What are the rules for the US Dollar? The only one I’m certain of is I need to keep making more to survive. I also know the bit I earn tends to vanish through taxation. The bit I save tends to shrink through inflation. The bit I invest tends to feel like gambling a casino.
The rules of World Currencies are shrouded in secrecy. The only thing we know for certain is world currencies have an implicit goal of making the rich richer and keeping the poor in check. The rules of the Bitcoin game are explicitly written and therefore can be completely understood by its owners. This is a very critical distinction.
Imagine playing your favorite sport where a mystery person is allowed to change or add rules without telling you. You just know you need to put the ball in the goal to score points. That game would suck. Because it would feel unfair. The winners of that game would favor lawyers over athletes because advantage would go to those who figure out the new rules fastest versus those that are actually good at playing the game. Most athletes would prefer a game with well-defined rules determined by the players. Rule changes would be proposed and only implemented with agreement from the majority of the players. That game sounds much better. That’s how Bitcoin works. In Bitcoin we call rules protocols.
Bitcoin has a very clearly written set of protocols. The most famous one being that the network is decentralized. The second most famous being that a maximum of 21 million Bitcoins will ever come to exist. It also has an explicit predictable inflation rate. Meaning I can tell you exactly how many Bitcoin will exist in and year. The network protocol is also borderless, censorship-resistant, open and neutral. This is the starting point for a clearly defined game.
Now this sounds rather extreme to elect to play an entirely different game. But the differential is not as daunting as you would imagine. Whatever your profession can continue being your profession. When it comes to the chaos of understanding what’s in your wallet or bank account, for the first time you have a choice when it comes to choosing a game with rules you fully understand, have voting rights, and a shared value system.
