Bitcoin, you are 16 years old now, well into your teenage years. These are usually the years in which, for many people without even being consciously aware of it, they usually make decisions that will shape the course of the rest of their lives. It's very rare that someone gets a “redo” to undo choices that lock them into a certain path in life.
I'm afraid that you, or Bitcoiners, are currently making one of those critical mistakes that will negatively affect the rest of your existence.
We are seeing unprecedented growth at the moment. The price is near an all-time high, finally breaking 100k, major countries are debating creating strategic reserves of bitcoin, we are hitting escape velocity. As a result people have become completely dependent on the narrative we have already earned.
They can't sleep at night without telling themselves “we've already won.”
At the same time Bitcoin is completely unstable. If tomorrow the world realizes that they need bitcoin, everyone will be involved in keeping their coins with Coinbase or JP Morgan, because the system does not scale enough for everyone to keep their own coins. All these people will be monitored, they will have no freedom, their coins can be arbitrarily seized at any time by government order. They will not be able to start a business or build anything innovative, they will not be able to spend their money as they wish, without permission from the government.
“Oh well sovereignty isn't for everyone, it's responsibility. They wouldn't have wanted it anyway.” Those few “elites” won't be much better off either. They may not be able to capture self-reserve user coins as easily as keeper coins, but they don't have to. They can just catch you. They can follow you, monitor you everywhere, and when they catch you trying to do something they don't approve of, go to jail you go. That will hang on the head of anyone who tries to innovate or build in a way that is not approved by the government.
Stablecoins are even actively enabling new avenues of demand for the US Treasury as our enemies have begun to scale back their purchases. Perhaps the things that Bitcoin has grown in this ecosystem, out of need to help the market for bitcoin itself to survive, help to maintain the dollar. They are doing against the long promise that the dollar will be removed.
That's the path we're on. One where Bitcoin enabling government monitoring and control. Where it really helps these things. Why are we on that path? Bitcoin does not scale far enough, and there are no compatible and sustainable incentives for privacy (ie that are simple enough and do not cost a ban to discourage people who are not actively seeking it) for privacy reasons).
Right now the path we are on is that people are willing to move in, give up on the future of Bitcoin creating creative change, and what the government wants to make rich . Beyond that, not much will fundamentally change in terms of people's financial lives and their relationship with the government. We need to recognize these problems, and support solutions to alleviate the problem, not just sing ourselves to sleep with “Bitcoin has already won.”
Bitcoin has the potential to bring about so much positive change in the world, but not if we just get too confident, crazy, and ignorant about solving the problems we'd rather be. pretend it doesn't exist. He rarely listens to the arrogance of youth only to the appropriate party.
Bitcoin is too important to make the same kind of reckless mistakes that teenagers do. So don't do it.
This article is a Take. The views expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
