New blog post: It's time to use crypto

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+title = "It's time to use crypto"
+date = 2022-04-15T20:54:32Z
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+
+Cryptocurrencies have been around for well over a decade. Everybody who's ever
+used the internet has at least some basic understanding of what a cryptocurrency
+is, yet most people seem to miss the point of cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless,
+recent events have shown us how important this technology actually is and why it
+is better than the alternative.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+Long gone are the days when simply exchanging one product or service for another
+suffices. We have a better way of exchanging value through our monetary system.
+The classical monetary system is also not enough anymore. Gone are the days of
+the gold standard, and here be the days of instantaneous transactions across the
+whole world using electronic means to transfer money.
+
+However, with all those benefits have come a lot of negatives that have reduced
+our freedoms and intruded in our privacy. If you want to trade electronically
+across countries or even inside the same city, you have to go through a dozen of
+intermediaries each of whom gets a piece of the transaction, each of whom has
+their own rules and each of whom can track what each person buys and sells at
+any moment.
+
+Basically, we've allowed ourselves to take part in an Orwellian financial system
+that has the say on how, when and with whom we are allowed to trade. The worst
+part is that we all are taking part in this voluntarily.
+
+Many people might dismiss the arguments against such centralized control of the
+finances as being paranoid, but there are already great examples of why such
+centralized control is bad for people's ability to trade freely.
+
+Starting from people with opinions that are not very popular among those in
+charge to now, canceling an entire country because the government of said
+country did something that the powers that be didn't like. It's nothing new that
+we are limited by the rules of of those who are in charge of the system. After
+all it's their system and they set the rules. That said it's not like there are
+no alternatives.
+
+That's where cryptocurrencies come in. Whereas traditionally financial systems
+have relied on a central authority to set and apply the rules, to mint or print
+money basically reducing the wealth of the people that hold said currency at
+their mercy, cryptocurrencies allow no one person to control the system.
+
+The premise of cryptocurrency is that no one person controls the system. There
+are a set of rules by which all of the parties of the game agree to play, and
+each participant controls each of the other ones. If there is some discrepancy
+with the rules or some manipulation is seen by the rest of the participants they
+won't allow such behavior to go on and will simply refuse the malicious actions
+to take place.
+
+Basically a cryptocurrency is a network in which anybody can take part, giving
+some computer resources in order for the network to work by generating blocks
+that contain the transactions and possibly some new unit of cryptocurrency that
+is mined. No one party in the network can change the rules. The system is made
+in such a way that mathematically no one person can go against the rules (e.g.
+double-spending currency) without said person or party owning more than 51% of
+the network's capacity, which, at least for Bitcoin and most major currencies,
+is basically impossible now.[^1]
+
+Not all cryptocurrencies are equal, though. Bitcoin is the most popular and the
+most valuable crypto out there on the market on the merits of being the first
+such system. Back when it was announced and launched by the mysterious Satoshi
+Nakamoto it was a revolutionary system. It still is, but it's not without it's
+flaws.
+
+The biggest flaw that I see with Bitcoin is its lack of privacy. I'm actually
+surprised that more governments are not on board with Bitcoin[^2], taking into
+account how easy it is to track transactions. And it's not like it is a bug of
+the system or something, it's more of a feature actually. In order for the
+original concept of the blockchain to work, a public ledger was needed.
+
+Bitcoin also has many other problems such as very poor perfomance, and its
+proof-of-work algorithm being very prone to centralization, or at least making
+it harder for smaller players to take part in the system due to how easy it is
+to make ASICs for it.
+
+With that said, the biggest advantage of cryptocurrencies still holds for
+Bitcoin. It is a **decentralized** currency. No one person, corporation or
+government controls it. You can create as many addresses (think of a bank
+account) as you want and all it takes is a couple of clicks. No need to enter
+into any contracts or give your ID and private information to some bank.
+
+Fortunately the biggest problem with Bitcoin, privacy, is fixed in other
+cryptocurrencies, namely Monero[^3]. Monero, in my humble opinion, is the one
+cryptocurrency which I think offers the most advantages with the less
+disadvantages. It's not only completely decentralized as Bitcoin, but it also
+offers full privacy by default. Nobody, except for the sending and the receiving
+parties, knows how much is being paid, and who is paying whom.
+
+Apart from that I have also found Monero much simpler to use. It is easier to
+take part in mining, due to their proof-of-work algorithm, transactions are
+faster and commissions are lower. I do think that it is the cryptocurrency to
+rule them all.
+
+I had already started using crypto, specifically Monero, since some time ago,
+and was interested in the technology since I found about it in the early 2010's.
+However, I was never really an active user. For me, that has changed now.
+
+On the 24th of February the Russian government decided to actually do something
+about the conflict that was already happening since 8 years ago. Of course, the
+United States didn't like it and now they are basically taking cancel culture to
+a whole new level by basically trying to cancel the entirety of Russia.
+
+The irony of the situation is intense, not only are those sanctions affecting
+mostly people who have nothing to do with the conflict, they are also affecting
+the people who they are supposedly defending with these sanctions. Believe it or
+not, many Russian people have relatives in Ukraine.
+
+And of course the hypocrisy is through the roofs. I'm not taking about the
+American government themselves, of course they would act like they do, might
+makes right in our world after all. I'm talking about all of the other countries
+and the corporations that are "supporting Ukraine" by "stopping all work in
+Russia". Nowhere to be seen was their support of the people that the US
+~glowniggers~ government invaded or carpet bombed, but anyways, that's a little
+off topic.
+
+The point being that the ability of the Russian and Ukrainian people to trade
+with other people is being crippled right now because of the decisions of some
+politicians and businessmen. The Ukraine is of course the most affected right
+now, since it has itself become the victim of a proxy war between the US/NATO
+and Russia. And those of us who live in Russia now cannot properly trade with
+people of other countries, or even send money to relatives in other countries.
+
+These problems can be overcome fully only by using a fully decentralized
+electronic money system.
+
+I think, and I actually hope, that cryptocurrencies will never replace cold hard
+cash. I would prefer, of course, if we traded in non-fiat currencies, but that
+is a story for another day. I do think that cryptocurrencies should become the
+standard for electronic transactions.
+
+I care not for who is in charge, be it a corporation or a government, neither of
+them actually have[^4] your or my interests in mind. The only solution to the
+problem is something that is not controlled by anybody.
+
+Personally, since the start of this conflict I have started to use more
+cryptocurrency, especially as a store of value. Right now inflation, both in
+Russia, where I live, and outside of Russia, is really high which means that
+fiat currencies are just a loss of money if you hold[^5] them. Right now even a
+savings account isn't actually that worth it. On the other hand, Bitcoin and
+Monero are overall deflationary so, even though not as good as precious metals
+or real estate, they are a pretty good way to store value and keep some savings.
+
+In short, I want to summarize the reasons why I believe cryptocurrencies are the
+way to trade electronically:
+
+* No central authority. Nobody can steal your money (close your account, reposes
+  your funds, etc). because someone (bank, government, etc.) said so. Only if
+  someone gets hold of your keys can they steal your money.
+* Nobody can "print" or create more cryptocurrencies at will, like the Federal
+  Reserve can with the dollar, or the Central Banks with other currencies, which
+  leads to the next point:
+* Crypto is not inflationary; right now most are quite volatile, but overall
+  they grow in value against fiat currencies.
+* And, in the case of Monero: your transactions are completely private; there's
+  no government or corporation spying at what you buy or who you send money to.
+
+In this troubling times stay safe and remember, do not trust anybody, with whom
+you are not acquainted in real life.
+
+[^1]: This is just a very very simple and short overview on how (most)
+  cryptocurrencies work. If you are interested in learning more, I suggest you
+  start by reading the bitcoin whitepaper.
+  <https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-paper>
+
+[^2]: You know, with how all current governments love to spy on their people and
+  ~steal from them~ tax them as much as possible.
+
+[^3]: Check out Monero's website for more information:
+  <https://www.getmonero.org/>
+
+[^4]: The government is *supposed* to have the interests of its people in mind;
+  the thing is that de facto it has never happened and will never happen.
+
+[^5]: Well, they always are, it's just higher than usual now.