Popular chatter has it that Bitcoin will be most helpful to people in “developing countries,” because they're “unbanked” and “undocumented.” Poor souls.
This kind of talk would give you the mistaken impression that, for example, first-world Americans are super excited to be banked and documented. But not all of them are.
One young Arizona couple – the recent parents of baby Neo – is setting out to give their son a life unencumbered by “government documents for proof of birthday and location of birth.” They're even kicking his paperless life off with a tour called Undocumented Human, which will promote Bitcoin at locales in Arizona, California, and Texas (including the Texas Bitcoin Conference).
Apparently the young parents – Alma Sommer and Brian Stith – aren't alone in the purposeful non-documentation of their son, either. Undocumented Human is more than a tour: it's a complete network of parents who support the “idea that an individual does not require any papers to be free.” A slew of mothers and fathers whose children are, in their own words, “home-grown, free-range human[s] – like they used to make.”
Generation Z. . . Will Not Be Banked?
Undocumented Human's tour announcement says of the parents:
“Their decision to take their son on the road will be to encourage a future where he and others will be able to find work when needed, a place to stay, a cold drink and some warm food, all without having to use the dreaded federal reserve note.”
And Generation Z is the first one in a long time to have the option, too. Past alternative currency movements have been fraught with hurdles, like the impracticality of dividing precious metals or the problems of trust with private paper money.
Bitcoin solves these problems and more, making widespread use of an alternative currency a real possibility for the first time in a long time. What’s more, the vision of an undocumented Generation Z could indeed be the future if the “decentralization of all the things” continues.
Some claim that “libertarianism” – like that of the Undocumented Human network – just needs to be removed from Bitcoin in order for the currency to achieve mass appeal. But it must be admitted: the libertarian idea of raising an entire generation of children who don't qualify for bank accounts would undoubtedly achieve the bank-less society that the decriers desire.
Whether cryptocurrency is more used by the unbanked of the third world or the first, the decentralized money revolution will continue giving options to those who lead alternative lifestyles.
Did you enjoy this article? You may also be interested in reading these ones: