2017-12-14

Bitcoin Is One Sliver of Revolutionary Change

Cryptocurrencies are not only a story of finance and technology, but also the fracturing of nation-states in a time of declining social mood.

Bloomberg: Bitcoin Is a Bit of a Miracle at Any Price
One striking feature of bitcoin is the sociology of its acceptance and promotion. There is a small coterie of people who have mastered the details of its operation, and ownership is quite concentrated. You can take that as evidence for a manipulative clique and thus a bubble, or it may be a sign that the price could yet rise. I am regularly struck by how many people, including business sophisticates and my professional economists, have little idea how bitcoin works. They seem to have no interest in buying it, but perhaps that will change, if only through their pensions and mutual funds.

The real story of bitcoin is a heartening one of community. Less than 10 years ago, the bitcoin asset was worth virtually nothing, but a small group of people believed in it and worked tirelessly to promote it, and now the whole world is watching. It’s a tale at least as old as Christ and the Apostles. Maybe the bitcoin believers are as much of a miracle story as that of the brilliant inventor Satoshi.

The thing is, I don’t always believe in miracle stories of community, not in these days of declining governance and possibly fraying social order. Yet I’ve become emotionally involved in tracking the bitcoin price, perhaps because I realize that if one such miracle of “ex nihilo” creation can be sustained, others are on the way. I don’t think bitcoin is a bubble, but every morning I wake up doubting.
Many communities and nations will be born in the coming centuries, if not the coming decades. Cryptocurrency is one expression of an online community. Next will be law, and then digital land. New diaspora tribes that transcend borders will rise, perhaps eventually staking a claim on soil, a floating city, or a space colony.

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