Have you ever tried to ask someone who has just bought Bitcoin for the first time why they made this choice? Most of the time the answer is the same: I want to make a lot of money by taking advantage of the incredible growth of Bitcoin.
New entrants mainly want to be part of the big profit party that Bitcoin has been leading since October 2020.
If you ask the same question to someone who has been in the Bitcoin world a little longer, you will often get more interesting answers:
“I’m in the Bitcoin world for the technology.”
“I’m buying Bitcoin to take back the power over my money.”
“I buy Bitcoin to protect myself from the great monetary inflation.”
“I buy Bitcoin because it stands for freedom.”
Becoming a Bitcoiner is a long and exciting journey
This shows you how far those who have become convinced Bitcoiners have come over time. Indeed, we should not lie to ourselves. Most people who buy Bitcoin for the first time do so to make money.
There is no shame in that since the possibility of seeing the fruits of one’s labor grow over time is one of the important attractions of the Bitcoin system.
The problem is that many people just don’t want to do anything else. After an initial purchase of Bitcoin, these people do not seek to learn more about Bitcoin and the economy. This prevents them from understanding why Bitcoin is a monetary revolution that will change the world of the future for the better.
Worse, it prevents them from realizing that Bitcoiners are fighting to preserve the Bitcoin revolution so that we all have a better alternative to the current system in the future.
For these newcomers, I’m going to go over the 4 essential rules of the Bitcoin protocol. A way to show them that Bitcoin is about more than money, it’s about power.
1. No monetary inflation
After the 2008 crisis, Satoshi Nakamoto made the same observation as many others about the flaws of the current monetary and financial system:
“The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.”
Fiat currencies require that the people have complete confidence in these powerful people for everything to work properly. We have to be able to trust that the powerful at the head of the current system will not abuse their power by constantly increasing the money supply in circulation.
As Satoshi Nakamoto noted at the time, the central banks had already betrayed the people many times.
The measures taken since March 2020 in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic have finally confirmed that the endless printing of fiat money out of thin air was indeed the original sin of a system that will end up falling sooner or later.
In designing Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto wanted to address this problem by endowing Bitcoin with incredible monetary attributes:
- A limited supply of 21 million units no matter what.
- A programmatic and predictive monetary policy that does not depend on the arbitrariness of humans.
With Bitcoin, you are guaranteed that 1 BTC purchased today will still be worth 1 BTC in 21 million units in 10, 20, or 50 years. This makes Bitcoin the best savings technology in the world. Without the risk of suffering the consequences of a debasement decided arbitrarily by a powerful few, you can invest the fruits of your labor safely in the Bitcoin network.
2. No confiscations
You work hard to earn money to ensure a good future for your family. The fruits of your labor are often stored in your bank account. You think this money is yours. It should be.
However, your bank, which is a private institution with its own rules, may decide to confiscate the fruits of your labor for arbitrary reasons. At that moment, you will find yourself deprived of what belongs to you.
Is this normal?
No, of course not. But that is the way the current banking system is. Governments also have the power to ask banks to unjustly confiscate the fruits of your labor.
This is not normal.
Bitcoin solves this problem. Once you have the private keys associated with your Bitcoin, no one can take it from you. Bitcoin is encrypted P2P money. With Bitcoin, you really take control of the fruits of your labor. You are the only one in control, so you can live your life on your own terms.
3. No censorship
The fruit of your labor stored in a bank account can be confiscated at any time by arbitrary decisions of a few humans. They are therefore all-powerful in the current system.
Even worse, the banking system has a total power of censorship over your money.
Let’s imagine that you want to send a large sum of money to the other side of the world to a person of your choice. Well, your bank is likely to stop you from doing that, and then your government will come and question you about why you are doing that.
It’s your money, but you don’t have the right to actually use it the way you want. You have to obey their rules. Your money, their rules. You have to obey, otherwise, you will be excluded from the banking system.
In countries with authoritarian regimes, it is even worse. Political opponents cannot use their money for equally arbitrary reasons. To silence them, totalitarian and corrupt leaders can seize their wealth. A good way to exert pressure.
With Bitcoin, you can use the fruits of your labor as you wish at any time. No one can stop you from making a transaction on the Bitcoin network. With Bitcoin, you simply become your own bank. The power is in your hands.
4. Anyone can verify rules 1 to 3 at any time
After reading the first three rules, you might tell me that this is good, but that it requires you to believe what I just told you. Well, no! Bitcoin has a simple slogan to remember:
“Don’t Trust, Verify”.
Bitcoin pushes you to verify everything yourself. The reason Bitcoin pushes you to do this is that you can do it at any time.
Anyone can verify that rules 1 to 3 are respected. It’s easy to do. All you have to do is become a node in the Bitcoin network. It’s even mandatory if you really want to have power. By running your own node, you become a bank in your own right.
You don’t blindly trust other Bitcoin network users, but you do the audit yourself, which helps to constantly build your confidence in the Bitcoin system.
The Bitcoin system is auditable by anyone at any time because its blockchain is permissionless and trustless. It’s up to you to use the power that Bitcoin gives you.
Final Thoughts
You just bought Bitcoin thinking you were going to get rich. You’ve just discovered that Bitcoin is a complete paradigm shift aimed at giving you back the power over the fruits of your labor. To understand this, you have to go beyond just wanting to make more money.
You need to open your eyes to the flaws in the current system and understand that Bitcoin is your best chance to regain power over your money in the future.
By integrating the 4 essential rules of the Bitcoin protocol I’ve just detailed, you’ll already be on your way to realizing the liberating power of Bitcoin in your life. The first step on an extraordinary journey.
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