The key to understanding Bitcoin

It’s not about how; it’s about why

The first time I saw Bitcoin mentioned back in early 2013, I was intrigued, looked up the White Paper, and immediately grasped that it would be massive. Though generally, I’m very slow to adapt to new technologies. At the time, I had a flip phone, no social media, and my electric toothbrush was the third most advanced technology I owned.

In the seven years since I’ve noticed how unusual it is for people to immediately grasp the value of cryptocurrencies. Very often these people are more computer literate than I am. They fixate on the how and struggle to understand the technical aspects of complex and novel systems. And they don’t spend enough time on the why.

Bitcoin is better than the Federal Reserve. Cryptocurrencies will emerge better than our modern systems not just in finance, but in a myriad of industries. It’s not about how they are better, but why. Once you shift that focus, things become much clearer.

The problem has always been power. Power is what corrupts our money, it’s what corrupts our politics. It’s what corrupts our inter-personal relationships. Most people don’t spend much time considering the corrupting influence of power because flawed as our systems are they have always been this way, and aside from fringe experiments at a small…