BiFi — “pieces of meat” (Lusoga and Luganda, Ugandan).
Imagine a world in which WiFi is not just data signals but can also be free Bitcoin satoshis!
Call it BiFi (Bitcoin WiFi) World.
I speculate below on how it would work and why it would be a pretty good idea.
This Is Not UBI, Really.
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a scheme that hopes to give people some free money be it dollars or shillings, to sustain their livelihood every month.
Some argue it is not a good free market idea, as free things for some means leeching the hard work of others.
I agree.
Moreover, UBI is a dollar scheme, and dollars are printed by some people. Hence, people will be spending debt, while the demands of living skyrocket necessitating that they be given even more debt to spend.
Arguments for how AI will unleash so much abundance on Earth for a minority owning these AI systems, seem to make UBI possible and to actually warrant that it be implemented.
After all, why should anybody be making billions of dollars every year while other people starve?
However, the reality is that AI systems are nowhere near the level of autonomy needed to make massive profits without considerable human input.
A billion dollars in profit, if made mostly by human labor, will not be made when these are given away freely to non-working people.
It is Psychology 101.
I’d rather earn free money than sweat it out at a job.
My idea is different. My idea is more economic unity effected through unconstrained egalitarian sharing in a scarce digital commodity.
The Future of Charity Is Free Sats for All
The world of BiFi or Bitcoin WiFi would be a generous world.
Certainly far from 1984.
Instead of corporate surveillance as done with free information packages, companies give you real goodies as a way to effect corporate social responsibility.
And it can be done.
States could jump aboard too.
Unlike UBI, states shall not be trying to feed people with these satoshis. They will be like candy for children and adults alike. Good candy for creating unity, peace, and encouraging people to dive deeper into the arcane world of cryptographic protocols. A most decentralized way of encouraging innovation in society as a whole.
Instead of taking away autonomy, you give it to people. Instead of states banning cryptography like happened with Phil Zimmermann and his PGP, they could encourage it by spreading some value.
The ethos of sharing satoshis is deeply rooted in the Bitcoin community. However, the problem with current implementations is that it requires sitting somebody down and convincing them about this great technological idea called Bitcoin.
People are afraid of scammers. Especially when it comes to finance, people would rather they keep ignorant than run into something they do not quite understand.
And there is a lot to unpack.
Scarcity
Digital money
Cryptography
Cryptographic keys
Signing
P2P
Austrian economics
Etc
It is quite a lot.
Just Give Anonymous People Sats, and Let Them Explore
1 bitcoin has climbed back to $59,000 as of this morning, EAT.
Divide this into 100 million, and each satoshi still goes for only $0.00059.
To share sats freely and without requiring KYC (it doesn’t require KYC), people need to run, at the very least, lighting network/LN nodes.
But these are expensive.
So, the next best alternative is to use LN apps which charge a few fees.
Now, imagine a poster with something like an SSID or a QR code for a WiFi network, except it gives out some free satoshis every, say 10 minutes.
Say, 100 sats.
This isn’t life-changing money. But it is free, and if legally authorized (as has to be for any crypto project today), it could be something done as a 24/7 autonomous charity system.
After downloading the required BiFi app, scan the QR code or input the SSID, and voila, enjoy you receive 100 sats.
No need to enter your name, no need for an ID, nothing.
Just like WiFi.
You get the password, and you enjoy.
What Could Happen?
The Bitcoin community is not growing quickly because very few people are getting some sats on their phones.
There is the orange-pilling arc, and I am lucky to have dived in because of it.
But I needed to be sent some sats by a Machankura ambassador. And being a content writer perhaps, I later found a way to earn more sats, hence, participating more.
The rest is history.
A lot of people might be like me. Others, might only need to touch some sats and see how uncomplicated holding some can be.
And by extension, all crypto tokens can be WiFi-d.
But Bitcoin is my thing.
Because it is scarce.
So, this will be true charity work.
Circa 2025, there might be a “bank run” on the Bitcoin blockchain. The price will shoot up from $70k to $200k.
Demand will be through the roof!
Don’t Airdrop It, Wi-Fi It.
No need to shill anybody online.
No marketing campaign needed.
Simply, give it to people, and see what they do.
Yes, you could later put out a data collection form for those who have been orange-pilled.
Later, not before.
It will go a long way to spread this goodness everywhere. Flaws and all.