Bitcoin: from a dream to nightmare
I can't exactly remember when, but the first time mainstream media talked about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies was somewhere around 10 years ago (in France). At that time, I was, first of all, young (9 years old), but I already had an obsession with online privacy and security (an obsession that I unfortunately lost) and also some seeds of a leftist political view, all of that influenced by cryptoanarchism and the cypherpunk manifesto. So when I learned about Bitcoin on TV news, I saw a new era. An era where no more financial institution—private or public—will possess the money, but we possessed it while not being spied on. The thought that it could be used for illegal activities didn't bother me at all (still the case today). This era, that I think I was not the only one to dream of, never happened. Worse, it now represents things that I hate. Ask a random person about what bitcoin is, and they will yea said that it's a cryptocurrency but surely tell you that it's a way of doing money or a "trading thing" or maybe talk about drug dealing, hacker ransomware, and that type of shit. Illegal activities using bitcoin will not be talked about here; they are just natural consequences of the secure and private part of cryptocurrencies. So now, crypto is kinda just about trading, one of the more capitalist things that exist. They produce nothing, and when bad things happen in the world, they're the only ones who profit from it. We can also crypto-mine who use an enormous amount of electricity, NFT who stole art from artists to sell it for money addict cryptoboys. I dreamed of a free world; they created a capitalist nightmare. And capitalism and freedom are not compatible.