Bitcoin is complicated and easy to misunderstand. 90% of people talk about the price, which has gone up an average of 200% per year for TWELVE YEARS. More important though, is the technology for citizens around the world to protect themselves from authoritarian governments and the predatory banking system.

Every government in the world is systematically stealing from their citizens through inflation. That’s why so many people feel like they are running to stand still. I’m not talking about taxes - you should pay those. I’m talking about the willful devaluation of your earnings over time. My dad bought a brand new 3/2 house in 1978 for $35,000. Why does that house cost 10 times as much 40 years later?

Inflation is not natural. It’s a trick played on us by all governments. They print money (spend most of it on war) which costs them nothing and costs us our savings. Anything that can be printed infinitely loses value, and that’s why you have to pay more dollars to get the things you need.

Bitcoin is a way to opt out peacefully from that system. It is the invention of digital scarcity. You store your value in something that cannot be debased, where every participant in the network is incentivized to protect it. It is the most powerful (safest) computer network in the world. It is open source so anyone can participate, anyone can verify at anytime.

It does not rely on a military, it serves no flag, it is a global monetary system that anyone can use.

It is the first new type of asset in 500 years, and it going through various phases of adoption. At first it was for geeks and criminals (just like the internet was,) then it graduated to a speculative asset for traders and early adopters, and now corporations and even nations are starting to adopt it as a means to protect their wealth from inflation.

Of course it is volatile. So was Amazon stock in the early days. Volatility does not make something bad to invest in. It simply means you only invest a small amount.

Some governments see Bitcoin as a threat as well as an opportunity. That means the rocky road of adoption will continue to be bumpy. The threats of banning bitcoin have largely been minimized now, and the U.S. and most nations have opted to regulate it as best they can.

Bitcoin is many things to many people. It’s a generational opportunity for sure.

There are 21 million - that’s it. Not even every millionaire can have a full bitcoin.

I believe everyone should have a little bit of it.

One of the main features of Bitcoin is the opportunity for self-custody or self-sovereignty. That means securing your bitcoin in such a way that no intermediary can take it from you. While that MAY seem far-fetched in the United States, citizens of many other countries have had their wealth confiscated by their banks at the behest of their governments.

Even in America, the government in 1933 decided to make holding gold illegal, and passed a law requiring all U.S. citizens to turn in their gold. And to this day, policemen can seize your cash and possessions when they pull you over, and the law makes it difficult and sometimes impossible for you to get it back.

One way to secure your bitcoin is to use a hardware wallet, which holds the cryptographic private key (in code) on a device that can approve (sign) your transactions without leaking your private key online. Most hardware wallets are $100-150 in price, so it wouldn't make sense to use one until your bitcoin value approached say $1000.

While Bitcoin is virtually unhackable, the exchanges where you buy and often keep a bitcoin balance CAN be hacked. That's why it's important to only keep significant balances on an exchange when you intend to trade or sell it. Otherwise, lock it away on a hardware wallet.

Hardware wallets also give you a backup phrase, (12-24 random words), that you store separately (away from your hardware wallet) as a back up. That way, if your hardware wallet gets stolen or destroyed, you can retrieve your bitcoins (and put on a new wallet) using the software made by the wallet maker.

Here is one of the best articles on the subject.

https://armantheparman.com/using-hwws/

Bitcoin outlook. Short term, nobody knows, but here are some possibilities.

• We stay in this range ($30k-40k) for a few weeks or a few months.

• We start grinding higher soon

• We get one more big drop (to $20-25k) which will likely be the best Bitcoin risk/reward/entry of all time.

What I'm doing:

• Keep nibbling with small weekly buys ($25-50)

• Adding cash to my interest account at BlockFi (as much as I can) to be prepared to buy a big chunk if the price drops below $28k.

Headwinds:

1. China miners shutting off makes the market a little spooked (big positive for longterm though.)

2. Summertime - trading/investing is light

3. Economic uncertainty - rent forbearance and unemployment ending in a few months.

4. Fear of government attacks (mostly via regulation and spreading fear through media.)

Tailwinds:

1. El Salvador likely to demonstrate Bitcoin-as-currency in a very positive way in the next 6-12 months. All of Latin-America (and beyond) is watching.

2. Lightning Network (cheap/instant bitcoin transactions) growing very fast.

3. Network adoption (despite price) continues to grow faster than the internet did in the 90s.

PS - I do an intro to bitcoin session now on Thursdays. www.mybitcointech.com

Listen to Michael Gladstein (Human Rights Foundation) interview Jack Dorsey (Square, CashApp) about how Bitcoin is empowering every human individual, but especially those under authoritarian, inflationary, represive regimes.