Why Bitcoin. Why Now?
On January 3rd, 2009, the Bitcoin network began running. It was in part a direct response to the near-collapse of the banking system in 2008 and the bank bailouts that followed, but it was also a breakthrough in technological discovery that was held in contemplation for over 50+ years by computer scientists.
This breakthrough enabled scarcity on the internet through a technology you may have heard of by now known as Blockchain. Essentially, before blockchain existed, if I were to send you a photo in email or text, I have a copy and you get a duplicate copy. This is fine for photos and other files. But it’s not fine for money, which I would need to lose in order to give to you. Otherwise, we’d be making money out of thin air with every transaction. Bitcoin Fixed This.
The whole point of money is to provide a medium of exchange that is portable, recognizable, durable, divisible, fungible (indistinguishable unit to unit), and scarce. If money does not satisfy all these requirements, it will not be very valuable for very long.
Now, after over a decade of continued government money printing since the bailouts of 2008 and the Covid-19 pandemic causing another ~25% increase in the total money supply, the world is realizing that USD and all other forms of government currencies are all no longer scarce and there’s no telling how non-scarce they become in the future. In other words, humanity is realizing we have a great inflation problem ahead.
In the past, the safe haven against inflation was always Gold because it was regarded as scarce. But after going through a digital revolution in 2020 due to quarantines, gold begins to seem a little clunky, a little too heavy, a little too dirty, a little too antiquated. Insert Bitcoin: with all the properties of sound money that gold used to offer, but on a digitally incorruptible system that is completely finite in its supply and can be integrated seamlessly into our already existing digitized lives.
Humanity is yearning for a return to sound money and humanity loves its technology. The rise of Bitcoin is not a bubble, it is an adoption of the best form of money humans have ever created and with this technology comes a whole new realm of possibilities that will inevitably make the world freer, more economically inclusive, and much more exciting to be a part of.
I am grateful for this technology and how it benefits society at large. I will continue championing it as one of the best investments of our lifetime, financially and societally.
Happy 12th Birthday, Bitcoin!
