One day you go to the grocery store. At checkout, you shove your card into the chip reader. Huh, it didn’t go through. You try again, more gently. Still nothing.
Annoyed, you pull out your second card. It’s not working either. Frustrated, you leave without your groceries and call your bank. They tell you there’s a block on your account, but won’t tell you why. They also can’t tell you you when it will be removed.
In anger, you log onto your bank account to transfer your funds out. You can’t. Your account is frozen.
Sound far-fetched? Far away?
It’s already starting.
Canada is the Canary in the Coal Mine
For the sake of clarity: this post is not giving any scientific or epidemiological take. It is about the right to your own property. I’m a libright.
Now watch this.
This is, arguably, the most consequential 80 seconds of any speech delivered by a government official in as long as I can remember.
— Cyprian (@cyprianous) February 15, 2022
This is the panopticon and the new digital gulag. This is the start of The De-personing. This will expand to every country and every "offense." pic.twitter.com/mFSQJ06AOK
Did you catch that? They can freeze your account even on suspicion of you being involved with people they don’t like, and there are no consequences. And you’re subjecting yourself to that risk for a measly 0.5% annual interest? Lmao.
This is Canada.
It’s not North Korea, China, Zimbabwe, or Venezuela. They are literally known for being nice and accepting people.
And they are totally okay with cutting off the freely-exchanged wealth between individuals if one or both of them have the wrong political opinions.
Is this post too political for you? If so, I beg you to think.
It does not end here. Your money is not safe from the powerful, even in “developed” nations.
Bitcoin Is Your Safe Haven
I got in bitcoin for the hype.
I stayed (after studying) for the long term hedge against inflation.
Now, I’m making bitcoin my default form of payment (not joking) to protect my wealth from those more powerful than me.
If you’re reading this and thinking “okay, it might be worth getting a little bitcoin, just in case” then you’re acting wisely.
How to Get Started
There are a million resources online for learning about it. Here are two of mine:
- What is Bitcoin? Is it different from “crypto”?
- How do you safely store your bitcoin? What is a wallet?
- How do I spend bitcoin day to day? Post on this one coming soon, but the short answer is the lightning network (not my video).
If you’re getting started, you can buy some today on an exchange like Strike or Coinbase. Strike has the lowest commissions of any broke I’ve found. Use my link to sign up and we both get free Bitcoin. Or just download it and sign up directly and neither of us get anything.
At the end of the day, this is the gist: when you buy Bitcoin and hold it in your own wallet, no one can take it from you.
You are the master of your fate. Don’t hand your sovereignty over to someone who doesn’t care about you.
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