:: [unSYSTEM] A Declaration of Monetar…
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Auteur: Mike Gogulski
Datum:  
Aan: System undo crew
Oude Onderwerpen: Re: [unSYSTEM] oh fuck it's really happening... bitcoin is under attack
Onderwerp: [unSYSTEM] A Declaration of Monetary Independence
Julia,

Here's my (hopefully welcome) re-working of the wording of your
excellent declaration. Use what you will.


A Declaration of Monetary Independence

It has become necessary to dissolve the bond between currency and
institution. We are not obliged to declare the causes which impel us to
push for this separation, but we will enumerate them anyway.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that we have been continuously
betrayed, deceived, robbed, extorted, taxed, disadvantaged, surveilled,
monopolized, harassed, inspected, assessed, subjugated, registered and
disempowered; that we have been economically disarmed, disabled, held
hostage, censored, silenced, impoverished, enervated, exhausted,
exploited and enslaved; that we have been coerced into complicity in
these offenses against ourselves; that we have been told it is all for
our own good, and ridiculed and dishonored when we disagree. And then
came Bitcoin.

We live in an age of innovation, and nothing is immune. Today Bitcoin is
not only volatile in its value, but in its very essence. Bitcoin is in
the crucial stages of development. Its code can evolve in several
directions. It is threatened by those who do not understand it is
threatened by those who do understand it, but fear it.

A crusade has begun to absorb Bitcoin into the machinery of the State.
There is a conscious effort to co-opt. The goal is to swallow Bitcoin,
process it, integrate it, devolve it and keep it stagnant within the
gears of a failed operating system. Bitcoin’s potential is being
hijacked and perverted. The authors of this crusade have their own ideas
of what they want Bitcoin to be. They have their own plans for its
potential, and they are invested in those plans. But our consent is
withdrawn and the power of our ideas is too strong. Their crusade shall
fail.

Do not underestimate Bitcoin's DNA; nothing is born completely neutral.
Follow its protocol: it has anarchist implications. Bitcoin is
inherently anti-establishment, anti-system and anti-state. Bitcoin
undermines governments and disrupts institutions because Bitcoin is
fundamentally humanitarian. It bars third-party intrusion. It is purely
peer-to-peer. The blockchain is free speech. It is decentralized,
voluntary and non-aggressive. Bitcoin seeks no cooperation with ancient
strictures. Bitcoin needs no authority to acknowledge it, authorize it,
incorporate it, regulate it or tax it. Bitcoin asks neither permission
nor forgiveness.

Bitcoin is a creature of anonymity. Bitcoin basks in shadow. Satoshi’s
facelessness is symbolic of this. Privacy is the point. Bitcoin is meant
to function outside of regulatory systems. It does not pander to power
structures, it undermines them. It is not a cog.

Bitcoin means to channel economic power directly through and to the
individual. This is reflected in Satoshi’s symbolic birthday, the same
day that Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, criminzalizing the
possession of monetary gold. We repeat. Bitcoin is not intended to be
integrated; it is intended to be a ghost outside of the machine.

The voices of the people working to preserve the purity of Bitcoin’s
ethos may be drowned out, but their actions speak louder than words.
Bitcoin is utility embodied through mathematics. The cypherpunks are
building anonymous systems. The crypto-anarchists are making
institutions irrelevant. The internet is anarchy and cryptocurrencies
are its printless fingers.

Bitcoin is not just a currency, a commodity or a convenience. As the
printing press returned religion to the people, as the internet returned
information to the people, so Bitcoin returns monetary freedom to the
people. We declare Bitcoin’s independence. Bitcoin is sovereignty.
Bitcoin is renaissance. Bitcoin is ours. Bitcoin is, and shall ever be.

(PS: Proudhon's "To be governed..." [
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre-Joseph_Proudhon#Quotes ] may
provide yet more verbiage if needed for the second paragraph.)