Bitcoin and stories are much alike.

They can be described in powerful simplicity or astonishing complexity. Both are unique developments in human history and feed our well-being. Bitcoin and stories are forces for good, but they must be used wisely.

By removing himself from the equation, Nakamoto left it to us to write the future of bitcoin. It’s not surprising that we have been tentative to propose a narrative. Stories have never been decentralized before.

Think of the pyramids, the invention of the printing press, or the release of the iPhone 1. Instead of the technology itself, we focus on the people who made it and how its invention affected us. The story of the pyramids survives in every tourist’s photograph; the joy of reading touches a higher percentage of the world’s population every year; the garage-to-keynote-speaker tale of Apple’s late CEO inspires entrepreneurs worldwide.

To unite interest in bitcoin, we need to be better at telling its stories. Only stories have the power to stop us, to wake us, to make us feel rather than think.

For most people, great change doesn’t arrive from binary logic and a working knowledge of code. Understanding grows through narrative. It is stories that bring change.

What kinds of stories will you write?