Why do I say this? Well from the very beginning of time, humans have traded goods with one another, and have used money as proxies for these goods, as a simpler form of exchange. That money has taken the form of gold and silver, sea shells, promissory notes and State issued legal currency, to name but a few. In all these cases the money has been forged, cheated, stolen and its value decimated by inflationary tactics. Kings did it to pay off war debt, people clipped bits of gold coins, weighing scales were tampered with, the Federal Reserve was invented to control it etc. There is not a single instance until bitcoin, of a truly trustworthy form of money, one whose value was constrained not by the laws and weaknesses of man, but by the universal laws of mathematics.
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So bitcoin is really radical. It allows a secure system of exchanging value between people, and indeed machines, who have never met, that can be trusted, verified and never forged. Yes, we have heard of many instances of bitcoin hackers and thieves, but these are not security issues with the core bitcoin network per se, rather weakness in the storage of the keys used to secure a bitcoin wallet. Just like a bank vault with the combination lock code taped to the front door not being secure; bitcoin secured by keys left lying around where they are easily stolen are not safe from theft either.
So with bitcoin, we have a secure, programmable form of money that can be used for global transactions, that cannot be forged, that is fully audit-able, that is actually software that can be built into anything and everything. Once this is understood, once this is grasped, the magnitude of the possibilities it enables is truly staggering. That's what has all these venture capitalists salivating and that's what has thousands of the smartest programmers in the world working feverishly to unlock the potential of. It's a magnitude of change and possibly similar in scope and scale to the Internet itself, and it's just the beginning.
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Bitcoin has another interesting property that is worth mentioning. It's a bearer instrument. That means, just like a dollar bill, the person that holds it and presents it as payment is the de-facto owner. Why is this an important property? Well, we live in a world where we are expected to disclose our identity and financial future to companies that are just not qualified to secure it, just to shop online or eat in a restaurant. We have all seen this recently with the hacking thefts at Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase and Target to name just a few. Credit-card fraud and identity theft actually cost us over $5 billion a year, and ruin many lives and dreams. Bitcoin solves this problem, once and for all, because using it, we, as consumers, do not have to risk our financial future when we do things like our Christmas shopping. Bitcoin payments are anonymous at least as far as merchants are concerned. The data trail that bitcoin leaves behind is indeed traceable using the blockchain, with the right tools. It can be used to fight crime and terrorism, it can be used to identify us, but importantly it cannot be used to steal our identity, or to steal our money, or to impact our credit rating. So it's a much more palatable and secure approach to payments than credit cards can ever be.
So, when we ask the question, what needs to happen for the mass adoption of bitcoin to occur; the answer is just time. In time, the money the venture capitalists are investing and the code the developers are writing will bring forth systems and solutions to problems that are just not feasible or practical without Bitcoin. Just like the browser makes the Internet accessible to everyone, these systems and solutions will make bitcoin accessible to everyone and will change the way we interact, trade, spend and receive money. Whether that's peer-to-peer lending, peer-to-peer finance, distributed capital formation, secure voting, or solutions to transparency in finance and derivates. The technology has so much potential, and it just cannot be un-invented. Its adoption really is inevitable.
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Commentary by Trevor Murphy, the CTO of BitStash, a company that securely stores bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Murphy was a co-founder of TradingEdge in 1997. He was responsible for the design and development of the first electronic fixed-income trading platform, BondLink, which ultimately processed billions of dollars in daily transactions, and was acquired by Market Axess (MKTX) in 2001. Murphy has been involved in numerous other start-up companies and provides consulting services to venture capitalists, financial services and Fortune 500 companies. Follow him on Twitter @bitstashCTO.
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The real benefit of paying with bitcoin
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- Bitcoin trims its losses after breaking below $39,000 to lowest level in 7 weeks - CNBC - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
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- AI Agents Are Coming For CryptoPalantir Cofounder Issues Very Important Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana And XRP Price Prediction - Forbes - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- This Investing Phenomenon Could Be Why Bitcoin Prices Are Down After ETF Approval - Money - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Under $39K as ETF Debut Continues to Be a Sell-the-News Event - CoinDesk - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Blockchain, the tech behind bitcoin, may have found its 'killer use case' by keeping AI in check - CNBC - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Why Aren't There Options on the New Bitcoin ETFs Yet? - The Wall Street Journal - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin ETFs to Likely Divert Users and Trading Volumes Away from CEXs, Says Anthony Bevan Bitcoin News - Bitcoin.com News - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
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- China's Currency Woes to Weigh on Bitcoin: Crypto Observer - CoinDesk - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin ETF fee war spreads to Europe - Financial Times - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Bulls Buoyed by Report of FTX's $1B GBTC Sale - CoinDesk - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
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- Bitcoin ETFs aren't giving crypto a big boost just yet. Here's where the new funds stand - CNBC - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Why Bitcoin's 'relentless' selling will end in weeks - DLNews - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
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- These two drivers will fuel Bitcoin's rebound: 'It's happened often before' - DLNews - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Top Analyst Says 600 Days of Bullish Momentum Still Ahead for Bitcoin - The Crypto Basic - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Funds Are Here. But You Probably Dont Need Them. - The New York Times - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Bitwise releases wallet addresses of spot Bitcoin ETF holdings - Cointelegraph - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Mt. Gox Moves Seemingly Closer to Bitcoin Repayments For 2014 Hack Victims - CoinDesk - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Coinbase faces headwinds as Bitcoin and ETF interest dips, says JPMorgan - crypto.news - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Waning Bitcoin ETF Hype to Drag on Coinbase, JPMorgan Says - Yahoo Finance - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Price At Make-Or-Break Moment, Key Levels To Watch - NewsBTC - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Mid-Cycle Top? Benjamin Cowen Says One Indicator Suggesting BTC Headed for Downtrend - The Daily Hodl - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
- Franklin Templeton expects its spot bitcoin ETF to gain traction as financial advisors become more familiar with product - The Block - January 25th, 2024 [January 25th, 2024]
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- Cathie Wood Thinks Bitcoin Could Skyrocket 3,356% By 2030. Is She Right? - The Motley Fool - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- JPMorgan says ether to outperform bitcoin next year - The Block - Crypto News - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
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- Bitcoin Must Hold $32K Support to Prevent Bears from Taking Over: Analyst - CryptoPotato - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- BlackRock Has Quietly Opened The Door To A Trillion-Dollar Plus Wall Street Game-Changer Amid The $700 Billion Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP And Crypto Price... - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Bitcoin Bounces Over $43K, Altcoins, Crypto Stocks Burst Higher as Fed Projects Rate Cuts Next Year - CoinDesk - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
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- US Debt Crisis: Gold and Bitcoin to Soar, Predicts Gromen - CryptoGlobe - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
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- At bitcoins annual convention, few feel the chill of crypto winter - Marketplace - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
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- Former Operator of Payza.com Charged with Laundering 450 Bitcoin - Department of Justice - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- Bitcoin is on a collision course with 'Net Zero' promises - Cointelegraph - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
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- best-bitcoin-casinos-for-2023-top-rated-btc-casino-sites - Analytics Insight - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]