In this age of the global trust experiment known as money, the vast majority (92%) of the world’s wealth is digital. 

 

It’s no surprise, then, that crypto’s impact has really been in getting people to question certain norms, such as the percentages payment networks take in facilitating a card transaction. 

 

Sure, they have to get paid and that percentage is payment for not having to using fiat currency and the convenience of a card, but when does it ethically cross the line?

 

How about the fact that $15.1 million was raised for the victims of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, and yet $482,712 (2.9%) was taken from that total by payment processors. 

 

Or how about Stand Up To Cancer, which has raised 123.6 Million so far this year? Assuming that’s before the fees, that’s $3.5 million that won’t be going to cancer research and instead to payment processors. And no, nonprofits cannot write of that fee as tax deductible.  

 

Sure, we don’t have to talk about specifics and anecdotes. 

 

But, doesn’t it kind of make you sick that there’s no remorse for this? Whether it’s GoFundMe, KickStarter, Visa, or any other fundraising platform / payment processor, they’re taking money from what are objectively good causes.

 

And I don’t blame them. 

 

This is what a free market does. It looks for opportunities and capitalizes on them. 

 

The good news is that it works both ways. 

 

We are building infrastructure that aims, albeit indirectly, to solve inefficient distribution in charity. 

 

So yes, we’re focused on building a fungible global currency that offers efficient transactions. But we’re also looking to solve ancillary issues with our economy too.  

 

This is the result of rethinking paradigms. We are innovating and aiming to replace a system that is impartial to cancer research and victims of tragedy. 

 

Sure, that’s hyperbole, but I think it’s somewhat of a zeitgeist for a system that is clearly unfeeling in the name of profits. 

 

We also see that on display with monetary policy and the systems of power. The protests in Paris are directly in response to wealth inequality in the face of rising inflation. 

 

Whether or not you agree with the protestors, we can agree that the impartiality of a system like Bitcoin is designed to counter runaway fiscal policy. 

 

This century will continue to be dominated by stories of wealth inequality, wage disparity, and continued runaway inflation. 

 

Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, will shine as a beacon of deflationary design, and could contribute to wealth equality.

 

Who knows? 

 

We have a very complicated global economy and there’s no getting around the fact that it’s only getting more complicated around the world. 

 

I think this is going to really test the limits of our current system and it will take a lot to keep it alive. 

 

I look forward to this space being seen as a solution instead of an experiment.