This is an op-ed by Dan Weintraub, an author and high school teacher who first became interested in bitcoin while teaching economics.
Trust is a funny thing. From a generational perspective, one could make the argument that it is the job of the younger generation to essentially tell us older people to fly the kite (perhaps in more primitive terms, and of course metaphorically) when it comes to our values, norms, advice, etc. Music provides a convenient cultural landscape through which to view this tension.
Same old song
In each generation, the emerging and evolving musical forms have been denounced by the old traditional group as bad music, noise, and even no music at all. In the late 1950s, Walter Cronkite Jazz is referred to as “musical noise”, And his words were not praise. Rockabilly in the 1950s was certainly disliked by many in the traditional country community. Summer of Love was rejected by many parents who probably embraced jazz and bebop. There’s no doubt that punk rockers were met with blank stares and utter disdain by their hippie parents, and rap music continues to be the subject of musical scorn the world over. The point is clear: tradition hates innovation, mostly because tradition does not understand innovation and feels threatened by this new iteration. However, the fact remains. Everything is just music.
Here is where things get a little complicated.
Not understanding, disliking, or even personally rejecting something new is one thing. Another thing is to completely discredit the new, to actively fight against the new, to try to destroy the new. And within this effort to destroy and bury the new form of expression, those who seek to kill the new thing, in their tired and somewhat sad desperation, will create false narratives and stories to justify their adherence to traditional ways. Unfortunately, these narratives can become so powerful, that they lead to the development of institutions and movements that are utterly led by falsehood, led by self-serving and power-hungry fanatics, armed with all the cultural weapons that tradition has; Insolent and unscrupulous, these forces often go to great lengths to kill the very thing they, in their self-ignorance, have decided is evil.
As much as I hope that, somewhere in the future, these destructive and reducing powers can be nullified by truth-conscious mechanisms like the Bitcoin protocol, I’m not holding my breath. But for now, strength verification This very thing that makes Bitcoin such a revolutionary moment can be leveraged by the Bitcoin community as a way to bridge the generation gap, to respond to the narratives held by baby boomers and others in their rejection of Bitcoin, and to move the protocol’s adoption curve forward.
My presentation of Bitcoin to my fellow Boomers
Here is my view:
My generation (I’m a young man at 61) have a lot of qualms about bitcoin. Some of these fears are true (seniors hate swings), while others are told completely false narratives and prejudices. And just as with the musical examples above, many of these false narratives are extremely difficult to disarm; For a desperate clinging to something comprehensible, something empowering, something united in its self-righteous disgust and self-defense.
Granted now, I’m a boomer, so I have a bit more natural salience when I talk to my peers about Bitcoin. I don’t wear AirPods, I wear a yoga mat, and I’m a completely self-indulgent and personal-development-obsessed millennial who hates my generation so much (sarcastic smile). But even this affinity doesn’t keep me away from Bitcoin. Narratives of rejection come hot and come fast: environmental degradation, the currency of the dark web, the gambling casinos that make TikTok’ers rich, and so on.
My strategy for fending off these arguments goes back to music:
“Look,” I say, “you might be right. Bitcoin may be energy-consuming and environmentally unhelpful. Scammers and scammers may use Bitcoin as part of their schemes to get rich. Bitcoin may be the currency, or one of the currencies, for a generation of social media bosses, people who You despise them in such disdain. That may all be true. But I will argue three things: first, that you espouse the arguments I have heard but not investigated yourself; second, that you base your hatred and rejection of Bitcoin not on the merits of Bitcoin, but on the way Bitcoin appears. in the world (just as our parents disapproved of our music, because it came with long hair and blue jean jackets); and third, that you reject Bitcoin because you don’t understand it, which all the older generations do about the shit they don’t get.”
Then I say this:
“There is one thing about Bitcoin that makes it different from everything else in the world, and that is the dynamic of verification. Ignore all the other stuff for a second, if you can. I am more than willing to stipulate that after you do your research and after you challenge your biases towards lucky millennials ( Another cynical smile) You may still reject Bitcoin, but hear me out on this one thing, this is a really cool and even revolutionary element of Bitcoin: unlike every other human interaction in the world, Bitcoin does not ask us to put our blind trust in anyone else. Nobody owns it or controls it, so we are not asked to trust the words and actions of bankers, government officials, scammers, or anyone, nobody can hack it (takes a while to find out why), so it is, even as volatile as an investment, the safest network of all; It cannot destroy it, because it is a program that runs on millions of computers, all of which verify every transaction that occurs.”
Then this:
“Look, I’m not saying you should invest in bitcoin. Lord knows that in a world full of greedy and lying people, bitcoin is just as suitable for those people to use as dollars, gold, real estate, or anything that will make them rich. Truth be known, Millennials make me roll my eyes too. But you know what, this is my generation BS. It’s bullshit myself. Just like my parents nodding their heads at my Grateful Deadness and my wicked ass, I nodded at millennials. But that sternness and silliness shouldn’t tell me my opinions on Emerging monetary technology and protocol. If so, I’m guilty of the very thing we blamed our parents for being so guilty 40 years ago. I don’t want to be part of another anti-intellectual generation that rejects things it doesn’t understand, or embraces false narratives about things because those are narratives which we are exposed to more than others.”
Then my conclusion:
“All I’m asking is that you take a moment and think about what a world a fact check might look like, rather than trusting someone else’s words. For example, Bitcoin and the Bitcoin network could have ended all things related to stolen elections altogether, because it’s in this realm of Verification There is the ability to validate every transaction (every vote) and verify it beyond doubt.Also, with the Bitcoin network and protocol, you can say goodbye to things like identity theft, credit card fraud, and double charges for things you didn’t buy;because with Bitcoin , all all The transaction is verified on a completely secure network by tens of thousands of computers running impenetrable software. And the thing is, there are many examples of how verification can make the world we live in so much better, because when we can verify things, we end up trusting the whole process. So all I ask is that you do a little investigation on this thing before you reject it; You may find, in spite of yourself, that you like it Gets Even more, your appreciation of her changes.”
We live in a world where trust is constantly diminishing. As I point out in my first two parts in this series, as trust continues to erode, we, as a species, face increasing problems and distress. I totally cringe why my generation doesn’t trust Bitcoin. But I also recognize that our distrust is informed through false narratives, petty biases, and strict adherence to the things we understand and know. The thing that makes Bitcoin so new and elegant is that the protocol, for example, cuts through all the lies. I feel like this is the strongest thing about Bitcoin, and I feel like this is the way to get more and more people into the fold.
Practically everyone on the planet, including baby boomers, is concerned about the direction we are heading as a species. At the heart of this fear is the fact that we can no longer trust anything. Bitcoin changes this with its non-breaking verification mechanism. It starts with money, property and assets. Who knows where it ends
This is a guest post by Dan Weintraub. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.