Bitcoin, the idea, is 15 years old today.
New technology like the printing press is one thing that contributed to the Protestant Reformation that democratized education and literacy across Europe. That's likely also why Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper on 10/31/2008-- A reference to the day Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 theses against the church, 491 years prior. Both used technology to challenge the dominant power structures of the time; books and bibles against the church, and software and cryptography against the banks. 
