Did A 1988 Economist Magazine Predict A Bitcoin Explosion In 2018?

Arjun Walia

A 1988 cover story for The Economist shows a picture of a Phoenix, with a coin that resembles the look of today’s most popular crypto currency, Bitcoin.

What’s even more intriguing about the picture is the fact that the year on the coin reads 2018. It’s also interesting to note that the article is discussing a completely new type of currency, a global currency, one that emerges from the ashes of cash. How ironic is it that?

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are now at the forefront of many peoples minds, a response to the current financial “ways” of the world. It promises to solve many of the damning challenges of fiat currency and the public enslavement  that comes from the way our money currently works.

Currency has always been, not just in my opinion but based on what we see in society, a means to control the human race. It has also been used as a tool to further widen the wealth gap, putting most of the resources in the hands of the “1 percent.”Will a new form of currency truly begin to solve those issues? Perhaps. This could be the stepping stone in eventually living in a world without currency at all.

The 1988 Economist article was likely echoing the financial elite’s desire for a one world government, or a new world order. This wouldn’t be beneficial for humanity as a whole. But Bitcoin represents something different it seems.

“This is a fantastic fundamental hedge and store value against autocratic regimes and banking infrastructure that we know is corrosive to how the world needs to work properly. You cannot have Central Banks infinitely printing currency, you cannot have folks with misguided and misdirected monetary and fiscal policy…It’s a con game.” – Chamath Palihapitiya (source)

And another great quote:

“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, before if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning. – Henry Ford

Technology Behind Crypto

Blockchain technology is the genius behind Bitcoin, and its very design is what excites many people. It is likely what has skyrocketed Bitcoin’s popularity. With this technology, all records and transactions are stored publicly so there is a public and transparent ledger for every coin and transaction. And it’s not limited to just currency, it also stores data, information and ownership records. There are also blockchains that focus more on privacy as well, for those concerned with that.

Ultimately, the potential for cryptocurrency to disrupt modern day banking is huge. Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, has cautioned that cryptocurrencies can displace central banks, and conventional banking in the long term. While this sounds like an issue, its not. This would be the best thing for our economy and humanity as it will stop a private company, central banks, from controlling the entire money supply.

There has also been no shortage of responses from multiple countries and heads of financial institutions like JP Morgan about cryptocurrencies. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has referred to bitcoin as a “fraud,” even though he believes in the blockchain.

The debates are endless, with, for the most part, the mainstream encouraging the public to stay away from Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general. It’s claimed that they are not real, have no implications, and are not backed by anything.While this is true to some extent, most people don’t realize that fiat currency, all currencies we use today, are in the same position. They are made up, backed by nothing and are controlled by private companies who control it.Any currency has to have the support of the people for them to work. If people do not put power into them, they have no value. So whether you look at cryptocurrencies or any other, it comes down to faith from mass adoption.

Most People Don’t Realize How Money Works Today

The fact of the matter remains, a small group of people who sit behind our entire global financial system are threatened by bitcoin. Their control, their power, their corruption, and more, is all threatened by cryptocurrency, and as a result, we’re probably going to continue to hear the slandering of Bitcoin and alt coins, in an attempt to steer the global collective mind away from it. But what’s coming can’t be stopped. We’re experiencing revolutions in all aspects of the human experience, from health, and now, in finance.

It’s long overdue that we change the way we do things here, and cryptocurrency could be part of that solution. It represents something far greater than money, value and wealth, which is why it’s so great.

“Bitcoin is money outside of government, controlled by the people who become their own sovereignty. Bitcoin will do the nation-state what the printing press did to the church…The use-case as stateless money drives adoption because it’s universally appealing and fills a void every human being feels in their soul: to be free.”  – Max Kieser (source)

Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies severely disrupt the modern day banking foundation by decentralizing the operation of the financial system outside of the control of sovereign states and the global elite’s power.

It’s a big topic, and I’m not going to get into whether or not the price will rise or fall as this isn’t really about making money and being rich. As the founder of Ethereum, the second most popular cryptocurrency, was quick to remind people not long ago:

“All crypto communities, ethereum included, should heed these of warning. Need to differentiate between getting hundreds of billions of dollars of digital paper wealth sloshing around and actually achieving something meaningful for society…If all that we accomplish is lambo memes and immature puns about “sharting” then I WILL leave.”  (source)

Cryptocurrencies also have huge political implications. For example, Russia recently announced its intentions to create a cryptocurrency so they can avoid Western sanctions and economic influence.

Putin has long been outspoken about the global financial elite and their ability to force others into their own will, politically and economically. This was his sentiment when speaking about the “imaginary” and “mythical” threats they use to justify their actions.

He began his speech by arguing that the oligarchic ‘1 percent’ that dominate our world “abandoned substantive and equal dialogue with other actors in international life, chose not to improve or create universal institutions, and attempted instead to bring the entire world under the spread of their own organisations, norms and rules. They chose the road of globalisation and security for their own beloved selves, for the select few, and not for all.”

You can read more about that here.

Cryptocurrency also represents the potential for a massive redistribution of wealth, as central banks in developing countries have plans to ‘get in’ in on it.

We wanted to dive deeper into blockchain and cryptocurrency in a podcast episode so we could explore the tough questions behind crypto and where it’s headed. Host Joe Martino sat down with Angelo Dodaro of Adbank to chat about cryptocurrency and blockchain

Is This A Solution? A Step In The Right Direction? Is A Currency Even Needed?

At Collective Evolution, from the very beginning, we’ve always encouraged and created discussions around a society we all know is possible. One where we transcend the limits of the human ego, separation, suffering and a ruling elite -this would include the need for currency.

Is this possible? Well, we’ve been engrained and have experienced the system of trading monies for goods and services for a long time. We created supply, demand, scarcity and currency, and thus we can uncreate it at any time. Sure it will require a shift in consciousness, but it is possible.

The idea that one has to spend most of their lives, working for the entire day, 5 days a week, to simply put food on the table and provide a roof over ones head is not necessary. How does it feel for you to live in a world like that? Regardless of what you feel is possible, is this what you want for the world? This will not mean people will never work, but should it be what we’re enslaved by to survive?

Personally, I envision societies, more consciously advanced than humans, who have transcended the need for money, and have figured out a way to provide for everybody’s needs in a way that free’s them from economic slavery. I believe this is where humanity is heading.

Going into the details is a topic for another article, but the point is, humanity is full of infinite potential, we already have the means and the technology to completely liberate the human experience and change it for the better.

“We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living. We keep inventing jobs because of this false idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery because, according to Malthusian Darwinian theory he must justify his right to exist. So we have inspectors of inspectors and people making instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors. The true business of people should be to go back to school and think about whatever it was they were thinking about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.” 

― R. Buckminster Fuller

Today, everything seems to be about the money, and making money. That appears to be the primary goal of major corporations and the majority of individuals. That being said, it is something we are forced into, and currently, money is a tool for exchange. But it’s not needed, and places tremendous amounts of limitations on our ability to change the world.

We’re constantly bombarded with what to do, how to live, what to think and what to strive for. Imagine a moneyless society, one that was free from the constraints of having to earn paper and metal to live. Imagine if we were free from our current constraints? What would we do? I believe it would provide humanity with the opportunity to grow, discover, and learn. We’d probably become a space baring race much faster.

It seems with our current human experience, we’ve become stuck in a cycle of repetition while we let our world burn. This is the reality that more and more people on the planet are realizing and as a result, on a collective level we are manifesting change, in several different ways.

Cryptocurrency and blockchain technology may be a start, from a financial perspective, but ultimately, I see humanity moving passed the need for any type of currency at all.

With our potential and level of technological development, anything is possible, all that’s really required is a shift in consciousness. Perhaps a governments or leadership who actually cares about, and has the best interests of the people as priority number 1.

Poverty, war, greed, economic slavery, and corruption are not uncontrollable challenges. It many cases, they are challenges which are created and perpetuated for reasons of greed, power and human ego.