ShapeShift CEO: Freedom of currency is like freedom of belief, and Bitcoin is the wind of freedom

In March, at the Texas Bitcoin Conference, Shapeshift CEO埃里克•沃里斯was interviewed by戴维•约翰斯顿, managing director of the Decentralized Applications Fund, where Voorhees touched on a variety of topics, from Bitcoin regulation to his personal stance on altcoins. When Johnston asked what his philosophical beliefs were and what drove him in the Bitcoin industry, Voorhees offered an analogy: the freedom to choose your currency is like the freedom to choose your religion.

Separation of Church and State

When asked what drives him to bring Bitcoin to the world and let as many people as possible know about it, Voorhis said it's like the separation of church and state. He explained that people in developed countries know and agree on the freedom of religious belief, so he wants to introduce this concept of freedom to other areas of society:

"We all know how important it is to live in a country where religious freedom is allowed, because religious belief is something very personal and very precious. But if there is an organization or institution that controls your religious beliefs and tells you what to worship, then this is immoral in a way, and we cannot allow an institution to control something that is very personal and precious to us."

Separation of money and state

After discussing the separation of church and state, Voorhis naturally extended the discussion to the separation of money and the state. Voorhis said that for many people, the freedom to choose money is even more important than the freedom of religious belief:

“Looking at the history of human development, I believe we are now facing another struggle, in the field of Bitcoin, which is the separation of money and state. Money is the most basic thing in our lives, for many people, even more basic than religious beliefs. It affects every aspect of your life. The choices you make determine how your life and the people around you will be affected. Therefore, it is unreasonable and even immoral for us to hand over the choice of currency to a central entity to control or monopolize it, and we should get rid of it.”

The concept of free market is still popular in the United States, but this concept never seems to apply to the monetary field. Although many Republicans believe in the benefits of free market and frequently promote this good benefit in various political speeches, they basically do not implement the idea of ​​monetary competition. Even if the market is allowed to operate freely, it is only selective.

Bitcoin responds to this urgent need for change

Since lawmakers have decided to establish a monopoly on money in each independent jurisdiction, it is difficult for other forms of money, such as gold and silver, to compete with fiat currencies. Although some struggles in the past have led politicians to allow different forms of money to compete with fiat currencies, Voorhis believes that the emergence of Bitcoin will make it so that politicians no longer have a choice.

“It may sound crazy, but we should allow competition in the currency space, just like we allow people to choose their religion. We allow churches of different religions to exist, so why can’t we do the same with currency?”

We have seen Bitcoin compete favorably with the Venezuelan bolivar, but it still has a long way to go. Although people do not believe that such a revolutionary change will happen in the monetary field, at least now there is a competitor to fiat currencies.