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I think people get caught up on technical characteristics and reserve currency conversations. This is probably because many of us are all rich white guys, and tech and preservation of wealth is what is likely to interest us.

But Bitcoin is not just a technology. It is a means of communicating value over time and space, in a way that has never before been possible. The reason it is exciting is not because we can secure our progeny 1000 years from now, nor because we can prove to each other that it can never be changed. It is exciting because the majority of the world is unable to store work-value in a form that cannot be confiscated or inflated away, is unable to send value without fees, is unable to share value without permission, and is unable to relocate without landing, destitute and poor, on the other side of a border.

Bitcoin is not for us. As beneficiaries of US hegemony, our system isn’t all that bad right now. Our banking system exports trillions in debt all over the world in exchange for natural resources and labor. The recipients of debt…IOU’s that cannot be repaid with any goods…are the sad externalities of a system with a set of characteristics that Bitcoin solves.

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Discussion

Gerson Martinez 2y ago

Sir you hit the nail on the head⚡️

⚡️🌱🌙 2y ago

Strong notes, Bitcoin has obvious antiestablishment characteristics.

But to me it isn’t so much anti-establishmentarian as it is supra-establishmentarian. It doesn’t necessarily replace local currencies it exists at a level above them, there will be many scenarios of co-existence.

Bitcoin is a fully functional world currency, as it is a zero trust financial system. Zaps are the latest demonstration of what instant, zero-trust, borderless purchasing power transactions look like.

All of the world’s existing local currencies rely on trust and laws to uphold their value, but math subordinates law.

Law only works if people follow it and believe in it, math works irrespective of what you follow or believe.

One scenario to consider is that Bitcoin is not going to suddenly replace local currencies in a shock event. I know lots of people are waiting / prepping for that and that’s OK. But I think it’s going to happen very slowly and persistently over approximately two generations. It’s also better this way.

In this scenario maybe by 2100 I would guess half the world economy might be bitcoin denominated and half might be made up of the world’s 180 local currencies slowly reducing to 30 local currencies. With the big ones backed by militaries being the stubborn ones.

Local currencies will survive wherever a military power can squat on energy resources. But eventually those resources will dwindle or be technologically superseded. But energy abundance does allow a debt flex whenever required to win a battle. Fiat systems will not vanish any time soon, but they will become islands in a Bitcoin ocean.