The last 24 hours were quite interesting for me, and have sparked all sorts of thoughts and tangents in my mind. I’ve been absolutely thrilled that yesterday’s post, A New Financial System is Being Born, has been so well received in the broader Bitcoin/crypto/tech world, but I also noticed a meaningful contradiction. While the post has been cheered beyond the confines of this website, within Liberty Blitzkrieg itself, it hasn’t been celebrated by anyone, at least not publicly in the comment section. In fact, if you scroll through the comment section of the post, you’ll see it’s basically 100% skepticism or dislike for Bitcoin. The reason I find this so interesting is because of what it tells me about sentiment.
I got a lot of insight from the comment section of this particular post because I know for a fact many of my readers love Bitcoin and have been involved in it for years. I know this based on private conservations I’ve had as well as many donations over the years. In a euphoric market environment, I’d expect the comment section to yesterday’s post to be filled with gloating, giddiness and “to da moon” commentary. There was absolutely none of that. In contrast, the skeptics were out in full force and totally dominated the discussion, which is fine. I want people to express different opinions and feel like they have the space to totally disagree with something I write. At the same time, it does tell me something about overall sentiment. The people who are long and sitting on gains are largely keeping their mouths shut, while the skeptics are very, very vocal. It’s not just here either, the skepticism and dislike for Bitcoin is even more prevalent within my Twitter feed. Incredibly, despite the recent enormous run, Bitcoin sentiment seems cautious-to-negative. Take that information as you see fit.
This sets the stage for the key part of this post which relates to the difference between fear and concern. One of these is a largely unproductive emotional state, while the other is a rational response to potential or real trouble. The reason Bitcoin sparked my interest in the topic is because I’ve witnessed a lot of people miss the Bitcoin run due to irrational fear, as opposed to reasoned concern. This isn’t to gloat about Bitcoin, or predict its future price. Pretty much everyone involved in this space for more than a few days understands that its price could completely collapse any minute and, despite all its advances, Bitcoin remains an experimental project that could end up worthless. I knew that back in 2012 when I first became involved and I know it now, yet I got involved anyway. Why did I do that?
The main reason is because I could see the potential and didn’t allow myself to make decisions based on fear. Fear overwhelms you, stunts your growth, makes you miss out on opportunities, and ultimately prevents you from living a fulfilled, interesting life. I know plenty of people who saw the potential of Bitcoin, but didn’t buy any or embrace it out of fear alone. Fear governments wouldn’t allow it. Fear the power grid would go down. Fear they’d be hacked. Fear overwhelmed them and prevented them from becoming involved in one of the few areas of this terribly corrupt economy filled with actual innovation and optimism. In my years in this space, I’ve found crypto currency people (especially the old school ones), to be some of the most humous, talented, decent and optimistic people I’ve ever met. So what if it goes to zero? The whole journey has been one of the most interesting of my entire life and worth every minute. As I noted on Twitter earlier today.
Brilliant, talented people are out there doing stuff, fearful envious people are warning me of doom.
Gonna bet with the former.— Michael Krieger (@LibertyBlitz) May 26, 2017
Which brings me to concern. While I always acknowledged many of the things Bitcoin skeptics pointed out, my response was concern, not fear. Concern allowed me to think things through and determine an appropriate allocation to something as unproven and risky as Bitcoin, but it didn’t propel me to avoid something I believed in and wanted to support. Concern is normal and healthy. It helps you take calculated risks and prompts reasonable measures to insure against catastrophe. Concern doesn’t freeze you up. It doesn’t prevent you from taking action or embracing new experiences. Fear does.
Fear is a negative emotion and mindset that only holds you back. It prevents calculated risk-taking, without which us humans would still be shivering in caves somewhere. We’ve all heard the saying “fortune favors the bold,” but you’ve never heard anyone say “fortune favors the fearful.” That’s because it doesn’t. And by fortune, we’re not just talking material wealth. We’re talking mental health, a breadth of experience and the joy and fulfillment that comes from a life of action as opposed to existing in a state of doom and gloom.
Of course, there are times when fear is appropriate and beneficial, but I’d argue pretty much only when you’re faced with a life or death situation, like in the middle of a war zone or being attacked by a wild animal. Fight or flight is very well established element of the human being for good reason, but unless you’re in a situation of extreme distress or danger, it’s almost always better off to avoid this state of mind.
I previously touched on this concept in my series on Spiral Dynamics. Here’s what I noted in the piece titled, What is Spiral Dynamics and Why Have I Become So Interested in It?
All of the madness being perpetrated by the media and divisive pundits on both sides needs to be seen in the context of this unfolding of consciousness. These people are in the fight for their lives to keep the current paradigm they are comfortable with alive. If you accept this view, then you recognize the importance of staying true to your values and not regressing back into first-tier type thinking. As Wilber and others explain, these are fluid states, so periods of stress or fear can result in a regression of consciousness. It’s not an exaggeration to say that preventing this from happening is of the utmost significance.
Expanding our consciousness is probably the most important work any of us can do on an individual basis, and fear is characteristic of the most base level of consciousness. As Ken Wilber described it:
1. Beige: Archaic-Instinctual. The level of basic survival; food, water, warmth, sex, and safety have priority. Uses habits and instincts just to survive. Distinct self is barely awakened or sustained. Forms into survival bands to perpetuate life.
Where seen: First human societies, newborn infants, senile elderly, late-stage Alzheimer’s victims, mentally ill street people, starving masses, shell shock. 0.1% of the adult population, 0% power.
People living a life consumed by fear are in many ways living as if they are mentally ill. Living life in fear is a voluntary choice for most of us, and it’s one of the most unproductive, unhealthy lifestyle choices a human being can make.
Which brings me to the point of this post. While it was inspired by some of the stuff I’ve witnessed related to Bitcoin and various people’s responses to it, it’s about much more than that. It’s about sharing some of the things I’ve learned over the years based on my own painful mistakes. I’ve found that it’s always better to be open-minded than stubborn, and that it’s always better to be a person of action as opposed to someone living in fear. Fear will bring nothing to you and those around you but misery and happiness. Concern is fine, but how you respond to the concern is what matters. Are you going to cower in a corner, or are you going to try to do something about it ? Karma is action, and action is a huge part of being human.
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Michael Krieger
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Very interesting interpretation of yesterday’s results. This is one of the very, very few times I completely disagree with you.
Fear is only concern that has mastered the person. Fear is not a willingness to remain unconvinced until logic can explain. Concern is only fear that finds mitigating circumstances to temper it. It is a continuum, not a discreet alternative.
Not to rehash my response yesterday but if anyone can post, or point to, a resource that manages to logically provide reasons why this time it IS different–where have we heard that before?– and that all the familiar objections to crypto currencies can be safely ignored, I will certainly examine it carefully and, if convinced, change my beliefs so I, too, can profit.
In the meantime, and until the very tangible concerns are disposed of, it seems to me fearing to tread makes a lot more sense than glossing over the multitudinous ways crypto currencies as currently understood and transacted can be torpedoed.
In the meantime, the recent runup experienced by Bitcoin holders can easily be seen as a speculative outlier and not a reason to believe it is destined for greatness. No one is breathing down gold or silver’s neck with improved versions of these assets. Not so with the crypto currency universe. I wouldn’t want to be stuck with a trunk load of Bitcoins when something laps it in competitive technological or security advantage…and that’s even if the electrical grid and Net are functioning normally.
The post wasn’t specifically referring to you, of course, but to people who were so gripped with fear and convinced of an imminent Mad Max situation or power going down for good, that they couldn’t even bring themselves to consider Bitcoin. I know for certain there are people out there like that, and this is sad. By no means was I implying that everyone who decided for a variety of reasons that Bitcoin wasn’t for them, that this was all fear driven.
More importantly, and what I want to stress is the difference between fear and concern, and the importance of not living a fear driven existence generally, which some people unfortunately, do.
“and the importance of not living a fear driven existence generally, which some people unfortunately, do.”
I agree with this 100% and yes, there are endless blogs/sites that either wallow in this space or exploit if for profit. I have actually unsubscribed from just about everything having to do with “preparedness” because of the doom porn. Who wants to exit this life bitter because Armageddon failed to materialize and make us king of an ash heap?
I remember seeing a mailer years ago from a financial publisher that featured the now-famous picture of the lone protester blocking the tank in Tienanmen Square. The pitch? How can we make money off of this uprising.
If ever there was an example of those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, that was it. I have a feeling there was more than a bit of that disillusionment in your decision to leave high finance, Michael.
The need for new and untied money systems is evident, and we are beyond due time. In spite of the fact that distributed ledger (blockchain) has been around for 7 years we still we have no cryptocurrency that even appears to become a means of exchange. If bitcoin today was used by people for closing deals between people it would certainly be an example of manifested integral consciousness. But it is not. And we have known this for many years, but nothing has been done. The banks started to hire bitcoin developers and their respective companies already back in 2013. We must assume that they are trying to figure out how they can use this powerful new technology. What have we done in the meantime? Staring at the bitcoin price tag. It increases – so what? It lies in a permanent instable equilibrium, driven by nothing but hope and fear. That’s all. We have to ask ourselves: why is bitcoin not working? Not technically, but economically. And many answers can be found, but unfortunately that discussion is not yet going on. At least not outside of the banks.
I find it interesting that you imbue (psychological) motive into the critics of your bitcoin narrative as if only those who missed the train as sour. Being an actual anarchist who wishes upon stars for a humanity capable of voluntary free association, I generally sympathize with your points. Not so with the bitcoin.
I marvel at how those that see Central Bank digital debt and fiat as fallacies cannot see that bitcoin is as much a digital farce or more so.
It is simply a confidence currency and the myth of blockchain invulnerability is very much like the myth (and is a conceptual analog) of internet “robustness”. The electronic dependency of our culture has magnified all of the artificial excesses of our narrative consciousness. Bitcoin is a marvelous example of humans mistaking the menu for the food and trying to eat it.
Bitcoin is not a cornerstone in a “new” financial system. It is just another left brain fiction, a stealth derivative that is highly leveraged and completely dependent on a cult consensus reality.
As I explained in an earlier comment, I am referring to a very specific subset of people in this post. Namely radical goldbugs who treat gold ownership as a weird religion. I spent many years in the trenches with many of these people, and I can promise you from personal experience that for a large percentage of them the true reason they were all in gold was not to “protect wealth” as they claimed, but to make a fortune from some promised “mania” after the whole world collapsed. I’ve seen many of them root for chaos so they could be kings in a world burnt to the ground. They have been extremely resentful and bitter ever since Bitcoin started doing what gold and silver were supposed to do. I am speaking specifically of this group, which I happen to know intimately over the years.
Although understandable and I take the blame for it, I wanted this piece to be focused on the need to avoid a fear-driven mindset which I have seen destroy lives and lead to horrible decisions, not Bitcoin. But it is what it is. I’m not trying to convince anyone to like or support Bitcoin, the information is out there and people have to come to their own conclusions.
There is another state of mind not mentioned. True fear is an uncommon experience in civilian life not to be confused will a little adrenaline pumping now and then.. Concern is a state of rationality or reasoned thinking. Wariness is the one missing which is both an intuitive emotion paired with rational thought. While I like the idea of cryptos I am wary of putting my hard earned cash on the line for all the reasons given and a few others and I would care a great deal if my investment went to zero. While for some investing in the cryptos is not a worrisome affair for others their view may be based on the detractions out weighing the possible benefits. Not all live comfortably with volatility or the idea of just not being able to use a crypto when you might need it most. In thinking it over thanks but no thanks as I am wary on cryptos and my investments in which I feel comfortable are made elsewhere. As for the article on Bitcoin the more investors the merrier, as in bubble, despite all the sharing of the ‘good news.’
Michael your main point which was aimed at Gold Bugs seems to be totally missed by those responding so far – probably because they are Not gold bugs. As a precious metals investor for over 16 years (mostly silver) for the simple reason I saw the dilution of the $ for the last 100 years – I chose PM for my protection and yet have been erroneously called a “Gold Bug” a few times for my studied wealth (small) protection. Again as your previous days post so far the only respondents have been those who are Not in favor of BTC. However, I like BTC more and more and ETH (ethereum) also as I learn more about them are their mostly Future usage. I equate the Cryptos today to the Internet in 1995. Very few at that time had the vision to see its uses even Ten years later. And like the Cryptos today in 1995 the internet had to go through a “build out” to enable it to be able to perform all the functions that would come in the 21st century. Today, Commerce and Finance are totally dependent upon the internet. In three years there is a whole New Paradigm is coming called “The Internet of Things” or IOT for short. These Cryptos will play a HUGE role in that (IOT) along with “self driving cars” and “robotics” – Technology is moving with lightening like speed and those who can see just 5 years down the road and invest early like with IBM; Microsoft; Google; Apple in their early days along with some others will ride this wave into the future. There are now several hundred new Cryptos/Blockchain tokens and more on the way. Most will not survive but maybe 10 or 20 will. For the visionary, research is required just as in any other type of investment. Being an up an coming technology as the Cryptos are – it would also be prudent not to invest more than you are able to RISK losing.
I treat fear different than others. I take many risks in life. I am a doer. I have accomplished a lot. I also have failed a lot. Fear is like a radar detector. It tells me how to maneuver through the risky parts without getting caught up in a major catastrophe. I have been in life or death situations a dozen times and lived through it. I had a friend die doing what I do. He hit a tree driving fast. I have built a business and bought a house. Hiked and Biked up mountains, raced cars and bikes. Have three kids. I have patents and invented things. I always go for it and chase the dream.
My radar detector tells me something is wrong when the Elites aren’t attacking Bitcoin. This allows me to think through what there next move is and see it before it happens in my imagination.
War is broken up into little battles. I see the Bernie Sanders campaign as a battle. I fought for Bernie in that battle and we lost. I didnt actually fight, I mean I campaigned, donated and worked to help him win. I see Bitcoin as a battle but Bitcoin never served a purpose for me in the past so i stayed out of that battle. Each battle weakens and tests the strength of the Elites.In ww2 the allies lost many battles in the beginning but many years later they won the war.
I think that the Bitcoin battle is going to lose but I will get involved in other battles and hopefully we win the war. This is a all metaphor because I take peaceful action in my fight. I see a version of crypto currency needed at some point once the Elites lose control of the banking sector. So the battle is a valuable learning experience that will serve us well sometime in the future.
Great post Mike. The last paragraph says it all. We love in unprecedented times. I think people have a heaped time today grasping the world around them. Not that I have. It is very challenging today in every aspect in life. Fear and concern is a more natural reaction in most people. I found this to be a call to be more proactive in fighting each persons fears in this ever more challenging world we live in. Keep up the great work.
It seems like many people, both sceptics and pros, believe bitcoin has a decentralized money creation. This is not really correct. What was invented with bitcoin was a decentralized ledger, which in principle can account any kind of token. Bitcoin as a money token that for all practical purposes constitutes a preprinted supply, with a long tail that only marginally creates new money. One should keep in mind that the technology and (arbitrary) money supply are two different things.
Excellent observation.
Us pro-PM and anti-crypto are not telling pro-crypto what to do with their money. We are the ones being talked down to.
A little about myself, I have a BS in math. The first thing we learn is how to make a good argument. The two arguments I mostly hear from proponents is:
1. I must be stupid if I do not want it (now we can add fearful).
2. It has done this in the past; therefore, it will continue to do so.
These are not good arguments.
Furthermore, I believe the lack of good arguments on forums is because most proponents of crypto do not understand them. They are just going with the latest trend.
And, do not bother with enlightening me. The fact the it has to be explained is a strike against it. I do not want to explain it to my local farmer who I get my eggs from.
Most understand exchanging something of value for something else of value. Crypto is not a store of value because it has no value. Something has intrinsic value when it has utility to one person regardless of it being wanted by someone else. Your house has value because it gives you shelter even if you can not sell it.
Some of my silver I never intent to sell. Those that I do but can not, I can make jewelry for my wife.
What does one do with all their bitcoins if no one will take them from you?All of their value comes from there being someone else to take them from you. Sounds like the “Greater Fool Theory” of investing.
This is the dotcom bubble all over again. But, at least those companies had some assets to sell (computers, furniture) to pay to their stockholders when the have to liquidate.
“Something has intrinsic value when it has utility to one person regardless of it being wanted by someone else.”- A Different Kevin
That would primarily be FEW (Food Energy Water). The most important of those 3 is potable water. It doesn’t matter how much money you have if you don’t’ have access to drinking water.
“What does one do with all their bitcoins if no one will take them from you?All of their value comes from there being someone else to take them from you.”
The same applies to ANY type of currency.That includes the US dollar. How valuable is the full faith and credit of the US government going to be looking forward? As it is now, the US is technically insolvent.
What I like about Bitcoin is that it really is a form of barter.
I would rather say the value comes from consensus and scarcity. Fiat money get their scarcity from the government’s monopoly. Gold get scarcity from the cost (work) required to produce it. Bitcoin get its scarcity from limited supply. I would be in favor of a work-backed crypto.