Shapeshift.io CEO Erik Voorhees was spoken with by Decentralized Applications Fund Managing Director David Johnston at the Texas Bitcoin Conference in late March, and the subjects covered in the fireside chat included everything from Bitcoin regulation to Voorhees' progressing stance on altcoins.
Near the middle of the discussion, Johnston asked Voorhees about his philosophical beliefs and what drives him to continue his effective work in the Bitcoin area. Voorhees responded with a fascinating example between the flexibility to pick one's faith and the liberty to pick one's money.
The Separation of Church and State
When first inquired about exactly what drives him to constantly push Bitcoin to as many people around the world as possible, Voorhees fasted to point to the separation of church and state. He described that this is something nearly everybody in industrialized nations agrees with and understands, and he wants to see this freedom of choice applied to other areas of society:
“All of us grow up in school– the majority of us, unfortunately, in public school– but, however, we learn about this thing that happened hundreds of years ago, which was the separation of church and state. We find out why that was so crucial that humans used to live in societies under which their faith– something really individual and precious to them as people — — was under the management of an organization that might manage those things. [They] could tell you exactly what to praise and how, when and why. In some way, society realized possibly that was dishonest– that we should not permit control of something so personal and vital to your life to be managed by the state.”
The Separation of Cash and State
After going over the separation of church and state, Voorhees applied the philosophy of freedom of option to cash. The Shapeshift.io CEO declared the liberty to pick your money is, for lots of people, more crucial than being able to pick a religious beliefs. He noted that a separation of cash and state might be just as– if not more vital than– civil liberty:
“It is that narrative of human advancement under which I think that we now have other fights to combat, and I would say in the world of Bitcoin it is generally the separation of cash and state. Money is definitely as essential to our lives as religion, and for many individuals it is much more basic to their lives as religion. It influences how your life unfolds. The options that you make about cash determine the implications of your life and those around you. Therefore, to have an organization like cash so managed by a central entity — — by a monopoly — is ridiculous. It is immoral. We need to do away with it.”
The idea of free enterprises is still rather popular in the United States, but this logic never appears to apply to money. Although lots of Republicans typically espouse the advantages of the totally free market in different political speeches, basically none of them raise the idea of competing currencies. A lot of politicians in any part of the world appear rather selective when it concerns which markets are permitted to easily run without government intervention.
Bitcoin Can Produce This Much Needed Modification
Due to the choice by legislators to produce a monopoly on money in each, separate jurisdiction, it has actually been tough for alternative kinds of money, such as gold and silver, to contend. Although the struggle in the past has been to persuade politicians to permit different forms of money to contend with fiat currency, Voorhees mentioned that Bitcoin might produce a situation where those political leaders don't have an option in the matter:
“It seems crazy to say this, however possibly we need to permit competition in cash, permit competitors in monetary structures, just as we permit competitors in religion. We enable multiple churches to exist. Why do we do that? And why don't we do that with money? I think it's a hypocrisy that our youngsters will one day look back on and realize, ‘Wow, that was actually apparent.' And Bitcoin is exactly what will bring that change about.”
Bitcoin is currently competing positively against the Venezuelan bolivar when it pertains to its usefulness as money, however it still has a long method to precede it can take down giants like the united state dollar or euro. Such a revolutionary change in exactly what people utilize as cash might never ever happen, however at least there is now competition for fiat currencies.
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