If you’ve read The Sovereign Individual by Davidson and Rees-Mogg, you know the power of a global digital currency. In 1997, they predicted a system like bitcoin, ushering in an era where the sovereign individual can control their wealth without permission.

Bitcoin lets you carry your money anywhere, free from the State’s grip — a true path to financial independence.

Newcomes to bitcoin might be swayed by other cryptocurrencies that we lovingly call “shitcoins,” but bitcoin is more than just a financial technology. It’s a moral crusade against centralized corruption.

Here’s why bitcoin, not shitcoins, is the best choice for the sovereign individual.

Bitcoin’s Moral Purpose: A Response to 2008

On January 3rd, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined bitcoin’s genesis block embedding the following message:

“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on Brink of Second Bailout for Banks.”

This quote referenced the 2008 financial crisis, where subprime mortgages, excessive debt and systemic corruption crashed the global economy. The U.S. government’s $700 billion TARP bailout, signed on October 3rd, 2008, saved banks while retail investors suffered.

The reality is that these banks, fueled by fiat currency, were able to commit huge financial crimes, and were bailed out instead of prosecuted.

Bitcoin was Satoshi’s answer to this corruption. It’s a decentralized currency that empowers the sovereign individual by offering an alternative to the rigged financial system.

What is a shitcoin? Bitcoin maximalists consider it to be any cryptocurrency that isn’t bitcoin, but more accurately, a shitcoin is a token without any real utility, that promises innovative technology, or funny memes, and huge gains.

Unlike shitcoins that fuel crypto speculation, bitcoin’s supply cap of 21 million ensures safety from predatory inflation, and it gives sovereign individuals the power to control their own wealth.

Try to withdraw a large amount of cash from your bank account, and you’ll face scrutiny.

Use bitcoin instead, and you can enjoy real financial freedom. Nobody can tell you what to do or make you reveal your financial plans.

National Debt and the Exodus of the Sovereign Individual

The 2008 crisis pushed the U.S. national debt to $10.3 trillion. By the end of 2025, it’s projected to near $40 trillion—a surge of 400%.

And what has all this money been used for? War, welfare and increased government overreach in just about every aspect of life.

That’s the importance of bitcoin’s moral purpose. You can take control of your wealth, enhance your financial freedom…

And at the same time, you can remove your money from the government’s tyrannical financial system.

They print fiat currency to fund their immoral social programs, steal from their citizens, and spread bombs and corruption all around the world. Every western government does it.

By holding bitcoin instead, you reject a corrupt financial structure that steals wealth through inflation.

The Shitcoin Trap: Speculation vs. Sovereignty

Since bitcoin’s creation, grifters, crooks and liars have flooded the market with shitcoins to take advantage of this new financial system.

These tokens, often centralized and volatile, mirror the reckless bets of 2008, luring the greedy into crypto speculation. This is the shitcoin trap.

Bitcoin, with its security, decentralization and moral clarity, isn’t about quick profits — it’s about empowering the sovereign individual with a reliable, alternative way to store and transfer value.

There is absolutely no reason to invest in shitcoins. Bitcoin has a market cap of only $2 trillion, and if it catches on, you won’t want to miss out.

Why Shitcoins Fail the Sovereign Individual: Losing to Bitcoin Every Time

Shitcoin investors have been in a losing position for the past several years. Check twitter and you’ll see their constant pining for the next “altcoin season,” and their next 100x, but this hasn’t happened since 2022.

Maybe there will never be another altcoin season. You never know, but let’s look at some charts to explain how badly they’ve been losing.

Take Ripple (XRP), for example, but this goes for almost all shitcoins in 2025. If you look at the USD chart, XRP is doing very well.

However, the BTC chart looks entirely different. The difference between these charts is almost comical. On the USD chart, XRP is only about 35% below its all time highs, and it looks like its investors are making bank.

But on the BTC chart below, the price is flatlined.

What a difference. This is the reality for most shitcoin investors in 2025. Only the lucky few are making gains against bitcoin.

Sovereign Individuals value their investments in bitcoin. Understand that if you aren’t beating BTC, you’re better off buying and holding bitcoin only.

Below is the chart for one more shitcoin. This one is called Solana, and while it’s doing better than XRP this year, it’s still a far cry from its all time high in late 2021.

Unless you get lucky, you will become wealthier in the long term if you go bitcoin only. It’s the one with the moral purpose, high security and network effect. Shitcoins can be fun if you enjoy gambling, but don’t let yourself be driven excessively by greed.

Bitcoin’s Decentralized Security vs. Shitcoin Vulnerabilities

One of bitcoin’s greatest features is its “immaculate conception,” which I also mention in my article on why to invest in bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto anonymously created bitcoin before disappearing forever in 2011.

Without a central figure, bitcoin’s development is completely decentralized. There is no one organization or individual that can be targeted to undermine bitcoin. Nor is there anyone around who can pull the rug out from under us by abandoning the project, selling all their coins and leaving us with a worthless token.

That’s why bitcoin is such an excellent investment. It’s resistant to change by malicious actors. Bitcoin’s price is volatile, but the network is stable by nature.

Bitcoin’s proven itself as a store of value since its conception in 2009, and has seen incredible average annual growth in USD terms of ~60% since 2017.

On the other hand, shitcoins almost always have a central figure or organization. This is a major attack vector and it’s bad for stability and trust.

Many shitcoins also have premines.

Premine: when a portion of a cryptocurrency’s total supply is created and distributed before the network is publicly launched.

For example, Ethereum’s premine awarded ~16% of the initial coins to The Ethereum Foundation and the developers.

Does this sound fair to you?

The Case of Ethereum’s DAO

Here’s another example of shitcoins going wrong. Back in 2016, a crowdfunded “robo-bank” was made using smart contracts on Ethereum. It was called DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), and it was meant to allow a decentralized group of people to collaboratively decide how to invest money.

Well, someone eventually found a loophole in the smart contract and managed to drain $60 million worth of ETH from the DAO. The organization had raised $150 million, so this was very significant.

People thought DAO was a decentralized project, but after the hack, the Ethereum community, including its creator Vitalik Buterin, voted to reverse the hack by rolling back the blockchain.

This decision led to a split in the Ethereum community and resulted in yet another shitcoin called Ethereum Classic.

DAO’s unfortunate fate was a turning point in crypto. It made people realize that some of these “decentralized” cryptocurrencies or smart contracts could be controlled by centralized organizations. So they were not really decentralized.

This is not the case with bitcoin and nothing like that can ever happen. Bitcoin doesn’t have any sort of centralized community or foundation that’s capable of changing the network.

If you’re a sovereign individual and want to exit the fiat system into financial freedom, bitcoin is the best and only way.

How Bitcoin Empowers the Sovereign Individual

As a sovereign individual, you are responsible for your own finances. Governments, banks and centralized crypto communities shouldn’t be able to control or steal your wealth. In order to stay sovereign, you must consider the implications of centralization vs. decentralization.

Learn more about bitcoin’s value proposition, how it can help you achieve privacy and financial freedom and how it works before making any major decisions.

Bitcoin’s existence is the only thing that empowers us to take total control over our wealth, and for that reason, it behooves you to study it further.

Let’s look at some steps you can take to get started.

Practical Steps for the Sovereign Individual to Adopt Bitcoin

There are many things you can do to explore bitcoin before getting heavily invested. In fact, you shouldn’t make any significant investment before you thoroughly understand what you’re getting yourself into.

The best way to start learning is by reading and doing. Read a book like The Bitcoin Standard and then you can just start trying out some of the tools.

Download a wallet, buy your first bitcoin, and learn how to send transactions privately. You have to see how it works and how it feels to use bitcoin.

Do the work, and only then can you even consider investing. You can contact me if you need any guidance.

The Future of Bitcoin for the Sovereign Individual

The Sovereign Individual book described the future (our present), and accurately predicted the rise of bitcoin and the trend of location independence.

You are no longer trapped inside any particular border, where you have to tolerate being taxed at ridiculous rates. That doesn’t mean you have to leave your home country, but you have options.

Frankly, if bitcoin didn’t exist, this level of freedom wouldn’t be possible. Sure, you could start an online business or get a remote job, but sovereign individuals must be able to control their wealth. No banks, no money printing madness and no withdrawal restrictions.

It’s time to break your money out of prison and be free.

Best Bitcoin Exchange in Canada and Europe

If you’re in the USA, I generally recommend looking into River.com or Bitcoinwell.com, but in Canada and Europe (and Mexico and Costa Rica), Bull Bitcoin is the best exchange.

Bull Bitcoin is bitcoin only, so if somehow my article has convinced you to buy a shitcoin, look elsewhere.

But if you want bitcoin, Bull offers many useful features:

• Best-in-class customer service – unlike most large exchanges, you get to speak to a real human being.
• Multiple ways to fund your account – Bank transfers, e-transfers, SEPA, or even buy with cash in-person at Canada Post.
• Lightning, Liquid and DCA – Save on fees and increase privacy with bitcoin buys and on lightning and liquid networks. You can even set up hourly, daily or weekly dollar-cost-average buys.
• Pay Bills with Bitcoin – You can sell bitcoin directly to any credit card, bank account, or bill payment invoice. Bull Bitcoin allows you to live on a Bitcoin Standard.
• Respect For Your Privacy – Bull Bitcoin never sells your personal information to governments or chain analysis companies.

If you’d like to make your first purchase on Bull Bitcoin, use my referral link to save 0.25% on all bitcoin buys, and help me get a small commission to stack a few extra sats.