It is now safe to say that this is officially Bitcoin week. Other than just breaking barriers and reaching all-time highs of over $11,000 the decentralized digital currency has also caused quite a stir in the financial world. People have been wondering what the hell is happening right now in regards to Bitcoin’s speculated price changes. Will it go higher? Will it crash again? By now, Bitcoin has already managed to dwarf some of the largest financial market bubbles in history – and if it is indeed a bubble, then what next for its enthusiastic adopters?
Some North American doomsday and survivalist preppers, however, have a different opinion regarding Bitcoin. In addition to the usual humongous supply of nonperishable food that they usually have stacked away in their doomsday bunkers, the preppers are now ditching the habit of stockpiling gold bars and coins for the invisible Bitcoin wallets in cyberspace – they are confident about the internet staying intact even if the world’s civilization collapses. Devoted survivalists are convinced that the decentralized cryptocurrency is definitely going to survive or endure global pandemics, economic collapse, catastrophes, climate change and even nuclear war. Very enticing, right?
While it seems rather counter-intuitional that some of Bitcoin’s most fervent proponents are a group of people whose motivation is in the belief that public and global infrastructures will crumple on the onset of social, economic and political distress, it is undeniable that these same group of people are partly key determinants of Bitcoin’s future. As it happens, these survivalists have very different perspectives when it comes to Bitcoin which they have labeled the currency of the future – this has been further propelled by Bitcoin’s 900% plus increase within the last ten months. To these people, Bitcoin is going to rival the euro, the dollar, the yen and even gold all of which are not doomsday-proof.
“People see Bitcoin prices going to the moon. No one thinks gold is going to the moon”
There have always been discussions about the pros and cons of cryptocurrencies especially on survivalist forums such as survivalistboards.com and mysurvivalforum.com and from what we could gather, the tides have shifted significantly. To put this into perspective, as Bitcoin’s value soars higher and higher more people are considering investing in decentralized digital currencies – now “buy Bitcoin” registers as a far more popular search phrase on Google as compared to “buy gold.” In fact, the US Mint’s gold coin sales are reported to have recorded decade-lows within the first quarter of 2017. Still, the faith in Bitcoin can perhaps be attributed to its similarity to gold – both have a finite supply which, according to Bitcoin supporters, makes it immune to inflation. Digital currencies have been portrayed as the ‘knight in shining armor’ when it comes to breaking the society’s dependence on state monopoly over the issuance of currencies in a bid to dominate the economy. Bitcoin is definitely on a roll but is the quest for economic liberation enough to keep it going? Who knows? Maybe what everyone really needs is a guide to surviving Bitcoin, or surviving with Bitcoin.
