Tag Archives: cryptocurrency

The Idea of Bitcoin Needs to Succeed, Even if Bitcoin Fails

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The Truth heard one time sounds stranger than a lie heard a thousand times. 

The truth is, inflation is caused by the government printing money. There are only so many goods that are possible to be produced by the limited amount of resources in the economy. An infinite amount of dollars cannot create more goods. More money only causes the price of the existing goods to increase as there is more money chasing the same amount of goods. 

This is best described in a short book “Economics in One Lesson -Henry Hazlitt”.

This is what happens every time the government increases the money supply. This happens everyday. 

We have been in this system since everyone alive was born so it seems like it should be the natural system, but it is not. 

Ask a fish to describe air and they’d be confused because they are surrounded by water. We are surrounded by fiat currency so we don’t recognize a good sound money when we are exposed to it. 

We don’t need money distributed by the government. Money is an IOU. Money is a medium of exchange that people accept to pay for goods and services, and to repay loans. It’s a commodity that’s widely accepted, holds its value over time, and can be easily translated into prices. Money is the main measure of wealth, and it circulates between people and countries to facilitate trade.

Many things have been money over history, shells, gold, silver, copper, stones. Many of these have not been issued by governments. Fiat currency, money by decree, is a recent development. It inherently has no value. It only has value due to a fluke of history. Until 1971 USD was technically backed by gold. You were supposed to be able to trade in dollars for Gold. But that link was broken in 1933 by Executive order 6102 for individuals in the USA and in 1971 for any countries that wanted to exchange their USD for gold. Both were only supposed to be for a short time and both ended up being permanent, so far.  

Another truth is the Government takes value that you have accrued by printing new money. This would be much easier to recognize if the world consisted of 3 people and you each had $100 for a total of $300, but then 1 of the 3 people had the ability to create new money. If the 2 people wanted to buy something and they had $100 total each to bid on that thing but the 3rd person was able to create $500 out of thin air and bid against them the 2 people wouldn’t let that happen. They would recognize that the $500 wasn’t really as valuable as the original $100 that each person had because the individual had just written $500 on a piece of paper and said it had value. This is counterfeiting! Creating new money is illegal for individuals, but the government does it everyday. Why is that ok? This is the same for many governments in history. Governments always default to stealing value from the governed by printing new money. 

Why do we put up with this? We all have 1,000 different priorities in our lives. We have to take care of our kids, we have to take care of our parents, we have to take care of ourselves! We want to take a trip. We want to build a house. We want to take a vacation. We want to buy a car. We want to go out to eat or we have some other project we want to dedicate time to. In the USA inflation has been relatively low for many years so while we lose about 3% of the value we create each year, we just deal with it. 

But many places have experienced high inflation both recently and over time. Argentina has recently had 100% inflation for multiple years in a row. There is nothing inherently different from the operation of the Argentina economy and central bank from the USA central bank. Turkey, Germany, Zimbabwe, Sudan, they have all experienced hyperinflation at various times.

Physical money is just a replacement for an IOU. An IOU works between 2 individuals. But when you start accounting for goods and services delivered across continents between Billions of people an IOU doesn’t work. That is why IOU’s have been abstracted to Dollars or other currencies. 

But IOU’s between individuals don’t lose value. If someone does 1 hour of work for you you owe them 1 hour of work back. But if someone does 1 hour of work for you and you pay them $15 and then in a year they want you to do 1 hour of work for them, you will likely charge them $16 due to inflation. Why is this? It is because the accounting system, US Dollars, is broken! They dollars don’t hold value across time. 

This is because the government prints more dollars everyday. Every time the government prints a new dollar, every existing dollar loses value. 

The only way to fix this is an accounting system that has a fixed amount of units. That is what Bitcoin provides. There are only 21 million Bitcoin available. Each bitcoin can be broken down to 100 million satoshis. 

The only reason the price bitcoin is changing today is due to supply and demand for Bitcoin. But you need to look past the present day and envision the future. The future is where bitcoin has been fully adopted by everyone in the world who wants a sound money. In this future the value of all the bitcoin in existence will measure all the goods in the world. As the amount of goods grows with world productivity by about 3% a year the value of bitcoin will continue to grow at the same rate. There won’t be huge swings because there won’t be people speculating on the future price of Bitcoin. It’s price is just a measurement of the good in the world. And since there are 21 million bitcoin, a fixed amount, there is no devaluation of the Bitcoin because more new Bitcoin are not made. 

This is the fundamental idea and reason for Bitcoin. It is not a stock or a company. It is a ledger that measures value of things. It can’t be debased like existing USD ledgers. 

If you understand this problem, the government stealing value from you via money printing, the solution of Bitcoin appears obvious. 

The only question is, does Bitcoin actually solve this problem by being a fixed amount and will the system continue to function as it does today? If it continues to function as it does today, it should continue to gain value. If something comes along and changes how they Bitcoin system works then it’s possible that it could not function as described.
Currently, that would be an “unknown unknown”. There is no obvious thing that would cause Bitcoin to fail. But I always leave a possibility for something to happen that I don’t anticipate in any situation.


Because Bitcoin seems to fix the problems with USD and other fiat currencies (Euros, Yen, Yuan, etc) I believe we should support it’s continued development. That is why I try to educate individuals on the problem that Bitcoin fixes, like with this article. 


If you have any questions I’d be more than happy to discuss Bitcoin with you. Please comment or get in touch!

What is Money? (What Problem Does Bitcoin Solve -2)

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‘This Is Immoral’: David Schweikert Issues Dire Economic Warning To House Colleagues

This representative discusses the issue with US debt. 

Below are a few related articles I’ve written related to this topic. 

What Problem Does Bitcoin Solve?

The Fed has no power to stop government spending, which is the root cause of inflation!

Bitcoin is not an investment. Bitcoin is a store of value. The value you create. Bitcoin is an agreement between people who create value in the world that they will trade their value for other value. The value you create and store in Bitcoin cannot be debased or inflated away by any government by money printing.

What is money?

The Google AI answer is below. 

 “Money is a widely accepted medium of exchange that can be used to pay for goods and services, repay loans, and store value. It’s also a unit of account that can be easily translated into prices. Money can take many forms, including:

Cowrie shells, Copper ingots, Rum, Gold coins, Paper banknotes, Digital bank records, Barley, Peppercorns, and Silver.”

A different way to think about it is money is a store of value provided to you in exchange for something of actual value (good or service) you have created, that you can cash in at a future date. You work all week, but you don’t need to spend all that value you created at the end of the week. So you try to store the value you have created in US Dollars. 

There is an obvious problem with the main money we use in the world today, the US Dollar. It loses value every day. 

Not every form of store of value has this problem. If you borrow a cup of sugar from someone and they repay you with a cup of sugar later, they don’t usually give you 95% of the sugar you gave them. They usually pay you back the exact same amount of value you gave them.

If you work for someone for an hour as a favor they don’t come work for your for 55 minutes. They pay you back the full hour. 

So why if we are paid $100 for our work and we hold it in the bank are we willing to have that money lose value while it sits in the bank? It is still the same $100 later, but the value the $100 can purchase has decreased over time. 


This is reflected in higher prices for good, inflation. 


What causes inflation?

According to Milton Friedman, “inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon”. This means that inflation is a rise in the general price level, and can only be produced by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.”

Meaning, the government causes inflation by printing money. Contrary to what politicians want you to believe (that greedy business people cause inflation), politicians themselves are the cause of the inflation! People need to understand how the system works. Businesses raise or lower prices with demand. If demand lowers, they will lower prices or they won’t be able to sell products. They also have to raise prices faster than inflation so they can stay ahead of inflation and stay profitable. Businesses are not the cause of inflation, the government printing more money, that is being spent on the same amount of goods, is what causes inflation. This has happened many times in history, from the Roman Empire to Revolutionary France. Inflation is always produced by governments printing money to try to buy goods. 

Bitcoin puts handcuffs on the government. It is impossible to print more bitcoin. There will only ever be 21 million bitcoin. Bitcoin is the only chance we have at reigning in government spending and stopping inflation. 


Bitcoin is not an investment. Bitcoin is a store of value. The value you create. Bitcoin is an agreement between people who create value in the world that they will trade their value for other value. The value you create and store in Bitcoin cannot be debased or inflated away by any government by money printing.

Until you understand the exact problem, you won’t see bitcoin in the right way. You will see it’s value, denominated in dollars. As it goes up you will be happy you have more dollars. But more dollars is not the goal. More bitcoin is the goal. 

Bitcoin Letter To Politician (Joni Ernst) #2

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I wrote a letter to Joni Ernst (and Chuck Grassley) about Bitcoin that you can find here. I have posted Joni’s reply and then my reply to her, trying to correct the many incorrect things she noted in her letter (or her email reply person’s letter). I understand why most people dont’ waste their time contacting their politicians. You never get a straight answer. But unfortunately, beyond voting them out, which is nearly impossible to do as most politicians stay in once elected, the only thing we can do is contact them to try to educate them on topics and encourage others to contact them also. That is why I post my emails with politicians, so others can just copy/paste send them, if they want, to show our politicians that it’s a topic people care about, without making others spend time writing a letter.

Open Letter To Iowa Representatives about Bitcoin

Below is Joni Ernst’s reply. 

Dear Mr. Hoogland,

Thank you for reaching out to me regarding digital asset regulation. It is important for me to hear from folks in Iowa on this rapidly evolving topic.

Whether it is Bitcoin, central bank digital currencies, or digital currency exchanges like FTX, digital assets have been a big topic of conversation in Washington. Cryptocurrencies can create new avenues for financial transactions, investments, and other economic activity given they do not rely on a government’s central bank. While digital assets offer new possibilities, there are legitimate concerns we must also address. 

For example, Bitcoin is among the most popular cryptocurrencies, but we do not know who created it or how much of it exists. These uncertainties raise questions as to how legitimate Bitcoin can be as a currency. Further, cryptocurrencies are volatile. We have seen currencies become extremely valuable, and then, in the blink of an eye, lose their value all-together. This volatility raises questions around the extent to which cryptocurrencies may need to be regulated in some form or fashion so as to create more stability for investors.

Additionally, the decentralized nature of digital assets create potential risks related to fraud and illicit activities. We have already seen how bad actors across the world take advantage of the secrecy digital currencies provide in order to commit crimes, fund terrorism, or evade sanctions. 

However, there is much benefit to be had from greater use of technology in the financial system. Cryptocurrencies do open doors for people who may not otherwise have access to capital. Though substantially distinct from digital currencies, the Federal Reserve recently unveiled its new FedNow service to help give people and businesses instant access to their money when they transfer it from account to account. 

As we continue to flesh out the use of digital currencies and technology in finance, we must strike the right balance between fostering innovation, protecting individuals, and limiting the ability of bad actors to abuse the system. 

You may be interested to know, this year’s National Defense Authorization Act included a provision to tighten oversight of financial institutions working with cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. By instituting regulatory clarity while weeding out bad actors, financial institutions can better ensure digital assets are not improperly used. This is just one of many crucial provisions in the annual defense bill that bolsters our national security and sends a clear sign of strength to our adversaries.

Thank you again for reaching out to my office, and please know that I am closely monitoring this situation as it develops. Please feel free to share any additional insights or concerns you may have regarding digital assets as I always enjoy hearing from Iowans. 

Sincerely,

Joni K. Ernst

United States Senator

My reply is below.

Senator – 

Thank you for your reply. I wanted to point out that you didn’t really address any of the specific topics I noted and you even shared some incorrect factual information. It concerns me when my elected Senator (or their email writer/advisor) is so wrong on a very basic topic. 

It is obvious that this is your canned bitcoin/crypto currency response.
I want to emphasize to you there is a fundamental difference between bitcoin and “cryptocurrency”

You can read about the differences in this short blog post .

Bitcoin Vs. Cryptocurrencies

I asked you to oppose Senator Elizabeth Warren’s “Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act” in particular. You did not mention that bill at all. 

I also encouraged you to learn from Daniel Batten and his work into bitcoin mining reducing methane emissions. You did not mention that at all. 

Flared Methane as a Sustainable Power Source for Cryptocurrency Mining

Flared Methane as a Sustainable Power Source for Cryptocurrency Mining


I also asked you to to learn from Alex Gladstein about the human rights benefits that Bitcoin provides. He has already tried to speak to congress on this.You did not mention that at all. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/07/human-rights-advocates-say-bitcoin-critical-in-authoritarian-countries.html


Are you not interested in the plight of those fleeing authoritarian regimes?


You did mention, unprompted that “Bitcoin is among the most popular cryptocurrencies, but we do not know who created it or how much of it exists.”

While it is true the inventor, Satoshi Nakamato, is unknown, we do know that there will only be 21 million bitcoin ever. This is ingrained in the code.

This is unlike the amount of US dollars of which we truly can’t know how many will ever exist. Every year the US government prints trillions more in new dollars.

While Republicans pay lip service to the budget deficit when Democrats hold the presidency, historically, Republican presidents run even larger budget deficits than Democrats! You are right to fight against deficits but I believe you do it only in word for votes. I don’t believe you have any personal conviction to reduce the deficit.

I encourage you to talk to your fellow Senator, Cynthia Lumis. She seems to understand Bitcoin. 

Open Letter To Iowa Representatives about Bitcoin

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I have written the below open letter to my Iowa representatives about Bitcoin. I have also emailed it to them with a link to this post so they are able to get to the links below. I encourage you to go to your own representatives websites and email them this also.

I am writing this letter to you directly, you can also find the text below with links to specific articles I recommend you read. https://mywheellife.com/2023/12/18/open-letter-to-iowa-representatives-about-bitcoin/

Senator Grassley, Senator Ernst and Congresswoman Hinson

I am writing to you concerning Bitcoin in general and Senator Elizabeth Warren’s “Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act” in particular. 

I would like to first refer you to the video “Elizabeth Warren’s Anti-Bitcoin Agenda with Perianne Boring” on the “What Bitcoin Did” podcast. 

“Warren’s bill, the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, aims to solve a problem that no one has. It that would classify nearly all crypto industry participants — from wallet providers to miners to validators — as financial institutions, subjecting them to the onerous compliance regime of the Bank Secrecy Act. Under this bill, a teenager running a bitcoin mining rig in his basement could be subject to the same compliance burdens as JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

But wallet providers, miners, and validators are not banks. They do not hold custody of assets. They certainly should not be collecting or storing the sensitive personal financial information of individual users of an asset. They merely provide infrastructure — the open-source software and computing power to help secure the network. Much like Microsoft, which also supplies a lot of software and cybersecurity products to financial institutions, they are not financial institutions. 

It would be impossible for the industry to comply with Warren’s requirements, and she knows this. The point of her bill is not to improve national security or stop money laundering, but to kill digital asset innovation.” – The Hill

Please also investigate Elizabeth Warren and her collusion with the banks and SEC. I am concerned she is not regulation in good faith. 

Lawyer Says Senator Elizabeth Warren Conspires With SEC Chair Gary Gensler, Violating Her Oath

I want to encourage, you, my representatives, to learn about Bitcoin and it’s many benefits.


I also want you to learn about the benefits of bitcoin mining and it’s ability to mitigate emissions. Specifically, please learn from Daniel Batten and his work into bitcoin mining reducing methane emissions. 

Flared Methane as a Sustainable Power Source for Cryptocurrency Mining

I would also like you to learn from Alex Gladstein about the human rights benefits that Bitcoin provides. He has already tried to speak to congress on this.
Human rights advocates tell Congress bitcoin is essential in countries with ‘collapsing’ currencies

As my representatives, I encourage you to learn about Bitcoin and be a champion and advocate for it. 

Sincerely

Axel Hoogland

Is Now A Good Time To Buy Bitcoin?

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Is now a good time to buy Bitcoin? I think it’s going to $10k in a few months. These are the type of things people say when I ask why they don’t own any bitcoin. 

Questions I prefer to ask them are “What is your time horizon?” What is your goal with buying this bitcoin?

If you want to double or triple your money and “get rich” when bitcoin goes to $100k and sell it then no it’s not a good time to buy bitcoin. It actually never is. That is speculation and I hate speculation, in the stock market, or in anything really. That shows you don’t understand the point of bitcoin. Bitcoin should be held forever or at least until $1 million/ coin. I pick $1 million/coin because I think once it’s worth $1 million per coin it will be much more obvious that it is a store of value.  When it’s worth that you may think “Why would I sell this for USD?” You can probably trade it directly for goods and services at that level.
If you have any plans to sell bitcoin in the short term, just don’t even buy it. 

Consider if you buy bitcoin now the downside is $26k to $0, or whatever amount you invest.

The upside is infinite, when measured in dollars.

21 million bitcoin that will ever exist, divided by 8 billion people = .002625 bitcoin per person. 

X$26,000 (current bitcoin price) = $68

So if you invest just $68 you can at least secure your equal amount of bitcoin. 

Get your fair share of btc today.

Realistically even owning 0.002625 bitcoin is more than a lot of people ever will because as we know no money is equally distributed. So the average person will likely own less. That is actually ok. Wealth inequality is the expected state since people have unequal talents and are willing to take different levels of risk.
Bitcoin is your chance to opt into a system that doesn’t reduce your wealth via inflation though!

Once you own a little bitcoin you’ll be more inclined to learn more about it. I bought it for the first time in 2017. Then got distracted by a different coin , litecoin, that was “a better bitcoin”. I lost money on litecoin but continued to learn. Eventually I came to learn the problem that bitcoin solves and why there can’t be a better bitcoin.

“If you don’t believe it or don’t get it, I don’t have the time to try to convince you, sorry” – Satoshi Nakamoto ,  creator of bitcoin.


While Satoshi is probably right that he didn’t have time to try to explain it to you, I think I do. I enjoy trying to help others learn about bitcoin. Don’t hesitate to ask questions if you are genuinely interested in bitcoin!