Why Bitcoin Exists
Why Create Bitcoin?
Why did anyone bother to create Bitcoin? What problems were they trying to solve?
If you’re new to this idea of a digital asset that has something to do with the mysterious field of cryptography, these are some of the questions that are probably on your mind.
That is if you’re even asking questions rather than getting caught up in the excitement of something new you don’t understand, but heard you could get rich from.
Bitcoin was created to serve a very specific purpose. Bitcoin was engineered to serve that purpose precisely.
The purpose of creating Bitcoin was to provide reliable money that would serve all mankind, forever. That’s a pretty lofty goal — serving all of mankind, forever!
But Was There Even a Problem in the First Place?
Is our money unreliable? Does it fail to serve all mankind? Is it only here for a short time?
The sad fact is that the answer to all these questions is “Yes”.
Our money is unreliable: it loses its purchasing power through inflation. We experience volatile economic cycles that destroy capital, jobs, wealth and stability.
Our money does not serve all mankind: many middle-men take unreasonable fees to hold and transmit money. It is expensive to use abroad since it must be converted at a significant cost. Many people in the world lack access to the banking system. That system serves elites far far better than it serves ordinary people.
Our money will likely only be here for a short time: currencies are rapidly losing purchasing power and even collapsing all the time. Paper money decreed into existence by governments has failed every time that it has been implemented throughout history.
And sadly, we can’t turn back the clock and go to the past when gold was money, or at least to when currency was backed by gold. Gold is simply not secure from seizure and far too difficult and expensive to transmit in an international, worldwide economy.
Bitcoin Fixes This
Bitcoin was created through an ingenious and meticulous combination of technologies to, for the first time, provide money that is reliable, serves all mankind, and will work forever. Nothing like it has ever existed before.
Bitcoin is free of inflation: its supply will never exceed 21 million coins (each divisible into 100 million units called Satoshis). It’s emission schedule, which will last for over 100 years, is fixed and unalterable.
Bitcoin is for all mankind: There are no elites who can manipulate it. Nobody can conjure bitcoins effortlessly out of thin air to distribute that freshly conjured supply to themselves or cronies who support them. Nobody can be prevented from using Bitcoin — it does not recognize any authorities who would prevent people from using it.
And Bitcoin is forever: It depends only on the laws of physics to operate and these will stay in effect as long as the universe exists.
Bitcoin is not here for people to get rich quick. Getting rich in terms of a form of money that itself will lose purchasing power and be gone someday may not be such a worthwhile thing to focus your attention on.
With Bitcoin you can keep what you’ve earned, which is a lot better than hoping to get lucky or having to outsmart everyone in financial speculations where elites and insiders already have unfair advantages.
To you, Bitcoin is reliable money that can serve you for the rest of your life, so that you can focus on being your true self, instead of a victim of a broken system.
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Want more? This entire series (plus a 26th bonus article) is available as a pdf or kindle ebook at https://swanbitcoin.com/whybitcoin.
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This is article 25 of the Why Bitcoin Series.
