

If a thousand citizens were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.

The peace revolution that Thoreau speaks of can now be ours. Through refusing to use fiat money and using digital currencies instead, we can make a stand, while also protecting ourselves from the inevitable economic collapse that is coming.

Rejection of this system is something that is inevitably going to happen. The State cannot win–their money is designed too poorly, they run their economy too inefficiently, and they have only managed up to this point because of their monopoly on the mode of exchange and legal violence. Through challenging government monopolies on money, we will make the inefficiencies of the current system of global finance clear. We will destroy the capitalist of the world of flesh and steel with a newer form of capitalism that is more efficient, more secure, and simply put, better. When the world comes to realize this, there will be a great reckoning that will culminate with insurrection.

Insurrection

The final step is insurrection. Digital currencies are a revolution in the area of economics, and they will be an inseparability part of global economy one day. Bitcoin offers a world with no gate keepers, no permission seekers, and no restrictions on the world we choose to build. Digital currencies operation on the maxim of the protocol: what the protocol commands is supreme, and the federation of the protocol is what allows for it to work. There is no way to cheat this system because it is out of the hands of individual men and facilitated by the program itself–there are no middle men needed. Through cutting out both the State, and the banks from all economic transactions, the cost of maintaining the State and the financial system does not need to be carried by us. Our financial system does not need us to pay fees to criminal banisters, or taxes to a tyrannical governments to use our own money–just an internet connection.

It is impossible for fiat money to compete with bitcoin over an extended time span. Fiat money cannot hold its value over a long time period, which is why the purchasing power of a dollar today has lost 95% of its value since 1913. The supply of dollars is inflating constantly, and particularly with the rounds of quantitative easing that we are seeing throughout the world today. Because the supply of fiat currencies are increasing today, and because there is nothing of commodity value backing fiat currencies, there is no way it can compete with Bitcoin.  As it becomes more and more apparent that the dollar is losing its value while the value of Bitcoin is rising rapidly, people are going to start questioning the legitimacy of the dollar itself. It is at this point, when the dollar’s value starts to be questioned that the legitimacy of the government itself can be questioned. This is where we revolt, this is where we gain our freedom and destroy the monster that has sought to keep us under absolute despotism in the name of safety and security.

Revolution

Since the failed uprisings of 2011, it has been clear that State-sponsored capitalism is failing. There has not been a time in recent history where people have worked harder, received less, and have so little opportunity. This is not from the failure of the State to protect its citizens, but the inherent structure of what States will do when they enter into alliance with oligarch enterprises. We all see the criminality of this for what it is. We know that they are thieves, criminals, liars, but up to this point they have been too powerful, and there has been too few alternatives–one simply had to participate despite ones unwillingness to do so.

But now there is an alternative. A mode of exchange that is economically superior which has the features of privacy imbued into the money itself, and is organized in a horizontal, decentralized platform. A money with a known fixed supply that cannot be changed, that is controlled by no state, and no individual actors–just the Network itself.  A totally transparent money which allows for you to see all the transactions in the network, while still protecting the identities of individual users. And it’s practically instantaneous to use, and no permission required from a bank or from a government–your money belongs to you.

What is to be done still remains to be seen. What is known for now is that there is a powerful new economic tool that fundamentally changes the way that we view money and the mode of exchange. This challenges the fundamental features of the State today, and the money that they print. I for one am convinced this is how the revolution will start, because people will always seek to become more free, and now there is no one to stop you from breaking free from the chains of financial tyranny any longer.

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Next: Capital Exit, Capital Strike