This feels very ad-like (no paywall, literally a "partners" sub-site): money-is-the-moderator hitting tradfi journalism... at least a little bit. #1563516**** #1564875

...but Gladstein is still crushing it.

Bitcoin was launched in January 2009 in direct response to the Great Financial Crisis. In the wake of the biggest economic crash since the 1930s—during which 10 million Americans lost their homes, nearly $20 trillion in U.S. household wealth was destroyed, half the U.S. stock market was wiped out and nearly 9 million Americans lost their jobs—only one banker went to jail. Instead of jail time, the financial industry received a $443 billion bailout.

"Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention was a protest and demonstration: We could have another kind of money and financial system"

For Americans, bitcoin has been a spectacular success. Since its creation, it has been the single greatest investment on Earth, rising in price from less than a penny to more than $75,000. Any American can transact with any other American in total freedom on the bitcoin network. Dozens of American companies have thrived and even become unicorns brokering bitcoin, mining bitcoin and providing bitcoin services.

That's cool. But it's not very important. The most important thing it does/will do in the future lay elsewhere

For most people on Earth, their money is horribly broken. 87% of the world—about 7.2 billion people—lives either under collapsing economies or authoritarian regimes. Only 4% of humans use the dollar as their native, salary-earning currency. Fewer than 10% of humans live in strong liberal democracies with robust free markets and property rights.

" When dollar users dismiss bitcoin, they aren’t simply ignoring its origin story as a protest against a corrupt system—they are blinded by their financial privilege."

#47002, #252286

Americans enjoy easy ways to send money to friends and family, a variety of quality ways to save for their future and seamless merchant payments. They take this for granted. Most people on this planet struggle to send money, save and pay.

Incredibly simple point. (Though, it's not obvious to me that "a new monetary system" is an obvious fix to that problem... dollarization or wise-and-credible central banks could, too.). Also, statements like these are pretty dumb, economically speaking #1296464, #820834

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, citizens have lost nearly 75% of their purchasing power against the dollar since 2020. In Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, citizens have lost nearly 70%. In Pakistan, the world’s fifth-most-populous country, citizens have lost 45%. In India, the world’s most populous country, citizens have lost 20%. Citizens of some regional powers like Turkey and Argentina have seen their currency wiped out by more than 90%.

...don't tell them that FinCEN and the Treasury can't freeze it either...

Bitcoin has played a vital role for hundreds of millions of people around the world far less fortunate than us, whose financial systems didn’t get a half-trillion-dollar bailout. Maybe bitcoin isn’t for you, but it is for them.

OK, cool, maybe... but then why are you talking to me?

Anyway, cool initiative (#1554844) so we'll see where things like this go: normalization being a thing.