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In the year 1848, a short publication called “The Communist Manifesto” soon swept up millions in a kind of religious devotion, raving about the end of oppressive governments, declaring a world order where power is vested not in the ruling elite but in the roaring voice of the industrial crowds.
In the year 2008, a short publication called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System” soon swept up millions in a kind of religious devotion, raving about the end of oppressive governments, declaring a world order where power is vested not in the ruling elite but in the roaring voice of the paying crowds.
We know what happened the first time around. The toppled governments were replaced by equally oppressive sorts. The naive aim to change human nature and erase the difference between hard workers and freeloaders collapsed under the hammer of reality. The high-minded, unrealistic idealism of communism is being taken care of by the age-old Biblical vision of social responsibility.
Now, the Satoshi Nakamoto round is coming on strong, promising the rule of the crowd via control of the money that runs the world. Alas, Bitcoin is a dynamic beast. As quantum computers progress, Bitcoin will have to adapt and redefine itself. Who will lead the way? The crowds? Not a chance. An anonymous, unelected cabal will rewrite the code, and reroute the money.
The clear benefactors of Bitcoin are the criminal element and international terrorists. The “crowds” are investing in Bitcoin not directly, which is Bitcoin’s claim to fame, but indirectly, relying on off-shore, incorporated financial intermediaries that do not enjoy FDIC protection. Unmindful of the increased risk, so many “crowd investors” are shifting more and more of their retirement assets to the new, soaring rocket: Bitcoin.
We have lost the belief in a solid foundation on which we stand, but which is not us. Human value in cyberspace is reduced to a count of “likes.” When the value of a stock climbs, it reflects an expectation that smart, resourceful people will build something new to advance society. Alas, here comes Bitcoin, sucking off investment dollars with no expectation of any innovation momentum, no industrial ingenuity, no novel products expected ahead.
Bitcoin attracts investors because they believe that, much as they buy this stand-for-nothing-coin today, so will the investors of tomorrow. A price momentum that is based on nothing external, only on its own motion, is not sustainable. Investment companies that dismiss Bitcoin as a ruse still offer it to investors—because the crowd demands it. It is like the Biblical golden calf that Moses’s brother built because the Israelites had no patience to wait for Moses to develop his life “operating system.”
Communism collapsed, and now people return to the imperfections of capitalism. If we are lucky, Bitcoin will collapse before it sucks in the lion’s share of the world’s monetary resources. The day after is what we at BitMint are preparing ourselves for.
When alchemy, an earlier version of this high-minded craze, collapsed, it gave rise to chemistry, which has served us well ever since. When Bitcoin is discredited, it will give rise to a solid Wealth Coin—a digital coin that reflects the wealth of humanity, the worldly assets that sustain life on earth.
The best representation of the sum total of the wealth of human society is through a coin that is a hybrid of all national currencies, reflecting their relative strengths. I have described this vision in Elsevier’s 2024 Handbook of Digital Currency: “How Digital Currencies Will Cascade up to a Global Stable Currency: The Fundamental Framework for the Money of the Future.”
—Gideon Samid gideon@bitmint.com
