Why People Get Religious about Bitcoin
The cryptocurrency’s price is soaring, but the fervor is about more than just an investment opportunity.
By Mike Orcutt
The Bitcoin phenomenon isn’t about a bunch of people who all believe the cryptocurrency is a good investment. That’s part of it. But for many, the belief in Bitcoin’s power to transform society runs much deeper: it’s almost an article of faith. Where does this fervor come from? To understand, it’s important to keep in mind that “the blockchain” is not really a thing.
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A blockchain is a shared, permanent, encrypted data set, created by a network of computers according to a set of software rules. But there are different ways to set up those rules. The word “blockchain” is like the word “vehicle,” explains Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Center, a blockchain-focused think tank. Saying you are putting something on “the blockchain” is like saying you are going to use “the vehicle” to travel overseas. It makes more sense to talk about “about cars, trains, boats, or rocket ships, depending on what it is about the vehicles that we are interested…
