Culture

Bitcoin Is Cash For The Internet

Published

4 months ago

July 24, 2024

Bitcoin is much more than a typical online payment system. After all, we have plenty of those: PayPal, Venmo, and the like. Bitcoin and other privately used cryptocurrencies are cash for the internet.

Paper cash is an almost perfect way to pay someone. You don’t need an account. It doesn’t care who you are or what you’re buying. It’s a bearer instrument. I hand you a dollar. Now you have the dollar and I don’t. It’s instant and no one can interfere with the transaction. There is no trusting someone else to make sure the dollar gets to you. And best of all, it’s private. There is no record of that transaction whatsoever. It’s so private that there is an old joke in the cryptocurrency community: If cash were to be invented today, it would be illegal.

For all its benefits, however, paper cash is useless online. To pay someone over the internet, we have come to rely on a system of intermediaries to keep money moving. We put our money in a bank, direct that bank to send money to a company like PayPal, ask PayPal to send the money to another user’s PayPal account, they then finally have to withdraw from PayPal to a bank account from which they could choose to withdraw cash.

Every step in this process is recorded in detail by each involved company and ultimately reported to the government. And we have to rely on the companies to voluntarily execute our transaction, something which history has shown should not be taken for granted.

Unfortunately paper cash is dying as people opt for the convenience of tools like Venmo. Even face-to-face transactions for coffee that would have once been handled with paper cash are now intermediated, that is, recorded, reported, and executed under the rules set by corporations and the government.

The fact that commerce now flows through a relatively small set of intermediaries provides a convenient access point for authoritarians to place pressure needed to control what a populace can and can’t do. This risk might seem remote to those of us in stable democracies, but the reality is that states control financial systems and not all states uphold values of free expression and association.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies offer a solution. They operate in a manner much more similar to cash. They are bearer instruments that can be used privately without an account. They are cash for the internet. And they break the control of intermediaries over our financial lives.

There are of course valid reasons why governments might want to monitor the flow of money and place restrictions on certain transactions. But we have increasingly seen a rise in governments succumbing to the temptation to weaponize their control of intermediaries to contain political dissent. This is the great flaw of regulation through intermediated finance.

When protests erupted in Belarus over a rigged election, the government swiftly cracked down, including through financial punishments. Protestors faced heavy fines, and employers were pressured to fire dissenting employees.

In response, the non-profit BYSOL, based in Belgium, provided financial aid to protestors. However, as the protests were deemed illegal, traditional financial intermediaries, complying with the law, seized protester funds and froze their accounts. Electronic transfers were monitored, and cash was confiscated at the border. BYSOL turned to Bitcoin, allowing protesters to receive funds in personal wallets and make small swaps with locals, evading this net of state mandated financial surveillance.

In Russia, Putin’s opposition was labeled an extremist group, making donations illegal. As in any country, financial intermediaries had no real choice but to comply with the law. These intermediaries had been effectively weaponized to police political activity. Alexei Navalny’s Anti Corruption Foundation turned to cryptocurrency, supercharged with the privacy enhancements provided by tools such as Wasabi Wallet, to survive. Russian citizens could continue putting money behind their opposition to Putin with this powerful new capability.

In Myanmar, the Junta implemented strict Know Your Customer rules and cracked down on physical cash, forcing all economic activities into a surveilled system prone to arbitrary account freezes. In Iran, new rules have been proposed to automatically deduct fines from the bank accounts of women who defy laws mandating a Hijab.

Even in the U.S., this issue could arise. The recent overturning of Roe v. Wade endangers abortion access. If funding abortion services becomes illegal, payment providers might be forced to comply with the law or provide evidence to law enforcement. Many abortion pill websites use services like PayPal and Stripe for payments, and if these services are cut off, cryptocurrency could become a crucial alternative. Similar financial threats to access exist for all hot-button issues. It’s hard to control people but it’s easy to control intermediaries.

Moving beyond direct legal control of intermediaries, it’s also important to consider another flaw in the intermediated financial system. These are private companies that have their own considerations and values. Many of them are publicly traded. This makes them susceptible to the whims of public opinion.

Why would a company like PayPal take on the reputational risk of processing payments to industries that some find unsavory, even if they are legal? There are endless cases of adult creators being kicked off platforms, or marijuana businesses, or outspoken political voices. At the end of the day, it’s a lot easier for them to just kick those people out so they can focus on their core business. If every company makes that same calculation those businesses are effectively killed even if they followed the rules.

Meanwhile cash, both paper and now cryptocurrency, are neutral systems that are immune from the whims of not only authoritarians, but the mob as well. Cryptocurrencies are cash for the internet. You don’t need an account, just a computer and internet access. They can’t have an opinion on what you’re doing. They don’t spy on you. And no one can interfere with your ability to transact with them. They are essential tools for protecting our ability to exist as free people in the digital era and are a check on authoritarianism made so much easier by a centrally intermediated internet.

This is a guest post by Neeraj Agrawal. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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btcpay server

PAID IN BITCOIN: BTCPay Documentary Showcases Bitcoin as the Medium of Exchange at Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville

Published

6 days ago

November 4, 2024

admin

BTCPay Server has just released a new documentary covering the use of bitcoin as a means of exchange this summer during the Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville. The documentary by Parker Worthington (@webworthy) takes a look at the behind the scenes set up of both BTCPay Server and Strike with merchants around the conference venue, documenting the use of bitcoin as a real payment tool during the course of the conference.

Watch the documentary below.

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Countries

The Bitcoin Popularity Index (BPI) – A Measure of Bitcoin Interest Around The World

Published

2 weeks ago

October 30, 2024

admin

Introduction

Introducing the Bitcoin Popularity Index (BPI), the first comprehensive search study of its kind. This index has been curated in an attempt to measure the global reach and impact of Bitcoin through a broad analysis of Google search queries.

Unlike many studies that offer absolute data or blend various aspects of cryptocurrency, the BPI data aims to deliver insights of Bitcoin interest specifically, by considering factors such as language diversity, Google’s browser dominance and population sizes. This approach allows us to gauge not just the raw interest but also the relative intensity of Bitcoin engagement across different nations. We can therefore highlight which countries are punching above their weight, relatively speaking.

While not intended as a definitive answer, the BPI serves as a useful exercise—perhaps the best snapshot we have amid imperfect data. By integrating these various elements, the Bitcoin Popularity Index offers a unique perspective, shifting away from generic metrics to provide a richer, more contextual understanding of how Bitcoin’s adoption is advancing worldwide.

You can download the infographic here.

Key Findings

The USA scores the highest number of queries with 14,432,650 queries per month, followed closely by Brazil with 12,400,260. Germany, India and Turkey complete the top 5.
The top 7 positions and 8 of the top 10 are occupied by Western European countries (as per EuroVoc’s regional definitions).
“Western” countries around the world have an average BPI of approximately 3,720 (compared to 1,250 elsewhere), indicating a relatively high popularity of Bitcoin.
Africa has the lowest BPI scores among the continents. This is unsurprising given that internet penetration in Africa is only 40%.
The most prominent Bitcoin queries are price queries, and more often than not the price of bitcoin against the dollar. In Egypt, however, bitcoin is more frequently priced in bars of gold instead of the dollar or the Egyptian pound.
The total number of monthly Bitcoin-related queries is nearly 77 million, with direct searches for “Bitcoin” approaching 10 million.
The ratio of Bitcoin-to-Ethereum queries is 9:1.

A Comparison of Continents

Oceania leads with the highest average BPI at about 4,901, indicating a very strong popularity of Bitcoin in this region. This data is derived from just two countries (New Zealand and Australia), both benefiting from high levels of internet penetration.

Europe follows with an average BPI of 3,719 from 41 countries, showcasing the relative strength of Bitcoin popularity across the continent, placing it well above most other regions.

The Top 50 Countries

Countries 1-15

Countries 16-32

Countries 33-50

Methodology of Data Collection

Selection of Data: Given that Google withholds all search query data for terms relating to cryptocurrency, identifying the most reliable dataset was important. In an effort to be as comprehensive as possible, datasets from SEMRUSH, Ahrefs, DataOs, Moz and Google Trends were all downloaded and researched. SEMRUSH proved to be the most reliable based on its accuracy and depth, which is consistent with SparkToro’s study as well as SEMRUSH’s own research on search volume data.
Data Comparison and Selection: Although the results were often similar for the most part between SEMRUSH and Ahrefs, the two largest available datasets. There were significant discrepancies between the two for many terms. The data for some countries showed more than an 80% difference. This variability made it impractical to blend the data or fill in gaps for countries where SEMRUSH provided no data, as the differences were too substantial to reliably aggregate.
Query Configuration: Broad match queries for “Bitcoin” and “BTC” were utilized across alphabet groups including Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Japanese, Devanagari, Perso-Arabic, Cyrillic, Tamil, Sinhala, Chinese and Thai.
Incorporation of Demographic and Search Engine Data: Population figures were integrated from Worldometers, and Google’s market share data was sourced from Statcounter. For the purposes of this study, the Google market share was recalculated to 100% for all countries to standardize the impact of search engine usage on the data.
Calculation of Per Capita Search Volume: With the aforementioned data, a per capita search query volume for each country was calculated. This step was crucial for normalizing the data across different populations, allowing for a like-with-like comparison of Bitcoin interest irrespective of country size.
Data Visualization: The final results were categorized and plotted on a Chloropleth map using the visualization tool Datawrapper. This allowed for a clear visual representation of Bitcoin popularity across different countries, highlighting regions with particularly high or low levels of engagement.

The percentage of a country’s population using the internet wasn’t factored into the calculations, since those without internet access are less likely to show interest in Bitcoin. Africa’s most recently published internet adoption rate is 40%, comparable to the rates in Europe and the United States of America in 2005. Although this rate remains low, it is increasing, as is the adoption of Bitcoin.

Scope of Data and Limitations

The Bitcoin Popularity Index (BPI) offers comprehensive insights; however, it is constrained by the absence of data from 77 countries, including China, Iran, Cuba and 33 African nations — particularly Tanzania, Kenya and Sudan. This lack of data from key regions can result in an incomplete global perspective on Bitcoin engagement.

Furthermore, the BPI is based on third-party estimations, as Google does not share specific search query data for Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. VPNs can play their part too by obfuscating where searches originate from, but this is not expected to have impacted the results too much.

The data is erroneous in a small number of countries, as “BTC” is the name of a phone company in the Bahamas, an internet provider in Botswana and a shopping mall in Slovenia.

Summary

The Bitcoin Popularity Index (BPI) provides a detailed look at global interest in Bitcoin through the lens of Google search queries. While this study employs the best available data, it is important to note that it is not intended to definitively answer which country has the strongest Bitcoin adoption. Rather, the BPI serves as a gauge of general interest and engagement with Bitcoin across different nations.

The data reveals that Oceania has the strongest BPI scores, though Europe shows the greatest strength across the board, with 41 out of 43 countries performing strongly. It is also evident that search data is stronger in countries with higher internet penetration, thus creating a data bias favouring such countries.

A valuable follow-up to this study would involve examining other metrics that could provide further insights into Bitcoin adoption. Some examples of those metrics include the number of Bitcoin nodes, Bitcoin Lightning Network nodes or hashrate distribution. Such data points could offer a more comprehensive understanding of how deeply Bitcoin has permeated different regions and could help paint a fuller picture of its global adoption.

Furthermore, the goal is to make the BPI an annual calculation, providing a comparative approximation of how Bitcoin interest and adoption progress across all surveyed countries on a yearly basis.

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Culture

21 Million Fashion Makes Bitcoin Clothes That Are Worth the Sats

Published

2 weeks ago

October 29, 2024

admin

Look, I like a certain kind of Bitcoin shirt.

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Yes, the tacky ones with famous one-liners are fine, and so are the conference hand-outs. I, too, collect relics from crypto tragedies, holding on to my BitInstant and BlockFi t-shirts for posterity.

But, let’s be honest. Who wears these kinds of things in public?

When it comes to Bitcoin clothing, I still want something that fits into my day to day. Something that, you know, looks like streetwear, but that won’t attract attention, unless someone is really in the know.

Sadly, this is easier said than done.

That’s why when I was at the Lugano Plan B conference last week, I was blown away by 21 Million Fashion. I went back to the booth twice while I was there just to see if I wasn’t imagining it.

First, you’ve got its standard “Cotton Sweater,” which retails for $230. This picture really doesn’t do the product much justice. The fabric is densely knit and really high quality. Also the design really has a lot of small details that makes it look worth the price.

Next, it has a whole line of bomber jackets, which (if you’ve seen me on the Bitcoin Magazine livestreams) you’ll know is basically my favorite fashion product. I wear them in place of blazers and basically have since 2017.

Here’s the “Halving Bomber,” which runs a cool $320.

Again, the quality of this stuff really can’t be captured in images. The fabric is light and feels great. There’s a fairly wide selection of designs, and all of them are cool.

Even the t-shirts, which cost over $100, feel worth the price.

Look, I’m not here to convince you to buy from 21 Million Fashion. While I looked and looked, I ultimately didn’t buy. I’m on the verge of a key sat stacking goal at present, and am trying to hit my magic number – before Bitcoin runs away to $100,000. (Pray for me).

All I’m saying is that, when I strike it rich on Bitcoin, there will be signs. Wearing 21 Million Fashion’s stuff will be one of them.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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