No Bitcoin for you!

not whispering so much. So let's see. What does that does that sound any better? Or worse? I don't know. I will see. So and this episode, episode number what the hell am I on? 19 maybe 19 I think it's 19 it'll be on the site. There was a big story to me. It was in the Wall Street Journal today. It was about China making Bitcoin illegal. And the reason this is a big story to me is that I think this it'll it highlights the

fundamental flaw of any cryptocurrency. Now and let's see in the story today from the Wall Street Journal, and I'll link to the story on the blog. They say China's central bank said all cryptocurrency related transactions are illegal reinforcing the country's tough stance against digital rivals to

government issued money. In a statement posted on its website Friday afternoon, the People's Bank of China said the latest notice was to further prevent the risks surrounding crypto trading and to maintain national security and social stability. cryptocurrencies weakened following the statement the price of bitcoin fell more than 8% compared with its level at 5am. Eastern Time Thursday before paring some of those losses. The cryptocurrency fetch just under $41,370 per Bitcoin.

According to coin desk, ether tumbled more than 11% to trade at about $2,795 naming Bitcoin ether and tether as examples the central bank said cryptocurrencies are issued by non monetary authorities that's key using encryption technologies and exists in digital form and shouldn't be

circulated and used in markets as currencies. And this is what China's bringing up is what I've been saying in different forums, left and right and I keep getting shut down by everybody who is heavy into bitcoin by saying that I just don't understand it. And that's true. I don't understand it. I've been paying attention to cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, probably for the better part of a decade. There were some books that I bought to understand blockchain Oh, what the hell are

those damn books? Hold on, let me I don't have them here in my office. I have them downstairs on my bookshelf. Let me see blockchain. Okay, in my Amazon account back in 2016. I bought three different books. blockchain revolution, how the technology behind Bitcoin is changing money business in the world. The next one is the business blockchain promise practice an application of the next internet technology and

then blockchain blueprint for a new economy. All three of those books I bought in 2016 because I knew about Bitcoin before that I even fiddled around a little bit. In the early days when I first heard of it with Bitcoin mining, you know, I just I downloaded some I can't even remember where it was all from but I downloaded some Bitcoin mining software with a bitcoin wallet and it would just run in the background on your PC all day trying to mine Bitcoin I never mind a single coin

obviously. Otherwise I'd be holding 40 some odd $1,000 worth of Bitcoin but I just I just wanted to see what it was all about. So I did all of that is like okay yeah it was like a novelty so I stopped and you know Bitcoin just kept making news I had family members asked me about Bitcoin because I'm I'm the guy that understands technology and the family Okay, I have a I have a computer science degree even though I've never done anything with it. And so everybody comes to me What is

this about Bitcoin? What do you think about Bitcoin? So to me as as a technology, I find blockchain very cool. Now I you know, it to me, it's, I don't see how it scales on a massive level on a global level, you know, I guess, I guess was storage and bandwidth becoming cheaper all the time, you know, what I saw back in, you know, 2000, was it 2016, probably 2010 through 2016. When I saw as something that would be hard to

scale probably doesn't matter that much anymore. You know, transactions on a blockchain is probably easily scalable Now, given how cloud computing has changed, you know, with Microsoft, Azure, and Amazon, AWS, and you know, the other services out there that provide cloud services. So, blockchain as a mechanism for transactions and secure transactions, to me seems like a very cool technology that can be used for transacting just about anything. But Bitcoin is a money. I never

understood it. I just, you know, without a government behind a currency, there's no way to enforce it. You know it. And if you look it up in the United States, at least I don't know about the rest of the world. But in the US, you can create your own currency. You know, a local municipality can create their own money. Now, that doesn't mean it's worth anything necessarily, but you can create it and you can trade it. So China says that they're going to make it illegal. So you can't

exchange it for goods and services in China. They're not going to allow you to exchange it for the I don't know how you pronounce their money the rim renminbi renminbi. It was easier when it was the yuan, but Okay, there Renmin renminbi there. So you can trade it for that. Now it's a shot across the bow to me to cryptocurrency Bitcoin and people who have started investing a lot of their cash in Bitcoin. I looked up the top 10 traded currencies. And this is according to Wikipedia, so let's

just assume that it's correct. And they have, they had a little chart, and I just took the top 10. So the top 10 and 2019 are as follows United States, Euro, Japanese yen, the pound sterling, the Australian dollar, the Canadian dollar, the Swiss franc, the renminbi that's China China's dollar. China's currency rather the Hong Kong dollar and the New Zealand dollar, those are your top 10. And percentage wise, current currency is being

traded. That's that's the order. The United States is 44.2%. of daily traded currency, almost half of the world's currencies traded on a daily basis is the US dollar. Number two is the euro. The Euro is only 16.2%. So the US by an by and large by far is The biggest dog in the yard. The Chinese renminbi in 2019 was number eight on the list. Only 2.2% of daily trades were in the

Chinese currency. So China making illegal doesn't make a big dent in Bitcoin it's a small dent but it's a dent 2.2% is still nothing to sneeze at, although it's really tiny

comparatively speaking. But what if what if the EU suddenly decided to say okay, we're gonna do the same thing now you got 20% almost 20% and forget about it if if the United States made the same declaration if the United States that suddenly you can no longer trade Bitcoin for US dollars and you were going to make it illegal for you to transact in Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency within the United States or with anything that the US dollar trades for you can

just stick a fork in Bitcoin it would be dead now you know, and no government on Earth as a true cryptocurrency nobody's using Bitcoin other than you know the big news in El Salvador but they're not really using Bitcoin they their Bitcoin, or their cryptocurrency is pegged to the dollar so they're really using the US dollar but no government on the face of the planet is

using crypto right now of any kind. China's developing there's they're they're the first ones to really be developing a or an electronic version of their money so they should tell you something so yes, I know no one can stop anybody from trading Bitcoin as long as you've got an internet connection, you've got a wallet somebody else has a wallet you can you can trade the crypto easily quickly you know, very low transaction fees in Bitcoin that is but what does it

matter if you suddenly can no longer convert your Bitcoin to the currency of your country? You know, say I've got two Bitcoin sitting in a wallet and the US has declared it illegal to transact or convert so what's my best bet try to find a nation where I can transact in converting converted say to Canadian dollars and then convert those Canadian dollars to US dollars? Is that my option? You know, there's

nothing stopping you from trading Bitcoin. But there is something stopping you from using it as actual money. Bitcoin cannot buy itself and just because people are using it, it cannot by itself take over a nation's money unless that nation allows it. You know, earlier I talked to save municipality created a coin and I wrote this on the blog and it'll be there in the show notes. My opinion on this and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm not but you know, anybody can create

a cryptocurrency. The technology is out there, you know, it's open source. You know, and there are several crypto currencies out there. So say I created one for the current state that I'm living in Georgia, let's call it the peach coin. And let's say even that the state of Georgia accepts that this is the currency that this is an illegal currency in the state of Georgia. And they say I can use it to trade for goods and

services within the state. You can you know, you go to the store, you buy your groceries, gasoline, pay my accountant, anything, anything that you would normally do with a US dollar, I can do it with Pete coin within the state of

Georgia. And that's all well and good until now. I tried to use peach coin outside of Georgia. What if I drove over to Alabama And now I need to go fill up my car with gas and All I've got is a pocket full of peach coin or a debit card account you know wallet let's say with peach coin and the gas station says nope will only accept us dollars so now I gotta make that exchange well if the US has made converting illegal How do I pay

for that gasoline? How does it work you know cryptocurrency Bitcoin isn't backed by anything US dollar isn't backed by anything either but except for the giant guns of the US military the enforcement powers of the IRS you know it's got the entire US government behind it Bitcoin has nothing behind it it's not it's not it doesn't represent anything so it's only worth what what people can say it's worth and without a government to give it that worth I mean there's people or to meet

people are lucky they can trade it for anything right now. You know, to me, you know, my peach coin idea once it's once it's made illegal to convert it to us dollars it's as valuable as Confederate money as anybody remember Confederate money we used to make fun of it as kids you know, oh, that's Confederate

dollars and they used to sell it in gift shops. You can go and maybe there were reprints but I remember going down to Salem, Illinois at where they had Abraham Lincoln's house and during you know inside some gift shops they would have the Articles of Confederation and they would have a bundle of Confederate money and I can't remember if they were actual real pieces of Confederate money or if they were just reprint but regardless it's worth something because I could buy it I could

you know pay a few bucks and get some Confederate money and maybe I could take that Confederate money and sell it to somebody else but I sure as hell couldn't go down the street and you know walk in a store and buy a coke with it you know, it's just a novelty and that to me is exactly what Bitcoin is the fact that that people are putting so you know, what are the billions of dollars perhaps I don't know how much money actually people are putting in there but I know

supposedly there's you know well I know there are exchanges I know it's being traded and people are still mining it but I think once governments of the world say okay, you've had your fun now is that worth shit? What are you gonna do in the United States is you know is already talked about contemplating digital US dollar I think what's holding that back is that the United States at least has a private banking system that's

what controls everything. Now it's you know, once we get into monetary policy and the value of the US dollar and the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury it's way beyond my understanding of how all of that works because it's to me it's mostly politics and it is just what people say it is it's not you know what, once we left the gold standard when you couldn't look at $1 and say, Okay, this is backed by a certain amount of gold and that gold is sitting right over there. Once we left that, it

just became it is what we say it is. And it since the US dollar has been talking about moving into a digital currency if they do that, and the EU does that. That's the end of any user created cryptocurrency which is what Bitcoin is, is what ether is aetherium whatever you call it, and tether I've never even

heard of tether before that story. Dogecoin one that. Ilan musk keeps tweeting about I remember Dogecoin when that first came out to if the United States comes out with a cryptocurrency I think it'll be a long road to it, but it's, I think we're headed there in 10 to 20 years, maybe. If they do There'll be no more need

for traditional banks to hold your cash. As we do now, you know, I have a checking account savings account as most people do when you take your, you know, your paycheck or any kind of money you receive, you put it in there, and you pay your bills with it, you pay your credit cards with it. But if they go with their own digital wallet and crypto currency, that would remove private banking from existence. There'd be no need for it. Maybe it will be better, maybe it'll be worse when it

comes to transactions and fees and things. But I think it'll be far worse when it comes to living your life free of government control. You know, think about where we are right now with COVID. If we if the United States traded are not traded, but if the United States had a digital dollar, and everybody had to have their own Wallet for this digital money and you can't transact, you can't get anything without this.

Imagine how easy it would be for the federal government to say well we want you to get a vaccine if you don't we shut off your money supply you won't be able to do anything you can't pay your rent, you can't buy food you don't have to worry about masking or being able to forget about a vaccine passport that won't be important at all because they just shut you down and anybody who would want to live without real government control once we you know once we have a digital dollar you have

to go back to the barter system you have to be you know, trading chickens and you know, oh, I'll give you a dozen dozen eggs if you give me six tomatoes you know, maybe maybe that's when gold comes back. If gold is still worth something maybe that's when actual hard coins and gold and silver maybe gems become some form of secondary currency again, because at least they're you know, it's an actual thing and there's actual scarcity you know, but it's a thing you know, Bitcoin is not a

thing. It's just it's, it's air, it's gas, it's bits. It's bits flowing over a wire. It's nothing you can hold in your hand. You could produce a coin. Sure, you know, you can mint a coin that represents a Bitcoin. But, you know, you can make it out of cardboard, it wouldn't matter. You know, so I really think that China's move here, has put the first nail in the coffin to kryptos. And maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm totally wrong, maybe you know, totally don't understand how it holds value. I

just don't see it. I haven't seen anybody that's explained it well enough to where I understand how it holds any value whatsoever. You know, I understand the technology behind it and that only so many coins can be minted, can be produced can be mined. Let's put it that way that minted their mind. electronically mined. So once they once they reach the final Bitcoin that's all there will ever be. And so it's supposed to be stable. But again, if you can't trade it for something

What do you really have? If you can't trade it for a US dollar unless you know unless the United States embraces Bitcoin and calls it and calls Bitcoin its national currency. But I don't see that happening because the banks themselves don't hold

that much Bitcoin. The US banks don't hold that much. I know they've been tinkering with it, but I don't know if if you've got an argument that can convince me that Bitcoin is worth something I'd like to hear it you know hit me up on Twitter Kevin Bay is my handle my last name is spelled B isn't boy he you can send me an email mail he kept me calm on the no agenda social mastodon server you can go there you know I just I've listened to so many different podcasts and things on Bitcoin

and nobody has said anything that has convinced me yet that without government buy in this thing is worth anything. Anyway that is all I've got for today let me put my headphones back on so I can hear what I've got up Sorry about that. I just hit the microphone so I can hear the outro music I gotta find out a better way to do this. I think I talked better without being without having headphones on. I don't think I whisper as much I think I speak more clearly. I don't know. Let me know about

that too. Go to Kevin Bae comm click on any links you feel like there oh you can send me crypto by the way. I know I know it's not it's not really worth anything at least in my mind but you know I just play around with it because I'm interested in the technology I can see once we once we hit a digital dollar I can see it easier to pay for media using digital money definitely. I just don't see it as being a Bitcoin you know digital US dollar. Yeah. But a Bitcoin No, but I'll accept it

anyway, if you want to send it to me. Or you know, anything else. There's there are links on the website. This is a podcasting 2.0 compatible podcast so you can stream crypto to me if you feel like it. But I really, I'm really interested to hear somebody explain. It's not like anybody owes me at any explanations, but I'm really interested to be pointed to an argument that tells me how Bitcoin is worth something without government backing. But that's it for today. Have a good

weekend. Because that's all I got. There you go. There's the music. I'll get it right one day.