Breaking FUD is now available in German!

There are more than 100 million German speakers around the world and now all of them can read Breaking FUD! This year’s BTCTKVR magazine, which focuses on debunking the most common misconceptions about Bitcoin, has been translated by Ray Rizzling and is now open source under the Creative Commons Zero license.

Thanks to the contributions of Sebastian van Staa and Christian Luecke (of Mallorca Blockchain Days), the translation also received some proofreading and a seal of approval. This was a necessary process in order to make sure that German readers would find a clear and easily comprehensive text which challenges their deepest fears about Bitcoin.

Why is Breaking FUD a big deal? Because it takes the exact opposite approach: instead of telling people what is Bitcoin, it start from the assumption that the media already told them. Instead of pursuing a potentially divisive ideological approach, it presents some facts about government regulation, altcoins, scaling, security, price volatility, use cases, energy consumption, mining centralization, education, and mainstream acceptance. And instead of trying to target a specific demographic which is more likely to read the work and support the mission of the Bitcoin project, the Breaking FUD magazine takes the riskier path of using facts in an attempt to appeal to everyone.

Explaining to people what Bitcoin is not is of utmost importance – especially in an environment which tends to antagonize and nihilistically question the significance and utility of such an invention. Bitcoin has been around for 14 years, billions of people are already aware of its existence, but what they know is only what their media and politicians misinformed them. Using these subjects of “FUD” as a starting point for the conversation is important, as it invites people to use the information that they know and have it challenged by facts of which they were not aware.

FUD is a natural response to new information. The first reaction is to fear anything that radically changes what you know about a certain subject – especially if it has the potential to disrupt your daily life. The second reaction is to feel uncertain about what you previously perceived as a threat – is this even real or just a fad that everyone will forget in a couple of years? Was it really worth your consideration? Then the third and last reaction finds itself in the middle of the two extremes: fear and acceptance. Will this new concept even accomplish what it says it does?

A true skeptic can only embrace Bitcoin after wrestling with the circle of FUD. And when the main source of information is the mainstream media which is primarily financed by banks and governments, it’s useful to have the other side of the story.

Breaking FUD is structured with efficiency in mind: it could have easily been a book, but it was intentionally made more accessible. Anyone who questions the legitimacy of Bitcoin can find an article that will make them think twice about the information they previously knew. There is no commitment involved: for those who worry that Bitcoin consumes too much electricity, there’s article 7 which presents the greater perspective of the debate – and does it in a 10-minute read which compresses information that would otherwise take hours to find and put together. Nowadays, everyone is busy and has a rather short attention span… which is why Breaking FUD optimizes for quick and efficient information delivery.

On a personal note, I’m extremely proud of Ray Rizzling’s work. It feels good to see that open sourcing content pays off in such unexpected ways. Last year’s BTCTKVR magazine was translated in French and Spanish – languages in which you’ll probably be able to read Breaking FUD soon. This year, the translation season starts with German and aims to penetrate the cabinets and coffee tables of Goethe readers worldwide.

During my conference presentations and pitches, I like to remind people that the price of bitcoin can easily surpass $100.000 via grassroots adoption. We don’t need Black Rock, DCG, Microstrategy, Tesla, and all the other parasites who report their profits in US dollars and have very little concern for the mission or well-being of the project. Bitcoin was not made for them. Corporations and banks don’t need censorship-resistant and unconfiscatable digital cash. They don’t care much about the consequences of inflation, as the Cantillon effect puts them in a pretty good position to receive the fiat money before the prices rise and the average guy faces the harsh reality of a diminishing purchasing power.

Bitcoin is useful for billions of people worldwide. But due to the negative media coverage it regularly gets, many people who really need Bitcoin end up never even considering it. This is why Breaking FUD exists and this is also why it’s going to get translated in as many languages as possible. For this purpose, I’m going to make sure the magazine gets printed, distributed, and read by everyone who really needs to.

Breaking FUD über alles!

Follow Ray Rizzling’s work and check out his rare physical trading cards! Thanks again for your monumental effort, buddy!

Read Breaking FUD in German on the Bitcoin Takeover website or download it from GitHub in print quality!