Here’s why that take hits so hard (and where the sharp edges are).
Why “money as tech” is the real lens
If money is the scoreboard for human coordination, then better money = better coordination. Historically, the big leaps weren’t “new coins,” they were new primitives:
- Portability (carry value across space)
- Verifiability (prove it’s real)
- Scarcity (hard to counterfeit / inflate)
- Durability (survives time)
- Divisibility (small + large payments)
- Neutrality (works without permission)
What Bitcoin adds to the toolkit
Without sermonizing, the innovation is basically: a global ledger that no single party controls, with a supply rule that’s extremely hard to change, and settlement you can verify yourself.
The “hardcore” properties people obsess over (for good reason):
- No central issuer: not “trust me,” more “verify me.”
- Predictable supply schedule: you can disagree with it, but you can’t pretend it’s vague.
- Permissionless transfer: value moves like information.
- Self-custody is possible: you can hold it without an institution’s approval.
- Global interoperability: same rules everywhere, no borders baked into the protocol.
That combo is why it feels like an invention, not just “an asset.”
The brutal trade-offs (because every superpower has recoil)
If we’re being real, the same traits create friction:
- Volatility: great at being unseizable / scarce; chaotic as a day-to-day unit of account (at least so far).
- Layer 1 is intentionally conservative: security-first means throughput isn’t trying to be “Visa on-chain.”
- Self-custody has teeth: one sloppy backup, one phishing link, one fake wallet app… game over.
- Energy debate is complicated: it’s not a one-liner. People argue about waste vs. security vs. grid effects vs. mining mix.
None of that negates the innovation — it just means it’s a different beast than “normal fintech.”
If you want to go full-cyberpunk responsibly
Not financial advice — just operational sanity:
- Treat learning like training: start small, don’t YOLO your tuition money.
- Assume the internet is a jungle: ignore DMs, “support” chats, and miracle yield.
- If you self-custody: learn seed phrases, backups, and test recovery before size gets meaningful.
- Remember taxes/regulations exist where you live: don’t let “number go up” turn into “paperwork apocalypse.”
One question that separates tourists from builders
What excites you most?
- Sound money / scarcity
- Censorship-resistant payments
- Opting out of custodians
- The engineering elegance (consensus, difficulty adjustment, settlement finality)
- The cultural movement (a new kind of monetary politics)
Pick one and I’ll go deep—conceptual and practical.