Bitcoin is a Religion
Bitcoin has been written about time and time again, the infamous internet cryptocurrency just crossed a value of $11,000 as of writing this article. Bitcoin’s recent accelerated growth can attributed to its newfound widespread mainstream media attention. With poplar television shows, such as the Big Bang Theory dedicating an entire episode to it, light has been shone on the value of the millennial generation’s “digital gold.” As much as the mainstream now knows of Bitcoin, there’s so much they dont know about it. What is Bitcoin? What is blockchain? What is cryptography? Where can I use Bitcoin? How do I get Bitcoin? And to all these people, I say, read as much about Bitcoin, Ethereum, IOTA, Blockchain, Tangle, and any other crypto currencies or blockchain (or in IOTA’s case, Tangle) technologies as possible, and educate yourself as much on the subject as possible, because we’re just scratching the surface.
Bitcoin is truly limited supply money, and thus deflationary in nature. There always have been, are, and always will be 21,000,000 Bitcoin. A Bitcoin token is released every 10 minutes, with the mineable supply being released in halves every 4 years. This will continue to happen till the total 21,000,000 Bitcoin are in circulation. This limit exists, like gold, so that banks (or miners) are kept in check and are not allowed to arbitrarily issue fiduciary currency tokens (Truly limited supply = truly deflationary currency). The inherent value of Bitcoin lies in this concept, alongside the distribution of information across a global ledger. Total anonymity, total transparency, and a government-free system of facilitating international trade.
There’s much I have to say about Bitcoin, its real-world applications, and why I personally invested in it. For now though, lets talk about why Bitcoin is essentially a religion (To all but Miners). What is value based on? How do we assign value to pieces of paper and metal, and use them as a basis for making payments? — Trust. Trust, and belief in the system. Bitcoin is similar, but also different in many ways. Money has value because as a society we have made a collective decision to accept it as such. Paper money has a financial, monetary value because we believe it does. In the past we measured it against our last limited supply element — gold, this isn’t as much the case anymore. Currency is inflationary, we make more whenever the people we elect deem it fit. The value of money stays the same, as its supply increases. The prices of goods and services rise in light of this newly available amount of money, but peoples’ earnings stay the same. This is the problem with a value system based purely on belief.
This is where Bitcoin is similar to our current accepted version of currency with value. Bitcoin rises in value based on how much people believe in it. When belief, trust, and understanding is up, the value rises. When its down, it dips. This is also the inherent problem with reconstructing a global, societal understanding if value. Building trust takes time. But the more trust and belief we can instill in people about Bitcoin, the more its value rises. Sound familiar?
