Bitcoin Is No Fait Accompli

Perhaps the biggest cultural shift in my eleven years in Bitcoin has been the transition from tinkering techies emphasizing “don’t invest more than you are willing to lose”, to the Michael Saylors of this world telling everyone to sell their house, car and wife (and then go into debt) to buy more bitcoin.

Whenever I listen to the macroeconomic commentators in this space (who for the most part started popping up some five or six years ago), I usually feel there is one key point they keep missing. Sure, Bitcoin is no longer just the experimental new project it was over a decade ago— but it can still fail.

The list of things that could go wrong is too long to include in this Take, but suffice to say they include everything from too much centralization to too much decentralization. (If —say— mining centralizes too much, Bitcoin can be regulated to death. While the project could literally and figuratively fall apart if people can’t even settle on a single set of consensus rules; something we came uncomfortably close to during the block size wars.)

I do think Bitcoin can overcome these problems. The incentives for Bitcoin to succeed are strong, and —perhaps more importantly— smart and motivated people from around the world can help figure out solutions for whatever challenges Bitcoin may face.

But in order to do that, the problems need to first be acknowledged, and then fixed. Selling your house, car and wife to simply buy and hold bitcoin is not going to do it.

This article is a Take. Opinions expressed are entirely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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