Screen Junkies and Mass Enchantment

Some nights me and my girlfriend/fiancé relax on the coach and watch a film series on Netflix, just like anyone else. Sometimes we also both surf the internet or social media on our phones or dual each other on Supercells latest flourescent smiley Clash Royale game craze. All at once, it is a guilty pleasure I guess, it's soo luxurious to revel in such excessive levels of entertainment.

It is not yet decided what the full impact of this screen information technology might be on society.  We are experimenting as it grows, images become more vivid. Screams are popping up like technicolored tulips all around us and VR is next. Though me and my partner still find time to get outside, ride bikes and climb mountains, it is clear that we are combatting the force of the screens. Society is enchanted on mass by all this new tech and surreal imagery, it's in our lives, no matter how hard we try to resist it.

We are the first generation to be fully exposed to this. New parents don't know how much time to let their kids play on their screens. It was easier when it was just the TV to say just one hour a day. Now when the devices are also learning tools, portable communications and navigation devices, the lines are blurred. The kids are after the screens like candy and are taking two or more at once. I sometimes have five screens going, three computer screens a tablet and a phone. It does seem a lot like crack, i wouldn't recommend this for my kids. At work most people have more than one screen, I've seen some traders run eleven! I'm jealous of them, I feel I need more! At the hotel I'm at today there are even TV's in all the booths next to the pool. It looks bazaar then you consider that they are also above every bar counter, on the walls in restaurants and by the elevators, not to mention in all the rooms and, just in case we are all carrying portable units in all our pockets or purses. Never mind electrocution, clearly if you don't bring screens there isn't much of a pool party in this town.

To me this is kind of sickening. A withdrawal from reality and from living in the moment. I also think this wall of screens is part of the reason why many people are slow to get into Bitcoin and crypto currencies. When people already spend time trying to get away from the screens of work and generic hotel resorts, Bitcoin can seem like a step back into the digital void. Worse still, when they see a person like myself, who used to spend more time on sports and adventures in the outdoors, it can seem like and A class technological drug, one step up in buzz and addiction to the screens that people are used to.

Bitcoin and crypto currency are certainly advanced technology. Etherium could be likened to heroin for home programers. There are even social effects in the community which resemble addictions. Some enthusiast find themselves falling into a rabbit hole of crypto currency research and end up isolated, up all night, forgetting to shower and only able to relate to other enthusiast. This is strange because it's a concept, its not like looking at a screen or a drug, there is no specific act or drug. I argue that it is not the same type of addictiion. Bitcoin doesn't nail you to the couch and capture your attention with revenue grabbing flashing lights. It lets you reflect on the world and to learn things like coding that where once just an obscure magic. This can take a lot of time, but it can also make technology less overwhelming. Crypto currency inspires devoted fascination, but it is not a digital entertainment addiction.

To some a mix of technology and money seems like a monster to be avoided. Both concepts are mind boggling and very much a sideline to having fun in the moment. Crypto currencies are however a concept of the moment. They are actually designed to help us escape the monster that is our legacy financial system. They can reduce the influence of the financial system on our lives. Something the anti-money crowd can get behind. They are also often designed not to take over our lives with screens and actually reduce the amount of digital hardware required in our daily lives. One phone per person might even be a reduction. We can get rid of eftpos machines, credit cards, bank statements, adding bills, the continual pin numbers and personal information forms, the money changing when we are overseas and the currency calculations, the call centres and the lunch time queues. The new advancements can free us from the parts of technology that we don't like, making transactions a smaller part of our lives, in doing this they can give us more time to focus on nature and other things that matter.

Even so, mass enchantment is here to stay and screen addiction is on the rise. The latest move of world gaming company Steam, accepting bitcoin, is capitalising on this. It's a perfect match for 3D gaming screen junkies who do freelance programming for bitcoin. Crypto currencies are not going to stop this. We should however, be careful not to confuse bitcoin as an A Class side car for holographic harley screen lovers. Bitcoin is not really a digital tether and it could actually help us cut some cords. It's already curing some of the side effects of technology and our financial system that liberal environmentally conscious friends try to block out. Screens may be dividing society, but Bitcoin is not. Greenpeace even accepts bitcoin.

Why We Want MORE MORE MORE Bitcoins

The number of issues or emergency events on the bitcoin network is decreasing! It's been 6 months since the last one and they seem to be reducing overall. The status of the decentralised network and the up time is something any payments processor would be proud of.

Shell Companies, Shadow Banking and Restricting Transfers to Mexico

We have known about shell companies for a long time, but the Panama files are bringing the dubious practice into the spotlight. Three terabytes of spot light on the entrenched exploits of corporations and the wealthy, a file more than 40 times the size of the entire Bitcoin blockchain. The full extent of the information that is contained in the file will come out over the next weeks and months. Already many prominent figures have been exposed. Even so the Panama files only represent a fraction of the shell company and the offshore account tax avoidance industry. The size of the data alone is a testament to the efficiency of the blockchain system, not to mention the ability to easily measure and track the level of anonymous transactions.

The wide-ranging impact of the Panama files, stretching as far as our world leaders, illustrates the depth of secrecy in our current financial system. Shadow banking, which comes hand in hand with shell companies and offshore accounts, has been on the rise in recent years despite government AML laws (anti-money laundering) and other measures.

The shadow banking system makes up 25 to 30 percent of the total financial system, according to the Financial Stability Board (FSB), a regulatory task force for the world's group of top 20 economies (G20).
This sector was worth an estimated $60 trillion in 2010, compared to prior FSB estimates of $27 trillion in 2002.^[17][13] While the sector's assets declined during the global financial crisis, they have since returned to their pre-crisis peak^[18] except in the United States where they have declined substantially.

We can see that as the banking industry gathers more information on the bulk of the population though AML, they are allowing the 1% to slip off into the dark. Intricate legal structures shrouded with endless paper trails and a maze of international laws and privacy rights. Banks have always offered special services for their high-end customers and in part this can be expected in business, but this is clearly not up to public expectations. This is our government and our economic freedom and it's fair to say we want it to be the same for all. The Bitcoin system is the same for everyone, and dark payments are on the decline and easily measured.  Although precautions can be made to use bitcoin anonymously this is contrary to the natural state of the public ledger. In banking the natural state of a transaction and or a balance is secret. Bitcoin can be part of a solution to the shadow banking problem.

There is general discontent in society and the battle for attention is growing. Governments and international corporations like Apple and the FBI joust for public approval and justification of their actions. Countries play off each other for power in trade deals and struggle with new international organisations like the EU the UN and the IMF or even Greenpeace. Everyone needs a moral mandate, but even public opinion seems to be fractured and unsure of the correct path. Donald Trump's aka Drumpth's presidential bid is at the forefront of this discontent and confusion. His latest campaign message that he would make Mexico pay for a wall (between USA and Mexico) by threatening to prevent people from sending money across the border shows how fractured society has become.

Even if shell companies did not exist, and I'm sure Drumpth has many, and if international shadow banking didn't already have a growing base of willing clients. people who are aware of Crypto-currency technology know that what is being proposed is nearly impossible to achieve. A migrant worker can very easily send bitcoin home to their family in a way that nobody can censor. If only 1% of existing money transfers were to be made in bitcoin the math would increase the bitcoin price by $22. If that's not enough to get your attention try 20% or considering the whole world. Even so your jaw drops in disbelief if you calculate crypto-currency values based on the volume of the shadow banking sector. If the more secretive crypto-currency Dash were to be used for all shadow banking, a price of $571,428 could be expected. Math may be the one thing that is trustworthy given the state of society today, however, people still struggle to come to terms with the scale.

Drumpth's wacky agenda is not likely to happen, he bad mouthed somebody's wife, but maybe the odds are better than the local lottery. The potential bitcoin pay-off is similar. The likes of international corporations shell companies and shadow banking are not likely to change or subside unless the public forces them to. It might be that we muddle through and that Mexican workers living in the USA end up sending their money home through shell companies, shadow banking and things like amazon gift cards. This is the line in the sand for economic control. People want to be able to by things over the internet. It becomes clear that restrictive government policies only pose a threat to the conventional national organisations, and that this plays into bitcoin and other organisations operating at an international level. The struggle is becoming more vivid and as it plays out untrustworthy parties are exposed. As trust is slowly eroded many things will likely change, but trustless international systems like bitcoin and those created in other crupto-currencies stand to benefit in the wake. People's attention is scarce and fickle. Should protectionist economic policies come into favour, attention will likely be grabbed by another skyrocketing bitcoin price. Mexicans may just be sending their new money home to build nice modern ecotowers.