The Importance of a Permissionless Network
While the price action of Bitcoin is slumping, to say the least, we have seen its true utility in action at the start of 2022. Neither this post nor any other on cryptofal.com should be taken as financial advice. It is not.
We always hear about Bitcoin being a scam or just used for illegal activity on the dark web but even in its recent decline in price, we have seen its real utility in action. Everyone has been faced with a situation where their bank shuts down their card at an inconvenient time for suspected fraudulent activity. Some have even been told that they can not withdraw a large sum of money from their account for their own “protection” says the bank. This is where the decentralized aspect of Bitcoin comes into play.
Just last month we saw GoFundMe block donations going to Canadian truck drivers who were protesting a work-related issue. To counteract that people started sending them donations in BTC because the government has no way to stop BTC transactions because it is decentralized and nobody controls it. Not even the government could stop that money from being received. The same can be said about the current issues going on between Russia and Ukraine.
Since Russia has been removed from the SWIFT banking system how can their citizens or even their government send money around? If they have money in Bitcoin then they can still send money around and at least have access to some funds. On the negative side, this does give Russia a possible workaround on sanctions. There is always a good and a bad with something like that, but you can still see why this kind of technology can be useful to people around the world.
Even on the Ukrainian side, they were donated $34 million in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, ETH, and Polkadot to aid in the war effort. This allows for those funds received to be deployed instantly as opposed to having to wait long periods of time for banks to approve and send the transfers. The funds were used to fund a bunch of things like food, ammo, and other resources for the Ukrainian military. Being permissionless is what truly makes blockchain and cryptocurrency unique.
When you factor that in with Bitcoins’ speed and privacy it really makes it stand out in opposition to its physical counterpart, gold. You can’t send gold wherever whenever because it is too heavy and will have to be shipped and more fees will be tacked on for sending something so heavy. With Bitcoin, you are sending energy from one spot to another in an extremely efficient fashion.
