By demonstrating that money could exist without central bankers, secured by cryptography and consensus rather than political authority, #Bitcoin revealed the contingent nature of monetary monopoly. More fundamentally, it proved that complex coordination problems previously thought to require centralized state entities could be resolved through voluntary cooperation among strangers using cryptographic protocols. The implications of this extend far beyond currency. If money can operate without state permission or control, what other supposedly "essential state functions" might prove similarly dispensable?