At the crossroads of the monetary and technological field, Bitcoin proposes to take a step aside and question the nature of our own currencies. It is in this that it is perhaps the most revolutionary, while money has remained since the beginning of the industrial era relegated to a simple neutral tool, outside any political field, almost “magical” , subject to mechanisms that are as invisible as they are mysterious.
Make the role of money visible
Bitcoin is forcing a spotlight on our current monetary system. A complex system, which is however far from being inaccessible, but kept away from the democratic field. By diverting the power normally reserved for traditional currencies, Bitcoin highlights a particularly unjust system of domination. Money, this everyday tool that is almost invisible and yet omnipresent in our lives, is indeed far from being a neutral or inert object.
Bitcoin vs local currencies, same fight?
The BTC is not the only one to question our monetary use: local currencies, for example, are a form of contestation. Well established in France, there are no less than 80 in France. They allow people to rdirect the currency towards virtuous sectors, by becoming aware of the nature of the euro, which tends to encourage speculation. Nevertheless, local currencies remain for the moment very marginal in terms of transaction volumes.
They nevertheless try to give meaning to the way of paying, while the currency still escapes any democratic control of the citizens. However, they remain backed by the euro, and must be authorized by the State. Paradoxically (and even if everything separates them), BTC could be complementary with local currencies. Indeed, he shares with them a common project: rethink the currency.
Bitcoin is made for the Internet
But Bitcoin is much more radical in its proposal. It does not require any approval, any state or banking permission: it is permissionless. Totally open. Above all, it is a currency digital-native, created and designed specifically to be the cash of the internet. The dollar was created in 1791 in a profoundly different world. Even the young euro created in 1999 could not anticipate the technological changes of the 2000s. These currencies therefore had to adapt by “forcing” their nature to exist in a digital version. This is not the case with Bitcoin, which aims from the start to be the currency layer of the internet protocol : open to all, without borders, decentralized.
Another currency is possible
As an experimental tool, and by investing the field of money, Bitcoin refers to our own knowledge of the fiat system. Who creates the currency? Why do private banks have this prerogative? Why inflation must be kept at 2% at all costs (even at the risk of increasing the unemployment)? Who decides on this arbitrary value? Why not a rate of 2.4% or 1.7%? The Banque de France ventures to justify this value in a very… “educational” video.
In reality, this 2% inflation is the subject of a consensus, inspired in particular by the work of Milton Friedman, an ardent defender of uninhibited growth. ” The only social responsibility of a company is to maximize its profits” he wrote in a article of the New York Times published in 1970. Since then, it is this doctrine that still guides the monetary policies of the European Central Bank (ECB). It has since been taken up in chorus by national central banks such as the Banque de France.
Capitalism feeds happily on the lack of participation and involvement in decisions, especially monetary ones. And unfortunately, today’s currencies are set for infinite growth. Moreover, the current system favors banking circles. The latter, close to the monetary “taps” of the central banks, enjoy extravagant privileges and accumulate billions. Being aware of it and being indignant about it is one thing. Bitcoin goes further. Because even if it is not perfect, the bitcoin protocol strives to provide another proposal. Limited to 21 million units, it is not built in essence for infinite growth. It thus functions as a gigantic open source parallel system, self-managed on a global scale through a collaborative governance and decentralized.
What if Bitcoin called for a bigger change?
No offense to the most maximalists and hyperbitcoinization fantasies, BTC is not intended to become a global currency either. Bitcoin could at most be an exclusive currency in very specific contexts: oasis, island, floating cities. It is in any case the bearer of a utopia. It experiments and proves, using a parallel system of a private currency, the possibility of a fairer system.
Because perhaps bitcoin’s greatest value lies in its ability to step aside, to rethink how we collectively use money. Regaining power over money is undoubtedly bitcoin’s greatest proposition, which goes far beyond the technological power of the blockchain alone.
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