So, just out of curiosity, since you said the stock market would be worthless, where does cryptocurrency, in your estimation, fit into this? Considering it requires a powered up device and internet connection, I'm guessing you'll say it doesn't fair any better than the rest, which essentially takes us back to what you said. If you can't hold it in your hands, it's worthless.
Someone here out of the blue replied to a comment where I had said something about the US and the debt ceiling. Basically, the gist was, Europe, China and Japan are far more in debt than we are per capita. Okay, that could be true, but because we're so intertwined, I'm not sure what difference it makes other than the likelihood of where the meltdown will begin. At any rate, I feel like this is meant to be an awakening of sorts, and I need to get back to those thoughts and feelings I had years ago and find the way to put them into action. Which means I need to bring my wife along for the ride somehow. I'm not sure how that's going to happen. And I'd rather do it in a way where she won't add that to the list of things she worries about incessantly, since when it begins is about as unpredictable as what crypto is going to do next. And I feel that at this stage discreetness is an imperative, as far as how fast these final preparations happen. I don't know. I just need to opt out of everything now. :)
Actually, I'm highly positive on cryptos and their future as a medium of exchange. The best thing going for them is that they are not part of the fiat-based monetary systems and they are NOT government controlled. The are used world-wide by all peoples, independent of political bias and anonymous. you cannot say that for Dollars or Yen or any of the others.
Yes, if the power was down, it will be along wait before you can get to your cryptos, but you can still hold them! If you have a hardware wallet you can download your cryptos into the wallet and also their location addresses and private keys. That will be the only place the private key exists, so you are the holder of that secret. If they are kept on an exchange instead and things go south, your keys are stored in the exchange's computer and you have an account with the exchange, meaning that you do not have your cryptos actual location or the private keys to get them. The exchange has that. you cannot get to your exchange account, you have no access to your cryptos and there is zilch you can do about that.
However, if they are in your hardware wallet, whenever access to the internet is restored, and it will be sooner or later, you activate your little wallet device and you have your cryptos! They are stored in every copy of the blockchain, multiply redundant, spread all over the world, even if all the drives are dead, the copies will be backed up and available when needed. When the reboot occurs and all are in sync, your address will be there and you alone have the private keys to access them. So, you do hold your cryptos. I trust that process far more than I trust banks to keep up with them for me. And since my hardware wallet is not connected to the internet, i'm not connected to hackers; also a safe feeling.
The net is: gold, silver, and cryptos will weather the storm. It's easier to get the cryptos to Singapore than it is silver and gold, if you happen to need them there if you bug out, but chances of me doing that are diminishingly slim.
And I agree that it does not matter much where the dominoes start falling. The EU has closer currency ties with the US and a failure there would hit here more quickly than maybe Japan or China, but maybe by a day or two's buffer. When things get crazy it will spread fast since we are all linked by the dollar since it's the reserve currency (for now, anyway.) A failure will be a failure and we could easily never find out how it started or who wad first. That would be a moot point anyway. By then, we would have more to worry about than who did it. If we had a sound money system we would be impervious to the falling dominoes. In fact, we are by far the worse offending nation on the planet as far as money owed vs. money on hand. After all, we don't even claim the dollar is money! There is nothing at all preventing us from printing a five trillion Dollar bill or coin and giving it to China in payment of all our debts, and than ask for change.
It is an awakening, I truly believe. We know we cannot pay debts and we see Venezuela and remember Zimbabwe and the Wiemar Republic and we are doing exactly what they did and expect it to turn out differently?
As far as domestic acceptance is concerned, I went through that about six years ago and you are exactly right about it being a sensitive and possibly a damaging subject. I suspected that and thought I was doing well, but the fear factor can get to feel omnipresent as if a tsunami is approaching and we are in the shadow already. Every purchase of food or other prep goods we made was another visible reminder that the future was in turmoil and it began to get frightening for her without me knowing. Since none of our friends seemed to be concerned about the future, it led to reactions I had not anticipated. Suffice it to say that, if you present the information and it is not clearly and obviously accepted, it's best to go stealth with it as far as you can. I didn't see that. I'll be happy to share details in a private forum; this is a bit too public.
Withdrawing from the system takes guts, but once you realize that when dollars are converted into gold and silver, you will be rid of most of the worry, that helps a lot. If the clouds clear, you can always convert back to fiat.
Opt out, my friend. Believe me, a six hour warning is not enough.