The Rebellion Begins
"They showed themselves, the top 1% of the 1%, the ones in control, the ones who play God without permission. And now I'm gonna take them down." - Elliot
In the show, Mr. Robot, a brilliant hacker named Elliot encrypted the data of the largest banking institution thereby rendering all outstanding debt null and void, triggering a massive financial collapse.
Why did he do it? He was tired of being abused by the ones in power, the ones in control, who constantly dictated the outcome of billions of people without their permission.
Over the last few weeks, what was formerly fiction in the show Mr. Robot, became reality.
User “u/DeepFuckingValue” on the subreddit “WallStreetBets” (r/wsb) analyzed different stocks to find the most shorted stocks by hedge funds. He then proceeded to provide his “analysis” on the subreddit that he was investing in GameStop the #1 most shorted stock in the US, which is objectively an insane trade to make.
The r/wsb community spontaneously rallied behind the trade and began to buy the stock in a frenzy as a fuck you to the hedge funds shorting it. The stock price went from $10 to $347 in weeks. This squeezed the hedge funds who were short, which caused a few funds to have massive losses like Point72 (owned by the crook, Steve Cohen, who profited off of insider trading but bribed his way out of jail with a $1.8B fine with the “regulators”)
While hedge funds and investments banks have engaged in fraud, manipulation, money laundering and gambling with the entire world’s economy, they were incensed by the idea that a bunch of redditor plebs dared rekt their trades.
To squash the rebellion, brokerages like TD Ameritrade, and Robinhood starting blocking their traders from trading GameStop and other stocks that Redditors were squeezing.
Even Discord, a popular chat service, shut down WSB server for “hate speech” after trading hours (i.e. when institutional investors have a huge advantage over retail).
This strategy will not work. You can’t kill an idea.
People are rallying behind r/wsb because it’s NOT an institution or organization.
r/wsb extends beyond just a subreddit or Discord group, it’s a mindset. Billions of people are tired of being run over by the big guys and are fighting back.
These legacy financial institutions that we trusted had a veneer of credibility which has recently been shattered. Starting with a fracturing of that trust during the 2008 financial crisis, the trust is now reaching a breaking point with COVID.
Behind the suits, pedigree, and titles, they had no idea what they were doing. They were just making it all up on the go.
Bitcoin’s time is here
“Gamestop took down one hedge fund, Bitcoin defunds the entire crony capitalist system” - Phil Geiger
As we’ve seen with Mr. Robot and GameStop, change always starts with one individual. Same with Bitcoin.
Satoshi, similarly motivated like Elliot and the Redditor, created Bitcoin as the antidote against excessive control by central banks, hedge funds, governments, and investment banks.
“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve.” — Satoshi Nakamoto
However, Bitcoin without believers/humans is worthless. He needed an army.
Satoshi built Bitcoin for the believers in new financial system, the revolutionaries. The ones who were disenfranchised with the existing financial system. People who understand and buy into Bitcoin have gone down the proverbial rabbit hole. They’ve had to challenge their assumptions of money and government.
This faith in a new financial system is what binds everything together. Bitcoin is not just a software project, it’s a method of coordination for a large group of people who face powerful adversaries. Bitcoin isn’t a technological breakthrough, it’s a social one.
The rallying cry of Bitcoin is “HODL!” and those who believe in it are the “HODLers.”
“HODL!” represent a conviction, a belief that we can indeed create a new financial system without control, without bailouts, without politics.
Bitcoin promises an alternative for people across the world to keep their savings in a form of money that can neither be confiscated, diluted, or censored. Through HODLing we may finally be free.
Those who opt-in to Bitcoin (the orange pill), are trading something abundant for something scarce, trading the past for the future, trading financial dependence for financial sovereignty.
HODL,
Dan
Dan, I’m IN. Full paid subscription, no coupon. Have joined the rebellion. Let’s buckle up!
Thank you for the clarity and depth you bring to the subject. I wish you all the success and support you need to keep doing these quality newsletters. Thanks!