While central banks and governments play rewrite the rules to their advantage, Bitcoin remains firm: transparent, unchanging, accessible to all.
Experts tell us there is no value in any of this. Perhaps they are right, or perhaps their decline is already confirmation of what they fear most: Bitcoin's success.
The analysis in the new Bitcoin Train article.
Defining the Rules Clearly
Could you play chess if the rules changed with every move?
The traditional financial system often falls victim to its own rules—or rather, the ease with which these can be altered. One of the latest demonstrations of this came in 2023 with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the sixteenth-largest U.S. bank, which managed $212 billion before its closure. The Federal Reserve’s record-breaking interest rate hikes caused the value of U.S. Treasuries to plummet. Treasuries, long considered the safest assets in the world and “risk-free,” as economists say, became risky instruments due to the Fed’s actions, leading to the failure of one of the country’s most significant banks.
SVB wasn’t an isolated case. A thread connects it directly to the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis of 2010, to name just two examples. The thread is instability—an inevitable feature of a centralized system where two entities—central banks and governments—hold the monopoly on monetary and fiscal policies, respectively. Interest rates rise and fall, money is printed or withdrawn, and rules change without warning. This system destabilizes everything, creating bubbles of enthusiasm and repeated, devastating crashes.
Bitcoin plays a different game. Its rules are simple, clear, and most importantly, immutable. No one can decide, overnight, to increase the supply of Bitcoin or change the way it is exchanged. There are no central bankers, closed-door meetings, or strategies devised by a few. Everything is transparent and coded.
But perhaps the experts are right: there’s no intrinsic value in an economic system with clear, defined rules, where economic actors can plan for the medium and long term without constantly adapting to sudden changes.
Eliminating Privileges
The traditional financial system is designed to favor those closest to the monetary printer. Regular readers already know this well: when central banks inject new liquidity, it arrives first in the form of credit to governments, banks, and large corporations, allowing them to invest before the market absorbs the increased money supply. As a result, prices rise, and those who receive the money last—ordinary people and small businesses—find their purchasing power reduced. This is the Cantillon effect, an intrinsic dynamic of the money we use daily, which only widens the gap between rich and poor.
Bitcoin breaks this chain. Its issuance is decentralized and open to everyone: anyone can participate in mining without permissions or privileges. There are no shortcuts or favoritism. Moreover, Bitcoin’s inflation rate is decreasing, eliminating the Cantillon effect at its root.
In the Bitcoin system, money is just money—it doesn’t discriminate based on social class, role, or connections. For the first time, everyone can participate under the same rules, without the system favoring some at the expense of others.
But perhaps the experts are right: there’s no intrinsic value in a system that eliminates the privileges of the ruling class, giving equal opportunities to everyone and undermining the preservation of established power.
Against Debt, in Favor of Savings
We live in a world where debt is the norm, and savings are the exception. This is no coincidence. Since the dollar definitively severed its link to gold in 1971, money has become increasingly inflationary: every year, its value erodes, pushing people to spend quickly and, often, to incur debt.
It’s a systemic effect. With savings losing purchasing power, accumulating capital for the future is perceived as a losing strategy. The result? A society where constant consumption fuels the economy but also traps it. More and more people live paycheck to paycheck, without savings or stability, fueling unproductive spending. Is it healthy to go into debt for a vacation or, worse, just to afford groceries? No. Is it healthy to save and spend only when necessary? Absolutely.
Bitcoin flips this logic. It’s a currency with declining inflation whose purchasing power, assuming constant demand, is set to increase over time. It encourages saving instead of debt. It’s better to postpone unnecessary purchases if the money in your pocket will appreciate. Its nature pushes individuals to plan for the future, progressively accumulating capital.
With Bitcoin, saving becomes the pillar of a society based on healthy, sustainable economic growth. There’s no need for constant consumption: there’s room to build, save, and invest with a currency that rewards patience, not recklessness.
But perhaps the experts are right: there’s no intrinsic value in a system that allows families and businesses to increase savings and drastically reduce their demand for credit.
Making the Energy Transition Meaningful
The energy transition toward an electrified economy is an ambitious goal but full of contradictions. Renewable sources, like solar and wind, are less reliable than hydrocarbons: they produce energy only when weather conditions allow and are primarily sustained by government subsidies. In two words, they are uneconomical.
I’ve written dozens of articles explaining how Bitcoin offers a concrete solution to this problem. Miners act as buyers of last resort for electricity. When there’s an excess of energy that would otherwise go to waste, mining utilizes it, providing an economic return for those investing in renewables. This stabilizes power grids and makes green energy projects more sustainable.
Moreover, mining can even contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Refineries and landfills produce waste gases, such as methane, which are often flared or released into the atmosphere. By converting these gases into electricity to power mining, emissions are reduced, and an otherwise wasted byproduct is given economic value.
But perhaps the experts are right: there’s no intrinsic value in a system that makes the energy transition profitable.
Realizing Financial Inclusion
Globally, about 1.4 billion adults lack access to a bank account. A significant portion of the global population is excluded from basic financial services like safe savings, access to credit, or the ability to make electronic payments. The causes of this exclusion are numerous: insufficient banking infrastructure, high service costs, complex bureaucratic requirements, and, in some cases, a lack of trust in financial institutions.
Bitcoin offers a solution, enabling anyone, anywhere in the world, to send and receive value instantly, without intermediaries or permissions. A concrete example is the remittance market, where migrant workers send money to their home countries. According to the World Bank, remittance fees can vary significantly depending on the channel used, reaching up to 20%. Bitcoin allows for transfers at lower costs and much faster speeds, providing a more efficient, accessible, and secure alternative.
But perhaps the experts are right: there’s no intrinsic value in a system that offers access to the global market to people whose only fault was not being born in the West.
So let’s thank the self-proclaimed experts on intrinsic value 10, 100, 1,000—no, 100,000 times. It’s partly thanks to their disarming incompetence that trust in the traditional financial system is in unstoppable decline. A decline that, in a perfect zero-sum game, corresponds to the rise of the only, true, healthy alternative: Bitcoin.
P.S. Intrinsic value doesn’t exist.
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