Bitcoin Is a Technology, Not Some Force of the Universe

New Bitcoiners are being brought into the world of Bitcoin through a lens that obscures and distorts the realities of Bitcoin as a technology

The author of the original post, which appeared on Bitcoin Magazine, argues that New Bitcoiners are being brought into the world of Bitcoin through a lens that obscures and distorts the realities of Bitcoin as a technology and what that entails, and tries to pack it into the box of “digital gold.”

This is a disastrous way for people to conceptualize Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a decentralized computer network. The conditions of a network are not a static thing. Environments change, network loads change, behavior of network users change. All of these things can have impacts on the viability and functioning of the network itself.

Gold doesn’t need patches for vulnerabilities. Gold doesn’t have to overhaul major subsystems because a change in user behavior overloaded them to the point of not functioning correctly or efficiently. Gold doesn’t need to worry about Denial of Service attack vectors that could disrupt, or worst case bring down, the entire “gold network.”

Bitcoin does. Bitcoin is not “digital gold,” it is a decentralized network made of software individuals actually have to run and maintain. The Bitcoin goldbugs have completely lost connection with this reality, at least when it comes to rationally assessing risks to Bitcoin, or ways it genuinely could fail or be co-opted.

Bitcoin is going to have problems it needs to solve, at a fundamental technical level. It already does, and it will have more. This is how technology works, it is an inherent part of it. Bitcoin’s value stems from its use as a censorship resistant network, a freedom money no one can stop you from using. That is its core valuable characteristic.

That characteristic hinges entirely on its decentralized nature.

If people do not work to defend that decentralized nature, to interact with Bitcoin in a decentralized fashion, to improve and fix it as needed to counteract limitations or pressures encouraging centralization, then it will not remain decentralized.

We are going to very soon regret the consequences of focusing so much outreach the last few cycles purely on spreading this “digital gold” narrative. This entire generation of Bitcoiners does not fundamentally understand that decentralization isn’t a static unchanging characteristic set in stone forever.

It needs to be maintained.