The TAM for a cash-final, high-responsibility & trustless money system is really tiny and I'm sorry to say that the world isn't moving towards a cypherpunk utopia. Self-Sovereignity is exhausting and it takes a special kind of person to fully embrace it. Thinking that everyone will use Bitcoin and self-custody is like expecting everyone to be a prepper and build a bunker. Trust & convenience are features of civilization, not a bug. My pragmatic opinion is that Bitcoin is an insurance policy against the system's total failure, not a credible alternative.
Vlad, Bitcoin Takeover Podcast's avatar Vlad, Bitcoin Takeover Podcast
Sometimes I feel like a fraud who advertises a revolution that never happened. Bitcoin didn’t accomplish anything significant, at least not compared to the expectations everyone had more than a decade ago. The price went up, the institutions coopted it, but we still pay with our cards.
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You don't get it. He's not selling his coins. More than that I assume he is perfectly hedged into other projects. This is capitulation on the idea that people strive for more freedom. It is about the potential we saw in Bitcoin 15 years ago that didn't turn out to come to fruition. As people seek comfort in fiat NGU over taking care of their own money. Back then we thought people on average want to live free lives. But as it turns out (and that came as a shocking surprise to many) it is a small minority - maybe 5 % that actually do care. The rest finds comfort in slaving away their life as staists.
Well, think about it, this way: The success of Bitcoin scared the other currency emitters straight. They can't just run their currencies into the ground, anymore, as it's now so easy for private citizens and companies to switch over to Bitcoin. They're still doing it, but slower. Slower is less-worse for most people, as they have no savings and spend their income every month. Bitcoin didn't win, but it saved billions of people from a lot of economic pain. Of course, Trump might now change that. We'll see.