This is awesome - I'm from the UK, but still, this is awesome.

Reposts?

And this is exactly why I'm sympathetic to your viewpoint. I did a pod last year with Jeff and have written articles using the Titanic as an analogy for this very position. You can recognise Bitcoin as the lifeboat, but if you're underwater on the bottom deck of the Titanic and you can't breathe, then a lifeboat won't save you in time. That's why I'm a big believer in reading the likes of 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' and 'The Richest man in Babylon' as a starting point. You've got to pay yourself first and save something (in bitcoin) for your future self. It's existential. You'll then start to see the polarity of the two systems, as one gets worse and the other gets better. And clearly, fiat inflation will make life more and more difficult in this system, but Bitcoin will reflect this, literally like a mirror image. It has to. Both paragraphs you've written are absolutely true. And it will get worse and worse. So the question should be which system are you going to give more of your energy to if you know this? Honestly, I tread a horribly fine line in my day to day life and have witnessed it as a small business owner getting progressively more difficult for several years. But transferring what energy you can into Bitcoin, both literally and financially, is the only thing I believe you can do. I just see it as a priority, not as something to do at the end of the month.

Honest yes, but for $97 a month, I'd want better guidance than this. It never ceases to amaze me how people can claim to have been around since 2013 and still treat it like a tradeable asset within the fiat system.

The point is that it greatly reduces the friction points to do so. Yes, it's true that governments can pressure commercial banks to restrict access, but a CBDC would eventually remove the intermediary and give them absolute control. It's mission creep towards a system whereby the issuance, usage, access and activity are all under one umbrella.

My take would be that commercial banks are gradually disintermediated. So, we don't all immediately have accounts directly issued by the central bank, but perhaps access via products issued by commercial banks at first. If this happens, I'd say it's a decent bet that the end goal would be for everyone to have direct CBDC accounts with the central bank, perhaps on the premise of financial inclusion for everyone. Once commercial banks lose their status, there's nothing between the customer and the central bank issuing and, most important, programming, the currency. They can then do what they want (link access, rates, privileges, to your social credit score). Like I say, I'm not overly concerned either, but I think this is the gist of most people's fears.

Thanks for your reply, but I'm not sure I agree. Negative interest rates for example. It's true that they could be employed now. But this would be through commercial banks. If this happened, people would rush to withdraw their money, a run on the banks. Through a CBDC, the commercial banks would be disintermediated. The policy would be set and implemented by the central bank directly. It's true that there's already a net surrounding us, but CBDCs allow that net to be tightened further. For what it's worth, I don't particularly fear this, as I think attempts to employ it would push more people into Bitcoin. There are two systems we can choose from. A CBDC just makes the choice even more stark and obvious. It's an act of desperation from a failing system.

When it's digitally created by the central bank, it gives total control to the central bank. The threat is not that it's digital, we already have that. It's that it becomes programmable with it. Imagine a money whereby your access to it can be turned off. Where negative interest rates can be issued instantly and personally to individuals based on behaviour. It's a totalitarian's wet dream and Bitcoin is the antithesis.

I didn't actually realise that until the end of the film, but will definitely check it out, thanks.

I'll follow... "Quality memes, 1-sat zaps"

I'm sympathetic to your perspective and held the same one for a long time. I consistently have to check myself even now. Those who are struggling, and I'd include myself in this, are not struggling because of a failure of Bitcoin, but because of personal finance. Spending less than you earn is the only place to start. Only then can you invest the difference in a new system that will measure deflation and reward a low time preference. Bitcoin will always 'go up' when measured against pieces of paper over a long enough timescale.