Why Bitcoin? Why Now?

Welcome! I created this free resource to try to help people obtain financial freedom. The information provided here digs deep into the answers to two questions, “What is Bitcoin”, and “Why should I care about Bitcoin”. I know most people have precious little free time. So, I wanted to distill down the oceans of information on Bitcoin, so that time spent here would maximize a person’s understanding with a minimum amount of time invested. Those with more time can follow the many external links provided to gain a deep understanding. Below are the best resources I’ve found. I am biased. I am pro Bitcoin. I encourage you to be well informed by also seeking out the opposing viewpoint. I receive no compensation for any content or links included below.

First, a Disclaimer

I am not a financial advisor. This is not financial advice. I am not advising people to buy Bitcoin or any other digital asset (because I do not want to be sued). This asset class is very volatile. Unforeseen black swan events can and do occur. You could lose up to all of your money. Many cryptocurrencies are a scam. I'd estimate the value of 99% of the now more than 20,000 cryptocurrencies will most likely go to zero. Do your own research before deciding to allocate your hard-earned money to this or any asset class, and do not invest more money than you are willing to lose. However, I believe there are very important reasons (described below) why Bitcoin is worth people examining for themselves.

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Common Bitcoin Misconceptions

• People new to bitcoin say, “I can’t buy bitcoin because I don’t have $60,000”. You do not have to buy a whole bitcoin. Like the US dollar can be divided into pennies, bitcoin can be divided into Satoshis or Sats for short. You can buy $10 of bitcoin. There are 100 million Satoshis in a bitcoin. In addition, there are numerous spot Bitcoin ETFs like IBIT and FBTC with share prices well under $100.

• People new to bitcoin also say, “Why would I buy bitcoin, I can’t buy anything with it (no stores accept it)”. In the US, currency is not the dominant use case for bitcoin. In the US the dominant use case for bitcoin is "long term store of value". This is why people talk about bitcoin being “digital gold”. You don’t buy dinner with a gold coin, or with a share of Microsoft stock, or with a piece torn off of precious artwork. You hold those things because they are expected to hold their value over time better, as the supply of these things is more limited. In contrast, the Federal Reserve can create new US dollars by printing more money, leading to inflation and devaluation of fiat currencies over time.

• Bitcoin is a relatively new (and therefore volatile) asset. It has historically moved in four-year cycles. If you cannot handle a 70% drawdown in its price, or if you’re timeframe for holding it is not longer than four years, then you need to understand "position sizing" and or where bitcoin is in its price cycle before purchasing. Do not buy bitcoin without understanding the content in the “Is it a good time to buy bitcoin” section below!

• There are additional myths regarding Bitcoin that you may have heard. To better understand these misconceptions, check out this Binance article “Debunking the Top 15 Bitcoin Myths”.

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Why Now Give Up Precious Free Time to Learn About Bitcoin?

1. Henry Ford is quoted as saying, "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." In 1984 Nobel Prize-winning economist Friedrich Hayek is quoted as saying “I don’t believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government … all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something they can’t stop.” The undeniable truth they both were alluding to is that money is secretly being stolen from you! To understand how your money is being stolen, and the lies they tell you to hide their theft, read the "Why Bitcoin" sections below.

2. On 1/10/24 a major catalyst for Bitcoin price appreciation took place. The US SEC allowed 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs to begin trading. Some of these spot Bitcoin ETFs are from the largest money managers in the US (e.g. BlackRock and Fidelity). Now many many more institutional money managers will be able to (as prior Bitcoin products did not meet their requirements for access) and feel safe (from career risk) recommending allocating a small percentage of their pools of trillions and trillions of US dollars to these blue-chip traditional finance players’ spot bitcoin ETF products. Wall Street has now embraced Bitcoin!

3. On 4/19/24 another major catalyst for Bitcoin price appreciation took place! That day the latest bitcoin halving occurred, and reduced the number of new bitcoin created (mined) each day from 900 to 450. Historically bitcoin bull markets have been correlated with the "bitcoin halving events”. Every four years by design, the number of new bitcoin mined per day is cut in half. So now for the first time in Bitcoin’s history, the inflationary rate of Bitcoin (now 0.83% per year) is less than the inflationary rate of Gold (total above-ground stock grows by about 1% to 1.5% each year)! Read this article for more on this fact. Also, buy and hold is the simplest bitcoin strategy. But, if holding through severe bear market drawdowns feels too difficult, there is another strategy. Historically the best time to acquire bitcoin has been prior to these halving events. The bitcoin thought leader known as PlanB suggests (not financial advice and past performance is not a guarantee of future results) to buy 6 months before the halving event, and sell 18 months after the halving.

4. Instead of the halving events, some other financial experts attribute the bitcoin price cycles to global monetary liquidity (global M2 money supply). They believe the tightening of global money supplies in 2022 and 2023 is over. They believe the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates. They believe the Fed has overdone the tightening cycle (by citing lagging indicators) on purpose, to be able to lower interest rates in 2024, in order to roll over the financing of the national debt at a lower interest rate. They see other countries in the same situation. They believe the US and other countries will be easing monetary policy in 2024, which will be a price appreciation catalyst for risk-on assets like bitcoin. The easing of fiscal policy has actually already begun, but in a covert manner (via the draining of the Fed’s Reverse Repo Facility and the new Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP)). For an in-depth explanation, watch Raoul Pal “Crash or a Boom? A Special Two-Week Series”.

5. In the last Bitcoin cycle the price rose from $3,200 in December 2018 to $68,500 in November 2021. That was a return of over 2,000% in less than three years. Annualized that was a 185% return per year or CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate). Bitcoin is a global asset with growing adoption as predicted by Metcalfe’s Law.

6. It is still early in the bitcoin adoption cycle. Most people have not yet invested in it. Most institutional money has not invested in it yet. But every day more and more retail and institutional money is slowly flowing into this new asset class. Do you want to front run institutional money like they’ve front run us for more than 100 years in equities? However, the window of time to be able to do this will not be open forever, as spot Bitcoin ETFs are now available in the US. See All of the World’s Money and Markets in One Visualization to understand the small size of the cryptocurrency market.

7. For more than 100 years the public has been at a huge disadvantage when it comes to investing in the stock market. Institutions and wealthy individuals were the ones invited to invest first in new companies, then those shares were later offered (sold) to the public after a huge markup. Every company going public follows this model. There is no government “accredited investor” gatekeeper excluding early access to the public for Bitcoin.

8. Billionaires Gregg Foss and Chamath Palihapitiya believe owning 0.00 Bitcoin is a mistake. Greg Foss says “Get off zero” (as in holding zero bitcoin), and calls bitcoin “Insurance on a failing financial system”. Chamath calls bitcoin “Schmuck insurance”. Meaning that even if you don’t believe in it, you should at least own a little of it; that way if it goes way way up like many believe, you won’t look like the schmuck that didn’t buy any of it. You can watch interviews with them in the "Billionaire ... Quotes" section below.

9. Would you like to see a famous billionaire and thought leader in bitcoin answer the question, “Why someone with no bitcoin should buy some bitcoin today”? If so, watch this Altcoin Daily YouTube interview with Michael Saylor (BUY BITCOIN NOW!!! Why Bitcoin is the #1 BEST Investment - Michael Saylor Explains).

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What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a consensus network that enables a new payment system and a completely digital money.
It is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network that is powered by its users with no central authority or middlemen.
From a user perspective, Bitcoin is pretty much like cash for the Internet.

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The Power of Bitcoin

SECURITY - Bitcoin is secure due to its high hash rate, proof of work, distributed, cryptographic, open (anyone can see the transactions), blockchain.
BORDERLESS - It is a value transfer system without national boundaries.
UNCONFISCATABLE - If you own your private keys, bitcoin is unconfiscatable.
IMMUTABLE - Transactions recorded on the blockchain and cannot be changed
STORE OF VALUE – Maintains its worth over longer time frames without depreciating, such as precious metals

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Why Bitcoin? (Long Term Store of Value)

Introduction, Disturbing Truths, a Warning, and the Orange Pill

Before we begin, I want to make it clear that I think the United States of America is the most incredible country on earth! I am so grateful to have been born in this country, and for all of those who suffered, bled, and even gave their lives to allow this great nation to flourish. But unfortunately, our country is not perfect.

The section below on “fiat money, money printing, inflation, debt-to-GDP, and the Consumer Price Index” is going to be disturbing to those who haven’t been exposed to it before. It was disturbing to me in 2020 when my eyes were opened to all of it.

In bitcoin there is an analogy that relates back to the movie "The Matrix". In the movie Neo was given a choice, indicate your willingness to learn a potentially unsettling or life-changing truth by taking the red pill, or choose to remain content in your current understanding about the world around you by taking the blue pill. Bitcoin has a long history with the color orange. So for Bitcoin the orange pill replaces the red pill.

A final warning, if you choose to become aware of the information below, you can’t unknow it. It will change your view of the financial system. It will upset you. But it will also empower you.

So, I give you a choice. Take the blue pill, and close this browser window, forget about bitcoin, and don’t return here (or at the very least don't read anything between here and the "What is a Blockchain?" section below).

Or ...

Take the Orange Pill, scroll down, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes…

If you’re reading this, I’ll assume you took the Orange Pill. Congratulations! Now let’s go down the rabbit hole...

US Dollar History, The Gold Standard, and then Fiat Money

In 1900 the United States moved to a gold standard, making both gold and silver the legal-tender coinage of the United States, and guaranteed the dollar as convertible to 25.8 grains (1.672 grams, 0.05375 troy ounces) of gold, or a little over $18.60 per ounce.

The 1928 paper currency was unique because they were the last bank notes redeemable in gold. They read “Redeemable In Gold On Demand At The United States Treasury, Or In Gold Or Lawful Money At Any Federal Reserve Bank.” (see image here).

On April 5, 1933, Roosevelt ordered all gold coins and gold certificates in denominations of more than $100 turned in for other money. It required all persons to deliver all gold coin, gold bullion and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve by May 1 for the set price of $20.67 per ounce (Executive Order 6102).

In 1934, the government price of gold was increased to $35 per ounce, effectively increasing the gold on the Federal Reserve’s balance sheets by 69 percent. This increase in assets allowed the Federal Reserve to further inflate the money supply.

On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon announced that the United States would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, thus completely abandoning the gold standard (see Nixon shock).

In 1974, President Gerald Ford signed legislation that permitted Americans again to own gold bullion.

Today, like the currency of most nations, the dollar is fiat money, unbacked by any physical asset. A holder of a federal reserve note has no right to demand an asset such as gold or silver from the government in exchange for a note. Consequently, some proponents of the intrinsic theory of value believe that the near-zero marginal cost of production of the current fiat dollar detracts from its attractiveness as a medium of exchange and store of value because a fiat currency without a marginal cost of production is easier to debase via overproduction and the subsequent inflation of the money supply.

Why It Feels Like You are Getting Poorer and Poorer (US Dollar Inflation due to Money Printing)?

Does it ever feel like you work and work and work, but are not really making progress financially? Governments now print more of their currency to overcome their challenges (like the national debt, and most recently and most extremely due to COVID-19). Printing large amounts of new money (backed by nothing) results in increasing the cost of everything. Just consider home prices over the last 50 years. Homes have increased so much in dollar value not because homes now offer so much more intrinsic value than they did before. They cost so much more now because the value of the US dollar has decreased so much.

This policy of a nation diluting the value of its currency is nothing new. The value of the Roman empire currency the denarius was gradually decreased over time as the Roman government altered both the size and the silver content of the coin. Originally, the silver used was nearly pure, weighing about 4.5 grams. From time to time, this was reduced. The denarius continued to shrink in size and purity, until by the second half of the third century, it was only about 2% silver. Governments have had over 1700 years to perfect this currency manipulation and debasement. The only difference now is that our current currency is paper and backed by 0% precious metals. So the continued "printing" of more money is easier for them to pull off than ever! To see how far our government has taken their currency dilution (money "printing"). Just look at our government’s own data since 2020 (see the FED M1 link below). It is unbelievable!

Our government's insatiable desire for “printing” trillions and trillions of new US dollars into existence out of thin air is how your wealth is secretly being stolen from you. To understand why our government does this, read the "Why Doesn’t the Government Stop Printing ..." section below. Would you be willing to watch a 1-hour YouTube video to understand how to stop this theft and achieve financial independence? If the answer is yes, click on the link below where Anthony Pompliano interviews Jeff Booth on “How inflation is stealing your wealth”.

Why Does Our Government Need Inflation (To Make the Interest Payments on the National Debt)

Have you ever asked yourself, why is there inflation? Why do the prices of things continually go up over time? The answer to this question is simple. It is because our government must make the prices of things go up over time. Then the next question is, why does our government need the prices of things to go up over time. The answer to that question is because, it is the only way our government can continue to make the necessary payments on our ever-growing national debt (along with all its other growing bills). The government achieves this inflation by printing more of our fiat currency the US dollar (backed by nothing). Basically, the same as if you printed your own US dollars (but you’d have to print trillions of them)!

Yes, there are other reasons why prices on items may increase (e.g., because of increased demand or because of reduced supply). However, our government forces inflation on its people by design. Each year the government (usually) prints a little more than last year. This new money printing slowly trickles into the economy, slightly raising the prices of all things. This new money also causes the Gross Domestic Product to usually increase (at least in terms of US dollars). So now that GDP and people’s wages have slightly increased, the government can now receive more US dollars in taxes it charges US citizens and businesses. So those new tax revenues along with the new printed money, makes it easier for the government to pay all its bills including interest on the national debt (because they are using today’s dollars (which are worth less) to pay off the money owed in the past). It is the same idea as when you buy a house with a fixed rate mortgage. If your income is going up slightly year over year, in 10 or 20 years that old fixed rate mortgage payment is now a much smaller percentage of your current income.

If you don't believe me on this, watch the below link to a short Swan Bitcoin YouTube video. Listen to what James Lavish says regarding Jerome Powell's response to a question by Senator Cortez Masto's inquiry about why the FED targets a 2% inflation rate.

Why Doesn’t the Government Stop Printing More and More Money (Debt-to-GDP)?

Democracies I believe are the best form of government human beings have implemented. But they are not perfect, because they are run by politicians. These politicians above all else want to stay in office, and the political party in power wants to remain in power. To do that they need to be reelected to another term. For this reason, our government prioritizes trying to keep citizens happy today, over doing what is in the long term best interest of our country. For example, let us say there is an extremely important issue politicians must vote on. This issue relates to what’s best for the long-term future of the US. If they vote in favor of the measure that is in the long-term best interest of the country, it will cause pain and suffering to the American public in the short term. If they vote to oppose this hypothetical measure, it will make people happy in the short term (e.g., send thousands of dollars to all US citizens to overcome issue X), but in the long term, it will cause much more suffering to the public and may even make it so that it may be impossible to unwind the damage later (but the public is largely unaware of this harsh truth). Which way do you think a politician who wants to be reelected and their political party who wants to remain in power would vote? This political motivation to keep the money printer going for the past 50 years has brought us to where we are now (extreme national debt-to-GDP ratio).

Some of those who study economics say that once a country’s national debt-to-GDP ratio exceeds 77%, they are in trouble. The US debt-to-GDP for Q4 2021 was 123%. But economists who adhere to modern monetary theory (MMT) argue that sovereign nations capable of printing their own money cannot ever go bankrupt, because they can simply produce more fiat currency to service debts. There you have it. So, to service this extreme indebtedness the US now has no choice but to print more money. This money printing raises the inflation rate. They don’t want a high true rate of inflation, but they now have no other option to service the extreme national debt than to print more money.

The Great Fiat Ponzi Scheme

Some brilliant people that have studied economics and monetary systems their whole lives describe fiat money as a Ponzi scheme.

The Lie that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is an Accurate Measure of Inflation

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) created something called the Consumer Price Index (CPI). They claim it is an accurate measure of the rate of inflation on US citizens. But the truth is that they engineer this index to be able to report numbers to the public that are far below the true rate of inflation. They do this because they know if they reported “true” inflation numbers US citizens would likely revolt. So, they lie to us to keep us sheep thinking there is nothing wrong. They are smart and devious and know they need to hide the truth of their theft from us.

Whenever their CPI produces numbers that they don’t like (are too high), they adjust the components of the index to be able to report a smaller number to the public. As an example, in 1983 they removed the cost of buying a home from their index! So, for 40 years the cost of a home has not been included in the CPI! Instead, they swapped in “Owners’ Equivalent Rent (OER)”. When things like steak and fish and cupcakes become too inflationary for their liking, they reduce the weighting of those foods and increase the weighting of hamburger and chicken and cookies (cheaper “equivalent” items). This is done for one purpose, to deceive the public about the true rate of inflation.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says they reset the weights of the items in their consumer basket every two years, to track what Americans are actually buying. That sounds good right? DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THEM! What it actually does is allow their CPI number to under report the true inflation. The CPI does not track inflation in goods consumers want to buy, it tracks the inflation rate of ever changing inferior cheaper less desirable goods that consumers continually have to switch to in order to survive (because the goods they really want have inflated out of control and are no longer affordable to them)! THAT IS THE TRUTH BEHIND THE MANIPULATIVE BLS STATEMENT THAT “we track what Americans are actually buying”.

Why would the government want to lie about the true rate of inflation? Imagine the true rate of inflation this year was 15%, and that your employer gave you a 3% raise this year. Now imagine the true rate of inflation last year was 15%, and that your employer gave you a 3% raise last year. So, over just two years your purchasing power actually dropped by 24% (30% - 6%). You are now 24% poorer. Yes, you are being paid slightly more dollars, but those dollars buy far less than they did two years ago. Do you think this would make US citizens happy? Do you think the US government wants 250 million angry adult citizens?

How Bitcoin’s Inflationary Rate Actually Decreases over Time (the Opposite of Fiat Currency)

Bitcoin has a limit on its future inflationary supply minting (its algorithm constrains it such that only 21 million bitcoin will ever be created). Not only that, but as time goes on the actual bitcoin inflation rate decreases over time (every four years bitcoin’s inflation rate is cut in half). This is the exact opposite of what must occur with the US dollar.

Bitcoin actually has inflationary advantages over other hard assets (real estate, gold, etc.) as well. When the price of bitcoin goes up, it has no impact on its inflationary rate (by its design). But when real estate, gold, and other commodity prices rise, real estate developers or commodity miners can create increased supply because lands that were previously not profitable to develop or mine now have become profitable to develop or mine.

Shares of stock in a company can also suffer from inflation at a rate you cannot control. At any time, a company can decide to issue more shares of its stock. Inflation in the number of shares outstanding in a company’s stock is referred to as dilution. A company can choose to dilute its shareholders for many reasons (issuing options to compensate top talent, desire to raise capital for expansion or an acquisition, seeking new investors to get through difficult times, etc). A typical shareholder has no control over when and by how much a company may choose to dilute its shareholders.

The Ultimate Wealth Preservation Technology

Below is a link to a Bitcoin Magazine article about why Bitcoin is the Ultimate Wealth Preservation Technology.

Yale University Study Says “Every Portfolio Should Have 6% Bitcoin”

Below is a link to an Investopedia article about a study conducted by a Yale economist and his findings regarding the optimal bitcoin portfolio allocation.

Billionaire "Get Off Zero" and "Schmuck Insurance" Quotes

The “Get off zero” quote from billionaire Greg Foss is referring to his suggestion that holding zero Bitcoin is a mistake. He’s not saying to invest a large portion of your money in it, but he is saying it is a mistake to not own any Bitcoin. Also, billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya calls Bitcoin “Schmuck Insurance”. That quote is a reference to Wall Street parlance meaning what if everyone around you buys some [Bitcoin] and it moves much much much higher. You don’t want to look like a schmuck by being the only person that didn’t buy any of it. So, their suggestion is that you at least buy a little of it, even if you don’t believe in it.

Advantages of Bitcoin Over Real Estate

Below is an article from Bitcoin Magazine explaining why Real Estate investors should consider Bitcoin a superior store of value.

My Favorite YouTube Channels on Investing in Crypto and Equities, and Macroeconomics

Below are my favorite YouTube channels that discuss investing in cryptocurrencies and crypto related equities, and macroeconomics.

Enemies of Bitcoin, The War on Crypto, & Chokepoint 2.0

Because of the disruption bitcoin is making to the traditional financial system, it has the most powerful enemies in the world! Do you think the US government wants people to be able to opt out of the US dollar? Do you think the traditional financial system wants US citizens to be able to opt out of their lending, deposits, and money transfer businesses? Do you think the current financial institutions want bitcoin to succeed? Do you think traditional banks want DeFi to succeed? Do you think traditional banks want bitcoin's virtually free virtually instantaneous cross border payment capability to succeed? Do you think traditional banks want people to earn yield on stablecoins that are 1000% more than they can offer their customers?

Forbes reports that Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Deloitte and others paid US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen over $7 million dollars in “speaking fees” in the past two years alone. They do this because she is not an elected official (so they can’t influence her by contributing to a reelection campaign), like they do for congress and senate representatives. If someone gave you $7,000,000 do you think you would say no when they later start asking for favors from you that benefit them and punish their enemies? Do you think the chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission Gary Gensler who spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs wants bitcoin to succeed? If so, why did he approve bitcoin futures ETFs (which do not purchase a single bitcoin, are far inferior products for US citizens, and allowed institutions to short bitcoin right at the peak of the last bull run) but time and time and time again denies bitcoin spot ETFs which actually purchase bitcoin? Look into why Grayscale sued the SEC over this discriminatory and arbitrary decision, AND WON! Do you think they would sue their own government regulator, and the court would side with Grayscale if they didn’t have strong arguments?

Because of bitcoin's decentralized nature they really can’t stop it. So, they do what they can: 1) Operation Chokepoint 2.0 (conspire to choke off the money on ramps and off ramps to crypto, deny all spot bitcoin ETF applications (until the US courts ruled against the SEC), attack stablecoins and yield, attack crypto exchanges, attack crypto friendly banks, and by TradFi blocking access in IRA accounts); 2) They spread FUD (Fear Uncertainty & Doubt) through negative statements they release and negative news articles they pay for; 3) They enable shorting it into the ground (via approving derivatives); 4) Stifle it through pro-TradFi regulation (coming soon) and; 5) Even now (after the US courts pressured the SEC into allowing spot Bitcoin ETFs) still major financial institutions like, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, and Vanguard, refuse to let their account holders invest in these products!

Perhaps we should take heed of a quote spoken by a fellow Ohioan Nicholas Klein in 1918 (after all it was good enough for Mahatma Gandhi to paraphrase it into his later famous quote). Nicholas said, "First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”

Additional Macroeconomic Financial Resources

Below are some additional macroeconomic resources relating to US money supply, CPI, and interest rates from the US Federal Reserve, Bureau Of Labor Statistics, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group.

Gold Market Price Manipulation and the "Paper Gold" Problem

In theory gold should be a good alternative to fiat money to people who wish to preserve purchasing power. It is held in high regard world wide as a savings mechanism. In theory it has a more constrained supply than fiat money does. So why hasn’t its price action behaved very well over time as compared to inflation? The answer will upset you. If you wish to understand how and why governments and the largest institutional investment banks manipulate the price of gold in order to artificially suppress its price, read this article by the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee.

How Bitcoin Addresses Price Manipulation and the Issue of “Paper Bitcoin”

A big reason for how the paper gold market has gotten so massive, is that physical gold is a pain to deal with. It is heavy, it is not easily divided. It is expensive to transport and store. So, most people invest in it without actually physically holding their gold (e.g., they buy the GLD ETF). But Bitcoin allows (for those who wish) a simple effective inexpensive way to take “physical” possession of their Bitcoin. All they have to do is to move it from an exchange to their own “cold wallet”. I’m not saying it is impossible for “paper” Bitcoin to exist. Obviously FTX showed us that does occur. But making it easy for investors to remove their spot Bitcoin from the marketplace (circulation), along with growing demand, and the ever-decreasing rate of bitcoin inflation, makes it more difficult to flood the market with out-of-control levels of paper Bitcoin (to suppress the price), like they do for the gold market.

If you are not convinced of the truth of the information presented in all the sections above

If you need more evidence of the truth of the information presented in the sections above, below are additional interviews with various bitcoin thought leaders. I encourage you to watch the YouTube videos below.

If you have read the above (US dollar history, fiat currency, money printing, inflation, debt-to-GDP, CPI, & how bitcoin is different), you’ve just been orange pilled! Congratulations! Welcome to the family!

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What is a Blockchain?

Below are links to an Investopedia article and to blockchain presentations by Anders Brownworth. Anders worked with cryptocurrencies at Circle where he helped create the USDC (stablecoin) project and taught blockchain technology at MIT.

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What is the Bitcoin Halving?

Built into the bitcoin code, the number of new bitcoin created (mined) per day is cut in half every 4 years. This schedule of disinflationary pressure is a core component of bitcoin’s design. The next halving will occur in 2024. For more details, click the links below.

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What is Bitcoin Mining?

Bitcoin mining is the process by which new bitcoin are entered into circulation. It is also the way the network confirms new transactions and is a critical component of the blockchain ledger's maintenance and development.

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What are Sats?

Don't think that you can't buy Bitcoin because you don't have $30,000. You can buy $1 worth of Bitcoin! Satoshis, or Sats, are a fraction of a Bitcoin. Simply put, a Satoshi is more or less to a Bitcoin what a penny is to a dollar.
They're both units of the same monetary system, but the penny is a smaller unit. The difference is that 1 dollar = 100 pennies, whereas 1 Bitcoin = 100,000,000 Satoshis.

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What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization.

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What are Altcoins?

Currently there are more than 20,000 cryptocurrencies. Altcoins are all cryptocurrencies that are not Bitcoin (alternate coins). Some examples are Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Polygon, USD Coin, Tether, Polkadot, Avalanche, Chainlink, and many many more.

WARNING – There are some altcoins that long ago branched (forked) off of Bitcoin (e.g. Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin). THESE ARE NOT BITCOIN! They do not have the network effect, decentralization, or hash rate of Bitcoin!

WARNING – There are also “meme” coins (e.g. Dogecoin, and Shibu Inu). I don’t own them because while some people have made money with them, I view them as gambling not investing.

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What is a Stablecoin?

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What is a Smart Contract?

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What is Dollar Cost Averaging?

Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) is an investment strategy in which an investor divides up the total amount to be invested across periodic purchases of a target asset in an effort to reduce the impact of volatility on the overall purchase. The purchases occur regardless of the asset's price and at regular intervals.

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What is Position Sizing?

Position sizing refers to the number of units invested in a particular security by an investor or trader. An investor's account size and risk tolerance should be taken into account when determining appropriate position sizing. If you would be fearful if the value of your Bitcoin investment dropped by 85%, the position size you are considering is too large.

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What are “Proof of Work” and “Proof of Stake”

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What is a Cold Wallet?

WARNING - Cold wallets like Ledger are the most secure storage option. But there are SIGNIFICANT additional risks associated with self custody of your crypto (e.g. keeping secure and not losing your wallet, private keys, and seed phrases). If your wallet is damaged or lost and your seed phrase is lost, your crypto is gone! You do not have to use a hot or cold wallet. You can choose to keep your crypto on an exchange (like having a bank account or stock brokerage account). But that option has risks too (recall the terrible criminal FTX debacle)! FDIC does NOT cover cryptocurrency exchanges!

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What’s the meaning of “Not your Keys, Not your Coins”?

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What is a Seed Phrase?

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What is DeFi?

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What is an NFT?

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What Is the Metaverse?

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Where can I Learn more about Bitcoin for Free?

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HOW NOT TO BUY BITCOIN / CRYPTO

Bitcoin has been on a massive bull run for the past 12 months. Everyone is talking about it. You think, I better get all in now or it will run away from me, and I won’t be able to afford to buy in later. So, you go all in due to (Fear Of Missing Out). Over the next two years Bitcoin drops by 80% (as it has done during past cycles). You panic because you took way too large a position. You can’t afford to lose any more, so you sell. You just bought high and sold low, the opposite of what smart money does. You just lost 5x what you could afford to lose. You are now in serious financial trouble. To add insult to injury, over the next year the market turns around and bitcoin reaches a new all-time high.

A crypto YouTuber you found is talking about a crypto exchange that lets you buy on 10 to 1 leverage. They’ll even give you $5000 if you use the YouTuber’s affiliate link. You think, I don’t have 5 years to wait for Bitcoin. If I deposit $25,000, I can buy $250,000 of bitcoin, and make 10 times as much money when it runs. So, you open the account, deposit your money, and go all in. The next day bitcoin drops by 10%, your account balance is now $0 due to the 10x leverage. The exchange sold your bitcoin to protect them from your account going negative. You just got rekt.

Your favorite social media influencer just tweeted out a tip about “MoonCoin”. She says it’s guaranteed to moon, you all should buy it! It only costs $0.0001 per coin. You think, with my $10,000 I can buy 100 million coins! It just has to go to $1 and I can buy new houses and Lambos for all my friends and family. You go all in because you don’t realize that for it to go to $1 implies a market cap that is 100 times the market cap of bitcoin. It goes down, because of a rug pull scam. You just lost everything.

This crypto stuff looks hard to do. You get a call or text or have a friend that says give me your money and I will buy bitcoin or a better crypto for you. It is supposed to double by next week. So you give this person / scammer / friend your hard earned money. They run off and you never hear from them again, or they buy the great coin for you and it was a rug pull. You lost all your money.

You buy bitcoin on an exchange. You setup email two-factor authentication. Months later you get an email about a problem with your account. You click the link. You enter your password and authentication code, even though the website doesn't look quite right. You later get a sinking feeling. You decide to go to the legitimate exchange web site address via your bookmarks. You login to your account. You see your balance is now $0! You’ve been scammed. Your crypto is gone.

You decide to buy bitcoin, and choose to use an exchange a friend told you about. You decide to keep your coins on the exchange because that seems easier than transferring them to self-custody in a cold wallet. Your exchange gets hacked or is just unethical and takes your coins and makes bad bets and loses all their clients’ money (think FTX). Your money is gone!

You buy bitcoin on an exchange. You’ve heard “not your keys, not your crypto”, so you buy a cold wallet. You move your coins to it. But this new cold wallet private keys, public keys, address, and seed phrase stuff is confusing. So: 1) When you copied your wallet address to move your bitcoin, you accidently entered the address wrong or accidently entered the address for your Ethereum wallet, and your crypto is gone; 2) Someone tricked you into giving them your private key or seed phrase. You’ve been scammed. Your crypto is gone.

You buy bitcoin. You move your coins to your cold wallet. You put your wallet and written seed phrase in a safe place. A year goes by: 1) You're cleaning house / moving & you donate / throw out that item that you forgot you stored your cold wallet / seed phrase in, your crypto is gone; 2) There is a fire and your wallet is damaged and seed phrase is burned up, your crypto is gone; 3) You unexpectedly leave this world, and your family can’t find your wallet / seed phrase and / or doesn't know they are important or what to do with them / or it ends up being accidently lost in the estate sale, your family's crypto is gone.

ALL THE ABOVE HAPPEN TO PEOPLE!! DO NOT LET THESE SAD SAD STORIES HAPPEN TO YOU!!

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Is it a Good Time to Buy Bitcoin?

Have you ever heard the terms “smart money” and “dumb money”? Have you heard the saying “If you don’t know who the dumb money is, it's you”! It is sad that they refer to us the public as dumb money. But what is even more sad is that they are not wrong. It’s not that we are dumb, it’s that we have not spent 30 years studying financial markets. We used those years to study nursing, sales, engineering, teaching, firefighting, hospitality, cuisine, etc, while they have been studying financial markets and how to use and manipulate them. That’s why we are at a disadvantage.

Smart money (Wall Street professionals) buys in bear markets when people have given up on bitcoin and no one is talking about it (buying low). Then during bull runs when everyone is talking about bitcoin going to the moon and the public (dumb money) is finally buying due to Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO), that’s when smart money is the one selling their coins to the public at a great profit (selling high). Then when buyers are exhausted and the price tanks and the public can’t endure any more pain they sell their coins at a great loss, that’s when the smart money comes back in and buys your coins at a 50% discount or more.

Is it a good time to buy Bitcoin? Remember, I am not a financial advisor. This is not financial advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Historically, if you held for five years, anytime has been a good time to buy Bitcoin. The danger is though, if you buy during bull run FOMO periods (especially late and at the top) you may not be able to handle an 85% drop (which has happened in bitcoin) especially if you ignored the issue of "position sizing" and went in too heavy. So, to avoid the pain of buying high (due to FOMO) and then selling low (due to over position sizing and feeling the pain of an 85% drop), I would recommend looking deeper for an answer to the question of “Is this a good time to buy”. Watch the founder of Morgan Creek Capital Management explain Mark Yusko: “Why 90% of Bitcoin Investors Fail”.

Fortunately, there are fantastic free resources like LookIntoBitcoin, Glassnode, CoinMarketCap, CryptoQuant, Messari, The Block, and TradingView that the public can also use to avoid being the “dumb money” and being so easily taken advantage of by Wall Street "smart money". Many of the charts available at LookIntoBitcoin can give insights into the relative value of bitcoin based on historical data. Glassnode gives their free weekly assessments of market conditions here. A confluence of these indicators can then be used to more accurately determine if now is a good time to buy or to sell. But remember there are no guarantees. As InvestAnswers likes to say “Investing is a blood sport”. Whales also play other games like using and or manufacturing news to move price down, or waiting for periods of excessive long derivative positions to push price down. They also have a whole other market that they can play in that we cannot (called Over The Counter). Be careful! That being said, here are some of my favorite charts:

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How do I Buy Bitcoin?

Remember investing is a blood sport! You could lose all your money! Start small! Be careful! Try not to buy at cycle tops! Do not try to get rich quick! That is how many lose! Remember the person or bot selling to you is on the opposite side of your trade! They may think the opposite of what you think will happen with the bitcoin price! They may know more than you! They may be right! If after careful consideration you have decided buying Bitcoin is right for you, for people in the US, I would recommend the exchange Coinbase. To keep your Bitcoin as safe as possible, my suggestion would be to remove it off the exchanges and use a cold wallet like Trezor. But remember taking self-custody does remove counterparty risk associated with the exchange, but if your cold wallet or seed phrase is compromised or lost, you can lose your Bitcoin!

I know many people have the bulk of their assets in tax deferred brokerage accounts, where it may not be possible to get pure form Bitcoin. For those individuals in the US, there are now multiple spot Bitcoin ETFs (e.g. BlackRock’s IBIT, Fidelity’s FBTC, Grayscale’s GBTC, and others). Also, MicroStrategy (MSTR) is another Bitcoin proxy option. But remember InvestAnswers always says “pure form is always best” for those that can acquire pure form, and are willing to custody it in their own cold wallet.

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More about why I created this resource

Due to some family health matters, in 2020 I had some free time. I had been wanting to educate myself about bitcoin for years, but had been too busy with life. When I did finally start studying bitcoin, something I never expected happened. Part of learning about bitcoin is spent on what is bitcoin? But another part is WHY is Bitcoin so important? While learning about the answers to the “why” question, I stumbled onto the deception and lies regarding fiat money, money printing, inflation, debt-to-GDP, the Consumer Price Index, and government influence peddling by the traditional financial system to undermine the interests and will of the people. With my eyes now open to the lies being told to manipulate and control me, my loved ones, the middle and lower classes in our and all other fiat money based countries, I decided I had to do something to try to help open the eyes of others, and to try to help them find financial freedom.

If you have found this information valuable, I ask that you share this resource with other people you care about. Thank you!

Our prayers for great success for you and your loved ones on your journey to financial freedom!

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