It has attracted a lot of attention and hype lately, for obvious reasons. Many people have gotten involved for the sole purpose of earning money. Until recent drop it seemed so easy, right? Buy some bitcoin and watch it grow. Maybe even trade it, or buy up all the GPU's you see for mining. Easy money. And I'm using the term "Bitcoin" loosely for any sort of cryptocurrency, really. Like media does.
Between all this hype and superficiality it seems that people take granted what bitcoin is. They don't even think of if.
"Well, it's a cryptocurrency. You can mine it and trade it for monies!"
Well, yes. It is a cryptocurrency and you can trade it for monies - but there are reasons why someone put effort into making Bitcoin in the first place, the OG of cryptocurrency, the proof of concept.
So in order to explain the title of this post, we need to look into "Why?" of Bitcoin.
The very first block in Bitcoins blockchain contains this message:
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.
Two purposes in fact.
First of all it is a proof that the first block was indeed created on January 3rd 2009, as it contains the date as well as direct reference to The Times cover article at given date as a proof.
A statement about our everyday monetary system, the fractional-reserve banking system.
This system is often criticized because of how unjust, stagnated and - frankly - ridiculous it is. It is a central system, controlled and manipulated by a few. It is a broken system that is being kept alive artificially, because our society "needs" it. It is a perpetual inflation machine that generates global debt with unpayable interests, while making select few unimaginably rich.
This is a whole subject in and of itself. But my point is:
"Satoshi Nakamoto", the creator of bitcoin proposed a new system in order to fix this.
Note that I put quotes around the name. That is because this person does not exist. It is just an alias.
This is also important because this proves that Bitcoin was not created by a person looking for attention or recognition. Or by a company that tries to make business out of it.
No. Bitcoin since its very origin and philosophy is open(-sourced), anonymous and decentralized. This is also the core of what makes Bitcoin different. It is made for the people, by the people.
Bitcoins purpose is to propose a monetary system that takes control away from central banks, and gives the control to anyone who wishes to partake in it. It is a very liberal and transparent monetary system that is self-regulating, and ungoverned.
It is not made so you could make dollars and euros with it. It is made to replace them.
Which brings me to the next point, and the title of this article:
Nothing. It is worthless until people make it worth something.
And this relates very much to the "real money" we use everyday. Money used to be backed with gold, now its just backed with a promise, a debt.
So in that sense, bitcoin is very much the same as "real money".
Bitcoin was worthless for a long time. In fact it was ridiculed, for being useless - that no one would ever ACTUALLY use it, because you cant buy anything for it. No food, no shelter, no services - NOTHING! Thus, it's worthless, right?
The very first transaction for bitcoin was on May 22nd of 2010, when 10 000BTC was paid for 2 pizzas. It is now known as "Bitcoin Pizza Day". Over a year after bitcoin was released.
You are probably well familiar with DOGE coin.
Doge was at that time a popular meme.
DOGE coin was created as a parody of bitcoin. The limit of coins was raised and difficulty of mining them was lowered. Just so everyone could easily be a "DOGE millionaire".
It is not because of some product that bitcoin offers that it has risen so high in price and demand. It is because bitcoin fixes a lot of problems in our current monetary system.
And what gives bitcoin value is the people. The visionaries. Those who see the real potential and value of what bitcoin can provide.
And it is just a beginning. Bitcoin has spawned hundreds and thousands of other cryptocurrencies, many of which try to improve on bitcoin itself.
But one thing is for sure - bitcoin has proved that the concept of cryptocurrency works.
It doesn't really matter how much 1BTC is worth in dollar or euro. For every government issued currency is essentially corrupt. What really matters is the idea - the separation from centrally governed currency. A transparent currency that cannot be controlled and used to manipulate many by chosen few.
And the people who understand that - these are the people who gave bitcoin a value when it first started.
And these pioneers will always give cryptocurrency a value until a better alternative emerges. It doesn't matter if it's Bitcoin, Ethereum or ShitCoin. Until there is no better alternative, cryptocurrency will always have a place and value.
So people who say that Bitcoin is just a bubble - a ponzi-scheme, a nothing. They don't really know what they're talking about, or they have interests elsewhere.
So if you're in this cryptogame superficially, because of all the hype, and you don't really care - go ahead and dump your coin because CNN told it's a bubble that is collapsing.
The ones who value crypto for what it truly is - they already know what to do. You know why you're here, and what comes next.
We don't need Bitcoin to be worth more dollars and euros. What we need is grocery stores, landlords, service providers and retailers who accept Bitcoin as a payment option - a viable monetary system. And that is no bubble, but a much bigger picture and progress than +1000% in 2017.
That is the reason why they are doing everything to make people lose faith in the cryptomarket and dump their coins.
