{"id":6126,"date":"2022-11-10T23:39:28","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T23:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci02b00462300025f0"},"modified":"2025-01-28T14:39:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:39:51","slug":"why-bitcoin-is-not-like-paypal-or-venmo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/why-bitcoin-is-not-like-paypal-or-venmo","title":{"rendered":"Why Bitcoin Is Not Like PayPal Or Venmo"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><p><em>This is an opinion editorial by Mark Maraia, an entrepreneur, author of \u201cRainmaking Made Simple\u201d and a Bitcoiner.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin is not like PayPal or Venmo. This would be obvious to anyone who understands money. As Shakespeare might say, \u201cAy, there\u2019s the rub.\u201d Almost no one understands money. We are never taught about how fiat money actually works at home or at school or at work \u2026 even when you work on Wall Street or you run the country. I\u2019m confident very few politicians could pass a simple exam on money. I\u2019m almost sure none of our federal employees could. And I\u2019d hazard a guess that very few CEO\u2019s or CFO\u2019s of Fortune 500 companies could either. <\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/marques-thomas-gs9uci8jvgw-unsplash.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>I\u2019m unaware of any survey that assesses the general population\u2019s understanding of money or our banking system. We definitely don\u2019t teach it in school. Simple questions like:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cWhat is fractional reserve banking?\u201d <\/li>\n<li>\u201cWhat was the base layer of the global monetary system until 1971?\u201d <\/li>\n<li>\u201cWhat is the base layer of the US money supply now?\u201d <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u2026are complete mysteries to 99% of the population. But not to Bitcoiners. <\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin is the base layer of a new digital and decentralized monetary system that favors <em>no one.<\/em> It allows two parties armed with nothing more than a <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/tags\/machankura\">cell phone<\/a> to send value via the digital rails of Bitcoin from the U.S. to anywhere in the world, almost instantly, with no middle men. That\u2019s why governments hate it so much!! Venmo and PayPal are not and will never be the base layer of a new digital and decentralized monetary system. Venmo and PayPal are second or third layers in our centralized fiat monetary system. They make life easier for many, but they come at the cost of centralized control and state financial surveillance and repression. All this talk of CBDCs makes me sick. Why? Because a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Snowden\/status\/1446850805223591938?s=20&amp;t=4AggbKWr9zcTojFWjGNqwg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CBDC is nothing more than a surveillance coin<\/a>. <\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/zlataky-cz-s6cwf7tik9u-unsplash.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>At one time in its history, gold was the base layer of the analog and centralized monetary system. Government currencies \u2014 now all fiat \u2014 were built as second layers on top of gold. Then in 1971, Richard Nixon pulled a monetary magic trick the likes of which we are still feeling the effects from today. He unilaterally severed the remaining link of the dollar being redeemable for gold. (Note: This ability had <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Executive_Order_6102\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">been taken<\/a> from U.S. citizens in the early 1900\u2019s. What Nixon severed was another country\u2019s ability to receive gold in exchange for U.S. dollars.) So began a monetary experiment that continues to the present day.<\/p>\n<p>Why was that a magic trick? Because, presto chango, the dollar \u2014 not gold \u2014 was suddenly the new base layer of our monetary system as of that moment. Everything in our monetary and banking system today is built on top of that. I\u2019m confident no other country would have approved the idea of an \u201cunbacked dollar\u201d becoming the world\u2019s reserve currency at Bretton Woods if they knew that a short 27 years later the link to gold would be severed. It was a classic bait and switch or as most bitcoiners call it \u2014 a rug pull. <\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pavel-brodsky-rmfddtchthc-unsplash.jpg\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>The latest example of why it\u2019s important to differentiate between the payments use case that compares bitcoin to PayPal and Venmo, and the true sound money narrative that bitcoin is actually about, is <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/binance-will-not-buy-ftx\">the collapse of FTX<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Too many people are led astray by claims that there are \u201csuperior\u201d unsound cryptocurrencies which promise faster, cheaper payments. What they might not realize is that these promises are only made based on the centralization and lack of security that these altcoins are built on. Many who fell for this, invested on exchanges like FTX and may have ignored the Bitcoin Maximalist mantra of <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/bitcoin-self-custody-and-financial-sovereignty\">self-custody<\/a>. Had attention been paid to the real underlying promise of bitcoin \u2014 that it is sound money that cannot be controlled by anyone, given self-custody \u2014 it is highly unlikely that they would have had assets on a cryptocurrency exchange like FTX. <\/p>\n<p>As my favorite <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/A_Course_in_Miracles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">spiritual text<\/a> likes to remind me, \u201cWe\u2019re in a prison of our own making.\u201d What\u2019s the \u201cget out of jail free\u201d card? Buy or get paid in bitcoin. Switch to a bitcoin standard. <\/p>\n<p><em>This is a guest post by Mark Maraia. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin is an entirely new paradigm of money, not a simple secondary payments layer built to increase ease of access like PayPal or Venmo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2547,"featured_media":3296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[59,477,166,1495,1289],"class_list":{"0":"post-6126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"tag-opinion","9":"tag-payments","10":"tag-paypal","11":"tag-sound-money","12":"tag-venmo"},"author_data":{"id":2547,"name":"Mark Maraia","nicename":"mark-maraia","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/mark-maraia-photo-96x96.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/20220531_btcfinal_best-make-your-ln-node-mobile-anthony-feliciano.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2547"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}