Bitcoin changed my life, and it will change the world, too.

Chiming Wang

June 27, 2024

Many people have a negative opinion of Bitcoin, even without knowing much about it. They tend to believe that Bitcoin is a scam, or a bubble, or that it can easily be hacked. But if you look deeper into what Bitcoin really is, you'll begin to understand that Bitcoin is much more than what it seems on the surface.

I first heard about Bitcoin from my mom in 2018, when I was in middle school, and I initially thought it was a scam or an internet meme. I didn't think much of it until 2020, when prices stagnated around $10,000.

Near the end of 2020, right before the 2021 bullrun, I heard of Bitcoin again. I was curious, and I naturally started doing research. I eventually bought four GPUs and used them to build my own crypto miner. But while this didn't yield a lot of money, it taught me the truth about Bitcoin. During this time, I read books like The Bitcoin Standard and learned more about the world economy and money system and how Bitcoin can improve both. Bitcoin completely changed my perspective on the world and future, and it set me up to make even bigger gains with crypto and defi in the current 2024-2025 bullrun.


Bitcoin is hard money.

Bitcoin, a revolutionary new type of money, has a fixed total supply of 21 million coins (there are about 19 million right now, and 2 million coins will be released in the future by miners). Because of this, it's a type of hard money that makes it virtually immune to inflation. By contrast, governments and their central banks can print fiat currencies at will. They can instantly control the money supply and wealth of everyone in the country or the world. This system gives too much power into the hands of a concentrated few. Bitcoin's scarcity enforces a predictable monetary policy, and when people hold Bitcoin, the supply of available Bitcoins decreases. This results in a lower time preference among members of society, leading to long-term economic planning and savings.

Bitcoin's status as a hard money makes it suitable as a store of wealth, especially for those living in unstable economies using primarily fiat currencies. Bitcoin has experienced heavy adoption and usage in Venezuela, where poor fiscal policy resulted in the hyperinflation of the bolívar and destroyed the finances of most families living in the country. Citizens lost trust in the bolívar, but Bitcoin's fixed supply and predictability made it a viable alternative for keeping wealth.


Bitcoin is decentralized.

The first thing I learned about Bitcoin is that it's just a fully decentralized ledger protocol running on tens of thousands of computers (Bitcoin network) around the world. There is no central authority that controls Bitcoin — everyone controls Bitcoin. This makes it virtually impossible to hack, hijack, or take control of Bitcoin. Bitcoin (and crypto in general) is the most secure, distributed form of money ever invented.

Bitcoin's decentralized and distributed nature means it is highly resilient against regulation, making it a good form of money or store of value for people in authoritarian regimes or unstable economies. During the 2020 protests in Nigeria, the government restricted bank accounts linked to activists, showing how much power governments have over fiat currencies and the fiat money system. Bitcoin emerged as an alternative, allowing activists and leaders to bypass state-imposed restrictions and effectively fundraise for their cause.


Anyone can issue new Bitcoins.

In the traditional banking system, a centralized bank or government controls interest rates and money release rates to control interest. The people who use the banking system don't have any power over this. In the US, the Fed controls inflation, and everyone else is powerless.

Bitcoins are issued through the process of mining. Miners validate transactions and secure the network, and they're rewarded with Bitcoins in return. Anyone can be a Bitcoin miner, as long as they have a computer and a connection to the Bitcoin network. Because you are reading this blog right now, I would assume you have a computer and an internet connection. If you wanted to, you could download any free, open source Bitcoin mining software and start mining Bitcoins.


Bitcoin transactions are immutable and trustworthy.

Bitcoin uses a blockchain to record transactions. Blocks cannot be reverted, meaning transactions are immutable. In the traditional money system, banks can revert and tamper with previous transactions. This cannot be done with Bitcoin, which is another reason why Venezuelans transact with Bitcoin.


Bitcoin's monetary policy is completely transparent.

Bitcoin's inflation and issuance process is controlled by the Bitcoin protocol. Every 4 years, the mining reward decreases by 50% (this is what the “halving” is), which systematically reduces Bitcoin's inflation rate to zero. This predetermined, transparent monetary policy means Bitcoin's supply cannot be manipulated, improving trust and stability.

This is completely different to how centralized fiat currencies operate. In fiat currency systems, governments and banks can print unlimited money and devalue the currency. This hyperinflation is what's happening in Venezuela.


Bitcoin is the most accessible and portable currency in the world.

Bitcoin is completely digital, and there are Bitcoin nodes all over the world (and even in space). This means anyone in any country can access their Bitcoins and transfer money if they have a computer (or phone) and a connection to a Bitcoin node (internet access isn't needed!).

Borders and holidays don't exist in Bitcoin, making Bitcoin the best way to send money internationally. Traditional international wire transfers through banks take many business days to verify and send, while Bitcoin transactions usually take around 10 minutes and are very secure. Wire transfers also don't work at night or on weekends. Because of this, wire transfers only work during 24% of the week (40 hours per business week, divided by 168 hours per week). Bitcoin transactions work 100% of the week – including at night, on weekends, and during holidays, no matter what.

People all around the world use Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies to send remittances from abroad. Notable examples of this include citizens in Venezuela and El Salvador.

Let's go back to the idea that Bitcoin is completely digital. Anyone can carry their Bitcoin wallets across borders. Bitcoin wallets are backed up by seed phrases, meaning any citizen can simply memorize their seed phrase, delete their Bitcoin wallet, and still retain access to their Bitcoins. This means it is virtually impossible for governments or other organizations to prevent individuals from storing Bitcoin.

If an individual wanted to flee a tyrannical government, they could preserve their wealth simply by memorizing their seed phrase, carry nothing physical with them, and still retain their wealth. Once in a safe environment, the individual could input their seed phrase into a new wallet and access their Bitcoin again. Because Bitcoin is the most widely accepted and adopted cryptocurrency in the world, the individual can easily sell their Bitcoin and swap it to a local currency to be used.


Bitcoin changed my life.

The title of this blog post states that Bitcoin changed my life. You may have believed this post would be about how I started in Bitcoin and how much money I made. In this post, I didn't talk about my profit at all because I aimed to talk about Bitcoin as a technology and currency.

Although I made money with Bitcoin, and this affected my life to an extent, Bitcoin changed my life because it changed my mindset and the way I think. I spent hours going into deep online rabbit holes about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, which completely changed how I view the economy and world.

Bitcoin is a tool for revolution. It can completely replace our existing, flawed financial systems and is a technology that benefits all of society.

Bitcoin gave me more hope for the future of freedom, society, and humanity, and hopefully, my writing did the same for you.





More

Bitcoin changed my life, and it can change your life too. Bitcoin, and crypto in general, is the intersection of many many complicated fields, including hardware, software, cryptography, economics, governance, politics, payments, finance, networks, open source, art, culture, game theory, startups, and more.

Below, I've included some resources so you can read more about this:

  1. The Bitcoin Standard (Saifedean Ammous) - https://saifedean.com/tbs
  2. Bitcoin Whitepaper (Satoshi Nakamoto) - bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf
  3. Inventing Bitcoin (Yan Pritzker) - https://www.swanbitcoin.com/inventing-bitcoin/
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