Over the past ten years, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have created a digital currency revolution. The tech behind blockchain has introduced new ideas about trust and accountability that are inescapable for any business to adopt or fail.
“Trust No One: This Netflix Documentary Tells me Only One Thing in Crypto” is a documentary that tells the story of how and why people are losing trust in financial institutions. The film will discuss the power of blockchain technology and its potential to create a world without trust.
Money does not function in the manner you believe it does.
This was not always my perspective. It wasn’t until 2018 that I began to understand how fiat money and our present central banking system functioned. I recall being stunned and wondering what had happened to our money.
How Do Banks Make Their Money?
The fundamentals of banking are taught in school and go somewhat like this. Alice puts $100 in the bank, and the bank gives her 3% interest on her money. Bob takes out a $100 loan from the bank and pays a 7% interest rate. The profit of the bank is 4% of the difference.
Even a bank with a large amount of money deposited, say $100 million, would only make $4 million per year after paying for the buildings, ATMs, vaults, computer systems, and a large number of employees, including tellers, loan officers, security guards, IT sysadmins, and for some reason, a large number of vice presidents. The figures just do not add up. So, how do they survive?
Banks profit on the creation of money. This would be fiat pecunia in Latin, which means “leave money be,” thus the word fiat.
The reserve ratio restricts the amount of money a bank may produce. Let’s pretend that a bank has a reserve ratio of 10. What exactly does it imply? When Alice puts $100 in a bank, the bank is suddenly able to lend money. If the reserve ratio is one, the bank may only lend $100. In our case, the bank’s reserve ratio is 10, which means it may give out ten times as much to Bob, or $1000. The bank earns $70 in interest on the $1000 given to Bob, and they pay Alice $3 for her 3% interest, so the net profit on the $100 deposit is $67! To put this in context, most banks currently have reserve ratios much greater than 10.
Fractional reserve lending is the name given to the process by which banks create money, and it is every bit as unjust as it sounds.
Who cares if your home increased by 20% when the next guy’s did as well? Because fiat money is worthless, we monetize real estate as a primary store of value.
How Do Loans Function?
Money produced to be loaned, not money given out from savings, is how loans function. For example, if you need $500k for a 30-year mortgage at 3%, the money will not come from someone’s savings.
Consider this. Would you ever consider being on the opposite side of the deal? Would you accept it if someone approached you and said, “That $500k in the bank, I’ll offer you 3% interest for 30 years.” No, since the capital is too large, the interest is insufficient, and the period is very lengthy. It’s a bad bargain, and nobody invests like this.
Instead, the bank creates that money for your advantage. The $500k did not exist until the bank issued the loan, and the bank created the money for you to purchase the home. The bank also profits because it may earn interest on the money it produced. By the way, this provides the paradoxical incentive for banks to extend additional credit. The mortgage crisis of 2008 was caused by banks issuing too many loans to individuals who didn’t qualify.
Who’s the loser?
Is there any kind of repercussion? Is there anybody who loses, or is it all a win-win situation for everyone? The winners are self-evident. You get access to funds and can therefore only pay for a portion of the home. The loan generates interest for the bank.
So, who’s the loser? Everyone else who has money.
As a consequence of the loan, everyone else loses. Their money is now worth somewhat less. It isn’t simply Americans who are affected. People in the United States have access to a variety of money-making loans, including credit cards, vehicle loans, personal loans, and school loans. The folks who possess roughly 65 percent of paper currencies are the ones who are actually struggling.
Why do they have so much paper money in their possession? They hoard paper dollars as a hedge against their own currency failing since it is more stable than their native currency. The Argentinian Peso, for example, has an annual inflation rate of 48 percent, which is far greater than the current USD inflation rate of 7.5 percent, making it advisable to retain dollars on hand.
Banks’ dollar growth has harmed citizens in Argentina, Nigeria, Lebanon, and Turkey. These are areas with double-digit inflation and where the US dollar isn’t nearly as awful as the native currency. It also affects countries like Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and North Korea, where the US dollar is the principal currency on the illicit market. Black markets, in particular, are where the actual activity takes place in these nations.
So, what happens if more money is made? These are the individuals who lose. The creation of money by banks harms the citizens of these nations; for example, North Korea’s food costs have risen dramatically. People who have no voice are the true victims.
Higher Education
I’m not going to pick out mortgages because they’re only the beginning. Commercial banks produce much more money for the advantage of major enterprises, while the Federal Reserve (the Fed) creates far more money for the benefit of the US government. Leveraging loans allows huge firms to expand significantly. The federal deficit is a calculation of how much money was generated for the US government’s benefit, plus interest.
The US central bank formed a $800 billion bank rescue fund to help banks. They reduced the money supply by 10% in order for banks to become solvent. They used the poorest of the poor to bail out unscrupulous institutions.
The central bank manufactured the billions spent in Iraq and Afghanistan to wage war. They diluted the money supply in order for military contractors to prosper. They caused the lowest of the poor to suffer and die.
Commercial banks manufactured the billions spent on COVID relief PPP loans to please the people. They diluted the money supply in order to shield politicians from culpability. They introduced global insecurity to the world’s poorest people.
Even the billions generated daily by retail banks dilute the money supply, allowing us to buy goods we couldn’t otherwise afford. They increase the expense of living for the poorest of the poor.
Fiat money is not a necessary evil since it incentivizes all kinds of bad conduct. Banks have a license to steal, and the poor and defenseless are the ones who suffer the most. And, if we’re being honest, we’re partly to blame.
So, what’s the answer?
Discover how to become your own ank…
Learn how to self-custody your bitcoin. Meaning you alone control & manage your own money.
No more delegating that role to a third party custodian in terms of security & value.
Only you have access to your own funds.
Invest in Your Freedom and Call Your Own Shots today. Take Back Control with the most decentralized & scarce money on the planet.
Use a Bitcoin hardware wallet to protect your assets. Protect everything you’ve worked hard for, particularly your life savings.
You have the power to regain your freedom, wealth, and future.
We’ll demonstrate how…
Bitcoin Wallet Overview
You will only obtain a rudimentary understanding of self-custody here.
This is not a comprehensive security guide. It’s a simple method to improve on what the majority of people do. It’s not about a specific sort of hardware wallet (HWW), but rather all HWWs.
Aiming for great security from the start is an unrealistic goal; it must be done in phases, otherwise there will be gaps in knowledge, which pose a security risk. If you’re going to self-custody, it’s also a security risk to blindly follow advice; you need to know what you’re doing. (Watch out for the Dunning-Kruger effect)
This may seem difficult for you at first. Learning and experimenting takes some time. Continue to ask questions and do required research, since self-custody is the whole point of bitcoin ownership.
Why choose self-custody?
The bitcoin you have on Coinbase (a cryptocurrency exchange) isn’t officially “yours” yet. If your Coinbase account (or Coinbase itself) is hacked, there is no way to reclaim your assets or track down the perpetrator.
Even if you’re not concerned about hackers, it’s part of the bitcoin ethos to strive for self-sovereignty; after all, doesn’t it contradict the point of this decentralized asset if the government can access and confiscate your bitcoin because it’s on a centralized exchange?
What exactly does it mean to “own” bitcoin?
Unlike the publicly available invoicing address that you use to receive bitcoin, you will need your own set of “private keys” that only you have access to in order to really control and safeguard your bitcoin.
Explaining Private Keys
Private keys are effectively extremely long, randomly generated passwords that enable us to access bitcoin and verify or “sign” transactions. These keys are then encoded in a 12- or 24-word “seed phrase,” which makes it easier to remember, backup, and record our private keys.
Your bitcoin is held in a “hot wallet” on an exchange like Coinbase, where Coinbase holds your private keys. Because they possess your keys, if they’re hacked, everyone who has bitcoin on them is at risk – yikes.
You will only have secure control over your bitcoin transactions after you have possession of your private keys.
Keep in mind, though, that self-custody entails maintaining these seed phrases offline and in a secure location where you won’t lose access to them. While you can backup your seeds on real, stainless steel cards, it’s not as simple as saving them in an online password manager.
Many of us have heard of people who have lost or forgotten their seed words, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars in bitcoin. Keep your seeds safe, secure, and available as a lesson to us all.
Simple Self-Custody Techniques
In this session, I’ll walk you through two simple bitcoin storage solutions so you can get started with self-custody:
1. Digital wallets
Blue Wallet and Muun Wallet are two open source mobile wallet choices that are excellent beginning places for newbies. Desktop versions, such as Electrum, are also available.
Despite being linked to the internet, these wallets produce a fresh private key that only you have access to, which is a significant improvement over exchange-hosted wallets.
The benefit of using mobile or desktop wallets is that you may access your bitcoin at any time. The disadvantage is that if you don’t take proper security precautions, anybody who has access to your phone or computer may also have access to your online bitcoin wallet.
While mobile wallets are convenient for use on the move, they are not the most secure option. Software wallets are a terrific, free choice if you’re just getting started with little finances.
There are even more complex alternatives for using your software wallets as “watch only” wallets, which operate as a user interface for your cold storage but do not store your private keys. This would enable you to create invoice addresses for receiving bitcoin, but it would prohibit a hacker from sending money out.
2. Physical wallets
THESE WALLETS ARE NOT FOR SALE ON AMAZON OR EBAY!
The most basic and widely used kind of offline cold storage is hardware wallets. These wallets are often in the shape of a flash drive-like device that securely stores your private keys (popular ones include the Ledger Nano S or the Coldcard). The devices themselves are PIN secured, so even if your hardware wallet is taken, your private key will be kept safe.
Because your hardware isn’t linked to the internet, it’s considered “cold” and considerably safer than online “hot” wallets for storing private keys. By keeping your private keys offline, these physical devices enable you to safely access your bitcoin.
You may find out more about them here:
https://coinzodiac.com/ironclad-bitcoin-wallets/
It’s a frequent fallacy that your hardware wallets “keep” your bitcoin. Your bitcoin is stored on the blockchain, and the hardware wallet is only a storage and authorization device for your private key. Although a hacker may guess your pin and get access to your hardware wallet, this is uncommon since most wallets wipe themselves out after a few incorrect guesses.
If your physical wallet is lost or stolen, you may still retrieve your assets using a new hardware or software wallet if you know your seed phrase.
Measures to Increase Security With great power comes great responsibility, and being able to self-custody your bitcoin is a tremendous power. Apart from withdrawing your bitcoin from exchanges, it’s critical to keep your seed phrases secret and safe since they’re your sole backup.
Many individuals choose to add further protection to their seed phrases by keeping backups in vaults or using more complex multi-signature wallets that need additional private keys to allow transactions.
On a related issue, be wary of phishing schemes like as phony hardware wallets offered on Amazon or Ebay by fraudsters; always buy straight from the manufacturer to confirm that your hardware wallet is genuine.
It’s time to take the initial steps toward bitcoin self-sufficiency.
Remember, it’s not your keys, it’s not your bitcoin.
Bitcoin Wallets: An Overview
A) Your seed phrase (often 12 or 24 syllables) generates an almost infinite number of BTC addresses. Your “wallet” is a collection of these addresses. Using the same seed phrase, they may be replicated on any device. It doesn’t matter whether you use ColdCard, Trzor, or Ledger…
B) If you lose your hardware wallet or the maker goes out of business, it shouldn’t be a catastrophe since you should have backed up and stored your seed words someplace safe. You may regenerate your wallet on any BIP39 compatible HWW by using the phrases (most of them).
C) It’s critical to realize that your seed words are VERY SENSITIVE. No one needs to break into your HWW to obtain access to them. They just type the phrases into their own HWW and transfer all of your bitcoin to their wallet. It’s also worth noting that the HWW does not possess any bitcoin. It’s merely a PIN-protected digital safe for your seed words.
D) Another thing to note is that the software that HWW links to (for example, Ledger Live or Trezor Suite) usually only displays you one address at a time when receiving fresh coins…
E) You have an unlimited number of addresses, as well as a list of changing addresses, but these firms conceal these facts from the user to make the process simpler. The disadvantage is that it conceals Bitcoin’s strength…
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“Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King” is a Netflix documentary that tells me to trust no one. In this documentary, it highlights how many people have been in the crypto market and how they were scammed by other people. The release date of this documentary is on March 23rd, 2019. Reference: trust no one: the hunt for the crypto king release date.
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