Bitcoin, you are now 16 years old, in your teenage years. These are usually the years in which, for many people without consciously realizing it, a person makes decisions that shape the course of the rest of their lives. It is very rare for someone to get a “redo” to undo choices that limit them to a certain path in life.
I fear that you, or rather Bitcoin users, are about to make one of those critical mistakes that will have dire consequences for the rest of its existence.
We are experiencing unprecedented growth at this time. The price is approaching all-time highs, finally surpassing 100k, major countries are discussing the possibility of creating strategic Bitcoin reserves, and we are reaching escape velocity. In the aftermath, people became completely dependent on the narrative that we had already won.
They can’t sleep at night without saying to themselves, “We’ve already won.”
Meanwhile, Bitcoin is not scalable at all. If tomorrow the world realized they needed Bitcoin, everyone would still be stuck holding their coins with Coinbase or JP Morgan, because the system isn’t large enough for everyone to hold their coins. All these people will be monitored, will not have freedom, and their coins can be arbitrarily confiscated at any moment by order of the government. They will not be able to start a business or build anything innovative, nor will they be able to spend their money however they want, without permission from the government.
“Well, sovereignty isn’t for everyone, it’s a responsibility. They wouldn’t want that anyway.” The situation of these few “elites” would not be much better either. They may not be able to seize a self-seized user’s coins as easily as a self-seized user’s coins, but they don’t have to. They can just grab you. They can track you, watch you everywhere, and when they get the idea that you’re trying to do something they don’t approve of, you go to jail. That would be a threat to anyone trying to innovate or build in a way that the government has not approved.
Stablecoins are also facilitating new demand routes for US Treasuries as our enemies begin to scale back their purchases. The things that Bitcoin has spawned into this ecosystem, out of necessity to help the Bitcoin market itself survive, I might add, are actively helping to sustain the dollar. They are doing the opposite of the long-held promise to overthrow the dollar.
This is the way we are on. One where Bitcoin He managed Government surveillance and controls. Where those things actually help. Why are we on this path? Bitcoin doesn’t scale enough, and there are no incentive-compliant, privacy-sustaining tools (that are simple enough and not too expensive to discourage people who aren’t actively looking for privacy).
The path we are on now is that people are willing to flip out, abandon any future for Bitcoin that would create a formative change, and do whatever the government wants to get rich. Beyond that, nothing fundamental will change about people’s financial lives and their relationship with government. We must acknowledge these problems and support actual solutions to reduce their seriousness, and not simply repeat the phrase “Bitcoin has already won.”
Bitcoin has the potential to bring about a lot of positive change in the world, but it won’t do so if we feel overconfident, arrogant, and apathetic about solving problems we’d rather pretend don’t exist. Listening exclusively to the arrogance of youth is rarely good for the party involved.
Bitcoin is too important to mess up making the same reckless mistakes teenagers make. So don’t do that.
This article is a takes. The opinions expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
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