Bitcoin: Freedom Money
“You can resist an invading army, you cannot resist an idea whose time has come”
~ Victor Hugo
Introduction
The United States is known as the land of opportunity where anyone with a strong work ethic can accomplish their largest dreams and achieve the American Dream. Western media, schools, and U.S. institutions constantly reinforce the notion that the American Dream is accessible to all, regardless of social standing. Once a starry-eyed fourteen year-old, a defining moment in my life occurred in the midst of the Great Recession of 2008. A shattering realization unearthed when I understood the U.S. financial system contained systemic policies that overwhelmingly favored rich incumbents while suppressing everyone else. Witnessing the U.S. government in 2008 bailout Wall Street with taxpayer funds while individuals received home evictions forced me to begin questioning the validity of the American Dream.
A society where powerful elites enact policies to protect themselves from bankruptcies using public money is not a land of equal opportunity. These actions diametrically oppose the American values of equality, open economic mobility, and free market capitalism. Although I was a fervent believer in the American Dream, I lost hope it existed — until I discovered Bitcoin.
The Bitcoin network is a decentralized global digital payment system not controlled by any person, company, or nation state. It is an open, monetary network where the same rules apply to all participants. The Bitcoin protocol avoids discrimination against an individual since it allows anyone with internet to transfer value, participate in governance, and validate transactions. Bitcoin embodies American values and breathes life to the American Dream by establishing a society that voids powerful individuals from manipulating the financial system, offers everyone an equal opportunity to achieve economic freedom, and provides a chance to build generational wealth for those who dive down the Bitcoin rabbit hole.
Exploring the Frontier
America’s history contains several occasions of individuals uprooting their lives in pursuit of freedom or financial gain. The risk of failure was possible death, but the reward was a chance to build a fresh life in a new land. English colonists left the United Kingdom in the 16th century since they “believed the New World [America] would offer them an opportunity to live and worship in accordance with their beliefs” (National Geographic Society, 2022). The 19th century also included the famous California gold rush, where numerous settlers braved the Wild West in pursuit of riches.
Successful entrepreneurship in new territories increased economic activity in the United States, and America soon established itself as the land of hope for immigrants. Ireland suffered a terrible Potato Blight in 1845 and to escape famine, “half a million [Irish] had arrived in America” (Library of Congress). Soon after in the 20th century, “more than 4 million” Italians immigrated to the U.S. with the goal of evading poverty and achieving prosperity (Library of Congress). These bold humans faced major risks during their endeavors. Although many failed, some were successful, thus elevating the U.S. through the creation of prosperous business ventures. This is capitalism in its purest form: reward hard workers who solve problems while unprofitable endeavors cease to exist.
We now find ourselves in the 21st century at the dawn of the Information Age, and a new frontier awaits. This unique opportunity separates itself from previous eras since it allows anyone in the world with internet to participate. Settlers will not have to uproot their physical lives, but they will have to think differently to understand the abundant opportunities that exist in the digital frontier.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin’s launch spawned a digital monetary network whose market capitalization in thirteen years grew from zero to over $1 trillion at its peak. Bitcoin (BTC) is a finite digital asset since there will only ever be 21,000,000 BTC in existence. As Benjamin Franklin famously stated, “in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes” (NCC Staff, 2021). We can now add a third item — and that is 21 million BTC. Bitcoin is an immutable digital asset with provable scarcity, a decentralized store of value, and it serves as the monetary unit for the Bitcoin protocol. Digital gold, a common analogy for bitcoin (lowercase ‘b’ is the asset), fails to fully give justice to Bitcoin (uppercase ‘B’ is the network).
BTC attains its scarcity through math, code, energy, and the growing millions of Bitcoiners all around the world who believe in enforcing the hard-capped supply. No other asset class including oil, commodities, bonds, or equities can claim to have a fixed supply, and in most cases their supply increases. The transparent nature of Bitcoin’s open-source code allows anyone to verifiably check both the existing and maximum supply of BTC. Bitcoin’s monetary policy operates in stark contrast to shadowy centralized banking cartels that change the supply of fiat currencies ($USD, €EUR, £GBP, etc.) on a whim.
Since 2020, the big 4 central banks (Federal Reserve [USA], European Central Bank, Bank of Japan & England) have collectively printed around $11 trillion dollars which propped up asset prices at the expense of weakening the purchasing power of fiat currency (Atlantic Council Research Team). Fiat currencies are promissory notes, such as the United States Dollar (USD), that have value solely due to an issuing central authority deeming them to have monetary worth.
Central banks occupy a monopoly on monetary policy for fiat, and individuals have zero recourse to voice their opinion on the currency they own. Seven individuals comprise the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve (Fed), and this small group controls the money supply for billions due to the dollar’s global reserve currency status. Human actions are always susceptible to two outcomes: greed and human error. An example of greed at the Fed most recently showed itself with “the resignation of two Federal Reserve chiefs amid a stock-trading scandal” (Christopher Condon, 2021). Kristalina Georgieva, director at the International Monetary Fund, expressed concern with human miscalculations since central bankers “are not paying sufficient attention to the law of unintended consequences” when they print money (McMaken, 2022). Bitcoin offers an alternative to the corrupt financial system, and its principles exemplify values of which America was founded upon.
Bitcoin & American Values
Bitcoin epitomizes American values since many of its key properties mirror the most important amendments in the U.S. Constitution concerning freedom. Bitcoin symbolizes the spirit of the U.S. Constitution through its protection of unreasonable seizures, free speech, and property rights. Americans are fortunate to live in a country with strong personal liberties, however, U.S. citizens and companies may still face violations of their rights.
In 2013, the Department of Justice engaged in Operation Chokepoint, which included “several independent federal agencies taking it upon themselves to shut legal businesses… out of the banking system” (Michel, 2018). The FDIC acknowledged this wicked behavior in their own press release stating that “certain employees acted in a manner inconsistent with FDIC policies” and this may have included “regulatory threats, undue pressure, coercion, and intimidation designed to restrict access to financial services for lawful businesses” (Robinson, 2019). These actions oppose America’s founding ideology of preventing government overreach. The fourth amendment in the Constitution states “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…” (Constitution of the United States). BTC is a seizure-resistant, digital-bearer monetary instrument. BTC held in self-hosted wallets (analogous to a physical wallet) prevents malicious governments from unreasonably seizing one’s money. This is thanks to Bitcoin’s protocol that provides storage and security without the need for centralized entities.
The Human Rights Foundation details how many “activists and NGOs find it very difficult to access traditional banking services” since “governments and banks can freeze their accounts” (Neuman, 2020). Once an activist group has access to their funds blocked, they can no longer pay their employees, vendors, and sustain operations, effectively grinding their organization to a halt. Bitcoin’s true power is the combination of an unseizable digital asset and a decentralized digital payment system, which allows aid groups to circumvent the problem mentioned above. In fact, the Human Rights Foundation even launched a donation fund to support Bitcoin software development “so that it can better serve as a financial tool for human rights activists, civil society organizations, and journalists around the world” (Human Rights Foundation, 2020).
All nations have centralized banking systems that give them the ability to seize most traditional assets including bank deposits, equities, and land at the snap of a finger. 2022 proved that unjust asset seizures can even occur in western democracies that were previously considered safe from authoritarian practices. Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, controversially invoked emergency powers to quell protestors and “as many as 210 [bank] accounts holding nearly $8 million were frozen” (Dress, 2022). The Canadian government weaponized the banking system on their own citizens and unilaterally blocked protestors and their supporters from accessing their own money. Individuals that peacefully protest their government should never be subject to financial oppression.
A key component to understanding Bitcoin’s strong resiliency is that Bitcoin Core (Bitcoin’s client software) is open-source software. Microsoft, Apple, and Google applications all use closed-source software, which makes their code unavailable to the public. “Open-source software operates with the underlying principles of peer production and mass collaboration”, it is free to use and available to everyone (IBM). Open-source projects rely on a community to share ideas, review, and change the source code. In the 1996 Bernstein v. Department of Justice case, judge Patel stated that the “court can find no meaningful difference between computer language… and German or French… like music and mathematical equations, computer language is just, language” (Dame-Boyle, 2015). This important case laid the foundation to establishing code as free speech, which falls under the protection of the Constitution. The first amendment in the Constitution states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…” (Constitution of the United States). Bitcoin Core is the expression of language, and American values uphold free speech as a pillar to a functioning democratic society.
Another key pillar to a free society is property rights. Property rights “is the exclusive authority to determine how a resource is used” (Alchian). The fifth amendment in the U.S. Constitution outlines how no one should “be deprived of life, liberty, or property… nor shall private property be taken for public use…” (Constitution of the United States). Unfortunately, there are still billions of people living with a severe lack of property rights. This disproportionately negatively affects women since “half of the countries in the world are unable to assert equal land and property rights despite legal protections” (World Bank, 2019). Poor legal services, corrupt officials, and a weak rule of law prevents a large portion of humanity from obtaining basic liberties that many people in affluent countries take for granted.
Bitcoin’s structure inherently provides property rights to all BTC owners since they have complete sovereignty over their own money. Bitcoin’s distributed public ledger allows everyone to agree on the network state without using a centralized party; thus, we can determine who owns what, when. Bitcoin achieves this through its native triple-entry accounting system, an extraordinary feature that many overlook. The protocol maintains a record of true bitcoin ownership, and individuals can feel safe knowing that the network (Bitcoin miners) will always defend their digital property rights. Bitcoin incorporates the moralities of freedom, and it is a monetary tool that can be used to escape the decaying financial system.
Corrupt Traditional Monetary System
Surging wealth inequality created a populist movement that continues to grow in America, and many in the working class express anger at the rich for being left behind. Most feel betrayed since they advance in their career and work for decades, yet still struggle to attain financial freedom. I understand the frustration they face when the upper class gains more wealth while they are stuck and unable to progress the economic ladder. The problem is that the existing financial system is engineered to protect incumbents, and it allows them to change economic rules to benefit themselves. One example is “President Richard Nixon’s actions in 1971 to end dollar convertibility to gold”, which essentially gave the Federal Reserve keys to an unlimited money printer since USD was no longer backed by gold (Ghizoni, 1971). That decision still weighs on Americans today due to wage growth slowing down since then, even though economic productivity has increased.
The populist movement blames capitalism for our economic issues. I disagree — America’s economy does not engage in capitalism; rather, it uses social-capitalism where risk is privatized and losses are socialized. Profits from successful ventures are funneled into the pockets of a small group of people, while the public receives nothing. On the contrary, when elites engage in horrendous business decisions, the public is coerced into covering their losses. In 2008, overleveraged U.S. banks that engaged in highly risky investments refused to own up to their losses; instead, they asked the government to use taxpayer funds to bail them out. The rich received a bailout while regular folks lost their homes in “more than 3.1 million foreclosure filings issued during 2008” (Christie, 2009). Government stimulus packages that print money further exacerbates wealth inequality through its inequitable distribution.
The Cantillon Effect asserts that “the flow of new money through the economy is beneficial to parties that receive the funds first and less beneficial to those that receive it later” (River Financial, 2021). Quantitative easing allows banks and asset owners to receive printed money first. This provides them with an unfair advantage to spend the money before prices increase. The new flood of money will eventually distort price signals in the economy and force prices to adjust upwards. Americans are abandoned to combat inflation, while elites further entrench their financial position. Preston Pysh, a renowned Bitcoiner, states that quantitative easing is Universal Basic Income for rich people.
The money printer in 2020 operated the same as it did in 2008, with one caveat: breadcrumbs (stimulus checks & unemployment benefits) were given to the working class while business owners of poorly managed companies that were unprepared, undercapitalized, and mismanaged received the majority of government stimulus. Billions of excess dollars were printed and found their way into the pockets of rich people who used it to buy assets. It is not surprising that asset prices dramatically increased after $3 trillion was printed, vastly benefiting the upper class who possess most existing assets. Many immediately assume that the ‘value of equities and homes are increasing’, however, they fail to study the other half of the equation: these assets are priced in USD, which is suffering from debasement. The value of assets are not necessarily increasing; rather, USD is losing purchasing power through government actions to print money that devalues the currency. Inflation delivers the most pain to the lower class since they hold most of their wealth in fiat. A perfect storm ensued in 2020, where housing and equity prices skyrocketed at a time when millions were losing their jobs and USD savings were depreciating heavily.
Crooked Currency vs. Honest Money
The continued practice of social-capitalism that perpetuates the Cantillon effect is a slap in the face to all hardworking Americans. The Fed printing trillions of USD not only destroys its purchasing power, but it also erodes all the time and labor people spent to acquire money.
Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s creator, believed that “the root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust” (Nakamoto, 2009). When people work, they effectively trade their time and labor for money. One of the primary functions of money is to store value. The economic energy people output is stored in the money they receive, which can then be used to purchase items they desire in the future. USD is a weak form of money, since the Fed has proven that it will continuously print more. Time and time again, the Fed fails to act in the best interest of the American people.
The picture above shows the Fed balance sheet expanding by roughly $4.8 trillion since September 2019. In the span of three years, the Fed printed more USD than the total amount of existing dollars prior to 2019. When the Fed debases USD, they confiscate economic energy from all USD holders and transfer it to themselves. Stolen economic energy refers to all the time and labor Americans expended that is robbed. Stolen economic energy means people lose the chance to spend time with their loved ones, hobbies, passions, and enjoy all the wonders of life. My heart aches knowing that so many Americans believe they are making a wise decision by saving USD, even though it is guaranteed to lose value. This creates a terrible feedback loop where Americans unknowingly trade more of their labor for USD, lose precious time, and then wonder why they are unable to reach financial independence. Corrupt U.S. monetary policies that confiscate economic energy from working class Americans in order to entrench incumbents is not indicative of a free society.
Money is an evolving monetary technology that society uses to store value across time, and it is a tool we use to exchange for goods and services. Money contains some properties which determine its strength: durability, divisibility, fungibility, portability, and scarcity. Bitcoin excels in all of these categories, and it contains advantages over other monies since Bitcoin has (1) a fixed supply, (2) divisible into smaller units, and (3) can be transferred at lightning speed. Bitcoin possesses the most superior properties of money, making it the strongest monetary technology to store value in human history.
Bitcoin significantly improves upon the unethical fiat regime by replacing USD with decentralized sound money. Bitcoin negates issues the Cantillon effect presents, since it has a fixed supply, hardcoded monetary policy, and it runs on a neutral apolitical protocol. This contrasts starkly to the Fed structure, where they wield immense power over the inflationary supply schedule of USD. Bitcoin, on the other hand, does not care how much money and power you have, or the influential people you may know; the community of over 15,000 Bitcoin nodes from roughly 90 countries ensures that everyone follows the same network rules (Bitnodes, 2022). BTC is honest money where no one can steal economic energy, and everyone is protected from monetary debasement. Bitcoin reinvigorates the American Dream, since it creates a more equitable society and offers everyone a chance to build generational wealth.
Bitcoin: the American Dream
Throughout my entire life, I have always been an optimist for America, but I will admit there was a short period of time when my faith in the American Dream faded. The driving force for my doubt stemmed from the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. It is highly unnerving that Americans were abandoned while Wall Street was saved since they were ‘too big to fail’. Corrupt elites confiscated wealth from everyday Americans when they stimulated the economy through quantitative easing. At 23 years old, it felt demoralizing struggling in New York City while earning a minimum wage in the film industry and fully knowing the financial system was rigged against me. I lost all hope; that is, until I discovered Bitcoin in 2017.
One of my favorite lessons my grandfather taught me is that the only constant in life is change. Society has progressed from the Industrial Age, and we are currently undergoing a transition into the Information Age. This introduces new unique wealth creation opportunities for millennials and Generation Z. The Bitcoin community believes that BTC offers one of the best opportunities to build generational wealth, and it also provides a path for individuals to achieve the American Dream.
A massive mischaracterization of journalists from mainstream media outlets on Bitcoiners is their claim that we buy BTC to purely become rich. While some buy BTC for speculative purposes, most Bitcoiners buy BTC to escape monetary oppression from central banks that devalue fiat currency. Bitcoin is not a get-rich-quick scheme; rather, it is a social movement to enable economic freedom to the entire world through sound money and open access to decentralized financial services. By human actions, USD is guaranteed to depreciate through inflation and money printing. I refuse to allow central bankers to steal the precious time and labor I spent to acquire money; instead, I protect my wealth in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin cannot be debased, offers a hedge on inflation, and serves as a check on governments that recklessly print fiat by separating money and state. “Thomas Jefferson referred to the First Amendment as creating a ‘wall of separation’ between church and state” and this idea is quintessential for civil liberties (Cornell Wex Definitions Team, 2021). I am confident that one day we will also view money in the same light and embrace the separation of money and state as another important pillar to a free society. This may seem radical, however, recall that the separation of church and state was also once viewed as an outlandish idea.
Bitcoin is hope and freedom. Bitcoin does not discriminate based on social status, gender, ethnicity, sex, etc. Bitcoiners are building a world where people no longer must take on crushing debt to purchase a home, be a wage slave, or have their money depreciate. Bitcoin offers anyone the chance to build generational wealth for their family and, for the first time in history, this opportunity is available to everyone on Earth. Financial freedom allows individuals to enjoy what I believe is the scarcest asset on Earth: time. Economic freedom will provide people with free time to spend it with their family, friends, passions, hobbies, accomplish their goals, and live a fulfilling happy life.
Conclusion
Similar to how the Pilgrims ventured into new land seeking freedom, or the bold Americans that migrated to the Wild West, a new frontier emerges in the digital world. Bitcoin is not here to fix Wall Street; it will replace legacy financial institutions which have consistently oppressed society with a digitally native financial system that is available to all. At the crux of U.S. inflation at “a three-decade high,” surging wealth inequality, unaffordable healthcare, increasing higher education costs, and skyrocketing home prices is the manipulation of the money supply at the hands of unelected bureaucrats (Guilford, 2021). The unethical fiat regime perpetuates wealth inequality through predatory payday loans, privileged access to superior financial products/investments, higher interest rates to select individuals, and overdraft fees that disproportionately affect poor marginalized communities. These intentional tactics are designed to extract money from people with low disposable income and move it into the hands of rich elites. Notice how Bitcoin’s loudest critics (Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Jamie Dimon, and Nouriel Roubini) tend to be old privileged incumbents that wield immense power in the U.S. financial system. Immoral entrenched elites will fight Bitcoin adoption since they have everything to lose. Bitcoin will not solve all world issues, but it will level the playing field and eliminate monopolistic financial practices that oppress the have-nots.
America’s founding predicated on the belief in freedom, property rights, and personal liberties. Bitcoin allows anyone to obtain digital property rights, properly store wealth, exchange value, and possess unseizable money; the significance of this cannot be overstated. Bitcoin’s decentralized digital financial network prevents dictators from confiscating money, denying banking services to their dissidents, and financially oppressing their citizens. BTC is a life raft to escape depreciating fiat currencies and allows people to achieve economic freedom. The unstoppable digital presence of Bitcoin creates an opportunity for the U.S. to export American values to regions of the globe that were previously inaccessible. Increased global acceptance of American values expands U.S. global influence at a time when our leadership role in the world stage is under attack.
Bitcoin is the apex predator of money. Those questioning why Bitcoiners refuse to sell for USD should understand that when humanity adopts superior technology, we do not look back. Horses were previously the common transportation method until cars arrived, movies were stored in VHS -> DVD -> Streaming, music was in Vinyl -> Cassette -> CD -> Streaming. We can view bitcoin through the same lens: selling BTC for dollars means one chooses to trade scarce money for a weak paper currency that has an unlimited supply. Bitcoin is a savings technology, and BTC is the optimal asset to preserve wealth, since it holds the strongest properties of money and its monetary policy cannot be co-opted.
The Bitcoin network will become more important as it embeds itself into the world economy, and the U.S. should embrace Bitcoin since it closely aligns with American values. The U.S. must enact pro Bitcoin policy to create a hospitable regulatory environment that supports this emerging critical industry. This situation mirrors closely to the 1990’s when Congress passed legislation for a developing technology that was new and unfamiliar to everyone, the internet. The United States “helped ensure U.S. tech dominance by adhering to one simple maxim, first, do no harm” (Gonzalez, 2022). Sensible technology neutral regulations for the internet enabled developers to innovate inside the U.S. and led to the largest tech companies in the world to domicile inside America’s border. The genie is out of the bottle regarding the next critical monetary evolution: the rise of non-sovereign decentralized digital money. Bitcoin can potentially achieve a $100 trillion market cap. At that level, 1 BTC will equal around $4.7 million and enormous opportunities still exist for people, businesses, and even nation states to capitalize. Early adopters will achieve financial freedom and pro Bitcoin economic zones will experience tremendous growth. The trillion dollar question is: Will this innovation occur inside the United States?
Undergoing sweeping change or traversing unexplored land can be daunting, but it is in America’s DNA to explore new territory. Fear has never stopped America from enhancing democratic values, and it should not be the reason we avoid innovation in the digital realm. Bitcoin critics should consider the value BTC brings to society: easy access to sound money, democratizing financial services, instilling property rights, equal opportunity for upward economic mobility, and introducing a monetary system where everyone must abide by the same rules. Bitcoin is hope for a better world, where money is not ruled by rulers; instead, money is built for the people, and the network is governed by the people. The Bitcoin community believes in building a decentralized financial system with freedom at its core. Bitcoin will usher in a world with higher degrees of economic equality, and it resurrects the American Dream. Now, people from across the world can participate and benefit from American values. No one knows when, but at some point in the future, you will no longer be able to buy BTC with fiat currency. Before that moment occurs, my hope is that America will already operate on a Bitcoin standard. Fix the money, fix the world.
Stay Humble & Stack Sats
Author’s Note
I must give a massive thanks to you, the reader for reading this article. I must also give a huge thank you to Jesus Najera, Karina McCarthy, Tom Mapes, Jack Goewey, Nicole Rankin, and Ariella Senzamici for their help. Their assistance on this piece was instrumental. I’m always eager to hear people’s opinions on my writing and I’m available if anyone has any further questions. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter and I hope to continue the conversation as we march towards hyperbitcoinization.
Please consider donating if this article helped you in any way. Thank you and hodl strong.
Bitcoin: bc1qjnr7zcg66vw72mvgv6k2az5e5zwx8w0sg8u4l9
Twitter: @tmccarthyv94
Disclaimer: The contents of this article should be considered solely for educational purposes. Do not treat anything here as financial advice. Please do your own research before buying Bitcoin. The author holds a long only position in Bitcoin.
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