What have you learnt from Crypto?
Good morning.
How has being involved with crypto changed the way you look at things?
For me it has opened a box that can never be closed, I don't even mean financially but the way I look at the legacy fiat system and see flaws.
Before crypto I saw no other options, the interest rate was what it was, the same with inflation, there was nothing 'little me' could do about it other than'suck it up' keep working more and more hours just to pay for things. I was firmly stuck in the rat race.
Anyway, fast forward a lot of years of being fortunate enough to have left that behind by renting out the house in the UK and living in rural Bulgaria where it costs a lot less to live, we eventually found crypto......Better late than never eh! Now that opened our eyes to how different things can and should be.
With the constant research we did into crypto projects you can't help but be drawn into how the economy and stock markets affect crypto, so you are learning about those things too. I have also now witnessed first hand how these current conditions are affecting people.
We live close to the Turkish border and have often driven over to have a shopping trip, even sometimes just groceries. This is because we are getting 23 Turkish Lira for £1. Although inflation has pushed the prices of products up, each time we go the number of Lira we get has gone up, just before Christmas it was 19 and for us it means we get produce for even less than here in Bulgaria. (The official statistic for inflation measured by a basket of shopping and goods recorded a 105% price increase last month compared to this time last year.)
For £1 I get 5 and a half loaves of bread in Turkey.
For £1 I get 1 and a half loaves of bread in Bulgaria.
Now as our income is in GBP it is ok for us but I also realise what a dire situation it is for people in a country whose currency is worth less and less each month.
The world bank says that Turkey has the 19th largest economy in the world, also that the country has been in crisis for over 5 years and also that the Turkish central bank spent $177 billion to try and prop up the Lira.
What I did notice were the queues at the cashpoint, they were all huge and it was the same at every cashpoint, then in the jewelry shop there were also queues, a constant stream of people going from cashpoint to jewellers to buy gold. On speaking to the manager, this has been a regular occurance for some time and they sell gold from the smallest slither for £10 up to a large coin for £20,000 and everywhere in between. These are just regular people getting paid and converting to gold as soon as they can because by the time they get paid next month their wages will be worth even less!
Now, in my opinion what would help the people in this situation would be Bitcoin, but this is the current situation in Turkey, and when we had an overnight stay in Turkey recently this was highlighted by the fact that all of the crypto sites I use and look at were blocked whilst I was there.
Many in Turkey turned to cryptocurrency as the Turkish lira plummeted in value. With some of the highest levels of use anywhere in the world, the arrival of regulations was swift this year as inflation peaked in April.
On 16 April 2021, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey issued a regulation banning the use of cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, directly or indirectly, to pay for goods and services. The following day, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan went further and issued a decree that crypto exchanges to a list of firms subject to anti-money laundering and terrorism financing rules.
So based on the Turkish economic situation I find myself fortunate enough to be able to invest in Bitcoin and any other crypto currency that I want to currently. It seems to me that these regulations on crypto are not to 'help' the people at all but the government's way of keeping control.
In conclusion, my lessons in crypto have taught me so much more than I could ever imagine and for that I am very grateful even if to some, I sound like a conspiracy theorist, I will still keep trying to enlighten people on the benefits of Bitcoin even though so far my attempts at 'orange pilling' have fallen short.
Thank you for reading and please feel free to comment.
image from https://pixabay.com/users/peggy_marco-1553824/
resource https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/turkey/overview
