{"id":524274,"date":"2024-07-25T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=524274"},"modified":"2024-08-08T08:52:35","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T06:52:35","slug":"bitcoin-suits-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/economy\/bitcoin-suits-switzerland\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin suits Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Switzerland, a country of freedom, neutrality and decentralization, should be interested in bitcoin. After all, bitcoin is a free, neutral and decentralized currency.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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L\u2019original article<\/a> is published in German in <\/em>Schweizer Monat.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Article 2 of the Federal Constitution of 1848 stipulated: \u00abThe purpose of the Confederation is: to assert the independence of the homeland in relation to third parties, to maintain internal tranquillity and order, to safeguard the freedom and rights of the Confederates and to promote their common prosperity\u00bb. It was on this basis that a once poor and backward country became one of the richest in the world. Since then, technical developments have changed many things, and the progress that goes with them is moving ever faster. Today's world is much more interconnected and international than it was 175 years ago and, with the advent of the Internet, less territorialized. Laws are still local, but work, production and communication are increasingly global in the information age, and business models are internationalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new era also gave rise to a new type of currency during the financial crisis of 2008\/2009: bitcoin. It has no clear creator, and is not issued by any central authority. It is open (and therefore accessible to all), transparent (and therefore verifiable by all), censorship-resistant (and therefore freely usable by all) and organized in limited quantities and in a decentralized way (and therefore difficult to manipulate, whether by states or multinationals).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read also | Blockchain as the revolution of the 21st century<\/a><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

All these characteristics apply to a greater or lesser extent to gold, as they do to other precious metals. But bitcoin is more practical than gold and perfectly suited to the information age: on the one hand, the cryptographically-secured currency makes it possible to store the value of very large sums in a very small space. On the other hand, this infinitely divisible currency enables very small amounts to be transferred in a matter of seconds via the Lightning Network, as with Twint. The two fundamental requirements of money in everyday life - its usefulness as a store of value and as a means of payment - are thus satisfied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But bitcoin also reflects the values associated with Switzerland, a traditionally liberal country:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Voluntary work.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

While Swiss franc banknotes and coins are subject to a legal obligation to be accepted by everyone, bitcoin is not bound by any constraints. Its use remains voluntary and therefore peaceful: like a contract freely entered into, it is only concluded if both parties agree. Bitcoin simply aims to become the monetary infrastructure of a world based exclusively on free exchange and collaboration. And it provides individuals with the tools they need to act without being controlled by the state. Like products and companies on a free market, bitcoin remains an offer. The Confederation is also a society of consent, which can be entered by marriage or naturalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Neutrality.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

As Professors Andrew Bailey and Craig Warmke point out in their article \u00abNeutral Money: Why Bitcoin Stands Apart\u00bb, bitcoin was born neutral, neutral in current monetary policy, neutral in transmission. Bitcoin is therefore truly neutral, and imposes itself on no one. Just like Switzerland, which offers its good offices as a mediator in international conflicts. It thus embodies the principle of non-aggression described by the American economist Murray Rothbard, according to which no aggression, whether emanating from a state or an individual, can have any moral justification. Like any liberal, Switzerland wants its companies and people to be able to trade freely with the whole world, and to be left alone for the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n