Is Bitcoin Really the Freedom We All Want?

I've been pondering this for some time... does Bitcoin actually give us the freedom we all desire? After all, that was the whole point of its creation. A few questions are bugging me that I'd love to discuss here. - Have we missed the point of Bitcoin and strayed from Satoshi's original vision? - Would Satoshi approve of how we're using Bitcoin today if he were around? - How free are we really when we can still get tied up in centralized networks instead of fully embracing decentralization? - What kind of freedom is it when our holdings can be frozen on centralized exchanges or taxed as capital gains? - All these thoughts make me wonder if Bitcoin is being utilized the way it should. If it were being used correctly, we wouldn't even face these issues. To me, freedom means more than just sending money across borders without banks involved. I’m eager to hear what others think about freedom and whether Bitcoin truly provides it.

What's wrong while you did not say about what are wrong so people can discuss about it. Generally with anything, there are people use it rightly and wrongly so it's not strange if they use bitcoin both wrongly and rightly but Bitcoin is just Bitcoin and it's not right or wrong. Bitcoin has many utility and use cases while as a founder of Bitcoin, I believe that Satoshi Nakamoto would feel happy if he witnesses Bitcoin is used very diversifying by people. Bitcoin is decentralized so it's a wrong question or baseless doubt. You made your choice to use centralized exchanges, and store your bitcoins on centralized exchanges, and you must be responsible for any incidents or loss with them. It's not Bitcoin responsibility or failure. Reminder: do not keep your money in online accounts. Ignoring many reminders like above and returning with complaints about Bitcoin is quite unreasonable.

This is not the first time this has been discussed. It had been discussed before I joined the forum and when I came too we have discussed it many times. The uses of bitcoin today is not the core initiative of Satoshi Nakamoto. He created it to be an alternative decentralized financial economy. We were to use it to buy or pay things in a decentralized way from the Centralized traditional methods. But it seems that the Centralized traditional methods is still dominating. For me, the main purpose of Satoshi Nakamoto for creating bitcoin has not been actualized. And now that store of value or investment has taking over the mandate, Satoshi Nakamoto would have created a decentralized marketplace for p2p for the decentralization of bitcoin. And as for your topical question, I will say No.

Everything about bitcoin has been made complete through its network because it is decentralized and no any authority can influence anything regarding it, but the issue we have is about our individuality, where by not everyone has the full potential to understand how they can maximize every opportunity in Bitcoin adoption for their own stability and profitability, this is where we must learn how to engage bitcoin on relevant areas that will profit us, because the reason why it was introduced was to serve the purpose of an alternative.

The thing is Bitcoin actually offer financial freedom but the freedom is conditional not automatic. Bitcoin offers you freedom through self custody, censorship resistance and full control over your assets but the moment you introduced Cex, KYC or services that are custodial, the freedom is significantly reduced. So when you see complaints about frozen funds or people getting taxed, you should know that they're not as a result of Bitcoin failures but the consequences of engaging with centralized layers built around Bitcoin. In a nutshell, Bitcoin is a decentralized system but many users prefer centralized usage. So the supposed gap you are noticing isn't in the original system of Bitcoin that the creator Satoshi Nakamoto introduced but is a gap commonly caused by how many use Bitcoin today.

What more freedom do you want than the financial freedom Satoshi has given to us by the creation of bitcoin. Free from traditional banking stress in terms of banking charges and others by successfully making transactions to whoever, wherever and whenever you want with the help of bitcoin and not involving third party in any transaction you make. Free from high commission from businessmen  during business transactions and importations of their goods. Free to invest with whatever amount of funds you have at anytime for a long term that will make you more richer as long as you are able to hold it without selling at any point in time when .

With so many functions that we can utilize from bitcoin you cannot classify according to what is written or what is expected before, the usefulness of bitcoin depends on yourself as the owner of bitcoin if you have it, so there is no way to treat bitcoin correctly. How do you think we should treat bitcoin? The freedom of bitcoin has its own limits, and is not completely free as the image in the mind is excessive, bitcoin offers cross-border transactions with a faster time effective and efficient and cheap, can be done 24 hours without stopping and also without third party intervention, also not forgetting the bookkeeping that cannot be changed, and much more. I am still confused about the context of the freedom you are referring to.

Bitcoin certainly shows us the path to freedom. But only those who can embrace it in its true form get that taste. Its protocol has given us a power that has never been there before. Now no one can stop your transaction. There are no border and no need to ask for permission. But the sad thing is that most people are sacrificing this freedom themselve. They keep their coin in centralized exchange for some passive income. They leave money in the custody of others and do not see Bitcoin as real money but just use it as a gambling or speculation commodity. You will find real freedom in self custody and actual usage. Freedom does not come from worrying about paying taxes on exchange or getting your account frozen The vast difference between what Bitcoin has power to deliver and what we are currently doing is not a failure of Bitcoin or Satoshi. It is the fault of our habit. Satoshi has given us a powerful tool. Now whether we will be free with it or remain as subjugated as before is entirely up to us. And don't think his revolution is ended, it is not over yet, we are just at the beginning of the story.

Kind of yes, kind of no.  We did if we are talking about the way many Transactions happen.  Many of them are from a platform to another, from a platform to a Centralized Payment Processor et cetera.  But no considering the basic way to spend or receive Bitcoin is still there.  What changed is that a more comfortable way of receiving and spending appeared, which people obviously choose over the less convenient. As I explained above.  Centralized platforms offer the convenience Electrum, Bitcoin Core and other Wallets do not.  But the user virtually signs an agreement when creating an account.  Part of that agreement is that even if the platform is NOT currently freezing any Bitcoin, they may change their mind in the future and the user should keep up to date with what the newest rule is.  It has no thing to do with Bitcoin. In fact.  When you look at people using Bitcoin the basic way versus using Bitcoin in a Custodial or Centralized way, you are pretty much looking at the people who would still be around Bitcoin even if it had not become as gigantic as it currently is versus the people who would not.  The truth is that most people do not care about the Freedom Bitcoin offers.  We ALL care about the monetary value of it obviously, but to some of us losing its monetary value still makes it extremely valuable as we value Privacy and Freedom over any Fiat value. There are other use cases for it.  But this is what sticks to most people as the best thing.  Having complete Financial Freedom.  It is not 'JUST' doing that.  That is a feature no other means of payment has ever offered before.  Not even Gold. From my own time spent all around this Forum, it honestly seems to be the most important part of it.

I don't think so, we are currently on the path Satoshi wanted, I'm not talking about CEX & other centralized entities. Simple answer: yes! What are you talking about here, isn't BTC decentralized? I get your point, we have no choice, for now they will still control us (in the regulatory sense), because if we don't, they will consider us as enemies. If you don't want it, you still have the option to keep it in a decentralized place (non-custodial wallet). Slow but sure bros, BTC will take over in the future. I'm not a veteran of this forum, so I suggest you ask the veterans about the events they've experienced, from rejection to now, with BTC even being available in ETFs.

I think about similar ideas, and the answers depend on where you look. At the secure network/blockchain level BTC still offers all or most of what Satoshi intended. At the point(s) where humans interact with the BTC blockchain we see many issues like fraud, centralization, scams, real-world kidnappings, attempts to ban network access, taxes, fraud, scams, fraud, and the truly popular even more fraud and attempted scams, exit plans, etc.

Bitcoin has given humanity a new kind of freedom, but we still can't fully embrace it. Bitcoin was created with the aim of creating a financial system where there would be no central control and people would have full control over their money. But in reality, we have thrown it into many complications. One big reason for this is that Bitcoin is still illegal or restricted in some countries. However, the original idea of ​​Bitcoin was not to have any restrictions on international transactions. Still, there is no way to deny that Bitcoin has provided financial freedom in many ways. It is acting as an alternative to inflation and giving people the opportunity to think outside the conventional banking system. The problem is mainly in the way we use it. We often do not use Bitcoin in the way it was created. As a result, we are not able to fully appreciate its true freedom. Freedom from financial control - there is hardly a greater freedom. This message was clear from the beginning of Bitcoin, and it is still being operated independently. There is no single person or institution with full control. However, one thing is important - freedom does not come only with technology. It depends on the user's knowledge, sense of responsibility, and real-world circumstances. So the more knowledge that can be gained, the more people will be able to understand the true meaning of this freedom.

I think freedom can be interpreted in many ways, depending on how you view its usage. We know Bitcoin offers freedom in transactions, but why don't many people use Bitcoin? Is it because they are too attached to it, as nowadays many people accumulate Bitcoin as an investment asset? What kind of freedom do you want to achieve for Bitcoin? Truly anonymous? That will be achieved when everyone actually uses Bitcoin. Whether realized or not, centralized exchanges have actually branded Bitcoin as a tradable investment asset, not as a currency that offers freedom in transactions.

I don't think Bitcoin has changed, Bitcoin still retain it's core value. What changed? I think we are the ones who started digressing in the way we use Bitcoin, and most of these digressions are choices, not forced or mandated. Governments are one of the biggest haters of decentralization, as far as Satoshi is a fast thinker, I assume he already knows there will be a certain pinch of centralization in the coming years, but he still knows it cannot be to the extent where Bitcoin loses its initial purpose.

If we look at the whitepaper, there is no way in it that discuss about freedom the humanity strive (whatever you are hinting).  It is about removing the intermediaries or third party institution in our transactions.  It is that, people who are so dedicated in promoting Bitcoin emphasis this so called freedom propaganda to propagate the use of Bitcoin, which is later accepted by many users of Bitcoin and is implanted to many new users. If ever, these so called freedom is the result it is never been the written goal in the Bitcoin whitepaper.

Bitcoin is a currency that can be used by people however they want. The way you use it has its consequences. If you are using it through a centralized platform, be ready to bear the risk.   Many people are still using Bitcoin through P2P, the way it was designed. Satoshi would also be pleased with what Bitcoin has achieved so far. You dont have privacy when you sumit you KYC. And you lose control or your freedom when your coins is in a centralized platform. Keeping your asset in a centralized platform is a choice. There are other means to use Bitcoin without any central authority. Many influential international financial organizations might have been investing heavily in Bitcoin. But the decentralization and privacy features of BTC have not changed.

No doubt that it gives more power in its holder's hands as one can rely more its ownself rathter than depending more on the traditional centralized banking system. There are still many ways in which one can stay anonymous and away from the traditional system. And there is no doubt that as crypto users we are now more used to privacy and anonymity, but at the same time, we also know that things are changing so fast that those days are not so far, I think when governments around the world make such policies that they will start banning decentralized platforms so as to gain full access to the list of all crypto users. And this will really help them to make a lot of money in the form of taxes from each and every entity. And I am personally feeling like this can be a fair reason that the government stated to consider it a legal thing worldwide. As now they also know that it has a big potential which can help them to grow countries' economies. And a big example of this is Trump as since he became the president of the US, his net worth has tripled in comparison with the help of digital assets like stock and crypto market. We all know that all that time when he was damaging the whole crypto space invetors and traders portfolios he was one of them who was making money and increasing its net worth with the help of market manipution.

There are somethings Satoshi left before his disappearance from the internet and I can share you some of them; 1 Bitcoin is 1 Bitcoin, nodes are decentralized and till now validate and propagate transactions, miners still confirmed transactions on an average block time of 10 minutes, there is still censorship resistance, the network has not gone out even for 1 minute, so tell me what's wrong and what you think Bitcoin is having, every other things you made mentioned are subjective to people, they can so what they want. People approach Bitcoin with different reasons, even the government want to have Bitcoin because they can make good money from it but you know Bitcoin was design to be against the government financial institutions but today, Bitcoin and other financial markets are going hand to hand because some people think Bitcoin can do better in price if it can tap liquidity from the general market but that's their opinion, others that see it from other angle will continue to use it that way.

Yes, Bitcoin offers freedom, but to those who understands the important and usage of centralisation and decentralization. If you are new into Bitcoin ecosystem, you could think storing funds on centralised exchange is appropriate not knowing that's a trap set by a body. But if you are old in the game, you already know that decentralized wallet is already your bank, getting control of your assets and spends it the way you want with fee altered and set by the owner is total freedom.

Freedom as a word was never mentioned in the whitepaper directly but reading the whitepaper all indicates towards freedom. The words like permissionless, censorship resistance and all talks about decentralization all of them points to one thing which is freedom. So bitcoin was actually here for freedom, to actually liberate us from some centralized monetary system not to take over totally but to be an alternative. On till today bitcoin has never change from this view, it depends on how you use bitcoin. Take for example it’s actually pseudonymous and at that you can decide to be anonymous or not, it’s not in place of bitcoin to dictate which one to be, same thing as using centralized exchanges or decentralized exchanges, bitcoin doesn’t enforces any thing. It remains an alternative for anyone seeking freedom which isn’t offered in fiat currency