On January 1, 1791, the US national debt was ~$75 million
In 1971, the US national debt reached ~$23 billion
From 1791 to 1971, the growth rate was 3.24%
Today, the US national debt is $33 trillion
From 1971 to 2023, the growth rate has been 15%
What happened in 1971?
The US Dollar became a fiat currency, and backed by nothing but trust
Before 1971, the US Dollar was backed by gold
This means every US Dollar in circulation could be exchanged for a specific amount of gold
In 1971, Richard Nixon "temporarily" paused the exchange of US Dollars to gold
This gave the US government the ability to print as much USD as it wanted because it didn't need to worry about the USD/GOLD exchange rate!
If you want exponential growth, you can't sell your time for money.
Selling your time for money will always lead to linear results.
Exponential growth requires that you work for a result or invest instead.
"Nine-to-five is how you survive, I ain't tryna survive I'm tryna live it to the limit and love it a lot"
- Jay-Z
Risk = uncertainty.
All assets are risky.
There is a chance of real estate, stocks, crypto, etc. are worth less in the future. They could also be worth a lot more.
Cash isn't "risky" in the traditional sense. There's no uncertainty - cash WILL be worth less in the long term.
If you only made the minimum payment on a credit card with a balance of $5,000 and an interest rate of 19.99%:
- It would take about 15 years to pay off the entire balance
- You would pay almost $5,600 in interest
The 10 steps towards becoming a #Bitcoiner:
Step 1) You've never heard of #Bitcoin .
Step 2) You think it's a scam or a Ponzi scheme and it has no utility. At this point, you hate Michael Saylor's (@saylor) voice.
Step 3) You start listening to what Michael has to say, but you don't believe him... So you start looking at other resources like Greg Foss (@FossGregfoss) or Saifedean Ammous (@saifedean). You read The Bitcoin Standard.
Step 4) You circle back to Michael's advice after getting some more context and you start thinking "this guy might know what he's talking about."
Step 5) You do a bit more research to understand how fiat currencies and central banks work and realize the real ponzi scheme is the fiat system.
Step 6) You start dollar cost averaging into Bitcoin, because you finally understand how money works and why BTC will eventually be a global reserve asset.
Step 7) You expect the global financial system to collapse overnight.
Step 8) You start listening to anything that Michael has to say with a pencil and paper to record notes.
Step 9) You realize that fiat currencies are so intertwined into society, that this is going to take some time...
Step 10) So you start posting Bitcoin-related content to warn everyone you know about the coming collapse. You don't get annoyed with people who think it's a ponzi scheme, because you were there before, and you know that they're only on Step 2 of 10 of their journey! 😉
In 1971, Richard Nixon "temporarily" took the US dollar off the gold standard.
We're still waiting for this temporary measure to be reversed, over 50 years later.
Since then, the US national debt has increased from $398 BILLION to 32 TRILLION.
Every form of money has been a placeholder for Bitcoin.
Gold and silver were used for thousands of years, but fiat currencies replaced them in 1930 for US citizens, and then in 1971 for the entire world.
Now we need to go back to a sound money standard, but gold will not work because it requires custodians.
Being a millionaire doesn't mean you are wealthy.
Wealth is the result of living below your means.
You can be a millionaire, but you'll still be poor if your expenses exceed what you have saved.
Working for someone else means you're helping them build their dream.
There's nothing wrong with this - we all have bills to pay.
Make sure when you're not working, you spend time building your own dreams as well.
20-30 minutes will make a bigger difference than you think.
A lot of people hate Bitcoin, but give this a chance:
Bitcoin being used as money cuts out SO many redundancies in the world's financial system.
It completely replaces banking by allowing individuals to transact with one another without a trusted third party (BANKS) and making lending peer-to-peer (INSTEAD OF THROUGH BANKS).
How does this help you?
- Lower fees
- Full control of your money
- Earn more interest if you lend money
Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan, publicly says Bitcoin is a pet rock, while JPM works on its own blockchain project.
Banks are trying as hard as they can to scare off individuals from buying and storing value in Bitcoin because they don't want it to be used as money.
They want you to trade it like an asset (buying and selling it to make profits in fiat so they earn fees).
I strongly urge that you do your research before you dismiss this technology!
"You buy #Bitcoin at the price you deserve."
Right now, most people don't care about Bitcoin.
They think it's useless, it has no utility, and it needs to be regulated by governments to work.
They think Bitcoin is a fiat currency like all other currencies.
They don't realize that Bitcoin is "market money" - money decided by the market based on it being:
• Portable: Easily moved from place to place
• Salable: Easily exchanged for other goods and services
• Divisible: Easy to use in transactions of different sizes
• Durable: It cannot be destroyed
• Scarce: More of it cannot be easily created
• Fungible: One unit has the same value as any other
Bitcoin is the ultimate form of scarcity. Nobody can create more BTC. There will never be more than 21 million #BTC . Each BTC can be split into 100 million units called Satoshis (1 Satoshi = 0.00000001 BTC).
We are so early in Bitcoin's adoption, that you can still exchange pieces of paper ($, €, £, etc.) for BTC because most of the world thinks fiat currencies are backed by something tangible.
Today, if you're earning $20/hour, your income can be exchanged for 0.0008 BTC (80,000 Satoshis).
Eventually, you'll get a lot less BTC for your labor because the value of BTC will be so much higher than it is now (supply down, demand up, price automatically increases).
With time, small actions by users of the network have a compounding effect. Every new participant in the network adds exponentially more value to the network than the last.
Buying and securing BTC increases the value of BTC because it decreases the circulating supply and increases the market value of the network.
Hyperbitcoinization (a situation where BTC transactions are a part of our daily lives) will happen after producers of raw materials like oil and food stop accepting fiat currencies (paper money) for their goods.
Why will they do this?
Fiat currencies are money by decree. Use is enforced by governments. Governments retain the power to create or destroy fiat currencies whenever they want.
All of this means that fiat currencies can be printed at will. When more units of a fiat currency are printed, all existing units of that currency lose value.
Goods cannot be printed at will. They take time and energy to produce.
Accepting fiat currencies for raw materials means producers are giving away something of value and getting back a piece of paper backed by trust.
Hyperbitcoinization will mean that you won't be able to buy BTC anymore. BTC will be money, meaning EVERYTHING will be priced in BTC.
The only way to get BTC will be to exchange something valuable for it, whether that's a good or a service.
Most people will ignore Bitcoin until after hyperbitcoinization has already taken place.
Ignorance will cost them a lot of their time and energy!
It's not up to an employer to ensure that you can sustain your life.
Your employer is buying your time at an agreed-upon price.
It's up to you to ensure that you upgrade your skills over time as technology changes.
If you're not upgrading your skills, demand for your labor will decrease over time as more people develop the same skills and are willing to work for less out of desperation.
Paid vacations are great.
You know what's better?
FREEDOM: going on vacation whenever you want, for however long you want, without having to ask a boss for permission!
Fiat currencies give political parties the power to take your money and spend it however they want, based on their beliefs and views.
Bitcoin fixes this by separating politics from global finance.
With Bitcoin, only YOU can access and spend your money.
Fiat currencies incentivize savers to hoard the supply of real estate so they can build wealth.
Bitcoin separates wealth from shelter.
Bitcoin incentivizes the production of real estate by ensuring builders are rewarded for their work.
• Supply of homes ⬆️
• Home prices ⬇️️
Learning about money can completely change your life.
There's no need to buy everything you see on TV or Amazon's home page.
Buy the things you need, and use the rest to design the life you want.
The earlier you realize this, the quicker you escape the rat race.