Where Bitcoin's resilience comes from. Take a look at these fiat currencies. Author: Kraken; Compiler: Golden Finance 0xjs

On October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto anonymously released a white paper, a decentralized "peer-to-peer electronic cash system".

The Bitcoin white paper is a direct response to the systemic weaknesses exposed in the 2008 financial crisis. With its fixed-supply and decentralized nature, it proposes a fundamental alternative to a global, government-issued monetary system.



One Million Drachmas, Greece, 1944

Problem: The politicization of money

The value of government-issued currency derives from the trust of its holders in the institutions that issue and administer it, such as central banks. 

These institutions benefit from a good reputation for governance. But the level of trust that citizens place in it changes over time, and when trust is the main determinant of a currency's value, anything that challenges that trust tends to have a negative impact on the value of that currency. 



500 million dinars, Croatia, 1993

One of the most striking examples in recent years is the Turkish lira, whose exchange rate against other global currencies has collapsed. Lack of confidence in the Turkish government's ability to manage its finances will only accelerate the depreciation of the lira due to persistent inflation and the absurd policy idea that keeping interest rates near zero (which encourages aggressive borrowing and spending) will lead to lower prices. 

21,000,000 Vs unlimited

Since governments can print money at will, the risks of a trust-based monetary system increase exponentially. No longer any government or central bank issues asset-backed currency. This makes it easy for officials to print money in an attempt to alleviate any form of national crisis.



10 quintillion (million to the third power) Pengő, Hungary, 1946

But the problem is that unlimited money printing will cause more and more money to chase a limited number of goods. This always results in people having to pay a higher price for the same goods.



10 million Zaire, Zaire, 1992

more

Monetary failures are far from new. History is replete with government-issued currencies that were printed until they lost their value altogether. For centuries, around the world, in times of war, financial stress, or social unrest, money printing has been the de facto solution for governments. As the value of a country's currency is diluted by more currencies entering the market, trust in it is further eroded. 



50 billion dinars, Yugoslavia, 1993

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Germany's gold-backed currency, the mark, was one of the strongest currencies in the world. After the outbreak of World War I, the government abandoned the gold standard and introduced a new currency, the paper mark, to finance its war effort. Paper marks quickly lost their value, and after Germany's defeat in 1918, the process accelerated. 

German officials have adopted what the government has always done as a last resort: print more money, print faster. This led to one of the worst hyperinflationary events in history. By 1923, 1 mark before the war was equal to 1 trillion marks later.



Two trillion marks, Germany, 1923

This underscores an important fact: trust is the shaky foundation of the monetary system. Trust can last for a long time, but government money is systemically fragile when nothing else is backing it up. While printing more money in large quantities can often stop a looming crisis from turning into a catastrophic collapse in the near future, it also serves as a reminder to a country's citizens that their government is creating money out of thin air.



1,000,000 pesos, Argentina, 1992

But you have a new choice: Bitcoin

Bitcoin is specifically designed to address these risks. Bitcoin is a system built on a fixed supply and a transparent, immutable ledger that is carefully structured so that its holders don't end up being printed as a forgotten currency due to inflation for political reasons.

According to the algorithm, the supply of Bitcoin is capped at 21 million coins. This intrinsic scarcity preserves its purchasing power. This is the same reason that gold has maintained its value for thousands of years: its supply is relatively fixed, and its main determinant of value is demand. It was produced by a cosmic nuclear explosion billions of years ago, and humans cannot print more.



1,000,000 Inti, Peru, 1990

Bitcoin does not have a central authority. It is not subject to the whims of government agencies, individual leaders, and financial institutions. The rules that govern Bitcoin are public and apply equally to everyone, no matter where they live, what they look like, or who they know. Everyone gets the same treatment: reliable money. 

We are all witnessing the future of finance

Bitcoin is a beacon of operational stability, a monetary system for the digital age, tailored to the lessons of centuries of failure. Since the creation of the block, Bitcoin has provided a reliable, disintermediated, and decentralized means of exchange and store of value. 



PLN 2,000,000, Poland, 1992

Automatically for the people: Bitcoin can

Bitcoin has been declared dead 474 times in the last 15 years. However, it continues to work, executing code without emotion, while some people viciously attack it and complain angrily. Day after day, more and more citizens around the world realize that no amount of suspicion or abuse can change the simple fact that Bitcoin is working properly.



One trillion Zimbabwean dollars, Zimbabwe, 2008

So, as we celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Bitcoin white paper, we herald a new era of monetary sovereignty that puts individuals in control of their wealth.