The Spain blackout is a call to action with Bitcoin

An electronic person to person system. Today the blackout in Spain moves us to emphasize Bitcoin’s electronic nature.

We wrote this text to the old way, paper and pen in hand. If it was night, it would illuminate a candle, but it is day and, on the contrary, the brightness of the sun in the park in front bounces on the white page, dazzling the look. The muscles of the hands, unseekly, and the fresh spring breeze, passes through the body the memory of an era in which we wrote without a cable to the electricity.

This is the second national blackout that we live. The first was in Venezuela, in 2019. That lasted days; We still don’t know how long it will last. It was that blackout that finally pushed us to migrate to Spain. Today, as if a circle is closed, we can step back to think about the experience with a comparative perspective.

In Venezuela, hyperinflation soon led to cash scarcity and money digitalization. The value of the tickets and so high prices was so little, that the natural was to travel to electronic means of payment. At the time of the blackout, the chaos was obviously unleashed. No one had cash, the points of sale had no electricity and without internet connection, bank transfers were not possible. Thanks to the ineptitude of the government, the commercial flow was unable. Except for an option. This was the turning point for de facto dollarization that exists today in Venezuela. Only those who had cash could pay. The others had to settle for the few leftovers of the cupboard.

Bitcoin was not a solution in this context either. Despite Yes there are ways to send BTC without internetthese are used in a few places in the world. For others, we are so accustomed to connectivity that we do not even think about the need to have alternatives for the unexpected. Hence the cash, as they say, has been king.

In Spain, although still to a lesser extent than other countries in Europe, the war against cash has been deliberate. It is not that we say that hyperinflation in Venezuela is not also intentional, but in Europe open and express actions have been taken to mitigate the use of cash. From payment prohibitions beyond certain amounts, to the demonization campaigns of the tickets as a disease transmitter, taking advantage of collective psychosis unleashed during the COVID-19, and despite the fact that the European Central Bank did not allow the elimination of cash in the Eurozone.

This has penetrated the population well and, together with the convenience of card or mobile payments, the point where shops are proud of not accepting cash payments. These are the useful fools who have not stopped to think about the consequences for privacy or, worse, that they claim to have nothing to hide.

So, The path to the epitome of money has been raided as a control system: The Central Bank Digital Coins (CBDC) and, specifically, the digital euro.

Although Europe was once the cradle, not only of democracy, but of the empire of the law, the separation of powers, the alternation, all these ideas that triumphed in blood and fire, against regents that abused their power, even so, there are those who continue to give their confidence and believe that it is a good idea to centralize in the state the accounting and administration of all the transactions that are made in a country. It’s not as if someone could abuse that power …

Bitcoin was born as a counterweight to such abuses, but again, We have not normalized to have an analog alternative for when the state electrical system fails.

However, the digitalization of money in Europe, in Spain, although comparatively to a lesser extent, people still use effective. If the situation does not extend too much, a commercial chaos of the Venezuelan dimensions will not be unleashed.

However, we like to believe that a seed of distrust against the Total money digitalization in the form of the digital euro, So be more for practical and preventive reasons, than ideological. If, let’s go, the cash is still money, and its value is still anchored only to the confidence in the institutions that support it, so these are the same ones that have devalued it to extract value from the pockets of citizens over time, and that belong to the same group of institutions that have us without electricity at this time.

Given this circumstance, again, the opportunity. Today, that we stay everywhere dependent on connectivity, We cannot affirm as we usually “bitcoin fix this.” If we want Bitcoin to replace the Fíat in the future, it is necessary to integrate these scenarios into our adversarial thinking. This is a warning to advance in that direction and have alternatives so that, to the next one, we will not hold off.

Discharge of responsibility: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to its author and do not necessarily reflect those of cryptootics. The author’s opinion is informatively and under no circumstances constitutes an investment recommendation or financial advice.