This article was originally written for Citadel21 and released Mar. 21st, 2023. You can find the article here.

Dear Son,

I decided to write you this letter from the past. While at this point you are yet to be born; when you grow up and have read this letter for the first time, preserve it as part of my legacy and your inheritance.

I intend to take you back in time where you get to see the world through my eyes during a bygone era. It is my heartfelt hope and intention that you will heed my words, dear son. You see, you now live in a world that a lot of us who have gone before could only dream of. A world free from the tyranny of central banking, where the separation of money and state has been attained, where optimism and endless possibilities abound.

Bitcoin has now severed the tie that existed for centuries between the state and money, but the journey to get to this point was an ardous one. The prosperity you are now enjoying didn’t come easy, it took multiple battles and lots of courage. My son, it is my hope that after reading this letter, you will not only be ready to defend your personal liberty, especially your financial freedom, but that you will never bow your knee before any tyrant.

The world is filled with all kinds of people; some that are truly wonderful and others that are extremely wicked and so drunk on power that they will stop at nothing to get more of it. I was born into a world dominated by central banks. Even though they pretended to be vital in helping to stabilize the economy, these institutions had been a cancer on human progress since their inception.

The 20th century, which also happened to be when the power of central banks were consolidated, was the “bloodiest century” in history due to numerous wars that were funded and fought. Wars that were financed with cheap money that the central banks printed ad infinitum.

Their monopoly on money issuance gave them the power to command human time — the most scarce resource — at a scale that even the Caesars of old could never even have dreamed of. A small group of men were able to dictate to the rest of us what the price of money was. They could devalue our money as they saw fit, and borrow without restraint. Had we not stopped them, your generation would also be having your time stolen from you, and would have been on the hook for paying debts that you had nothing to do with incurring.

Initially we thought that the answer was a reversion to the gold standard, which wasn’t an entirely bad idea. However this line of reasoning failed to recognize, among other things, that the central bankers had already captured gold.

Helplessly we watched unemployment skyrocket, the poor got poorer thanks to inflation, and the powers that be deceptively reassured us that all was well with the economy. “We are in this together” they quipped, but in reality we were on our own.

My son, the first lesson i would like you to draw from this is to never trust the government, as it doesn’t exist to promote your individual sovereignty and liberty. Liberty is always freedom from the government. It is the restriction of the government’s interference. No form of government throughout history has ever succeeded in keeping the government in check, and as a result many atrocities have been committed by governments in the name of the “greater good.”

Always be wary of what the authorities tell you, but learn to think for yourself. And where it matters the most, have the steadfast willingness to say “No”. Be bold enough to speak the truth even if it’s unpopular or politically incorrect.

Satoshi Nakamoto identified the reliance on trust as the root problem with the fiat monetary system. It couldn’t function without trust and the unfortunate part was that we had to place our trust in the very same people and institutions that were hell-bent on screwing us over. As a “trustless”, open-source, peer to peer and permissionless monetary system, Bitcoin changed all of that.

It was the first successful digital monetary system that required no centralized planning or control of any kind for it to function. While your generation may take this for granted, in my day this was a very novel and controversial concept. Most people therefore instantly dismissed it.

This brings me to the second lesson I want you to learn; my son, do not be quick to dismiss new ideas that seem strange or weird before you have taken the time to understand them. Many people missed the opportunity to buy bitcoin early because they refused to do this. As a result, when central bank digital currencies were rolled out they were immediately forced into 21st century serfdom, because they had no way to defend their financial sovereignty.

My son, while today you are now enjoying the second iteration of “la belle époque”, free from central bank tyranny and unsound fiat money, you must understand that the economic prosperity that your generation now enjoys didn’t come on a silver platter. There were multiple battles that had to be fought to defend and preserve the purity as well as the inherent beauty of Bitcoin.

Despite having the odds stacked heavily against them, the people fighting for bitcoin as a decentralized, apolitical and incorruptible form of money never let go of their conviction.

The third and final lesson I want you to glean from this letter, my beloved son, is that you must always be willing to fight for what you believe in. The truth is not a popularity contest, and it will always be opposed by those who profit from the propagation of falsehoods. Despots and tyrants will always appear on the scene in different forms, and they are masters of deceit.

Bitcoin was Satoshi’s gift to the world and it’s a gift that should not be taken for granted. Always remember President Reagan’s words, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”

Many more battles await your generation, as these despots will seek to find ways to control or co-opt the Bitcoin protocol. Always be vigilant and ready to defend and maintain your financial sovereignty when required to do so.

I will end this letter with a quote by Thomas Jefferson that remains true today as it was centuries ago. He said, “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Our generation defeated the central bankers; as a result your generation gets to live in a world running on the Bitcoin standard. Centralized powers will try yet again to regain their lost power by hook or by crook. Don’t let them win.

Love,

Dad