Why Boise Needs Bitcoin
Ever have the feeling something’s just a little off?
Not the we’ve-been-living-through-a-pandemic-so-of-course-things-are-gonna-be-a-little-off type of off.
The I’m-working-harder-than-I-ever-have-in-my-life-but-I-just-can’t-seem-to-get-ahead type of off.
I’ve been feeling this long before COVID-19 brought the world to a halt & have spent the past year silently & obsessively studying why this feeling just won’t go away.
What can the average person do to get off this hamster wheel & not just survive, but thrive?
Put another way: what can the average person do to avoid spending 40-50 of the best years of their life grinding away at a job they really don’t care about so they can finally retire and enjoy the final few years of their life?
One in four Americans have no retirement savings & those who do are not saving enough.
Unless your grandfather left you a trust fund, a car dealership, an empire of McDonald’s franchises – or you win the lottery – you may be wondering how you’ll ever be able to save enough to comfortably retire.
If you’ve got five minutes to make it to the end of this – it could change your life.
Let’s start with something you’re probably getting sick of reading about.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen housing prices in the Treasure Valley skyrocket over the past decade. If you own a house, you’re probably sitting on gains of 25%, 50%, 100% or more on your property.
Which is great—if you’re a real estate agent.
And great if you plan on selling & moving somewhere significantly less expensive.
But everywhere else is getting more expensive too.
What about the thousands of people living in apartments who don’t own property? This unprecedented rise in housing prices is making it harder & harder for them to ever become a homeowner.
A popular & easy explanation for rising home prices is the tidal wave of Californians moving here.
Sure, that’s one part of the equation – but that’s not all that’s at work here.
During the pandemic, as we were seeing record unemployment and our economy was on the verge of coming to a grinding halt, the stock market was (and still is) reaching record highs.
Look at the photograph above.
Look again.
Does anything seem a little strange?
You may say “what’s wrong with that? Do you want to see your 401K decimated?”
Of course not.
But the monetary policy that has been put in motion in this country is going to have massive effects on everything we do.
Did you get a stimulus check like hundreds of millions of Americans? For people whose jobs were affected by the pandemic—it may have been a lifesaver.
Did you get a second and/or third stimulus check? Lots of people did.
Did you know 40% of US dollars in existence were printed in the last 12 months? It’s true.
When the government prints trillions and trillions of dollars out of thin air, the value of every dollar in your wallet decreases & the price of everything going up.
It’s called inflation. It means your purchasing power is going down.
When all is said is done, it’s theft of your time.
Every hour of work you perform buys less than it did the year before.
The government will tell you it’s only transitory & they’ve got their indexes, facts & figures to back it up.
But what they don’t take into account in any of their facts and figures are the costs of the things we actually need.
Gas for our cars. Up.
College tuition. Up.
Medical expenses. Way up.
So are the prices of commodities like corn, soybean & wheat—whose costs are passed along when food companies make their products.
Not to mention raw materials used in construction of new homes.
That’s another contributor to the increase in home prices. Over the past year, the median price of homes sold in Ada County rose 38.9%.
THIRTY EIGHT POINT NINE PERCENT.
If you’re fortunate enough to not have had your job affected by the pandemic, have your wages also increased by 38.9%?
If so—wowza! You’re crushing it. If not, things may look a little bleaker.
That savings account you check every week? It’s melting away like an ice cube in a hot tub.
So what are people supposed to do as the value of every dollar in their bank account is being debased by the minute?
The answer?
It’s Bitcoin.
Why Bitcoin?
It’s decentralized. It’s open source. It’s durable, divisible & secure. And its scarce.
Unlike the US Dollar (and every other currency on the planet), more of it can’t be created by one important person sitting behind a computer pushing a button.
Only 21 million Bitcoin will ever exist. That’s it. That’s all she wrote.
Governments can print more money whenever they see fit. But when they abuse that power, it can have devastating effects.
For example, in Zimbabwe, they created so much money that they actually have a $100,000,000,000,000 bill.
That’s $100 trillion for those of you keeping score at home.
ONE. HUNDRED. TRILLION.
They need a wheel barrow to haul their money around. Cash lines the street because it’s essentially worthless.
Will that happen in America?
Most likely, not to that same extreme because the United States is fortunate enough to have reserve currency status.
But isn’t Bitcoin only used for money laundering, drugs & other shady stuff by shadowy super-nerds?
While it’s true that bad actors have taken advantage of the anonymity Bitcoin offers for their own gain, those unsavory use cases are being snuffed out & people are waking up to the reality that Bitcoin offers hope.
Some of the world’s foremost investors—who previously wouldn’t touch Bitcoin with a ten-foot pole—now own it on their balance sheets.
“The bitcoin story is very easy. It’s supply and demand. Bitcoin’s supply is growing at around 2.5% a year, and the demand is growing faster than that and there’s going to be a fixed number of them.”
“Do I think [Bitcoin] is a durable mechanism that could take the place of gold to a large extent? Yeah, I do, because it’s so much more functional than passing a bar of gold around.”
“I’m going to assume that it’s the wrong price for the possibilities that it has and I’m going to assume that the path forward from here is north.”
“I have changed my mind about Bitcoin’s role in asset allocation. In January 2018, we declared that it has no such role – we have to admit that it does.”
The world’s biggest banks – again, which previously wouldn’t even acknowledge its existence – have been forced to open entire cryptocurrency divisions to satisfy the demand from investors.
Major corporations like Tesla, Square & Microstrategy have already acquired billions in Bitcoin.
Finally, entire countries are waking up to the reality that something is off and they need to take action.
Last month, El Salvador became the first country to announce Bitcoin as legal tender. It allows their citizens to send money instantly, securely & with no high remittance fees.
But what about here in America?
Kentucky is now offering tax breaks to attract Bitcoin miners.
Louisiana’s legislature passed a resolution praising Bitcoin while encouraging its use.
Wyoming now offers a new banking license to lure Bitcoin banks and businesses.
And Miami has rebranded as a “Bitcoin & tech hub” offering favorable laws & low taxes, while exploring ways to pay employees in Bitcoin.
So why does Boise need Bitcoin?
I’ll make this quick.
Ideal macroeconomic backdrop – Unprecedented levels of monetary stimulus inflate asset values while rendering cash a liability
Emerging asset class – Bitcoin has been de-risked over the last several years with attractive supply/demand dynamics
Increased adoption – Increasing retail, corporate & institutional adoption worldwide produces value via the network effect
A scarce asset – Bitcoin is first store of value in the world where supply is entirely unaffected by increased demand. Thus, increases in demand have a profound impact on price
Optimal diversification – Bitcoin is an uncorrelated asset with almost no relationship to other stores of value
Highest long-term returns – Bitcoin provides the highest absolute and risk-adjusted returns of any asset class over the past decade
Above all else, it’s a signal to the world that Boise is an innovative city that embraces new technology & is ready for the future.
If you have any questions at all about anything Bitcoin-related, I’d love to help you.
If I can’t answer your questions, I will point you to someone who can ASAP.
Connect with me on Twitter @nathanfast!
