Fuente: https://privatekeys.org/2020/05/16/bitcoin-en-tiempos-del-coronavirus/#more-616
- What does Bitcoin have to do with the coronavirus?
- Nothing!
The answer seems obvious ...
However, although at first glance it seems that they have nothing to do, the era in which we live does have a lot to do with the reasons why Satoshi created Bitcoin and why the cipherpunks searched for such money for so long.
One of the most relevant aspects is the type of money and the amount of money. In times of the coronavirus, governments' solution is to print gigantic amounts of money. As if photocopying would save lives or create wealth.
And yet it makes sense! I mean, it makes sense for a state to take these measures, I don't mean that it's good for society. If they have the ability to create money from nothing and with that money they can “help those who need it most”, why shouldn't they create it? It is too great a temptation not to fall into it. Above all, why not create it if 90% of people do not realize its negative implications and also those implications are not suffered by those who make the decision?
Actually, I don't want to go into analyzing if that is "good" or not. I simply want to state that states are going to print money and it is impossible to convince them not to do so because the incentives are very clear to do so.
Therefore, if we have money, we will lose purchasing power. The result is that saving will be increasingly difficult, as is happening right now, for the umpteenth time, in Argentina. It will not be possible to save to live the end of life peacefully.
This was true until 2009. On January 3, 2009 Satoshi Nakamoto changed the world although only Hal Finney realized it from the first moment. Bitcoin is a decentralized protocol, with no servers or clients, just equal nodes. And decisions are not made centrally, but by consensus. One of the consensuses in the code is the issuance of bitcoins. Said emission is not decided by a central authority (there is not) but by mathematics. It is burned into the software: 50 bitcoins were created every 10 minutes the first 4 years (actually every 210,000 blocks), 25 bitcoins every 10 minutes the following 4 years, and so on, half being made every 4 years. On May 11, 2020, the third halving occurred, passing the issue of 12.5 bitcoins per block to 6.25 bitcoins per block.
Interestingly, f2pool, the pool that mined block 629999, that is, the last block with the subsidy of 12.5 bitcoins, entered the following message in its COINBASE transaction:
NYTimes 09/Apr/2020 With $2.3T Injection, Fed’s Plan Far Exceeds 2008 Rescue
Again the headline of the front page of a newspaper (this time the New York Times) talking about the amount of money to be printed. All a "nod" to the genesis block (the first block in the chain), created by Satoshi Nakamoto where in the coinbase transaction you can read:
TheTimes 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks
So, during 2007/2008 large amounts of money were printed to "solve" the crisis and it seems that was one of the reasons that led Satoshi to create Bitcoin. Not so much the fact of bailing out the banks, but the fact that the state has a monopoly on money creation, especially relevant in times of crisis.
The total amount is irrelevant. It is not important that they be 21 million. It would be exactly the same as 42 instead of 21, nothing matters. What is really important is that the broadcast is recorded on fire, it is known and cannot be changed. You can know with total certainty how many bitcoins were created in 2009, 2010, etc ... and how many bitcoins exist today. But we also know for sure how many will be created in 2050, in 2080, at any given time. Fortunately, there is no “guru” who “watches over the general interest with brilliant ideas” and decides at any moment how much to print.
Some think that 21 million is not enough for it to be used as a currency, but it is because they do not know that there are 8 decimal places. Actually, although there is talk of bitcoins in the code there is no amount that is bitcoins, what is counted are satoshis. A satoshi is one hundred millionth of a bitcoin. So yes, there are enough. Also in the second layer (Litghtning Network) milli-satoshis are already used and smaller fractions could be used. In summary, that there will never be more than 21 million bitcoins and that they are enough.
So we have 2 facts:
a) On the one hand, governments are going to print gigantic amounts of FIAT money ($, €, yen, yuan, ...). An impossible fact to avoid.
b) on the other hand, there will never be more than 21 million bitcoins. Also impossible to change. "More impossible" if you allow me.
We cannot change either of these two realities. But today, thanks to Satoshi Nakamoto we have a choice. And our decision is free. And so it should be.
The other aspect of Bitcoin that is especially relevant to me these days is its component of neutrality and freedom.
Bitcoin is "permisionless": you do not have to ask permission to use Bitcoin. You download the open source software, execute it and you are already part of the Bitcoin network. You do not have to provide ID, open an account or have “papers”; You can be white, black or yellow, man, woman or what everyone feels. There is also no minimum age. It is totally voluntary. We are all equal, truly equal, for Bitcoin.
Bitcoin knows no borders: there is no concept of where bitcoins are. Bitcoins are nowhere, so there are no borders either. If you cross a border, you don't carry your bitcoins. They were not with you in one country, nor do they go with you to another country.
This component of neutrality and freedom is especially relevant today, given that most of the world is subject to serious restrictions on freedom that are not always completely justified by the health emergency. We are at great risk that our freedoms will be seriously curtailed permanently. We are at risk of walking into an Orwellian state. And Bitcoin represents an air of freedom, neutrality, and equality like no other currency.
I am convinced that the more totalitarian a government is, the more it will make Bitcoin uncomfortable. The freer a country, the more respected the rights and freedoms of its inhabitants, the better it will welcome the birth of this new way of communicating value between free and equal people that is Bitcoin.
