The US built its legitimacy on the Constitution and democratic ideals China rebuilt its legitimacy on economic delivery and national strength Both models can fail when the foundational promise is broken

The interesting parallel is that Bitcoin represents an alternative legitimacy model one that is not tied to geography or coercive state power Its Constitution is code Its governance is distributed Its trust comes not from military dominance or promises of prosperity but from transparency and immutability That is a radically different competitive axis than the past two centuries where nations competed by territory resources and industrial capacity

China could overtake the US in certain dimensions but it operates within the same old framework of centralized power and economic leverage The internet and Bitcoin operate in an entirely different one Value transfer without permission Wealth protection without political favor Governance without geographic allegiance That is the shift Balaji is pointing at and it matters because it rewrites the rules of the contest

The question is not which empire wins but whether empires themselves become obsolete in a networked monetary order