Don't Write Off Bitcoin Just Yet
I'll admit it—I used to brush off Bitcoin. It seemed like a tech bro fantasy or a high-stakes gamble for people trying to get rich quick. But as I dug deeper, I started seeing it differently. Bitcoin isn't just a new form of money—it's a commentary on the old one. And once you start questioning the monetary system we've grown up with, it's hard to unsee what's been hiding in plain sight.
In 1971, the United States ended the convertibility of the dollar to gold, effectively removing the last link between paper money and a tangible asset. This decision marked the full shift to a fiat system, where money is backed only by government decree. Since then, inflation-adjusted wages have stagnated while the cost of living, asset prices, and national debt have soared. Critics argue that the system incentivizes endless printing and debt expansion—problems Bitcoin was created to address.
Bitcoin adheres to the principles of "sound money," a term used to describe money that holds its value over time. It meets all six classic characteristics of money: durability, portability, divisibility, uniformity, limited supply, and acceptability. With its fixed supply cap of 21 million coins, Bitcoin directly contrasts with fiat currencies that can be inflated at will by central banks. This scarcity is what many believe makes it an ideal store of value in the digital age.
Economists like Lyn Alden and fund managers like Lawrence Lepard have made compelling cases for Bitcoin not as a get-rich-quick scheme, but as a hedge against systemic risk. In Lepard's essay, The Big Print, he warns of the dangers posed by unchecked money printing and ballooning fiscal deficits. Alden, meanwhile, highlights Bitcoin's role as a neutral monetary network in an increasingly fractured world. Both stress that Bitcoin's potential lies not in speculation but in structural resilience.
The historical lens also offers insight. Over the past 500 years, dominant reserve currencies have come and gone—Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French, British, and now the U.S. dollar. None have lasted forever. With the rise of geopolitical tensions and digital sovereignty, the global economy is becoming more multi-polar. In this new landscape, trust in centralized institutions is declining, and alternatives like Bitcoin are gaining legitimacy—not necessarily to replace fiat currencies, but to coexist with them as decentralized checks on monetary power.
Bitcoin may never fully replace the dollar, and that's not the point. What matters is that it's an open, censorship-resistant alternative in a time when people are looking for more control and transparency.
I'm not an evangelist—but I believe it's a mistake to ignore what Bitcoin represents. In a future where money could evolve in unexpected ways, it's wise to understand the options before us. I don't know what global money looks like in 100 years. But I do know we'll need systems that people can trust—and Bitcoin may just be one of them.
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