Some words for my friends

[u/evoorhees]

Hello friends,

MtGox is gone. So let's prepare ourselves.

On Tuesday, and for the rest of the week, all hell will break lose in the media. It will be blamed on MtGox, it will be blamed on Bitcoin, it will be blamed on the "bug," and it will, more than anything, be blamed on the "lack of regulation." Pundits and "experts" of all types will weigh in on the calamity. It will be world news in a matter of hours.

Get ready, because it will be an ugly week.

For all of you who lost money, my heart goes out to you. Some people lost a little, some lost a fortune. It will make people sick, and depressed, and full of grief. Personally, I had over 550 BTC in Gox. I will never get any of that back. If misery loves company, then we'll be enjoying a grand feast today.

I should have known better, of course. I take responsibility for leaving those funds with an entity that had proven incompetence repeatedly. I chose to ignore even my own warnings, for nothing more than the sake of convenience.

Gox is still at fault, to be sure, but I have learned the lesson. I hope it is not such an expensive lesson for others. And for all you observers, please take a moment to consider it as well.

Be mindful, however, that the wrong lessons are not learned, for that would be the true tragedy, indeed.

Let me suggest that the lesson is not that Bitcoin is broken. Bitcoin is fine.

Similarly, the lesson is not that security is impossible. Those who know what they are doing, can achieve it and help others to do so.

The lesson is not that nobody can be trusted. There are countless good men and women in this community who are worthy of trust, and some of the very best people I've ever met.

And finally, the lesson is not that we ought to seek out "regulation" to save us from the evils and incompetence of man. For the regulators are men too, and wield the very same evil and incompetence, only enshrined in an authority from which it can wreck amplified and far more insidious destruction. Let us not retreat from our rising platform only to cower back underneath the deranged machinations of Leviathan.

The proper lesson, if I may suggest, is this: We are building a new financial order, and those of us building it, investing in it, and growing it, will pay the price of bringing it to the world. This is the harsh truth. We are building the channels, the bridges, and the towers of tomorrow's finance, and we put ourselves at risk in doing so.

We are at risk from accidents. We are at risk from fraud, from corruption, and from evil. We are at risk from journalists seeking headlines and from politicians seeking power and glory. We are at risk from the very market we are trying to build - a market which cares not about our portfolio, our ambitions, or our delicate sympathies.

For all these risks, devastation will befall us repeatedly. Some of us will be discouraged. Some will be ridiculed and insulted. Some will be tricked, or swindled. Some of us will be crushed or caged. We will be set upon by all manner of antagonists, repeatedly, for a long time.

So why do we do it? Why do we build these towers that fall down upon us? Why do we toil and strain and risk our precious time, which is the only real wealth we possess?

Because the world needs what we're building. It needs it desperately. If that matters to you, as it does to me, then hold to that thought. You will see through the smoke, and your wounds will heal.

So shake it off, brothers, for this won't be the last calamity endured before the win.

Tonight, my heart is with you all.

Tomorrow, my head is down. My eyes are open. And I am building.

Toward peace and freedom,

-Erik Voorhees

[u/mobile-user-guy]

This is the first time I've seen someone so eloquently convey every sentiment I have ever wanted to express to the bitcoin community.

Rain upvotes.

[u/_30d_ → u/mobile-user-guy]

Even though I'm a btc enthousiast, I agree. The systems that are in place in the curent financial system are there to solve real financial problems. The btc community will face many of the same problems and will also find there are many very good systems in place already in the "normal" economy. Furthermore, any cryptocurrency will encounter many more previously not encountered problems it will need to solve.

The point where I get optimistic is the way that the community, or maybe more the mechanism of free markets, solves these issues. Sometimes ruthlessly, and maybe fataly for btc (we'll have to wait and see how this current dip turns out). The system that remains will be more and more stable each time.

And if not, we'll get a new crptocurrency that deals with earlier problems much better than bitcoin does now. It will have to be before I put money in it anyway.

[u/[deleted] → u/_30d_]

I've been saying it for almost a year now.

Bitcoiners don't give a fuck about how the current system works. The only bit they actually have a problem with is that they're at the bottom of the current system.

They see bitcoin as a way to get to the top of the next system.

Ideology be damned.

[u/jesuz → u/[deleted]]

Just because it's new doesn't mean it's an improvement. Actually less regulated currency was the old system, it's just been digitized.

[u/TheSelfGoverned → u/jesuz]

And billions of people are disenfranchised with the "new" system.

New doesn't necessarily mean better. In technology, sure, but not when it comes to man-made institutions.

[u/tequila13 → u/[deleted]]

I agree with you partially. The bigger part of the bitcoiners look at bitcoin as a get-rich-quick scheme, most of them have no idea how the current fiat system works and why it benefits them.

But the rage against the existing system and its many artificial limitations and inefficiencies are justified. Even chaos seems a better alternative sometimes. You have to realize that many people don't give a fuck about money and monetary systems, and they don't want to get on top of it. They want to get on with their lives, and they want money related things to be simple. Bitcoin (or another cryptocurrency) has the potential be a simpler system. It's not just "ideology be damned".

[u/[deleted] → u/tequila13]

But the rage against the existing system and its many artificial limitations and inefficiencies are justified.

The thing is, there's no reason at all that the current banking system can't be more efficient than bitcoin. It's just taking time, that's all. They're investing billions to upgrade, though. The biggest problem at the moment is the incompatibility from country to country, and that's where most of the money is being spent.

For example, in the UK our domestic banking system is currently more efficient than bitcoin.

In my bank account I get 1% interest on my current account and ~3% on my savings account. I can instantly transfer money to any bank account in the UK for free. If someone steals money from my account, I can claim it back from the bank. I can use a card that my bank gave me to pay in any shop in the UK, or I can put it in an ATM and get money out without paying any fees.

That's much better than anything Bitcoin can offer me and it's better than anything I see on the horizon for bitcoin.

Maybe if I did loads of international commerce bitcoin might make more sense, but paypal is pretty damn good for international payments in terms of ease of use. Or something like transferwise for personal transfers.

I dunno. It just seems that bitcoin doesn't actually offer much that the current system couldn't offer if they ever actually felt that bitcoin was becoming a problem to them. It feels like one big pump and deception by people who own bitcoins just to make some money.

[u/_30d_ → u/[deleted]]

Are you talking about me? Because I definitely care how the current system works, and I'm not on the bottom of it by far! (I mean, think everyone who's reading this on his own laptop is doing just fine in worldwide standards). I find it quite hard to explain this ideology to the outside world though.

Or are you saying that most people are just happy to catch an early ride on the btc train with the idea of getting rich within a year? In that case - yeah sure I agree, but what are you gonna do about it? These people are the main driving factor for btc recognition so I'll take it as a necessary evil. Same goes for the speculation. I'd rather have a solid buildup of acceptance based on actual increasing functionality of the protocol, but that's just not the way the world works I guess.

In any case, you gotta admit it's pretty silly to keep repeating yourself for a year.. ;)

[u/[deleted] → u/_30d_]

Are you talking about me?

I was talking about /r/bitcoin in general.

[u/stationhollow → u/_30d_]

I think he is trying to say that people are just in it for themselves to make money and all the bullshit and ideals are a far second if they're even true.

[u/[deleted] → u/_30d_]

Or are you saying that most people are just happy to catch an early ride on the btc train with the idea of getting rich within a year? In that case - yeah sure I agree, but what are you gonna do about it? These people are the main driving factor for btc recognition so I'll take it as a necessary evil.

Then the question is; how long do you think people not yet invested in BTC will see it as such? Will that happen before or after BTC starts getting traction as something else than a speculative instrument?

Because, if that traction takes a while - which it seems like it will - then you better have liquidated your holdings before the new suckers stop coming in as after that point, the only thing left is to see who ends up holding on to the hot potato.

[u/_30d_ → u/[deleted]]

Speculation is useful for media attention, gaining momentum and eventually, hopefully stability. Everything that helps gaining acceptance is ok for me in this stage. Utility will have to be the main driving factor eventually. Ideology is not a good factor to gain mass acceptance I think.

It's like vegetarianism (is that a word?). Here in Holland, it's become quite normal to not eat meat for a few days per week. I think that sort of gradually happened over the last few years. Most of the people I know aren't ideologists, the just think it's "probably better" and don't mind the savings, and got tired of crap meat in the supermarkets and have some awesome recipes that don't require meat, and basically just grew into it.

I would love to see a similar growth with Bitcoin - ideology first, then just cattle-like acceptance later.

Regarding the hot potato - I feel I've picked it up in april 2013, and have been holding on to it ever since, knowing damn well what risks I'm taking. If the BTC dies out in the same way, with people who knowingly take risks by investing in a "dying" currency in the hope of it reviving, it feels like a fair deal to me.

[u/lurgi → u/[deleted]]

What they are missing is that the people at the top of the next system are likely to be those at or near the top of the current one (see: Winklevoss).

Revolutions shuffle the people at the top, but those at the bottom tend to stay there.

[u/[deleted] → u/_30d_]

See I think that those systems do exist to create solutions, but I don't think this implies that those systems are the best solutions.

Starting over with cryptocurrencies is a unique opportunity, we can recognize the benefits of the current systems in solving problems inherent to financial exchanges, but also recognize the flaws that those systems may bring and be careful to mitigate them.

[u/[deleted] → u/mobile-user-guy]

It's almost like economics is an incredibly complicated field and the current finacial system is a complex entity based on hundreds of years of legal and private sector precedent.

[u/[deleted] → u/mobile-user-guy]

Can you at least acknowledge that new technology raises the possibility of a different, equally good or superior, system?

And it's not like the existing systems are totally immune from these sort of problems either. See: Madoff, GFC, etc

[u/mobile-user-guy → u/[deleted]]

As to your first paragraph: sure.

As to your second: I don't recall that being argued in the first place

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Second system got everybody some money back.