Hey friend,
We're going to pivot for the next few weeks. I want to take you on a journey into a topic that is confusing, controversial, and deeply connected to the OptOut ethos of questioning the default path.
It starts with a confession: I used to hate the scam called Bitcoin.
Like many people, my first experiences with it were painful. I fell for a fake investment company and lost money overnight. I lost even more when the market crashed.
I stood there, staring at my losses, thinking, "This is exactly the kind of speculative nonsense that ruins people, and I'm living proof".
From that day on, I had every argument ready to go. Bitcoin was too volatile, full of scams, used by criminals, a waste of energy, and had no real value. I could win a debate with anyone because I had the scars to prove my point.
I was so focused on proving Bitcoin was a scam that I completely missed the biggest scam happening to all of us every single day.
My perspective started to shift with a simple question I couldn't answer. A person at a dinner party asked me, "Can you find one person who has truly gone down the Bitcoin rabbit hole and still thinks it's a bad idea?".
I laughed it off, but I couldn't shake it. That question sent me on a different path. Instead of looking at Bitcoin's price, I started looking at money itself.
And that's where the real questions emerged.
Why does it feel like we’re all working harder but getting nowhere?. Why does your pay buy less every year, even with a raise?
Why do your parents' stories about buying a house and raising a family on a normal salary sound like fairy tales?.
It's not your imagination. I discovered that since 1971, when the U.S. dollar was taken off the gold standard, our money hasn't been backed by anything but trust. The move was described as temporary, but 54 years later, we’re still in the experiment.
While the US cut its ties to gold in 1971, Australia had its own monetary revolution. It happened in December 1983 when the government floated the Australian dollar. This was the moment our money was untethered from a fixed price and set adrift on the open waters of the global market.
The result is the same: the money in our bank accounts feels less and less real, and its power to buy essential things like a house has been drifting away ever since.
While I was worried about Bitcoin being "fake money," I was holding money that was literally being printed out of thin air.
I realised that while I was losing some money to Bitcoin crashes, inflation was quietly stealing much more from all of us.
This is a huge topic to unpack, which is why we’re going to spend the next few weeks on it.
This isn't a series to try and sell you Bitcoin. It makes no difference to me if you ever buy any of it.
My only goal is to bridge the gap between the skeptics and the believers—because I’ve been on both sides and give you the tools to make your own decision.
Consider this the first step down the rabbit hole.
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