Eastfist

By Chongchen Saelee

When I first conceived Bitcoin for my high school assignment, I had to come up with a way to simulate existing financial system or at least what I thought it was. So back in the late 1990s, people were already using credit cards (a kind of non-tangible money) but there was very little integration or user-friendly interface with the Internet. Then PayPal came along which was pretty close to “Internet money”, but was obviously just an exchange between existing currencies. (more…)

Why Bitcoin Cannot Save Greece
By Chongchen Saelee

You can see the desperation in the eyes of Bitcoin’s cultish eloquent tragic hero Andreas Antonopolous who believes himself the savior of his beloved Greek peoples, having “inherited the Greek Drachma”. It seems Greece is victim to crooked banksters and politicians taking good chunks out of its citizens money, apparently to pay off national debts. How could Bitcoin possibly save anyone if it’s just a matter of replacing an exploited currency with another one? If those crooks can take the Drachmas, what’s stopping them from taking away the people’s Bitcoins?

Money only works when there is trust amongst the people using it. It’s an abstract concept. The farmer who raises the cattle for your hamburger is more valuable than you if you don’t know how to raise livestock. However, if you are a charismatic sociable person with resourceful friends who could possibly trade resources with you and the farmer, then you’ve got a little bartering ecosystem going for yourself. You may very well become very valuable to the cattle farmer if you have a friend that knows how to mend shoes, or grow a special crop, or give awesome haircuts. The value is relative to the people in the ecosystem.

So if Greeks want to stop their crooked government officials from taking their hard-earned money, then they gotta fix it themselves. Why do they owe so many people? How are they going to pay back their debt? You wouldn’t honor your debts if you’re not honorable people. And I think that’s the whole point behind politics. People are sometimes so honorable, they let others take advantage of them.

Without doing anything extreme, I’d say the best solution for Greeks feeling ripped off by their authorities is simply to move and stop using Drachma. People have picked up and moved in a heartbeat since the beginning of time. If you got the will and are a hardworker, you can make it. Now, whether or not Bitcoin is a suitable currency to replace Greece’s weakened financial system, that’s just not predictable. But I’d say to avoid it.

The only thing that can save Greece is its own people. No amount of money, even fake money can solve the fallacies of human dynamics.

I’m Satoshi Nakamoto, fools!!!

By Chongchen Saelee

Well, before this Bitcoin circus gets too out of hand, I thought I’d finally out myself as the inventor of the Bitcoin protocol. I know a lot of Bitcoin loyalists don’t personally like me, even though ironically they enjoy being the prom queen at my expense. The real story isn’t even that exciting, but let’s sober some of the hysterics up. (more…)

http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-surges-positive-paypal-news/

Not cool. So, uh, it went from a measly USD$390 to $450. Big whoop. I still lost money in the game. Report something when the Bitcoin is back over $670. SMDH.

http://www.coindesk.com/will-10000-bitcoin-help-hurt-transactions/

By Chongchen Saelee

What would happen if the value of a single Bitcoin became USD$10,000? First of all, a lot of Bitcoin investors would get filthy rich. Second, they’d get rich for nothing as they can’t really spend it.

Maybe the real issue here is what fuels economy and what defines currency. Bitcoin is a valid currency and you can buy things. But is it secure? No. It’s not. At least with the US Dollar, one friggin dollar is still worth one friggin dollar. I don’t have to worry about not being able to use it at a vending machine.

Then how do you define currency? Currency implies that people control the current of their economy. They are the lifeforce or bloodstream of their ecosystem. If people aren’t happy or content or confident with their neighborhoods, cities, governments, then they won’t recirculate their currency, thus making their economy suck. For the most part, Americans don’t understand how to put value into the US Dollar because they live so comfortably. Maybe it’s something they take for granted. After all, the value of money is imaginary. Whatever you were going to do, you didn’t require money to do it, it’s just exists as a social construct. It’s almost like manifest destiny.

So if Bitcoin’s value ever goes up to $10,000, then it’s because the investors that created the hocus pocus game that is Bitcoin are afraid they will lose their fortunes in American dollars. So being the greedy fucks they are, they convert that magic imaginary monetary value into Bitcoins, because now that people that do control the value of American dollars cannot control the value of Bitcoins.

I think I know what I’m talking about. It has something to do with great empires minting their own coins and currency. That means in the upcoming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar should actually have his ape people pass around leaves or bark chips with his face drawn in poop on them. Then, when the heroic white man enters their forests looking for monkey magic water beer, then Caesar can say, “Your paper money is no good here, human. Caesar money is God in the jungle.”

I just read an article about Bitcoin and other types of local currency popping up all over the place. Before the fall of great empires, all the kings and noblemen started coining their own currencies. Yet, ironically, the Almighty US Dollar is still the basis for Bitcoins, Xbox points, etc, etc. Sure, I’d love to make a profit from my share of Bitcoin, but I also understand that most of its power comes from the almighty dollar. The Great Roman Empire isn’t going to fall quite yet.

By Chongchen Saelee

Surely, for some, the Bitcoin trade is very real. Those who had invested early on and sold their Bitcoins before the price plummeted after it maxed out at value of approx. $1000 per Bitcoin. The problem why Bitcoin isn’t catching on is because it’s still dollar-based. Because if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it, right? Cash became debit and credit cards almost seamlessly, but it was still dollar-based. Bitcoin is technically the same as debit and credit, but it instead tries to decide its own value via a math algorithm, which is sketchy and hard to predict and even know who controls it. At least a US Dollar is a dollar. As long as the price of a stick of gum doesn’t increase beyond that, you can assuredly use your dollar in a vending machine.

But it’s kinda interesting. I want to see how this Bitcoin thing turns out. And this is where you can help me out. You can donate some Bitcoins my way at http://www.coinbase.com/eastfist. My goal is to reach one entire Bitcoin. Thanks for your consideration.