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Bitcoin is multifaceted. Some treat Bitcoin as a speculative tool for growing wealth, others as a way of avoiding financial censorship from traditional payment channels, and some use it as a way of claiming their monetary sovereignty and removing power from the banks and state.

The real reason Bitcoin is essential is for all of these reasons and more.

On 3rd January 2009, Bitcoin was introduced to the world by its pseudonymous creator (or creators), going by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin brought with it an alternative to the banking system, a way of truly controlling your finances and to 'be your own bank'. 

Being your own bank is incredibly powerful but is often a confusing and misused term. There are currently 1.7 billion people across the world who do not have access to proper banking services. Bitcoin can fix this by allowing users to hold, send and receive value.

Cross-border payments are expensive and complicated using traditional banking and financial systems, and that's assuming the recipient has the means to receive payment. Bitcoin fixes this.

Governments have a history of putting pressure on payment systems to stop allowing payments to recipients that they deem unfit. In 2010 Visa, Mastercard and PayPal all stopped allowing payments to WikiLeaks. Bitcoin fixed this.

Bitcoin's power is in its decentralised, censorship-resistant, neutral, permissionless network that allows you to transact globally without any intermediary or third party and with whoever you want for whatever reason you want. Bitcoin doesn't care.

We will soon be living in a cashless society, government-issued 'fiat' currency will become entirely digital, and we will wave goodbye to any remaining shreds of financial privacy that still exist. Some governments will look to create a cryptocurrency alternative; providing the perfect tool for increased financial surveillance and oppression and represents the antithesis of Bitcoin.

So, maybe we will have to choose whether its Bitcoin or a state-run digital currency. Should we choose Bitcoin?

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