pull down to refresh
You are completely right that the state actively enforces its monopoly on money through taxes and regulations, and that most people naturally follow the path of least resistance.
However, claiming Bitcoin cannot succeed misses the fundamental economic and technological mechanics driving its adoption. Historically, no asset becomes a medium of exchange before first proving itself as a store of value. People naturally spend depreciating fiat currency and hoard hard assets with a fixed supply, which is standard economic behavior rather than pure laziness. Furthermore, convenience is a solved engineering problem.
Bitcoin's base layer is built for final settlement, while Layer 2 technology like the Lightning Network handles instant, low-cost microtransactions far more efficiently than traditional payment processors. Bitcoin does not rely on ideological motivation or forum debate to succeed, but on economic necessity.
As central banks continue to dilute fiat currencies, individuals turn to alternative assets out of self-preservation, a pattern already visible in high-inflation economies worldwide. Bitcoin does not need to instantly replace fiat currency to achieve its primary purpose, by functioning as a censorship-resistant, non-confiscatable alternative, it strips the state of its absolute control over money and offers an unalterable choice to anyone who wants out.
The masses do not need to be libertarians or seek freedom. It is enough for the fiat system to continue eroding their savings through inflation and money printing. In countries with collapsing currencies (Argentina, Nigeria, Turkey, Venezuela), the adoption of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is not a philosophical choice, but a matter of survival.
Well put. Still LN is not reliable or convenient yet- far from it.
But with time you may be right- one of the biggest obstacles related to the massive loss of power that replacing fiat monetary system with Bitcoin would be that it would hugely limit the ability of any nation state adopting such a stance to wage war.
At the outbreak of WW1 all the major European powers dropped gold backing so that they could debase the savings of all citizens and fund their war efforts.
The larger your nations collective monetary savings the larger is your war chest.
Bitcoin standard nations would be at a significant disadvantage in the event of war and that is a problem, surely?
That is true. And here comes a big fundamental question: Are we as a human race really as advanced as we think we are, considering that we continue to wage wars? Are we ready to leave our differences behind and live in peace, rather than in fear of whether our neighbor might attack us to seize our resources?
At the moment, we are not. Not as long as our priority is how to colonize Mars and the Moon, rather than protecting our nature and wildlife. Because everything and everyone matters.
DNA has for billions of years been fine tuned to maximise the spread and dominance of the organism it builds.
That is competition.
That is war.
War is in our DNA.
Is it possible to consciously overcome such an inherent imperative that is coded deeply into every cell of our bodies?
Religions have tried and ideologies have tried.
The ones that fight wars best have always predominated.
Can Bitcoin fix this?
Doubtful - But it can provide some preservation of capital, perhaps.
Most people are lazy sheep.
Ipso facto Bitcoin is not guaranteed to succeed in separating money from the state.
To assert it is is pure naive wishful thinking.
Sorry to pop your hopium bubble.
Bitcoin has been around now for 16 years but its acceptance as a MoE is extremely low and generally obstructed to a point where it is not easy to use as a MoE.
The reason most people still use fiat money is because the state has ensured there are no convenient MoE alternatives available.
Bitcoin is not a convenient legal MoE almost everywhere... and that is no accident.
Unless people demand change and force change it is very unlikely that this central pillar of state power will go away, no matter how much hopium is written on obscure Libertarian forums.