Why do I say this? Because I think the framework and understanding of Bitcoin is currently incomplete.
Currencies inflate... in other words they (generally speaking) lose value over time.
They are also unlimited in number and quantity.
And in (almost) all cases are separate from 'hard' assets or the management of energy.
Some currencies (ie the Swiss Franc) will often appreciate against riskier currencies like the British Pound or US Dollar...
But generally speaking currencies are designed to lose value. They are infinite in number and a Central Bank (like the Fed) can always just "print more" for quantitative purposes.
So why would Bitcoin be limited to being a "currency?"
Commodities on the other hand come from the soil, the Earth, from natural processes, or at least from physical processes not dominated by any one nation, group, organization, or company. Gold, Silver, Corn, Oil... these are commodities.
Commodities are also "proof-of-work" in the sense that their cultivation requires the expenditure of energy and are difficult physically to bring to market. For example for every 1000 hours "panning for gold" only a small quantity may be found....
In that sense the value of Gold is a reflection not only of the cost of "finding the Gold" but also not finding it... the value of Gold reflects not only its historical tradition and cultural roots but because it is hard to find with a low rate of inflation and debasement.
For this reason people make the comparison between Gold (physical) and Gold (digital) as Bitcoin but I think this is incomplete.
If a rocket ship captured an asteroid and that asteroid contained very large gold reserves (on the order of many billions of Dollars) the "gold supply" would still not be fully spent. It is likely, in fact, that Gold is naturally occurring throughout the universe (and relatively common) so there is no end to the "gold supply" more will always be found.
The same of course can be said for oil, wheat, produce, radioactive isotopes, other commodities... despite their high value they are infinite in number and it's impossible to "run out" of Corn or Oil as more will always be found.
Because of this the comparison between a Commodity and a Property should end... Commodities and 'Properties' share some of the same qualities but Property that's scarce and desirable, strictly limited in number, size and throughput...
Is very similar to Bitcoin and has its qualities.
What Bitcoin, therefore, most closely resembles is Digital Property and Digital Ownership - ethically, technically, and economically sound Digital Property for Billions of People.
(Miami's skyline is a great example of Property Cultivation and Ownership in a space-limited environment. When you can't build 'out' you build 'up.' How many 'layers' do you think these structures have? Were there any "compromises" in the building and ownership of these sought-after "layers?"
"Digital Property" most closely reflects the market performance, network dynamics, "crypto-economics" and other qualities of the Bitcoin network and that is a good thing. Because if you buy something and you want it to have value in 20 years it had better not be a currency.
I don't know about you but without being an expert I have no idea how many barrels of oil will be produced in the next 20 years... and I think the 'experts' don't know either...
So if you can't buy a currency (it inflates) and you don't buy a commodity (the vast majority of which are poor investments/don't hold value) even if you could "take the commodity" with you (YOU CAN'T)...
How much more "New York City" will be cultivated and "found" over the next 20 years?
How much more "Miami" (that's highly desirable) will be 'found' and "developed" over the next 20 years?
Or how much Bitcoin?
The answer? NOT MUCH and the amount that does exist in the future is scarce and highly transparent.
This is why the Bitcoin Revolution is one representing a Digital Property Revolution... and the Bitcoin Network a Digital City more than a Currency alone. I think Bitcoin's qualities as Digital Property for Billions of People reflects the network's growth and development over the next 25 years.
A scarce supply, hard to make, economically useful "thing" most closely represents property not Currency however this also gets to the heart of the Bitcoin Revolution.
The Bitcoin Revolution is one of Property Ownership for 8 billion people, giving ordinary even destitute people access to Extremely-High-Quality Property Ownership and Energy Management over long time periods. Therefore, if people in Sub-Saharan Africa or South America spend their Bitcoin directly they are arguably transferring their property WHICH THEY SHOULD DO.
Most "sophisticated" Bitcoiners have heard the phrase "fix the money fix the world" but I think this is incomplete -
A better phrase might be:
Every Individual a Property Owner Every Property Owner a Bitcoiner Every Bitcoiner a Saver, Every Saver a Spender Every Spender a User...
Of the Bitcoin Network!
In short, when wealthy people have "excess capital" and they need "something to buy" so as to not be victimized by fiat-inflation... they usually choose from 3 things:
- Commercial Real Estate or Desirable Scarce Property
- Equities especially those in American Technology
- Commodities like Gold or Silver
That's it!
If Bitcoin is scarce, economically desirable property that's censorship resistant, hard to confiscate, easy to transport, transparent in supply and derived from large amounts of energy...
It falls into the first category which historically has only been available to wealthy or "sophisticated" people. Now that same "property" can be 'stored' in a smartphone, in a 12-word phrase or on a cheap laptop running Linux (which is FREE).
Bitcoin gives 8 billion people the ability to save in the most desirable form of Capital - Property with a very low barrier to entry over long time periods and over long distances in a way that's verifiable and transparent.
And when those people, wherever they live or wherever they come from spend their Bitcoin they are spending Bitcoin the Property because the Bitcoin Revolution is one of replacing Currency (as a medium of exchange and source of Truth) with Property.
Bitcoin as a Medium of Exchange represents a replacement for currency that inflates and cannot be used for savings. If you choose to "save" in Property why can't destitute people in South Africa (for example) use that same property for consumption? That way they skip the middle-man of their own hyper-inflating-currencies throughout the Global South and Africa (for example).
I think the property-like qualities of Bitcoin, far outpacing those of a Currency, are misunderstood. When I post on Stacker News and have to "pay to post" yes it requires 30 sats to post.
But more importantly the utilization of the Lightning network is a trust-maximization process as much as a "payment" process. The receiver of those Sats mathematically knows the total Sats in existence, the total sats to ever exist, and can easily verify the receipt of those sats to their Lightning-Wallet.
If I were to be paid-back a portion of those sats for "not spamming" Stacker News... then the Bitcoin becomes collateral for not engaging in bad behavior on Stacker News, not engaging in spammy behavior on Stacker News or elsewhere on the Internet...
Therefore Bitcoin is not only Property but a type of Collateral. Collateral for online behavior and spam-reduction especially important in the age of AI.
Imagine these cases: A Japanese Company pays a Dutch company for services rendered... an organization moves from New York to Tokyo and needs to recapitalize their office in a new jurisdiction... a small business or even individual wants to minimize the risk from their own unstable government by diversifying their savings to Bitcoin...
Bitcoin is a Digital-Capital, Trust-Maximizing, Individual-Property Ownership Network that runs on fees energy and economic incentives.
This is way more important than being a CURRENCY.
I KNOW how much Bitcoin will ever exist, I KNOW when and where I've received Bitcoin as payment, I'm able to PAY Bitcoin to facilitate online engagement and reduce spam, and I can mitigate risk by using MultiSignature, Linux, Bitcoin Core, or other tools to minimize risk of loss, confiscation or fraud.
All of these qualities suggest Bitcoin is far more than simple currency and has a future as THE collateral and behavior-management capital of the Internet.
Now the rest of that same clip:
I hadn't seen this clip when I posted #922402 in March this past year (2025).
In that post I wrote about 6 elements, the 6 components of the Earth's transition to a type-1 civilization:
- The Type 1 Economy (Large Trading Blocks)
- The Type 1 Language (Probably English)
- The Type 1 Culture (Hollywood, Memes, Social Media and Blue Jeans)
- The Type 1 Communications Network - The Internet obviously
- A Type 1 Intelligence - AI that Preservers and Distributes Human Experience through Digital Channels and
- The Type 1 Capital Network in the form of Bitcoin. The Bitcoin Network is designed to Preserve and act as an Energy Storage and Distribution Network across our Civilization
It's funny that Jensen should say this about AI... because AI is inherently a bullshit generator.
AI will make up entire books of texts, long videos, hallucinate sources, spam comments and scams in comment-sections... make up anything and everything that the 'user' wants to hear.
Basically Pictures, videos, texts all of it nonsense and none of it real however the more intricate the AI the more energy it requires which is the heart and soul of Jensen's comments about AI as "currency."
Bitcoin on-the-other-hand goes to painful lengths to provide verification that Digital Capital, Bitcoin-Mining, and Bitcoin-As-Property is real and cannot be faked. AI cannot make it up, cannot fabricate it, cannot 'fake' it and cannot confiscate it by guessing a seed phrase (ie Private Key).
(Saylor makes the same points here)
Just as AI requires vast sources of energy - which according to Jensen is a kind of 'currency' in its own right (Digital Intelligence) - Bitcoin is the opposite side of the same coin (Digital Capital).
Bitcoin not only functions as Digital Property for 8 Billion People, people who wouldn't have access to any investment-grade property, but as a Source of Truth across the internet overwhelmed by AI slop and nonsense.
The Energy required to "make AI" or Digital Intelligence and the Energy involved in "making Bitcoin" (Digital Property) are 2 sides of the same coin, even compete with each other and it's logical that Bitcoin becomes the Digital Capital, Digital Property, and Digital Collateral of Artificial Intelligence in the future.
If an AI could generate a Private Key (it can!) and wanted to own property... it would own Bitcoin. What else could it securely own that the Humans couldn't take?!
Human Beings are early to Bitcoin's adoption.
If Bitcoin were the invention of the airplane (in 1903) it would be the year 1919 or ~ 16 years after the Wright Brothers' first flight. Many "versions" and failed experiments would precede the Wright Brothers' great invention... but theirs was the first one that really worked.
A flying machine from 1868 https://www.historyhit.com/before-the-wright-brothers-historys-early-flying-machines/
No-one in 1919 could possibly have envisioned the impact that the the Aircraft would have on Civilization 100 years later... Faster, Higher, Farther, with results far beyond what 99.9% of people imagined possible only 16 years after the first "flight" (in 1919). We take for granted aircraft today, even though the vast majority of people know little to nothing about Bitcoin 16 years later...
... after its "first flight."
Therefore we should ask "what do we not yet know"? What have we not foreseen? What might our world look like in 106 years? (The Year 2131)
To a person from 1919 the Aircraft today would be unrecognizable, extraordinary, incredible...
So would AI. So would the Internet. So would Computers.
What does Bitcoin's Future Hold?
(The Boeing 737 Overhead Panel - Incredible to a Pilot from Only 100 Years Ago)