Blockchain News
There seems to be a general consensus that
bitcoin was invented to serve primarily as a
digital form of payment and possibly an asset.
Ethereum, on the other hand, was designed
as a decentralized platform for application
developers. One could argue that bitcoin
and Ethereum complement each other and
that both were created partly in response to
a pressing need: financial freedom and more
flexibility.
It seems as if history repeats itself because
almost every tragic event documented in
modern history is followed by a brutal
revolution. Many historians agree that there
are hardly any historical events that can rival
the French Revolution of 1789, which shook
the very foundations of Europe. This was an
extremely tense and turbulent time when
the cost of two loaves of bread was equal to
someone’s monthly income.
Louis XVI was the last King of France
because his execution by guillotine
effectively ended the centuries-old rule of the
monarchy. Louis XVI had involved France
in costly wars and his lavish lifestyle along
with the rest of the nobility had depleted the
nation’s resources. France was left with huge
debts which resulted in the suffering of the
working class and peasants (the majority).
US president George W. Bush engaged
the United States in a decade-long war in
Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. Bush
also went to war with Iraq based on a loose
assumption that Iraq was carrying Weapons
of Mass Destruction (WMD). President
Obama continued to engage the United
States in different disputes across the world,
including fighting off the Gaddafi regime in
Libya in 2011.
20
Core Magazine
As most of us are aware, the United States
is a country that’s heavily in debt. Recent
estimates indicate that the US national debt is
over $20 trillion. Part of what contributed to
the 2008-2009 Financial crisis was America’s
excessive and disproportionate spending on
the defense budget at the expense of hard-
earned taxpayers money. When the citizens
of a country have to suffer the consequences
of financial and economic meltdowns, their
reactions are usually in the form that fits the
criteria of a revolution.
Even though the stock market is booming
and the US unemployment sits at 4.1%
(relatively low), the overall growth rate of
the US economy has been fairly low for quite
some time now. People worldwide have been
struggling. Just a year after the Financial
crisis of 2009, a huge wave of protests broke
out in the Middle East. Armed with the
power of social media in 2010, the Arab
Spring revolutions spread across much of
the Middle East area, dramatically starting
in Tunisia when Mohammad Bouazizi set
himself on fire. These revolutions consisted
of a series of violent and non-violent protests
against the financial hardships, lack of job
opportunities (especially for the young
workforce), and crippling poverty. Ruthless
dictators had ruled over these countries for
decades in totalitarian fashion. They had
exhausted the country’s financial resources
in order to live a selfish life of unimaginable
opulence.
Although the citizens of America and
much of the developed world might not
have suffered nearly as much as the citizens
of France centuries ago; or, like many of the
citizens of the Middle East who ignited the