Above is a timestamped link to Parker Lewis' presentation (2:12:37) at the BitBlockBoom conference last month. You should all give it a listen if you haven't already. When some people talk about the US Dollar being against the interests of America (myself included), they focus on the fact that the petro dollar regime can piss other countries off, the war machine needed to protect the dollar's reserve currency status pisses a lot of people off, and the fact that it dictates that America hollow out its manufacturing base while flooding international markets with dollars to drive demand. These are all very good reasons that certainly highlight how the title of global reserve currency comes with its pitfalls. However, I think what Parker has honed in on is even more important; it erodes the core of The United States' structure of governance.

In his presentation, Parker quotes a rhetorical question the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would ask students, "What do you think is the reason that America is a such free country? What is it in our Constitution that makes us what we are?" He would often go on to say, "If you think the Bill of Rights is what sets us apart, you're crazy. Every Banana Republic in the world has a Bill of Rights. Every president for life has a Bill of Rights. Of course, just words on paper. As the framers would have called it; a parchment guarantee." Scalia would then go on to explain that the United States has attained the level of freedom that it has (or did have) due to the governance structure that the Founders set up, which was designed with embedded gridlock between the three branches of government so that it would be hard to change things. Because when governments change things, it's usually at the detriment of the individual and their sovereignty. Gridlock is what the framers believed would be the main protection of the rights of the individual. Not subject to a democratic vote.

If it was gridlock by design and the primary protections in place were meant to prevent the centralization of power under any of the three branches, the complete centralization of the money supply is the single greatest force undermining the intended structure. With the ability to print money at will allows the government to fund itself via unfettered debt expansion functionally funded by the Federal Reserve. The framers intended for the funding of government to be by the consent of the governed principally through taxation or otherwise actually paid for by the public via real money. Not something that can be created ex nihilo.

The stamping of paper is an operation so much easier than the laying of taxes, that a government, in the practice of paper emissions, would rarely fail, in any such emergency, to indulge itself too far in the employment of that resource, to avoid, as much as possible, one less auspicious to present popularity. - Alexander Hamilton, report to Congress 1790

The levying of taxes that would have to be funded by the American people was a key constraint to the balance and separation of powers. By having a quasi-private entity like the Federal Reserve, which controls the US dollar and has the ability to print it at will, the balance of power is fundamentally changed as Congress and the Executive branches are able to bypass the embedded gridlock as it was designed by the framers. It becomes one big horse trading game controlled by a select few in the legislative and executive branches without having to get the consent of the people when funding the expansion of the empire.

Power is centralizing in the hands of the federal government in a way that the founding fathers could have ever imagined. While Hamilton had his flaws, particularly in regards to debt expansion in the early days of the Republic, he warned against the emission of unbacked paper money and predicted directionally what would happen, but could have never foreseen the emergence of things like unlimited and perpetual digital QE. All of which is against the interest of individual Americans and an anathema to what the founding fathers thought they were creating.

Just as the intended structure of the US government was meant to prevent centralization of power via embedded gridlock, the structure of the bitcoin network is designed to ensure decentralization and gridlock while preventing centralization. Bitcoin is valuable because it is difficult to change. The properties that are valuable in bitcoin only exist because of its governance structure. This design characteristic aligns almost perfectly with the original design of America's governance structure. And one could make the argument that for this reason, bitcoin is significantly more "American" than the US dollar, which explicitly corrupts the structure of government as it was originally designed.

As the world continues to devolve as a consequence of the proliferation of the dollar system and stress levels rise, which is driving many to put forth radical ideas, I think it is most advantageous to heed Parker's advice. In his presentation, Parker argues that we should first aim to "take the fly out of the ointment" before doing anything drastic in terms of changing the structure of government. The governance structure as laid out by the authors of the Constitution is a very good structure. It just needs the ability to operate smoothly again. The dollar has undermined the structure and bitcoin will bring back the integrity of the structure that is so desperately needed.

Final thought...

I always knew the Minecraft kids were a problem.