Cryptocurrency: Your Fungible Democracy, Explained.
To the software developer, cryptocurrency is a software encryption implementation that uses an encryption algorithm called Blockchain. Blockchain has an integral chain-of-custody mechanism that is supposedly secure enough to be used as a unit of monetary exchange in open markets. While others contend that the only way to keep computerized information secure is not plug the computer in in the first place, this post isn’t meant to explain whether or not Blockchain is secure or describe how it works — you can follow this link to a basic article about Blockchain or look it up elsewhere — you don’t need me for that; rather, this post is meant to discuss how Blockchain could theoretically be used to affect Democracy in America.
The original argument for digitizing new monetary units was that it would decentralize currency from the control of banks, governments, and the International Monetary Fund by creating a secure software unit of exchange that exists outside of conventional constraints. Whether decentralizing control of currency is a good idea or not, the cryptocurrency concept is currently going through an experimental “proof of concept” probe by speculators testing the waters of the marketplace. So far, cryptocurrency’s experimental markets have largely been dominated by get-rich-quick speculators, teenage flash-nerds, and application developers. Add money launderers, data blackmailers, and rogue nation states to the mix, and you have a basic cross-section of the non-coding users experimenting with exploiting cryptocurrency. As a percentage of the overall population, though, only a minuscule percentage of the world is actually using cryptocurrency for any purpose, and if nobody is using crypto currency, it isn’t a problem. The fractional percent of users also makes it difficult to consider cryptocurrency as a threat to our democracy; however, when we focus on the concept of cryptocurrency through the eyes of our adversaries, cryptocurrency could have decidedly insidious overtones:
“Destabilize a nation’s currency, and you destabilize the country. Destabilize the country, and you can manipulate its population. You can push people to overthrow their own government.”
Americans have enjoyed an extended interval of relative peace and economic stability that has made the United States one of the most prosperous nations in the history of the planet. In the eyes of the world’s major economic powers, their perception is that come war, pestilence, pandemic, or natural disaster, America will still be standing when the smoke clears. Because of the international confidence in the stability of our political and economic underpinnings, the United States Dollar has become the universal standard by which the value of all other currencies are calculated — there is no enforceable law that prevents other nations from just pulling a number out of their ass to claim as the value of their currency except for the fact that the value of any currency is based on the world’s perception of that unit. China has attempted to arbitrarily over-value their yuan many times over the years and Russia has also tried to over-value the ruble; however, the glue that holds the international trading systems together is standardized by the world’s central money markets, which have long held that the value of a given country’s currency is based on its comparison to the U.S. Dollar. Does having your country’s currency regarded as the world standard unit of measure matter? Yes, having your country’s currency regarded as the world standard matters to your quality of life because having your currency at the center of all global economic activity does, in fact, give your currency stability against inflation and fluctuations in other currencies. This fact allows us to maintain our standard of living on a relatively even keel.
So why are apex predators like Elon Musk and the other billionaires who might conceivably benefit from instability in the United States talking up cryptocurrency?
The simple answer is that a strong central government with effective regulatory agencies is the billionaire’s kryptonite. To the Davos Class, any a monkey wrench in any government agency designed to regulate them benefits the rich. The Mercer family, the Ulines, and many of the other far-right dark-money pirates that funded Donald Trump are working overtime to destabilize America anyway, so cryptocurrency is simply another tactical weapon to help them flood the zone. The rest of us have to insist on just and equitable laws with strict enforcement — it’s the only way we can keep the playing field level and the game honest. The laws and regulations we have today may be the only things standing between you and your being marched off to work in a battery factory as free labor tomorrow, so by destabilizing our social order with cryptocurrency, the billionaire class can theoretically manipulate markets and use the resulting disasters to generate profits, skirt regulation, dodge taxation, and influence antitrust legislation.
Depending on your age and knowledge of modern U.S. history, you may have heard the “Destabilize a country’s currency, and you destabilize the country” observation before in connection with Ronald Reagan’s international chicanery in Iran and El Salvador …or the Bush Dynasty’s CIA skulduggery wherever the intersection of oil, heroin, money, and war was found. In fact, the very worst of the United States’ presidents from Kennedy and Nixon to Bush I, II, and Trump have all manipulated other nations’ currency in an attempt to force regime change …yet the outcome is always the same:
- The target country ends up being trashed
- The people of the target country wind up worse off than before
- The international elite wind up even richer than before
Again, there aren’t enough people in the world using cryptocurrency at the present time to dilute or destabilize the power of the U.S. Dollar; but is there a dollar-to-crypto ratio that would challenge the dollar’s standing? Could cryptocurrency introduce enough uncertainty or dissonance in markets to devalue the dollar or some other currency? If either of these hypotheticals are true, what are the threshold metrics that should trigger alarm? What are the guard rails in place to mitigate potential damage from cryptocurrency to persons or entire economies? The truth is that we don’t know the answers to these questions.
While I seriously doubt that many people would voluntarily switch to cryptocurrency, given the choice, you can never rule out the risks posed by “Wild West” technology companies. Here’s how you could be forced into sdopting cryptocurrency whether you like it or not:
Microsoft was once a tech company of the Wild West. I know from personal experience that, in the early days of personal computing, it was never my choice to use Microsoft Windows. There were much better operating systems out there. I never wanted to use Microsoft Word because there were much better word processors out there …ditto for Excel (there were better spreadsheets, as well). In the early days of PCs, very few people preferred any Microsoft products at all, and this was where the fixers and corporate pirates at Microsoft really earned their stock options: Don’t waste your time trying to sell the product to people who don’t like using it. Instead, spend your time and energy selling the product to the aquisition managers at companies that manufacture computers or purchase products for large businesses. Make their company deals and buy off the managers — whatever it takes. Better still, sell it to the U.S. Government Office of Acquisitions! Who cares about individual users when you sell software for 50,000 workstations at the Department of Agriculture, 53,000 workstations at the Department of Commerce, 100,000 workstations at the Department of Defense …you get the idea. Who cares if the end users like it or not? Fuck ’em! If you want to do business with the US Government online (or work for them), you’ll wind up with Windows XXXVIII.XVIII and a Microsoft browser whether you like it or not. I have a funny feeling that when AT&T and Burger King only accept ShitCoin, you will just happen to have the app in a phone wallet next to your digital state drivers license, personal identification target, and DNA bar code.