Did we need inflation to ultimately discover bitcoin?
Discussion
Need? Maybe not. Will it be more obvious with it? Yes.
It will only become more obvious over time
We've had inflation since banks were restarted in the 13th century after the fall of Rome. So there was a lot more that we needed in terms of infrastructure and invention to make this happen.
Was inflation necessary for inventions and improvements in infrastructure?
I don't know if I would use the word "necessary", but our civilization had no way to prevent it until the base layer Internet protocols came online. It took about a decade of development, from 1995 to 2008, until the pieces came together to create the new monetary foundation that we needed. And it took about 10 years after the launch of that system for it to spread wide enough to really catch people's attention and begin the adoption curve. We're at about 5% adoption right now.
The ability to tame the forces of nature, from physics to electronics to data management is one of the steps in the ladder that might take us beyond the final Great Filter. Whether we succeed, only time will tell. But now we have the second of the resources of civilization under control, Capital. Bitcoin provides that foundation, until its successor comes along in a few hundred years. First was invention/innovation, although without a secure foundation of Information it's a bit wobbly. Nostr is a good tool to use to build those two, but only if we don't allow edits.
Brother, I like the way you think
Bitcoin was written in direct response to inflation.
Satoshi literally wrote it into the genesis block.