{"id":30149,"date":"2017-03-30T12:54:32","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T19:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/?p=30149"},"modified":"2017-03-30T12:54:32","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T19:54:32","slug":"wendy-mcelroy-will-bitcoin-function-in-a-societal-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/30\/wendy-mcelroy-will-bitcoin-function-in-a-societal-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Wendy McElroy: Will Bitcoin function in a societal collapse?"},"content":{"rendered":"

She asks and partially answers<\/a> the question. Equally important, she bridges the gap between the BTC community and the prepper\/survivalist community, who sometimes look askance at each other (although I’m well aware that within the Living Freedom realm, there are plenty of people who are both<\/em> bitcoin users and preppers with gold, silver, and canned goods stashed).<\/p>\n

Anyhow, from Wendy:<\/p>\n

The question is a large obstacle to the mass adoption of digital currencies and it should be addressed head-on. The audiences being targeted as adopters are also a problem. The question and a problem overlap.<\/p>\n

Calls for mass adoption usually aim at the mainstream and often translate into some form of government approval. This approach alienates two significant categories of people who should be fellow travelers: \u201cpreppers\u201d and \u201csurvivalists.\u201d (For the differences between them, click here.<\/p>\n

Preppers and survivalists are rigidly individualistic and anti-government. The crypto-community needs them to counterbalance the trend toward licenses, regulation, and state control.<\/p>\n

There are two problems with outreach, however: some voices in the crypto-community are openly hostile or scornful to preppers and survivalists; many preppers and survivalists view bitcoin with skepticism. The later ask a reasonable question which is often shrugged off: will bitcoin survive a collapse of infrastructure which could include the electric grid?<\/p>\n

I have no doubt that digital currencies will not only survive but also grow as they have in the chaos that is Venezuela. But, again, the question is reasonable and deserves a respectful response.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But what is it with True Believers, anyhow? Wendy includes a mind-bendingly stupid quote from Jeff Berwick, a BTC fan, that could just as easily have come from the mouth or pen of a most bigoted religionist. Or could have come from a political fanatic on either side of the recent dismal election. Go. You have to read the quote to believe it.<\/p>\n

OTOH, nutty though Berwick sounds, I’ve heard equally incredible narrowness come not only from people with rigid views of religion or politics (which are at least subjects worth having strong opinions about), but from people who “believe” in some current trend in fashion or music or pop psychology, or who follow the latest here-today-gone-tomorrow moral panic. “Agree with me or you’re a HATER.” That is such incredibly creepy “thinking” and it seems to be becoming more common. <\/p>\n

If bitcoin’s going to survive, it’ll be because it proved its value over time in the market. Telling people “if you don’t like bitcoin there’s something wrong with you” isn’t going to get anybody very far. Anyhow, Wendy’s series on BTC is very good and this may be her best offering on the subject to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She asks and partially answers the question. Equally important, she bridges the gap between the BTC community and the prepper\/survivalist community, who sometimes look askance at each other (although I’m well aware that within the Living Freedom realm, there are plenty of people who are both bitcoin users and preppers with gold, silver, and canned goods stashed). Anyhow, from Wendy: The question is a large obstacle to the mass adoption of digital currencies and it should be addressed head-on. The audiences being targeted as adopters are also a problem. The question and a problem overlap. Calls for mass adoption usually…<\/p>\n

Continue readingWendy McElroy: Will Bitcoin function in a societal collapse?<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-and-spirit","category-money","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30149"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30155,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30149\/revisions\/30155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}