Bitcoin concentrates monetary energy upon a single focus point, much like apertures focus light energy.
Our perception of money is expanding. The way humans think about money, understand it, discuss it and interact with it is changing. As an inverse to previous regressions in freedom like the transition from the gold standard to the fiat standard, we now progress to the inevitably more advanced money of modernity.
In a world with the internet, fiat money is obsolete. Instantaneous global value transfer is not only a necessity but now a reality. An immutable, deflationary computer program taking over the global monetary system should be expected. If humans want to get to Mars, they need Bitcoin.
While Our Perception Of Money Expands, The Aperture Of Money Contracts
As we come from a century of financialization across the globe, we have an excess of “monetary light” present. Monetary light, as this essay defines it, is simply the excess energy spent on this financialization of the global economy. What Bitcoin does is focus this light through an ever-contracting aperture, slowly directing this vast energy of value onto a single focus point.
It is still early on in this process. As William Clemente III illustrated so beautifully for Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin is going to compress quadrillions of monetary energy into just 21 million BTC. The reality shift necessary for this to happen will be dramatic and, indeed, entirely unpredictable.
The future will happen according to the actions of individuals, and the impact of those actions will decide the direction that Bitcoin goes. This shift will most likely manifest itself as major changes in the traditional finance industry.
But, regardless of how it looks, the focusing of monetary energy via Bitcoin will surely happen. Much along the same lines as the black hole analogy, it suffices to say that Bitcoin is extremely effective at gathering energy upon a single point. Once this energy is focused on this point, it would be reasonable to expect an excitation of the point itself — like a fire being lit by a magnifying glass, the concentration of monetary energy into Bitcoin will ignite innovation within the Bitcoin network, further attracting and consuming more monetary energy.
This positive feedback loop will be inextinguishable, and is already at work. It is what allows me and so many others to contribute to this magazine; with Bitcoin, you are rewarded for contributing to the strengthening of the network, which in turn enhances the reward.
The earliest of Bitcoiners know this, as evidenced by their wealth accumulation throughout years of working in the space. What goes around comes around, and when you start sending hard work into the Bitcoin universe, bitcoin comes back to you; and when you understand the scarcity of that bitcoin, you treasure it.
We Can Modify This Analogy; Bitcoin Is An Aperture Fixing The Energy Of Technological Progress Upon Money
Bitcoin is the natural result of human progress. The internet’s invention, the creation of an interconnecting virtual reality which is free to be shaped by the user, was the precursor to a form of money built on these ideals. Satoshi Nakamoto created an interconnecting virtual reality of money, by creating a fixed technology, which allowed the market (price) and industry to be free to be shaped by the user.
“The nature of Bitcoin is such that once version 0.1 was released, the core design was set in stone for the rest of its lifetime.” –Satoshi Nakamoto
To reiterate, it’s actually the rigidity of Bitcoin which enables it to be shaped by the users of the network. This isn’t unlike the protocols which enable the internet as we know it to exist. Consensus is necessary for interconnecting virtual realities.
When Bitcoin was created, the technological progress which enabled the internet was shifted in focus to money, even if only by a small amount. As the network has grown, absorbed brain power from other industries, and therefore the time and output of fantastic individuals, so the aperture of this technological progress has been further focused upon money.
The existence of the network, entirely reliant upon users, is now bolstered by all of the work being done on it. In addition, the built layers that exist on the network serve as applications and uses for bitcoin, and further bolster the network.
A product of human ingenuity, Bitcoin’s network finds its foundations in the same technological innovation which serves as implementation of the grand-scale economic transformation that Bitcoin necessitates. That is, the work that built Bitcoin originally, is now being applied to creating access to Bitcoin for the whole world.
As we haven’t witnessed anything like Bitcoin before, the potential of it is yet to be known. I, for one, excitedly await to see what human progress generates next.
