Until cryptocurrency came along, it is amazing how little we knew, overall, about the lack of freedom we have. With money, we are controlled by the powers that decide what is best for us.
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Recently, we saw both Mastercard and Visa stop payments to Pornhub, one of the most frequently visited websites in the world. This stems from an investigation by the New York Times that states the site if full of child and revenge porn.
This followed a move about a year ago by PayPal to not longer service payments to the site.
Certainly, few would defend the promotion of these types of material. However, this is an accusation, one the company denies. There was no legal entity that concluded it; no court ruling. Instead, it is an accusation that might have led to action by these financial operators.
The challenge is here is that there are obviously millions of adults who opt for pornographic material. There is no denying the popularity of it across the web.
After all, Pornhub has reported over 3.5 billion monthly visits – more than Netflix, Amazon, or Yahoo.
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Nevertheless, this is not about pornography. Instead, it is about the freedom of adults to spend their money on goods and services as they see fit. Pornography is not illegal (child porn is and revenge porn is being outlawed in many areas). Hence, the owning and viewing of it is not breaking any laws.
Yet the financial system deems it valid to stop servicing these entities with the means of collecting revenues.
The same is being done to the cannabis industry. Even though it is being legalized in many states, since Federal Law still bans it, operators in that sector do not have many options. They are cut off from the banking system since that is Federally regulated.
Cryptocurrency is the answer to this. Of course, this point is being driven home by the establishment. They like to use the word "terrorist" to apply to those who use cryptocurrency. At the same time, they like to convey the notion only drug dealers, gun runners, and prostitutes use cryptocurrency.
Anyone who is old enough to remember the beginnings of the World Wide Web will remember these were the same accusations thrown out about the Internet. Naturally, we know, today, that is not the case.
Freedom on money is something that is rarely discussed in the public forums. However, as we can see, it is vital. When our use of money is restricted, decisions are made for us. We no longer have the ability to decide for ourselves.
For example, if someone is 18, it is up to him or her if smoking pot is something to be done. It matters to me none what the decision is. Many states have this as legal, even for recreational use. If the person opts to do it, that is their choice.
Most would agree with that concept. Of course, here is where it gets tricky. That person could make the choice yet what if the payment methods were hindered? No use of credit cards, money orders, or checks. None of the traditional methods can be utilized. Thus, while the choice to use is there, it is effectively cut off.
This type of debate often only comes into play when one's preferences are affected. In fact, many get on their moral horse when what they do not like is targeted. Those who are anti porn and drugs are saying, "it is about time to get rid of that filth".
The problem with this view is it can go both ways. What if these payments were cut off from the traditional systems: church giving, abortions, guns, media content, sex items, sugary foods, cigarettes, big liters of soda, and wine.
After all, each of these has some group that is against them and feels they should be removed.
But what about CBDCs?
This is a bad solution too. The challenge with this is two-fold. To start, it is too easy for the government to go negative with interest rates, forcing people to spend money and killing savings.
Secondly, and more important, as bad as the banking system it, it does stand between the government and our accounts. A CBDC will allow governments to simply do as they wish. Change the political party in control of the government and you will see how suddenly a host of goods and services is removed from the payment network.
Here we see a major problem with monopolistic entities. Certainly, PayPal and Visa have the right to do as they see fit. They are private companies after all. However, we can only guess at the percentage of online transactions they are responsible for. It is safe to say they account for more than 75% of all Internet transactions.
Telling people what they can or cannot spend their money on is not freedom, especially when this applies to products and services that are legal for consumption.
Cash use to be the ultimate freedom of money. Did people use it to buy illegal products? Certainly. However, most of the spending was done on legal items. The key is that any transaction could take place, if the other person was willing to accept the cash for whatever was provided. There were no third parties involved in the transaction.
Today, that is no longer the case. Every digital transaction has someone involved, which means it is subject to their approval. What is even worse is they take a piece of the action for providing this service.
Here again, we see a system whereby cryptocurrency, for all its present flaws, offers a much better solution. Of course, this is not the best solution for those who want to keep wielding power over the different populations around the world.
This is where the present battle resides. It is the Great Race taking place. On one side is the established entities that are perfectly fine with how things are. Technology is enhancing their power since it make control much easier.
On the other is the technical people who are seeing to dismantle this system by creating products and services which are not under these same entities control. Decentralization offers a great deal of hope since peer-to-peer communication is much more difficult to control. When this extends to money, it starts to add in freedom.
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