Have you seen what US is doing and draconian requests sent to #bitcoin miners? If we don’t defend our rights in democratic countries you would not have any more place to escape. We should not give up our freedoms.
Discussion
I agree. But I just don't see the point in defending bitcoin at this level. If it is antifragile, it will grow with/because of laws against it. If it's not, then it's not what we think it is.
And more generally, I think the West is in decline. The EU and the US are getting weaker. Society is deteriorating. I mean, just look at the kind of people who are leading politics in Germany right now. They all have double-digit IQs. And Germany is supposed to be the engine of Europe. Those times seem to be over. What's going to happen next is that far right parties are going to come to power because of what's happening. All over Europe. Do you think they are better? Are they the solution? Or is there a potential to make things worse? I don't know. But I know what I believe.
Surely you know the quote: "The closer the collapse of the empire, the crazier its laws."
I see no point in trying to repair a sinking ship, sorry. Even though my family lives in Europe and I grew up in Europe. But like I said, I admire people like you. It's true. Your attitude is what is needed to bring about positive change. I hope you succeed.
I have heard such voices in many countries one step before dictatorship were established for the last 15 years of my human rights work. After time, the most of people were losing their families, homes, rights or ended up being victims of abuse of power and lost their lives.
You have a right to believe in what your are saying, but if you don’t defend your position, soon the environment where you used to have a right to express your position freely can become a matter why someone wants to violate your rights without being accountable. And since there is no safe environment- no mechanisms to defend your rights left.
If you don’t try to prevent it and no one stands up in your defense - your chances to exist/express your opinion/enjoy your rights come to zero.
#bitcoin doesn’t care if you use it or not. It is a brilliant technology created by humans. So Satoshi Nakamoto did a real effort as a first step to protect the rights for financial freedom of many people. But it is not enough and never should be treated as granted.
Other bad actors can and actually want you to deprive the rights to use not only #bitcoin, but generally your rights/goods. If you can’t defend your rights, if developers would not deliver new solutions how to resist against the financial oppression - you will lose the ability to enjoy your freedom. So actually both you and me, other bitcoiners - we need to have the safe environment both for life and for developers/bitcoin miners to work on their tasks. And no one is going to provide it without our efforts to get or protect it.
That is why I see my role as to help protect at this stage 1) those who use bitcoin as bank of last resort in the authoritarian states and 2) those who work on the network of bitcoin, like miners, privacy developers.
With all respect to you, as European citizen you don’t use bitcoin as a bank of last resort - you probably pay your expenses in credit cards. Right? So likely, you don’t experience financial exclusion we as activists/our families have and we are experiencing right now. And to enjoy these rights /privileges someone from your family fought for it centuries ago and probably it cost him/her their lives/enormous efforts. We do it in our countries with very limited resources right now and we don’t want to lose the safe environment we enjoy in democracies while we support our networks of activists in the authoritarian states. It is a question for us of life and death.
Also, I guess you may agree, that our civilization develops with different success and failure moments thanks those personalities who don’t observe passively how their peaceful lives are destroyed by abusive actors. Satoshi #Nakamoto is the one of those who did effort in defense of his beliefs, not just moved passively.
And I assure you - the success of such personalities in their ability to gather solidarity support of others for a marathon, not a sprint fight for rights and defense of everyone’s peace.