Why Bitcoin is So Much More Than Money
Why Bitcoin Will Change the World
Cars Turned Out to Be So Much More Than Just Another Way to Get Around.
Automobiles didn’t simply replace the horse and buggy. Rather, cars ushered in an age of massive mobility where billions of people could safely move about at previously unattainable speeds and at practically any time. This led to an explosion in the number of places that people could go to, because cars made it possible to create so many new places and have them thrive. Cars liberated people and the result was profoundly transformational on the lives of everyone. They changed the world.
However, in the early days of the automobile it was not entirely clear that any of this was going to happen. Cars weren’t yet faster than horses. They were vastly outnumbered by horses. Roads weren’t designed for them. There were no highways even. That all changed in time.
Now It’s Bitcoin’s Turn to Change the World
The same phenomenon is afoot today with Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a massive improvement over previous forms of money on every dimension that relates to money and finance. It is secure, scarce and accessible to everyone in the world. It can be sent anywhere in the world. It lasts forever. It is predictable, auditable, verifiable and divisible. It is, simply, profoundly, superior.
As was the case with the buildout of infrastructure for automobiles (including roads, highways, gas stations, auto-manufacturers, and so on) Bitcoin’s buildout will lead to a transformation of our society. Just as cars are everywhere now, Bitcoin will be everywhere soon. It will be able to be sent instantly and cheaply to anyone, anywhere in the world, enabling previously unimagined relationships and interactions between people, companies and organizations.
As this transformation happens, Bitcoin is liberating people from the limitations that previous forms of money imposed on us. It provides freedom from reliance on institutions to store and transfer money; from inflation that is destroying the value of savings and which forces over-consumption in the short term in ways that are unhealthy to people and the planet; from the high costs of sending and converting money across international borders; from limited banking hours; from delays in banking; from minimum transaction sizes; from spiraling personal and national debt; and from many more limitations today’s money has. It eliminates the constraints of today’s financial system.
When Bitcoin achieves mass adoption, our civilization will have taken a leap forward that is just as dramatic as the comparison between the present day and the horse and buggy era. Like the automobile did, Bitcoin will make possible countless new successful ideas which were previously neither viable, nor even imaginable.
Don’t limit your thinking of Bitcoin merely to it being a new type of money. Consider instead that it is an invention that will change the world.
—
Want more? This entire series (plus a 26th bonus article) is available as a pdf or kindle ebook at https://swanbitcoin.com/whybitcoin.
—
This is article 16 of the Why Bitcoin Series.
Next up: