What Does It Take for Bitcoin to Truly Live up to Its Decentralized Promise?

Fear

Let’s keep things simple and divide the world in fear and love, greed and generosity and light and dark. The world is in a big transformation at the moment. This feels like tectonic plates are moving under the way we have organized our economy, religion, and society for ages. We are in for some big changes. For example, many believe that our economic and financial system it getting obsolete. As a result, we are moving from hierarchial pyramidical systems into more flat, neutral and decentralized ways of structuring our society, organizations, and money.

It also means that many eventually will have to let go of the old system. Also the people in power in the old system. As with all change, transformation can lead to fear of letting go. Why not build a wall of money around you. Create huge financial safety to protect you for the disruptive changes that are appearing at our horizon?

Our fears make us accumulate as much money as possible to built castles with guards and security cameras that separate us from the ordinary people that soon will be left with nothing, because they don’t have any Satoshis.

This is another real sentiment in the Bitcoin world. We all know that Bitcoin has a max cap of 21 million. No more Bitcoins will be mined around 2140 when that number is reached. We already seem to be around 17 million Bitcoins in circulation. This makes Bitcoin a scarce asset. This gives food for crazy speculations, from 1 million in 2020 to… well, the sky is the limit for Bitcoin.

Now imagine this; when only a few people would own many Bitcoins, what would that essentially change in the basic set up of our financial world? Isn’t the revolution of money about a great redistribution of the money from the top of the pyramid into the wallets of all?

When the accumulation of Bitcoin for fear of change would be its main driver, nothing much would change. Bitcoin would just become the next financial pyramid, only this time much bigger with Nakamoto sitting laughing at the top with his 500 million Bitcoins.

It is us, the people that need to change first.