“Money, we all make it. But before we see it, they take it.” — Marvin Gaye

Concentrated power brings about misaligned control. Misaligned control eventually morphs into coersive might. Coersive might eventually reveals its head as conquest and robbery.

And thus it is, how centralized power plays out.

Even with the narrative of good intention, it becomes hard to continue to put ones trust in the plight of centralized powers, whether they are that of the State, of out of line corporations, or appropriately named ‘central banks’.

But if you know their tools, and recognize the cards they play, you can play your own hand, at their table, and hold a believable poker face through it all.

Know the narratives they tell. Know the abstractions they present. Know the metagames they play while at the table. Lastly, know the estimations and role of chance that shape the outcome.

Hold and play your cards properly.

Fiat, although inflationary, is still currently the card to play to conceal real world privacy in an otherwise digital world.

Stocks, although slow and traditional, is a card that currently still puts you in bed with the interests of Wall Street and the media, two of the biggest driving forces in the history of humanity.

Gold, although archaic, still remains the card to play to align one self with Nation States method to hedge against currency wars.

Bitcoin, although mocked and despised, remains the card to play to hedge against Oligarchy control in todays modern world.

Decred, although still young, remains the card to play to hedge against Oligarchy control on the blockchain.

At any one point and time estimation, pending on the shuffle, any card could be the ‘high card’. Hold and play them properly in strategic fashion, and you’ll find yourself with a Big Full. Just remember that there are indeed numerous hands being played and several powerful players who are accustomed to slight of hand.

Ante Up

Sovereignty , ultimately, is the application of individual might and power . Money, to this point , has merely been a divisive piece that is played in the overall gamification of it. The paradox truth presents itself that in order to ‘play at the power table’, one is required to ante up a bit of their sovereignty in order to join the hand. This is simply an overt and distinguishable fact that one must face when the large majority of the financial markets are aligned with centralized State interests.

Now you can fold at any point, possibly even bust out, but should you want to continue being a part of the current financial power game, each hand requires you continually throw in more of your sovereign chips. Should you want to play the larger hands, usually the ‘Buy in’ is considerably high.

This does not take into account the paralyzing notion that our individual privacy, in both financial terms and not, is being discarded in rampant fashion. Your cards that were once face down, unexposed to the other big players at the table, are now visible to big banks, to government entities, to Oligarchs. Whats the gamble to them if they already have knowledge of your and my next move.

They have had position for a some time now, a poker term referring to the player who, upon seeing what everyone else has played, gets to act last in a hand. Its an amazing advantage that allows smart players the ability to utilize weaker hands to outplay their opponents.

This is what big banks have been doing for decades and the ruling class has been doing for centuries.

However, all it takes is the implementation of one strong play to change the entire tides of the table.

With the implementation of Bitcoin and Decred, society has been given a ‘Pocket Pair’, meaning we have two cards in the hole from the start. The common citizen has the position , not the centralized systerm. Combining this with Decred recently implementing a simple and creative privacy factor to its protocol, it nulls and voids the potential position that centralized power players may have had for some time.

They cant see our play, they don’t know what cards we have laid down, and they certainly don’t know how many more we are holding. Decred gives individuals pursuing sovereignty the leverage to find a small edge, then multiply on it.

Decred implementing privacy is a long term power play. It literally takes away the one of the last remaining advantages that fiat currently still has had going for it, which is privacy in transactions.

Out of a study of 775 historical currencies, 20% failed through hyperinflation. 21% were destroyed by war. 12% were destroyed by independence. 24% were monetarily reformed. 23% are currently still in circulation, awaiting what history says of their outcome.

The power players have started losing their chips at the table.

Know how to play the card game appropriately. Know what to play and when to play it. Through it all, continue to stack your chips (and your Decred) accordingly.

Disclaimer: The preceding is not intended as investment advice but rather blockchain philosophy and monetary theory.

This article is open source, uncopyrighted, free to use for public domain as anyone may see fit. Attribution, although appreciated, is not required.