building a mental model of Bitcoin

People think about Bitcoin incorrectly. It is evident all over media outlets, it is evident from casual conversations with friends and family, and it is extremely evident from the reactions to financial failures like FTX. It’s really sad to see people conflate the failure of the corporate regulations within FTX as a failure of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin at its most basic level is an agreement between everyone participating. Don’t even think of Bitcoin as a currency, don’t equate it to the US dollar, and don’t think of it as anything physical.

In the same way that the fiat currency system is an agreement between participants to abide by a decree that a unit of currency is worth a certain value, the Bitcoin system is an agreement between participants. Bitcoin is a system of value.

Within the Bitcoin system there is a whole financial landscape — just like how within the fiat currency system there is a central banking system, a federal reserve, and many other financial institutions.

Your private key is analogous to your bank account. If you own the bank account you can access the money, and if you own the private key you can access the Bitcoin. The owner of the private key can send the Bitcoin to any address they please within the Bitcoin system.

Now, the beauty of Bitcoin is that this entire system is decentralized and without corruptible middlemen. The root cause of the chaos and suffering existing within the fiat currency system is greedy actors and bad incentives. We’re seeing the cracks in every iteration of fiat currency systems in the world, and worst of all we’re seeing an absolute collapse in countries like Turkey, Argentina, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, and many more.

Do not equate or even compare Bitcoin with other cryptocurrencies. Every other cryptocurrency is a false prophet. Bitcoin is the most decentralized and the most secure. The incentive over time is to migrate value to Bitcoin.

To be clear, blockchain is still a world-changing technology that will have very cool applications outside of Bitcoin, but other cryptocurrencies will not behave as a store of value like Bitcoin.

Do not take at face value anything you see about Bitcoin in the media. This content is produced by the greedy upper echelon of capitalism who are incentivized to protect the fiat currency system for their own benefit at the cost of the wellbeing of BILLIONS of people worldwide. Every news headline invoking fear of Bitcoin is acting on a misaligned incentive.

Bitcoin cannot fail. There is no such thing as the downfall of Bitcoin. Bitcoin was the most beautiful discovery in our generation and now discovered, it is permanent. We can’t un-discover the number zero can we?

If you see aggressive and argumentative content in support of Bitcoin it’s because we have a duty. There is a place in the world for assertiveness.

Virtues that lead to health and prosperity are assertively passed down from the wise older generation to children. Without this assertiveness children would be left to wander through the world without direction.

Bitcoin is a value system that can save the world from so much unnecessary suffering that we see around us today. Once you understand it, it is your duty to pass it on.