To be fully honest, six months ago I understood nothing about cryptocurrency. Zero. Then I decided to write an article on it, simply to figure out whether crypto could be a serious alternative to traditional finance. Faced with that challenge, I gave myself the time to understand the moving parts, the logic behind the hype, and the practical reality. And to be straight with you, I even opened a crypto wallet on a very well-known platform so I could learn by doing, not just by reading.

In the end, ten euros were enough to fund this painful experiment. Painful is the word, because diving into mainstream crypto felt exactly like swan-diving into a slurry pit. From the start I landed in a parallel world where scammers and the hungriest sharks of speculation rule the ecosystem. Fortunately, step by step, I discovered a hidden side of crypto that convinced me the whole thing should not be thrown out with the bathwater. That is what you will discover here, in detail. And you can believe me, it really is fascinating!

Clueless about speculative crypto? Here is a no-nonsense explanation that actually helps.

Let us begin with the most ridiculous side of crypto. I mean the people who crown themselves “visionaries,” parading in Lamborghinis through Dubai while claiming they reinvented money. The only thing they reinvented is ruthless marketing designed to siphon as much cash as possible from the most gullible among us. That part is crystal clear.

And beyond that, we sink even deeper into moral poverty with bottom-shelf influencers who rent a luxury car for the length of a video. Behind their jargon lies small-time grift. They sell you a guaranteed one-way trip to ruin. Before you know it, your wallet is stuffed with worthless tokens named after memes, animals, or the late-night delirium of some guy hopped up on vodka and energy drinks.

Let us not forget the exchanges that do not even reach the security level of a teenager’s private diary. And that is on the days when they are not outright scams built from scratch by criminal networks. The takeaway is simple. Speculative crypto is a vast digital jungle whose real objective is to fatten the fortunes of libertarians who are anything but philanthropists. To see it clearly, map the promises of mainstream crypto onto the wild fantasies of tech gurus and hard-line capitalists. You will get the picture. And yes, it is a worrying one.

Bought shitcoins hyped by scammers like Trump, Musk, and other pitchmen?

In that case, do not show up in tears when your “brilliant investment” collapses faster than a campaign promise. This was not an unforeseeable accident. On the contrary, it was a catastrophe announced in capital letters, with giant signs saying: Do not do this, those promises are too good to be true. If you still charged ahead, well, it is too late now. A handful of millionaires will pop vintage champagne in your honor. That is the only return you will see.

If you did get caught in the trap, I do understand. You believed you could get rich with digital Monopoly money marketed by people whose main talent is manufacturing buzz. It was written all over the wall. When Trump, Musk, or a smaller-time manipulator launches a crypto, it is not about your freedom, and it is not about making you rich. It is about ego, and extracting money from your pocket while you applaud.

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Mainstream crypto is 99 percent marketing and 1 percent reality

Jokes aside, back to earth. We will deal with the scammers in due time. The crypto universe looks like a disco ball. It shines, it spins, it invites you to the party. Inside, it is empty. Yes, a few people made fortunes. That is undeniable. For each dream story, there are thousands who ended up ruined. For each dream story, take the time to examine what is behind it, because many so-called success stories ended as nightmares with prison at the finish line. Others left their heroes poorer than when they started. Some ended in suicides. No, mainstream crypto is not a magical wonderland.

And now I can already hear it. People will say there are stablecoins. Big news. Even coins that claim to be pegged to the euro or the dollar are not safe from collapse. Do not be fooled by the word “stable.” In 2022, TerraUSD promised a one-to-one peg with the dollar. It crashed in a matter of days, producing billions in losses. Why did it happen? The algorithmic system relied on a fragile equilibrium. As soon as confidence eroded, panic triggered a sell-off spiral. Every investor tried to dump the token before the next person. The result was a full value wipeout. And for other stablecoins, even those supposedly backed by reserves in dollars or euros, stability raises big questions. What are the exact rules? What level of transparency exists around those reserves? Are they audited and verified, and by whom? What happens if the custodial bank fails? In a liquidity crunch, can you actually redeem your digital money for the promised currency? So many questions, and no clear answers. That is frightening.

If your dream is to become a billionaire without breaking a sweat, here is a piece of friendly advice. Do like Musk or Trump. Be born into money, and do not worry about the rest. Since your parents probably were not millionaires, try a better path. Improve yourself day by day, and drop the fantasy of becoming a glitter-covered clown worshiped by people who do not understand life. Buy a bit of land and grow food. The return is unbeatable. Plant one tomato seed and harvest several kilos. Sometimes it feels like only nature keeps its promises. That is still a win.

Do not throw the crypto baby out with the bathwater

Yes, mainstream crypto is a jungle. But that is not the whole story. Beneath the heavy crust of schemes and flexing, there is an ethical version that is fully transparent and genuinely revolutionary. Call it ethical crypto. It is worth your attention, because in this decentralized system there are no banks gambling with your money, no billionaires writing the rules from yachts, and no states rewriting laws whenever it suits them.

Does it sound too good to be true? Maybe you suspect there is a catch. That is a healthy instinct. Ethical crypto does not ask for blind trust. It allows you to verify how it works yourself, with no intermediaries and no tiny print hidden in contracts. In the end, there is open source code, security, and freedom. That is it.

“But it is still virtual money.” Yes. Just like your bank account.

Maybe you are nervous because crypto is just numbers on a screen. Fair feeling. Wake up, though. Your bank balance is the same thing. Do you truly believe there are banknotes or gold bars waiting for you in a vault with your name on it? Those numbers are records on servers. Nothing more. To make it worse, you do not even hold the keys to your own money.

With blockchain used properly, you can see everything instead. Where your money comes from, where it goes, and what it funds. You see this in real time, without any possibility of tampering. It might not be as ideal as a Star Trek world that outgrew money, but at the very least it is honest.

Maybe you are still thinking about the scandals in crypto. You are absolutely right regarding the libertarian casino coins. Shall we talk about banks? Remember Lehman Brothers in 2008. Remember Cyprus in 2013, when banks literally skimmed money out of customer accounts. That was not a bug. It was deliberate. Let that be a lesson. When a bank or payment service malfunctions, you can cry, you can file a complaint that leads nowhere, or you can rage on Twitter. With a serious, ethical crypto, you actually have a chance of finding your funds again because you can trace them. Vanishing money is one of finance’s favorite illusions.

Ethical crypto and blockchain live in another world

Far from the noise and the sketchy clips on TikTok and Instagram, there is a true alternative built by serious developers who want to repair a dying system that has run out of road. You do not hear much about these projects because their creators do not flood Instagram or Twitter with bait ads filmed in fake penthouses somewhere “offshore.” Their values are usefulness to the community and the common good, not quick profit.

What can it be used for in practice? Here is one concrete example. Open source protocols already let you send value instantly across the world, with no absurd bank fees and no arbitrary fund freezes. We are talking about platforms where your assets genuinely remain yours.

At this point the key idea is simple. Ethical crypto is built and governed by decentralized organizations that make collective decisions without a hidden boss. While the shitcoin clowns keep doing their show, transparent money is being built quietly, piece by piece, so it can impose itself over time as an alternative that is hard to ignore.

So what exactly is a blockchain?

Before going further, let us make one thing clear. Ethical crypto stands entirely on the foundation of blockchain. Here is how it works. A blockchain is a distributed ledger stored and validated at the same time by thousands of independent computers. Each transaction is visible to everyone, and it cannot be changed after the fact. For this to be truly ethical, two conditions matter. First, no central authority that controls the whole thing. That means no bank or state secretly manipulating the currency. Second, the code that runs the network must be published openly and be verifiable by anyone, which guarantees full transparency. This is the exact opposite of proprietary software locked away on some Big Tech server. In practice, trust no longer rests on opaque institutions but on collective transparency and mutual verification. That technical base is what allows us to imagine a fair currency that resists manipulation.

What a truly libre currency should be

Today, money in circulation barely relates to reality. On financial markets, people speculate on wheat, rice, and corn as if they were betting on racehorses. Prices soar or implode according to traders’ manipulations, with little concern for the real harvests. The result is unacceptable situations where silos are full of grain while millions fall into hunger because sharks rigged the purchase price.

A libre currency must break that mechanism. It cannot be indexed to financial bets. It must rest on real, measurable exchanges. It can also operate through service exchange. One hour of work for one hour of work. A skill shared for a product made. As we suggested earlier, it must stay anchored in the real availability of resources. If energy production is abundant, the currency reflects that abundance. If a resource becomes scarce, the currency adjusts automatically, without passing through speculation. In the end, it is the old spirit of barter, but made fluid and accessible worldwide through digital tools.

To guarantee this works at scale, a libre currency has to rely on algorithmic governance. That means the rules do not get written in secret by bankers or politicians. They are discussed publicly, in an open democratic process where everyone can weigh in. We are all concerned by money and, more broadly, by the economy. We should all have a say in how it works, because it shapes our lives.

Now that the foundations are set, let us explore what we could build concretely with a libre currency through a few clear examples.

Loans in a libre currency

Credit as it exists today is a machine that manufactures dependency and extreme precarity. Banks create money from thin air by way of ledger entries. They lend it, then demand substantial interest that snowballs year after year. The outcome is predictable. The borrower pays twice. First by repaying the principal. Then by fattening an institution that produced nothing real. Families end up in lifelong debt. Countries in the Global South drown under public debt they cannot honor. Money circulates toward speculation instead of funding projects that actually serve society.

In a libre currency, lending would stop being a weapon of mass domination and would become a tool for solidarity. The mechanics are not complicated. A community can extend loans directly to its members to fund an organic farm, an artisanal workshop, or an energy cooperative. Repayments feed the common fund so others can borrow next and launch their projects.

Algorithmic governance plays a central role. Loan criteria, repayment terms, and any guarantees are not decided behind closed doors by a bank or a credit bureau. They are written in open code. Anyone can verify that the same rules apply to everyone. That single change eliminates favoritism and the privileges of a self-proclaimed elite, because money finally circulates instead of merely inflating obscene profits for a tiny minority.

By rethinking credit this way, a libre currency would free individuals and communities from financial tyranny instead of trapping them in eternal debt. That alone would be an excellent starting point for a fairer world that feels livable. What do you think? Come tell us on the NovaFuture forum.

Insurance in a libre currency

The current insurance industry is built on speculation and on the art of the runaround. Insurers collect premiums, place the money on financial markets, and then do everything possible to limit payouts. They feed on opaque contracts, exclusions buried in the fine print, and endless delays imposed on people who have already suffered a loss. The bottom line is ugly. When you need your insurance to work, the money often never shows up, or the payout is far below what your contributions led you to expect.

A libre currency would allow a totally different design. Instead of a private company getting rich at your expense, your insurance would function as a common fund that you and other members manage together.

In practice, that would look like an open source insurance model. Each member contributes in libre currency. When a covered event happens, the payout triggers automatically based on clear rules, known in advance, and written into the blockchain. That wipes out needless paperwork, bad-faith clauses, and the holding company fattening shareholders on your back.

The result is a system that can cover everyday risks. Accidents, illness, theft, natural disasters. Without the permanent exclusion logic that dominates today. In other words, a protective system that is 100 percent mutualist. That would be a radical shift compared with a world where a single life mishap can snowball into disaster.

Examples of libre and open source currencies

There are already initiatives proving that this alternative is more than a nice idea. In France, the June, also known as Ğ1, has been operating since 2017. In this live system, every human being creates the same quantity of currency called the universal dividend. Monetary creation is no longer reserved for banks or for those who arrive first. It is shared fairly among all members. That ensures nobody gains an advantage just by standing closer to the printing press. More broadly, it offers a strong foundation for a universal basic income. We will return to that in detail another time.

Elsewhere in Europe, alternative collectives launched FairCoin, a crypto conceived as the backbone of a cooperative, solidarity-based economy. It is used by activist networks and local communities to organize exchanges without passing through traditional financial circuits. The project is limited in scale for now, but it proves a digital currency can be designed first and foremost as a social and political tool.

There is also Librecoin, a more recent experiment that tries to avoid speculative logic while staying faithful to the spirit of libre software. The goal is not to make a price chart explode, but to build a transparent monetary infrastructure step by step.

Of course, all these examples are still tiny compared with the ocean of speculative cryptos. They nevertheless prove that a digital currency can exist outside the casino economy, and that it can be designed as a common good. The real question is not whether it is possible. We have just shown that it is. The real question is whether we have the collective courage to make these models live in the face of financial giants and their fake promises of wealth.

How to join a libre currency right now

The first step is simple. There are already living communities that use libre currencies daily. Join them and start exchanging. For example, the Ğ1 community, pronounced “June.” It has been running for years and brings together several thousand users. To take part, install Cesium, a libre wallet that lets you create an account, receive your universal dividend, and manage your transactions. If you do not want any technical hassle, this is an accessible door that works for everyone. It is genuinely easy to use.

Ğ1 is not the only example. In other countries, alternative projects are testing similar approaches, always open source, always outside the traditional banking system. If you are motivated to join the libre economy, go explore. You will find what you need.

There is also a second level of involvement for those who want to go beyond being users. Participating in a libre currency means helping its gears turn. In the case of Ğ1, the software Duniter powers the blockchain and computes the universal dividend. By installing Duniter on your server, you directly contribute to the network’s security and resilience. You become a crucial link in the chain and you earn the community’s respect.

For people with strong technical skills, there is a third level. You can run your own Ethereum node with Geth or Nethermind, which lets you avoid intermediaries like Infura or Big Tech offerings. If you want true peer-to-peer exchange without a centralized exchange, Bisq is there. For storage, systems like IPFS or Arweave let you host and share data outside the private servers of the web giants.

So you have three doors. You can start simply by creating a libre wallet in a few minutes. You can choose to contribute more deeply by running a node and strengthening the technical infrastructure of alternative networks. Or, if you have the expertise, you can help build and host the networks themselves. In every case, you stop being someone who merely endures the system. You become one of the people directing a world where the economy finally aligns with human flourishing.

So what is next?

This article is far from the last word. I did not list every ongoing project in the field of libre currency. If you are part of one, leave us a note on the forum and we will give it the visibility it deserves. For now, you already have enough information to take action and to become, step by step, a genuine expert in the libre economy.

Let us be clear. NovaMag’s role is to inform you properly about alternatives to the current system. That is already a lot. Beyond that, we are not here to impose anything or to push you to jump blindly. Especially on a topic like money, whether libre or not, caution is essential. We have zero desire to hear later that you lost your savings in a shady scheme. So yes, explore the friendly world of libre currency, but stay vigilant. And if you need advice or further information before you act, do not hesitate to use our dedicated forum on alternative economies.

To conclude, this article took many hours of work. As I mentioned at the start, I even lost ten euros while investigating the land of shitcoins. If you found this useful, please take twenty seconds to buy me one or more coffees on Buy me a Coffee. And take another twenty seconds to share this piece on your networks. You will find quick-share buttons just below. Take care of yourself, and see you soon with new alternatives that are just as exciting.