Links provided for reference only, feel free not to visit them (smiley wink-face)
Yesterday I went to a shop in town (and to protect the ignorant, we’ll say the store name rhymes with Maybe Wi-Fi), to buy a couple 4 terabyte external hard drives for the purpose of mining Burstcoin. (Search IMineBlocks on youtube for Lee's tutorials, no I’m not him.) 8TB is pittance I know, but I’m not competing with the big boys; I just want to get my toes wet, and have an experience.
So I ask the young (24-ish) salesman if he knows anything about crypto mining hardware, and he stares at me blankly. Cue the crickets. No problem. I ask him if he knows anything about Bitcoin, and he shrugs off the question as though he’d just farted, but can’t smell it, so it’s all good; even though I can, and it’s putrid.
So he helps me as best he can with showing me the powered 7-USB hub I also need, and I casually ask him whether the store accepts Bitcoin; because I forgot the pin to my prepaid debit card, so I can’t buy as much product as I’d like to. His response was "We’ll never take Bitcoin at bricks and mortar."
Honestly I couldn’t believe the words came from his mouth, given that he works at Maybe Wi-Fi, and they sell all sorts of tech gadgets, which one could reasonably assume may also one day include cryptocurrency hardware wallets, right? Like, if you’re in the selling- computer-stuff business, you’d want to sell that kinda' stuff right, otherwise you’d just close your store and go breed llamas instead, way the fuck up on a mountain...
The guy works for a living, selling computer equipment, and he thinks he’ll actually have a job in the future where cryptocurrency isn’t the primary, preferred method of payment.
We’ll never take Bitcoin at bricks and mortar.
Just let that stupid sink in a little. I’m really not sure if I’d just met the actual dumbest person on the planet, or he’d skipped his meds, but I find it unfathomable that someone could be so (a) naïve, or (b) ruthlessly self-stupid, to think that they can escape the future, provided they’re still alive in it.
Perhaps in his world, fractional reserve banking, quantitative easing and boom-bust cycles are completely natural and acceptable. Well, good luck with that buddy, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
What staggers me is that there are actually still people working in computer stores right now, probably millions of them, who either know very little or absolutely nothing, about a technology that will revolutionise the entire world, yet they carry around their Internet-enabled smart phone everywhere they go. They may have a Netflix or Stan account, and they’ve probably played an online game or two in their tenure. They download music from the ether.
Their microwave cooks (destroys) their food, and their car, if it’s modern, tracks them everywhere they go, for better or worse. The point is, unless you try really, really hard, it’s impossible to escape connected technology, most of which exists on, or interacts with, the Internet.
They already use paywave for small transactions, so where in their minds is the disconnect between (1) Their own value, stored in the blockchain, and (2) The banks fiat, printed from thin air, fractionally loaned, debt currency? It’s in their daily ingestion of socially-recycled and mainstream propaganda. The more they believe the mainstream media, the harder it is to break out of the spell that the world is the way it’s supposed to be, and that cancer can’t be cured, and we’re all hopeless little minions who need a governments help to wipe our ass, because we’re just poor little peasant worker-drones.
O.K. Now I’m rambling. I’ll get to the point. Evolve or die. Change or be changed. Pick your phrasing, but what’s coming can’t be stopped, because millions of people are currently looking for the exit from a lifestyle that they know is shrouded in deception, graft, untruth and totally shit ethics, from the top down; most especially at the top.
Blockchain is going to level the playing field, or at least drive a grader through it, and those who stand in its way are likely to get crushed underfoot, when the masses rise up, and realise that they’ve been screwed for way too long, and there is a solution.
Some people believe God or some other higher power will save us all, and that’s fine. Having something to believe in is great. But whether you believe in blockchain or not, it’s here to stay, like it or not. And if your store rhymes with Maybe Wi-Fi, now might be an ideal time to educate your staff, and get on board the train. If you don’t the competition will steamroll you; though llama wool always fetches a good price, if you’re looking for a change ;)
I’m out.
10 June 2017