January 3, 2019, 10 years from the genesis block. Many still wonder what Bitcoin is. Bitcoin is not a currency and is not an asset. Bitcoin is freedom.
Over the centuries we have conquered liberties that our ancestors couldn’t even conceive. We take for granted that we can marry someone of another social background, or be able to receive an education, or be able to make fundamental choices for our private life regardless of what our genealogy or our sex is. But there were centuries when it was not so and some rights, such as freedom of expression, association or professing one’s religion, were not only not recognized, but weren’t conceived as possible. This is still true today for many peoples.
Civilizations that haven’t yet reached our standards seem to be ridiculously retrograde, and we observe them from top to bottom, as if Western society had always been free from those barbarities. Yet, despite the progress made, our own contemporary society hasn’t yet truly reached the awareness of what are the fundamental human rights and how they can be truly achieved, beyond the mere formal expression of a treaty or a constitution. We write about equality and freedom, yet often these words are meaningless and our laws don’t honor them. In half a century our grandchildren will look at these days in a way not very different from how we look at the dark ages of the Middle Ages.
We haven’t obtained the freedoms of which we are speaking by fighting against a despot or a corrupt regime. If there is a despot to fight, then human civilization has already won its victory, because an enemy has been identified, a revolution is taking place. It means that the idea of freedom is already part of our thoughts, it has already seduced us, and then pushes us to action. Freedom is an idea that creeps into our minds like a seed that slowly sprouts from generation to generation, and at a certain point, releases a relentless energy, pretending to change a world that is suddenly no longer perceived as fair.
For many people Bitcoin is not a requirement, it is just a sophisticated, technically excellent and even useless contrivance. Many understand the technology, but are unable to grasp its real meaning. It is difficult to understand Bitcoin, precisely because it is minimally technological innovation, it is above all a social innovation. A radical, deep social innovation which will mark an epochal evolutionary passage. This evolution cannot be expected to take place in 10 years. New ideas must penetrate the heart of new generations to be understood; a social transformation, a gradual internalization is necessary. Bitcoin leaves most people totally indifferent, because they are not able to accept its vision. Some do so for ignorance, others for arrogance, or simple lack of curiosity.
What oppresses us is not an authoritarian regime, it is not the state, it is not the power of the banks or the central banks, it is not the tyranny of the majority. The real oppressor is ignorance, stale conservatism, nostalgic attachment to tradition, the inability to see beyond habits, intellectual laziness, disregard for the present, mistrust and lack of faith in being able to change and improve. And so the oppressor is at the same time the oppressed: in our most dear and good fellow citizens, in our colleagues, in our friends, in our families, in our own thoughts, etc.
Who cannot understand Bitcoin, should first ask: today we are free to express ourselves, to communicate, to exchange, to write, to make agreements, to sign pacts, to work? Did we really conquer those freedoms? Many could give an affirmative answer to almost all those questions, yet under the eyes of all there are limits intolerable to these freedoms that weigh like boulders, which however surprisingly few can really see.
What has made human civilization great, elevating it above other animal species, is the ability to organize an economy. The key element of an economy is not production, which already exists in the animal kingdom, but exchange, trade. Spiders produce canvas, birds build nests, ants build anthills, more evolved animals produce shelters and sometimes use weapons or primitive tools. The exchange, however, although there are primordial examples even among animals (“gifts” that are configured as do ut des), is characteristic of human beings. Thanks to the exchange, we were able to better organize the work through the division of labor and the specialization of some individuals in certain sectors. In this way we have optimized the use of resources, working in a coordinated and infinitely more efficient way, benefiting everyone. The progress of our species derives from this simple factor, which still — and even more so today — is decisive in society, since the more a society exchanges the more it is rich and prosperous.
Economics is a founding pillar of our civilization and therefore reflects the fundamental moral principles that regulate the relationships between human beings. Economics not only makes these moral principles its own, but makes them necessary, promotes and magnifies them, helping to build a world where it isn’t the strongest to dominate and prey on others, but where those who can collaborate prevail, with advantages not only for themselves, but for all the collaborating parties. A universally recognized moral principle for any people, which far precedes other ideals such as equality or freedom in its various forms, is respect for the word freely and voluntarily given. Law comes from morality, so the legal institution of the contract takes shape from the principle of respect for the word given. A contract works because the counterparts respect the agreement, or the agreement on which mutual consent has been established. But only in its most sophisticated garments the contract takes written or digital shape, while in its most primordial form, and yet still the most common, it is of a gestural or verbal kind, as an exchange offer. Respect for the word given is therefore functional to the success of the exchange and collaboration.
In the twenty-first century, a man can’t fulfill an exchange contract with another man without the support of a third party involved. Two men aren’t free to fulfill the most fundamental moral principle of our civilization: respect for the word given. If we promise a friend that we’ll be at his place for dinner, no public authority will meddle, so we’ll be free to do so without being accountable to anyone. However, if such a promise involves a benefit (even if only a potential one) economically calculable for at least one of the parties involved, the promise can’t take place without the granting of an authority. Any communication, agreement, exchange that has an economic relevance must in some way be reported to the State. A very simple idea, like an abstract theory, but with sufficient potential to be exploited economically, can’t be transferred by an individual freely. Even the gift is not free: we live in a society where there is a tax on donations.
If we have produced bread with our work, the moment we exchange it for money, a very sophisticated abstract process is happening, and we often don’t think about the real meaning of what is happening. In concrete terms, however, we are simply selling the fruit of our work in exchange for the promise of someone else to work for us, offering us some good or service of our interest. Money is nothing but the accounting of the value produced by labor, which is transferred from individual to individual to track how much a person is in debt or in credit with all other individuals (where labor is measured by the subjective value of all the individuals present in a market, according to their needs and preferences).
So when we do a job for someone in exchange for money, we are giving up our work (or the fruits of our labor) in exchange for a promise: the money we receive is a credit, so someone else in the economy is our debtor for a quantity equal to the value of the work performed by us. Without that “promise” it isn’t possible to “exchange”, which is not a mere barter. Accounting writing that we exchange, from the most complex contract to a simple banknote or coin, in physical or digital form, is nothing more than the account of our debts and credits. And this is the exclusive subject of those who have a license given by the public administration, i.e. banking license, to the point that we individuals can’t be debtors or creditors of anyone without the third party’s support.
(Stay tuned, tomorrow will be published Part 2 of this essay…)
