Decentralized Freedom: Why Preppers Should Use Bitcoin

“I don’t believe we shall ever have good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government; that is, we can’t take it violently out of the hands of government—all we can do is, by some sly, roundabout way, introduce something that they can’t stop.” — Friedrich Hayek, 1984 interview with The Journal of Libertarian Studies

Preppers and Bitcoiners are an interesting breed. Both have the common goal of freedom and both are fiercely independent. They see that centralized systems will be used to control people. By corrupting food, healthcare, and society these systems make us weak and dependent.

Bitcoiners see that fiat money is the primary source of corruption. “Fix the money, fix the world”. So they adopt a better standard, a “Bitcoin Standard”. They then improve other areas of their lives, like better food, better healthcare and a better society. They learn the skills that their grandparents knew. They build community. They become Homesteaders and Preppers.

Preppers see the same corruption and adjust their lives to become independent of centralized systems. They also garden, do canning, and stockpile. They also build family and community. But it’s interesting they don’t adopt Bitcoin and many reject it. Lets examine why this is.

Why Decentralization Matters

Decentralization is not just a technical matter, but a moral principle. It’s about returning power to individuals and communities rather than letting distant bureaucracies or corporations keep control. Each time you choose decentralization you gain individual freedom. Together, it creates a world built on voluntary exchange between free people. A few examples:

Decentralized Food → Homesteading and backyard gardening/ranching
Decentralized Energy → Off-grid solar, micro-grids, home batteries
Decentralized Education → Homeschooling and small co-ops
Decentralized Reporting → Citizen-Journalists, podcasters, vlogger, Substack writers
Decentralized Health → Direct primary care and local community-based clinics
Decentralized Governance → Town halls, local councils and in-person assemblies
Decentralized Communication → Encrypted messaging and peer-to-peer tools
Decentralized Social Media → Protocols like Nostr and platforms like Mastodon
Decentralized Cloud → Personal servers, home NAS, and community data centers
Decentralized Markets → Farmers markets, local barter, and time banks
Decentralized Business → Small, local, home-based businesses and family shops
Decentralized Money → Gold and Bitcoin

See the repeating pattern? Less dependence on big systems, more control in your own hands.

Gold: Good, But Hard to Use

Gold (and silver) is great money in many ways:

It has been used a stable money across many cultures for thousands of years.
It is scarce, hard to fake, and holds value over long periods.
It works well as peer-to-peer for local trade.
It works well for central banks and nations that can afford to guard and move tons of it.

But gold and silver struggle in today’s world:

It is heavy and slow to move, especially across borders.
It is hard to divide for small, everyday payments. Silver has solved some of this issue.
It can easily be confiscated or stolen.
Using gold doesn’t scale to regional, state, national, or global markets without banks.

Most people (and Preppers) still live in fiat dollars, even if they love gold. Preppers wish for a return to the Gold Standard of money (pre-1971). This will never happen due to the control of gold by the Central Banks, so many Preppers will continue to rely on corrupt money.

This means Preppers will earn, save, and spend in the very central bank system they know is broken and stealing from them, their children, and their neighbors. They have no exit plan.

“No man should work for what another man can print” – Jack Mallers

There is another way.

Bitcoin: Mathematical and Cryptographic Sound Money

Bitcoin takes sound money and upgrades it for a modern world.

Like gold, it has the classic sound money traits:

Durable (it lasts a long time and can’t be damaged or worn out).
Portable (easy to carry or move from one place to another).
Divisible (each Bitcoin is divided into 100,000,000 Satoshis).
Scarce (maximum of 21 million Bitcoin).
Fungible (each unit is the same, so they can be swapped without care).
Verifiable (easy to check that it is real and not fake).
Acceptable (many people are willing to take it for goods/services since its trusted and know that it will keep its value).

But Bitcoin adds more:

Can be sent anywhere in minutes, peer-to-peer without any banks or corporations.
Transactions are validated and recorded by every node (50,000+) in the Bitcoin network.
Has no central control; Enforces “Rules without Rulers” by math and consensus.
It cannot be censored, stopped, or confiscated.

Bitcoin was launched in 2008, right after the global financial crisis, as a peaceful roundabout way to “separate Money from the State”, like Hayek suggested above. The Genesis block of Bitcoin contained a message referencing this crisis, symbolizing Bitcoin’s purpose as an alternative to the central banking system.

Side note: This crisis erased Trillions of dollars in global household wealth and no banker or politician has gone to jail for causing it.

How Bitcoin Stays Honest

Tens of thousands of independent Bitcoin nodes all over the world check every transaction and block. Any transaction not following the Bitcoin protocol gets rejected.
Hundreds of thousands of Bitcoin Miners use cryptographic energy to secure the Bitcoin blockchain. These miners get paid in Bitcoin as an incentive to secure Bitcoin.
No one can secretly change the rules or make counterfeit Bitcoin.
It arrives in your wallet or it doesn’t. No “check is in the mail”. No take backs.

There is no CEO, no office, and no marketing department. Yet countries, states, companies, charities, and regular people now hold Bitcoin as a secure reserve asset. They can save it without anyone able to devalue it, and are able to send it without censorship.

Common Objections

There are a number of Bitcoin myths that are often repeated.

“The CIA made it” → The code is public, open, and studied by many. No back doors.
“It leads to CBDCs” → Central Bank Digital Currencies are centralized and programmable to control people; Bitcoin is the opposite: independent, non-state money.
“An EMP will kill it” → Bitcoin lives in math and digital copies are in nodes spread all over the world. Some nodes are even hardened in military bunkers, so the network will still run. If there is a worldwide nuclear EMP, then we have bigger issues.
“It’s a bubble / going to zero” → Price is volatile, but it continues to grow over time. After 16 years it’s currently a two trillion dollar asset. It will absorb much of the worlds 900+ trillion dollars in assets in the near future. The price will continue to go up.
“It’s just another cryptocurrency” → Bitcoin is different than all others; It has a fixed supply, the most secure network, and has no controlling company or foundation.
“It’s backed by nothing” → It is backed by energy, cryptography, and incentives. Compare this to the US Dollar which is backed by debt and military force.
“It’s been hacked” → The core Bitcoin protocol has never been hacked; however exchanges and careless custodians have been. That is why self-custody matters.
“It’s too hard to use” → Like the early internet, it feels hard at first. Over time, tools have become easier, friendlier, and more powerful.
“It uses too much energy”→ It uses stranded, wasted, and renewable energy. It also is being used to stabilize electrical grids and to monetize new micro-grids in Africa.
“It’s immoral and the Mark of the Beast” → Bitcoin enforces God’s monetary standard: “You shall not steal” Exodus 20:15. God Himself commanded sound money in Leviticus 19:35-36 and Deuteronomy 25:13-16—’perfect and just weights’. On the other hand, the printing of US Dollars is the modern ‘differing weights’ that Proverbs 11:1 detests and Amos 8:5-6 condemns. These fiat dollars are an abomination for stealing from the poor.
“I can’t afford one Bitcoin. I’m too late”→ One Bitcoin is made of 100 million Satoshis (Sats) so you can purchase or earn a fraction of a Bitcoin at a time. Saying you are too late to use Bitcoin is like saying you are too late to start using the Internet.
“There is no use for Bitcoin, we have Paypal, Zelle, Venmo, etc” → Over two billion people in the world don’t have access to a bank or payment systems. 87% of the world deals with terrible money and/or an oppressive government. Even the Human Rights Foundation now uses Bitcoin to fund human rights activities, because it is unstoppable by authoritarian regimes. Bitcoin has been solving the freedom and monetary problems of the Global South, while the First World is psyoped into thinking Bitcoin is a scam.

“Bitcoin is bad for dictators” – Alex Gladstein, HRF

A Peaceful, Voluntary Revolution

Bitcoin is more than technology. It is the quiet fulfillment of Hayek’s vision — the peaceful revolution against coercive monetary systems. It empowers anyone, anywhere, to preserve their time and energy in a form that resists theft, inflation, and censorship. It represents a return to natural order — systems built from the bottom up, not imposed from the top down.

Preparedness in the 21st Century

Modern resilience is not just:

Food, water, and energy security
Knowledge, skills, and tools
Family and Community

It must also include monetary sovereignty and the ability to save and send value without permission in our modern world.

To start:

Spend around 10 hours learning basics: what Bitcoin is, how to purchase, save, and spend it. How do Wallets work? What is a Lightning transaction? What does a Node or Miner do? How is Bitcoin contributing to freedom around the world?
Start with a custodial wallet and buy a small amount. Practice sending and receiving.
Do automated daily buys of Bitcoin. This is called Daily Cost Averaging (DCA) and is mathematically the best way to buy and save Bitcoin.
Over time, learn Self-Custody and how to secure and backup your Bitcoin wallets. You do not want to lose it or be at the mercy of banks, exchanges, or governments. Learn how to borrow against your Bitcoin asset using a loan or line-of-credit. This is how the rich use appreciating assets, they borrow it from themselves and don’t have to pay taxes on it.

Resources

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