TD₿: Can Bitcoin Replace Government-Issued Money? (a debate) by Saifedean Ammous & George Selgin
TL;DR Bitcoin is a shot across the bow at government’s monopoly control of money.
Hey Bitcoiners,
This morning, this video came across my feed of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler educating his peers on the history of Bitcoin.
“He/she/they [Satoshi Nakamoto] didn’t have faith in the financial sector overseen by folks like us, sitting around this table.”
You got that right, Gary! Furthermore, since Bitcoin’s arrival in 2009, I would argue that faith in the traditional financial sector has continued to deteriorate as faith in Bitcoin has continued to strengthen.
Two charts that help highlight this reality are these two:
1.) Confidence in major U.S. institutions just hit an average all-time low. Only 27% of U.S. adults have a lot of confidence in institutions. Banks suffered the third largest YoY decline in confidence after the U.S. Supreme Court and the presidency.
2.) The number of addresses holding a balance of >0.1 BTC continues to increase steadily. Bitcoin adoption continues to spread as more people are putting their trust and storing their wealth in this monetary protocol.
As we look around the world today and see central banks and governments struggle to maintain even a semblance of stability in their currencies, it’s becoming obvious that it’s completely asinine that the most important good in the economy, money itself, is controlled and manipulated by a small group of individuals. There is a better way, and people are starting to take notice.
Bitcoin was created as new digital money that no one can control. It is money that can be transacted peer-to-peer without anybody’s permission and that can be audited by every single participant running a full node. On top of that, it is digital and can be sent across borders at low cost and nearly instantly with payment scaling solutions like the Lightning Network.
This new technology has all the traits required to replace government-issued money for good, but there are still doubters who think that Bitcoin lacks the characteristics to serve as money.
Debates can be helpful because they promote open dialogue and critical thinking, help individuals from different backgrounds link together ideas, and make complex concepts more understandable. Bitcoiners can learn from them to strengthen their own arguments, and they also help show us where some of the bottlenecks in understanding still exist.
One such debate around Bitcoin’s ability to replace government-issued money occurred between Saifedean Ammous and George Selgin a couple of years ago, which is worth a watch. (08/22/2019).
Today, people are losing trust in the institutions that manage the financial system, but at the same time, many still don’t understand the solution to this problem, Bitcoin.
I believe more debates will serve to illuminate the benefits that Bitcoin brings to the world and will help turn Bitcoin doubters into Bitcoin proponents.
Tick tock next block,
Cory Klippsten
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