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Bitcoin In Summary - The Newsletter

LNbitcoin

01 Jun 2023 • 8 min read

Bitcoin In Summary - The Newsletter #01
Jun 01, 2023
Bitcoinlearning.org

Bitcoin is vital as it can provide financial sovereignty. It is a way to opt out of a corrupt system and it gives us the freedom to control our own money, without any centralized authorities. For me personally, it is a long term hedge against monetary inflation and economic uncertainty. It also has the potential to lift billions out of poverty, and to disrupt traditional banking and financial institutions.

Introduction

This Newsletter is akin to my personal journal, echoing my thoughts, my ideas, my opinions, and the role bitcoin plays in it all. I started down the bitcoin rabbit hole in 2014, and for the past 9 years, I've been following the macroeconomic landscape, while consuming as much information about bitcoin as possible. Now, I've decided to try my hand at sharing my knowledge about it.

This Newsletter is written from my personal point of view, about what bitcoin personally fixes for me, how I view it, and where I see it headed. I should add that I'm not an accountant or financial advisor, nor am I claiming to be. Nothing I say should be taken as a substitute for financial advice from a professional aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation. These are merely my own personal beliefs, and best guesses. I'm aware that I could be wrong, and I'm prepared for that. So before I tell you what bitcoin fixes for me personally, let me tell you a little background information about myself.

My Personal Journey to Bitcoin

The Catalyst

My name is Ryan, I'm 41, recently divorced, and have seven children (5 + twins), whom I currently have the majority of the time. That's a story in itself. I was in a 15-year relationship that ended about a year ago. During that time we had five children together, plus twins (Number Go Up... Who has twins after 5 children?). The oldest is 15, the twins are 5 years old, and in-between you can basically just start counting: 5, 6, 8...

I currently have all seven children a little more than half of the time. A challenge? Yes, a challenge that demands more preparation for the future. I have more responsibility than the average person, so that requires me to be more aware, forward-thinking, and plan.

"A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem." - Plato.

Wealth isn't about cars and houses, it's about options and security. When I started down this path, I came for the lambo like everyone else... But then the world started falling apart, and I predict that the future is going to be much harder than the present. While that may sound scary for some, I also see a huge opportunity in that. We'll get into more of that later.

I grew up in Southern California but have lived in Arizona off and on for about 15 years. Within that time, I've briefly lived in Oregon and Washington, spent 5 years in Idaho, and more recently jumped over to Maine for a year. Some would say I was unintentionally flipping houses at one point. Currently, I am back in Arizona. I've been self-employed since about 2009, so living anywhere was kind of an option... Up until this point, I'd consider most of my life an adventure, but not without its challenges.

From Internet Marketing to Bitcoin Maximalist

I started my own small internet marketing business in 2009, getting websites to the top of Google. With some creativity, thinking outside the box, and a ton of research mixed with experimenting, I did pretty well with that. In 2014 I received my first marketing payment via bitcoin when it was around $400 a coin. That initial payment was the spark that sent me down the rabbit hole, now nearly 9 years later, I am still on this path, learning, educating, and finding new, and intriguing (addicting) bits of information related to bitcoin and the technology behind it. I still do a little marketing, while managing a portfolio of websites I have. As for my day-to-day, you can safely assume I'm making sandwiches (Kids gotta eat, a lot...) While struggling to find time to work in-between.

"As of 2023, while 22% of Americans currently hold some bitcoin, less than one percent of the world’s population holds Bitcoin."
- bitcoin users

We are still early.

Diving Deep into Bitcoin

How Bitcoin Changes You - My personal journey down the rabbit hole.

After my first introduction to bitcoin, I spent several years studying as much as I could, not only in relation to bitcoin and the technology behind it, but financial markets, the history of money, Austrian economics, stock trading (equity, derivatives, futures, and options), math (elliptic curve cryptography, hash functions), political landscapes, DeFi (decentralized finance), and more. Yes, I went down the altcoin rabbit hole and back as well, before finding my way back to the bitcoin whitepaper. It was then that I realized that only bitcoin was truly decentralized, resistant to government attacks, uncensorable, and unconfiscatable money that is also auditable and immutable. These are not just buzzwords, take the time to look into each one. The fact that this money has no issuing authority (making it incorruptible), and its apolitical properties (bitcoin is for both you and your enemies) are exactly why everyone will eventually want to embrace it.

Why Bitcoin is Unique

Okay, that was a lot. So let's talk about what makes bitcoin a better form of money.

"In general, there are five main characteristics that money should fulfill: limited supply, durability, portability, divisibility, fungibility, and acceptability."

Scarcity

Bitcoin is scarce, it is pre-programmed with a hard limit of 21 million coins for the entire globe (8 billion) to share. These rules are enforced by the thousands of nodes running throughout the entire world. Who can run a node? Anyone, including you. This ensures the rules are enforced at all times, keeping the network honest and secure.

Durability

Bitcoin has an amazing incentive structure. Miners are paid to mine for new bitcoin, and the profitability goes up if less people mine. This creates a much stronger incentive for new miners to start mining if others stop. A few years back, China passed a law, outlawing mining in the country. This not only made it extremely profitable for miners to mine elsewhere but also made it worth the risk to keep mining in many instances. Now running consistently for the past 14 years, the bitcoin network has shown to be one of the most secure and resilient networks in the world. Having never been taken offline from a hack, or attack, this makes the bitcoin network one of the most durable in the world.

Portability

Bitcoin is portable. Unlike gold, bitcoin can transact at the speed of the internet. This is important when the internet is one of the world's largest economies. On top of that, because of how cryptography works, anyone anywhere can create a wallet, and that wallet is backed up and can be restored with something as simple as a 12-word phrase. This is called a seed phrase, where the seed alone (12 random words placed in an exact order) will restore your wallet and all your funds. Because of this, for the first time in history, you can actually store your wealth in your brain. While not recommended, this is actually possible by just memorizing your 12-word seed phrase.

Divisibility

Bitcoin is also divisible, meaning each bitcoin can be split into smaller parts. Currently, one Satoshi is the smallest denomination of bitcoin. There are 100 million satoshis (sats) in one bitcoin, meaning each satoshi is worth 0.00000001 BTC.

Fungibility

Bitcoin is also fungible, as each bitcoin is the same. One bitcoin has the same value as the next (1 bitcoin = 1 bitcoin).

Acceptability

Moreover, bitcoin has acceptability like no other money on earth. It may be the ONLY money, where you will be able to send it, or receive it, without permission, no matter where you are on earth, and no matter what your government has to say about it. There are a growing number of merchants and service providers who accept bitcoin as payment.

A Bold Prediction

Why is Bitcoin Important? – What bitcoin fixes.

Bitcoin is an opportunity for people to take back control of their financial future. It’s a new form of money that is decentralized, transparent, and accessible to anyone with an internet connection. This newsletter is dedicated to educating and inspiring people to learn more about Bitcoin and its potential impact on the world.

Final Thoughts

After everything I have studied, it's hard imagine a world where Bitcoin doesn't win. Once you understand sound money principles, mixed with the laws of supply and demand, and the history of how money evolves, it feels like we are just waiting for the masses to catch up. But more then a money, bitcoin represents a fight for freedom. That's why I've always said, given all the research I've conducted, I could live with Bitcoin going to zero. I would not be okay with it going to a million+ dollars without me. In that aspect, I'm totally okay with failure. I'm not okay with missing success.

I'm totally okay with failure. I'm not okay with missing success.

We are quickly moving towards a world where everything is controlled, surveilled, and micromanaged. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are being heavily researched by every major government on the planet right now and I believe we are at a pivotal moment in time where we are either freed or enslaved by technology going forward.

It is up to us, as individuals, to make the right choice, we use the tools available to us to fight for our rights, or we do nothing and watch the freedoms that we once knew vanish forever.

Ultimately, this newsletter is about questioning the status quo, taking action, and journeying together down the rabbit hole of Bitcoin, and beyond.

Until the next issue.

These supplementary resources will aid you on your journey towards understanding Bitcoin, and achieving self sovereignty in these times of economic change. None of these resources should be taken as gospel, but together with other resources, should allow you to make your own informed decision, so that you can create a financial plan that is right for you.

Hidden Secrets of Money

Watch: Hidden Secrets of Money by Mike Maloney

"Hidden Secrets of Money" is a documentary series by Mike Maloney that provides an in-depth exploration of the history and nature of money and the global financial system. It offers a critical perspective on traditional economic systems, revealing inherent flaws and systemic vulnerabilities. "Hidden Secrets of Money" can help one understand the problems that Bitcoin was designed to address and why it represents a revolutionary approach to the concept of money. By recognizing the shortcomings of our existing financial systems, one can better appreciate the value proposition offered by Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin Standard Presentation

Watch: Saifedean Ammous: The Bitcoin Standard - book presentation in Vienna, Austria

"The Bitcoin Standard" by Saifedean Ammous is a comprehensive exploration of the historical context and potential future of Bitcoin. The book identifies Bitcoin as a modern-day equivalent of gold, a decentralized, universally accepted form of money that cannot be manipulated by governments. Ammous highlights Bitcoin's limited supply, decentralization, and resilience, arguing that these properties position it as an ideal global reserve currency. The book underscores how Bitcoin could lead to a new era of economic stability and fairness, free from the manipulation of monetary policy. In summary, "The Bitcoin Standard" elucidates why Bitcoin could become the standard for value storage and exchange in the digital age.

Current Bitcoin Stats

TimeChainStats.com

TimeChainStats offers statistical information about Bitcoin. This includes details about price, transactions, blocks, mining, and other bitcoin related metrics.

Thank you for reading.