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How to Create a Free Society

How to Create a Free Society

Posted by Daniel Larimer on .
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How to Create a Free Society

Posted by Daniel Larimer on .

Creating a free society is the combined result of individuals giving each other freedom. You have heard it said, “give, and ye shall receive”, this is the foundation of a free society. You have to give others freedom so that they can give you freedom. Our freedom or lack thereof is the result of millions of actions (or inactions) of millions of people. Why should we place the blame on government, when government exists only because of the passive consent of the masses? The government is only an idea, an illusion, and it acts solely through individuals.

Whether you realize it or not we all contribute to the enslavement of our fellow man in very subtle ways every single day. The world banking systems are designed from the ground up to provide almost unlimited funding for war and bureaucratic tyranny. The fiat money created by the world banking systems only has value because we, as individuals, choose to hold and value it. In other words, by holding and saving fiat money we are actively working against our own goals of creating a free society.

Unfortunately we all know how hard it is to live without fiat money. For decades liberty activists have been promoting gold and silver but it was never able to gain traction. We live in a digital world with great wealth which makes the relative value of an oz of gold or silver too large for many purchases. Imagine having to round every purchase to 1/10th an oz of silver ($1.28 or more). Imagine having to purchase everything with physical silver? It just doesn’t work in the Internet age without trusting a third party bank. Unfortunately the market has discovered that gold and silver banks may start out as 100% reserve, but reserves gradually fall as governments permit fractional reserve banking. Today efforts to reset the system such as e-gold and now BitReserve find their 100% reserves are subject to confiscation.

Life has taught me that you cannot simply get rid of something in your life, you need to replace it with something else. Fortunately since the invention of Bitcoin and now BitShares and its BitAssets we have an alternative. Now all we need is for people to use it.

Give people the Option to be Free

When you enter the market as a business man or customer you have a choice on whether or not you will support the freedom of those you interact with. If you are selling goods or services but require payment through VISA or MasterCard then you are contributing to the overall invisible fence that is keeping people enslaved to the fiat money masters. You are denying your services to the free economy.

If you are a customer and are only willing to pay with VISA or MasterCard then you are contributing to the market pressure that forces businesses into the hands of the banking system.

The only way for a society to free itself from the grip of the banking system is if we can create a self sustaining, closed loop, economy without them. Early on this process depends upon freedom lovers everywhere giving people the option to be free by accepting both fiat and BitShares. Over time freedom lovers will be able to shun the corrupt banking system entirely without significantly impacting their lifestyle.

Being an early adopter isn’t easy. Accepting BitUSD will probably add some costs and uncertainty to your business at first. You may even lose money on spreads and overhead for a long time. Few investments produce returns immediately so why should investing your time and energy into learning how to use BItShares be any different?

Ultimately your investment in becoming a BitShares early adopter will yield fantastic returns for your own individual freedom. You will reap far more than you sow.


“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion”

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you”

When ever you grant others freedom to opt out of the system, you make it easier for others to opt into the BitShares alternative. The more people that join the BitShares ecosystem the easier it will be for you to opt out the corrupt banker system. This process has been well studied and is known as Metcalfe’s Law. The value of a network (community) grows with order N^2 the number of people that are part of it. When you join the community you add 1 to N and thus produce value far in excess of your individual contribution. Rarely is it so easy to see in mathematical terms how directly you can reap more than you sow.

Going Beyond Money

Money is not the only way in which the world systems are conspiring against us to deny us the fruits of our labor and thus our freedom. Every time you do business on the basis of contracts subject to enforcement by government courts you are forcing people into the corrupt, expensive, and arbitrary legal system. Do you give your customers the option of arbitration? Do you advertise your desire to use alternative dispute resolution? Do you rely on governments to enforce the arbitration outcome or do you participate in free market, non-violent, alternatives?

When you hire someone or screen a potential tenant or landlord do you use the government background checks? What about free market background checks on reputation? Do you participate in the shunning of individuals who have been found guilty in arbitration but failed to voluntarily comply? Are you bonded to show your commitment to an alternative justice system?

With BitShares we are starting something much bigger than providing a new money alternative, but its success depends upon individuals deciding to opt in, one at a time. It depends upon each individual choosing to contribute to the freedom of others first so that in time they can achieve their own freedom.

The “Easy” Way

You could always wait for others to move first. Wait to be given your freedom by others before you consider returning the favor. The trouble with this path is that from a subjective view of reality, the outside world is merely a reflection of your inner self. If you would like to see a change in the outside world then you have to start acting in ways that support your desire or it may never happen. It is a catch-22. If you attempt to wait for others to move first, then chances are it will never happen. So if you want freedom you must take action to give others freedom today.

Buying BitShares (BTS) supports Freedom

When you buy BitShares you are providing financial support to 101 elected delegates which are actively working to produce the tools that will secure your freedom. Without the continued support of people willing to buy and hold BitShares delegates would be unable to work full time and the rate at which the tools of freedom can be built will be dramatically slowed.

Fortunately buying BitShares is not self sacrificing, but should yield tremendous returns as our community grows and more people decide to join our cause. It is one thing to donate to LewRockwell.com, mises.org, or any other charity hoping to feed the poor. It is something else entirely to fund solutions that can magnify the impact of your contribution. In those cases you get nothing but a warm fuzzy in return. It can be hard to give a lot. We all know that profit is critical to growth so buying BitShares provides a direct profit to our early supporters for helping bootstrap a free society. So when you buy BTS you get a warm fuzzy and an investment opportunity.

If you give $5 to a poor man you may feed him for a day, but if you spend $5 buying BitShares you are investing in the tools that can facilitate the economic growth necessary to bring millions out of poverty. If we are successful then you will be able to feed 1000 poor men for a day in a few years.

Buying BitUSD supports Freedom

Perhaps you are not one willing to take a huge risk on our movement, but you really want to help support the cause. Buying BitUSD will allow you to earn a steady return on your $5 without taking much risk at all. In this case you are voting with your economic power to support our cause. You can read more about how BitUSD (or BitGold) is a relatively low risk way to support our community and help secure your own freedom.

There are no short cuts in life. It is up to each one of us to stop blaming others for our lack of freedom and start taking personal responsibility for the tyranny we see in the world. For my part I hope the use this blog to show the way with real, practical, and profitable alternatives that can be implemented today. Will you join us? What have you got to lose?

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Welcome!

My name is Daniel Larimer and I am the founder of BitShares. My mission in life is to find free market solutions to secure life, liberty, and property for all.

The purpose of this blog is to help create a free society by encouraging people to join our community which is centered around Bitshares, a next generation fully decentralized crypto-currency exchange. I use Austrian Economics to engineer the economic incentives which make freedom and non-violence profitable.


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