---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#16)

Bitcoin is the Great Definancialization

Parker Lewis - January 9, 2021 (Originally published December 19, 2020)

What that future looks like exactly, no one knows, but bitcoin will definancialize the economy, and it will no doubt be a renaissance.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#15)

Bitcoin is One for All

Parker Lewis - October 10, 2020 (Originally published August 27, 2020)

Whereas the dollar (and other fiat currencies) are one for a few in the short-term and all for none in the long-term, bitcoin is one for all, now and in the future, because it fixes the economic foundation for everyone.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#14)

Bitcoin is Common Sense

Parker Lewis - May 23, 2020 (Originally published May 1, 2020)

There may be debate but bitcoin is the inevitable path forward. Time makes more converts than reason.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#13)

Bitcoin is a Rally Cry

Parker Lewis - April 10, 2020 (Originally published March 26, 2020)

No matter how many cycles of quantitative easing the Fed and its global counterparts have in their bag of tricks, bitcoin is inevitably becoming a rallying cry for all those that see the train wreck coming and are unwilling to stand idly by.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#12)

Bitcoin Obsoletes All Other Money

Parker Lewis - March 3, 2020 (Originally published January 24, 2020)

Bitcoin obsoletes all other money because economic systems converge on a single currency, and bitcoin has the most credible monetary properties.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#11)

Bitcoin is Not for Criminals

Parker Lewis - January 4, 2020 (Originally published November 29, 2019)

We accept the good with the bad, recognizing that due to the very nature of bitcoin, we do not get to decide. There are always trade-offs, and in this case, that bitcoin will unavoidably be used for illicit purposes is the trade-off we gladly accept in exchange for the economic stability that an unmanipulable global currency will provide.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#10)

Bitcoin Cannot Be Banned

Parker Lewis - January 4, 2020 (Originally published November 8, 2019)

Banning bitcoin is a fool’s errand. Some will try; all will fail. And the very attempts to ban bitcoin will accelerate its adoption and proliferation.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#9)

Bitcoin is Not a Pyramid Scheme

Parker Lewis - January 4, 2020 (Originally published October 18, 2019)

[Bitcoin] will only proliferate if it creates utility for those that adopt it.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#8)

Bitcoin is Not Backed by Nothing

Parker Lewis - January 4, 2020 (Originally published September 27, 2019)

Ultimately, bitcoin is backed by something, and it’s the only thing that backs any money: the credibility of its monetary properties.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#7)

Bitcoin, Not Blockchain

Parker Lewis - January 4, 2020 (Originally published September 6, 2019)

Every other fiat currency, commodity money or cryptocurrency is competing for the exact same use case as bitcoin whether it is understood or not, and monetary systems tend to a single medium because their utility is liquidity rather than consumption or production.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#6)

Bitcoin Fixes This

Parker Lewis - January 4, 2020 (Originally published August 30, 2019)

Could the whole apparatus of central bank policy be the root cause of the problem rather than the ever-elusive solution?

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#5)

Bitcoin is Not Too Slow

Parker Lewis - January 4, 2020 (Originally published August 23, 2019)

If a global financial system is to be built on a decentralized monetary system, the foundation must be protected at all cost.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#4)

Bitcoin Does Not Waste Energy

Parker Lewis - January 4, 2020 (Originally published August 16, 2019)

Put a price on economic stability and the economic freedom a stable monetary system provides; that is the true justification for the amount of energy bitcoin should and will consume. Everything else is a distraction.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#3)

Bitcoin is Not Too Volatile

Parker Lewis - January 4, 2020 (Originally published August 9, 2019)

Volatility in bitcoin is the natural function of monetary adoption and this volatility ultimately strengthens the resilience of the bitcoin network, driving long-term stability. Variation is information.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#2)

Bitcoin Can't Be Copied

Parker Lewis - January 4, 2020 (Originally published August 2, 2019)

Those that attempt to copy bitcoin signal a failure to understand the properties that make bitcoin valuable or viable as money.

---

Gradually, Then Suddenly (#1)

Gradually, Then Suddenly

Parker Lewis - January 4, 2020 (Originally published July 26, 2019)

Bitcoin exists as a solution to the money problem that is global QE.

---

Bitcoin Equals Freedom

Ross Ulbricht - September 26, 2019 (Originally published September 25, 2019)

Bitcoin was consciously, yet spontaneously taken up as money while no one was watching, and our world will never be the same.

Also available in: Russian

---

The Seven Network Effects of Bitcoin

Trace Mayer - August 2, 2019 (Originally published June 29, 2015)

The […] listed network effects can only serve to strengthen [Bitcoin]. Competitors beware.

Also available in: Russian

---

The Bullish Case for Bitcoin

Vijay Boyapati - July 1, 2019 (Originally published February 26, 2018)

[T]he bullish case for Bitcoin is compelling but far from obvious.

---

Bitcoin Governance

Pierre Rochard - November 1, 2018 (Originally published July 8, 2018)

Compromising on trustlessness could help the Bitcoin price find a local maximum, at the expense of finding a much higher global maximum.

Also available in: Russian

---

Economics of Bitcoin as a Settlement Network

Saifedean Ammous - November 8, 2017 (Originally published May 19, 2017)

From the settlement layer view, the growing adoption of Bitcoin is increasing its liquidity internationally, allowing it to compete with global reserve currencies for increasingly more valuable transactions, causing transaction fees to rise.

Also available in: Spanish

---

Against the Minimum Majority Measure

David A. Harding - July 29, 2017 (Originally published July 28, 2017)

I personally suspect that Bitcoin’s steadily improving privacy will prevent us from ever measuring decentralization in a truly objective way. Losing easy quantification but gaining stronger privacy seems like a good tradeoff to me.

---

Why the Bitcoin Dominance Index is Deceiving

Jimmy Song - May 8, 2017

Like with most things, Bitcoin Dominance is a very crude metric and one that’s unfortunately very easy to manipulate. The recent enthusiasm for ICOs has made the manipulation even worse and continues to hide the fact that Bitcoin is doing really well.

---

Crashes and Hyperinflation

Daniel Krawisz - January 8, 2017

This article is about how money interacts with the rest of the economy after it has matured and about how mismanagement by an issuer can cause it to fail.

---

Who Controls Ethereum?

Daniel Krawisz - August 7, 2016

If it became easier for people to trade different forks of the same currency, then investors could get direct experience with different ideas without endangering the network.

---

It's Not About the Technology, It's About the Money

Daniel Krawisz - July 13, 2016

If someone says “blockchain tech” to you, you might as well walk away right there. They’re just trying to sell you on their new decentralized crowdfunded blockchain tech internet of bitthings appscam.

---

Ethereum is Doomed

Daniel Krawisz - June 20, 2016

I fully support the attacker’s actions, and I wish I had thought of it first.

---

Proof That Proof-of-Work is the Only Solution to the Byzantine Generals' Problem

Oleg Andreev - November 17, 2015 (Originally published May 23, 2014)

If achieving consensus in a non-trust manner is ever possible in practice, then it is only possible with a Proof-of-Work scheme and highly specialized expensive production chains.

---

Who Controls Bitcoin?

Daniel Krawisz - February 8, 2015

Bitcoin upgrades must be a clear improvement to Bitcoin as an investment or else they face a sharp uphill battle to adoption.

Also available in: Russian

---

Bitcoin as a Store of Value, Unit of Account, and Medium of Exchange

Daniel Krawisz - January 12, 2015

Bitcoin has the right properties for the world’s money, and the more the world comes to terms with this, the more stable it will become.

---

The Fappening — Brought to You By The Information Marketplace

Daniel Krawisz - January 6, 2015 (Originally published September 3, 2014)

Bitcoin makes conspiratorial group cohesion more difficult. If the Fappening took place as I described, then this effect is right at the center. The possibility of getting bitcoins by releasing secrets caused the group to fall apart.

---

Bitcoin’s Compound Rewards

Daniel Krawisz - January 5, 2015 (Originally published October 25, 2014)

The difference between Bitcoin and a Ponzi scheme is that in a Ponzi scheme, the early adopters benefit by cashing out. With Bitcoin, there is no reason ever to cash out.

---

Babysitting Bitcoin Skeptics: A Response to Krugman and Gobry

Daniel Krawisz - January 4, 2015 (Originally published November 30, 2014)

Krugman’s article and Gobry’s follow-up are confused, do not establish their case, and say nothing about Bitcoin.

---

Don’t Panic

Daniel Krawisz - January 3, 2015 (Originally published November 22, 2014)

Working in the Bitcoin world is like working for a drug addict with bipolar disorder.

---

The Two Ideologies in Bitcoin

Daniel Krawisz - January 2, 2015 (Originally published October 4, 2014)

There are two ideologies in the Bitcoin world. They are not political ideologies; they are different visions of Bitcoin’s place in the world and how adoption will happen.

---

Meditations on Cypherpunk Nightmares

Michael Goldstein - December 24, 2014

Protecting ourselves from the dangers of crypto-anarchy requires embracing it even more fully and internalizing and practicing the virtues that have helped great men weather the storms of life since antiquity.

Also available in: Chinese

---

The Legacy of the Dread Pirate Roberts

Daniel Krawisz - November 8, 2014 (Originally published July 10, 2014)

All Bitcoin entrepreneurs today build on top of the success of the Silk Road. Their work was made possible by his.

---

Real Crypto-Anarchy Without Anonymity

Oleg Andreev - October 2, 2014 (Originally published December 28, 2013)

Bitcoin raises the cost of many kinds of attacks, going far beyond protecting against central banks meddling with money supply.

---

Bitcoin Is Great, But It Won’t Fix Our Monkey Brains

Andrea Castillo - September 30, 2014 (Originally published June 10, 2014)

Bitcoin provides us alternatives to compelled trust in monopolies but it can never obviate the need for trusted human connections. Nor can it protect us from our own pesky brain bugs’ ambiguous filters on perceived reality.

Also available in: Chinese

---

Everyone's a Scammer

Michael Goldstein - September 11, 2014

There is a war going on for your bitcoins, and willpower is your only defense.

Also available in: Arabic, Finnish, German, Spanish

---

Bitcoin: Killer of Nietzschean Nihilism

Peter Dushenski - July 4, 2014 (Originally published April 29, 2014)

Only Bitcoin can restore the necessary balance between the Gods. Only Bitcoin can give us life.

---

Speculative Attack

Pierre Rochard - July 4, 2014

Bitcoin will overtake weak currencies like the dollar through speculative attacks and currency crises, not through the careful evaluation of tech journalists and 'mainstream consumers'.

Also available in: French, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish

---

Bitcoin's Shroud of Subtlety and Allure

Daniel Krawisz - June 29, 2014

Potential Bitcoin attackers are in a Prisoner's Dilemma. In the same way that the people cannot easily rebel against the king owing to a lack of coordination on their part, governments cannot rebel against Bitcoin for the same reason. The government puts the people in a Prisoner's Dilemma against one another, and Bitcoin does the same to government agents.

---

Bitcoin's Rugged Individualism

Daniel Krawisz - June 29, 2014

There is a fundamental agency problem with Bitcoin: agents can disappear or simulate a heist upon themselves. They cannot rationally be trusted without extreme costs being imposed on them which are more stringent than traditional banks.

---

Appcoins Are Snake Oil

Daniel Krawisz - May 24, 2014

Appcoins are a terrible idea.

---

The Correct Strategy of Bitcoin Entrepreneurship

Daniel Krawisz - May 16, 2014

Don't be a venture capitalist—be a speculative philanthropist.

---

Bitcoin is the Best Unit of Account

Daniel Krawisz - May 10, 2014

Someone still lost in the dollar world looks at Bitcoin and sees wild and extreme volatility, whereas someone in Bitcoin looking back at the dollar sees the worst and longest economic crash in history.

Also available in: Spanish

---

How We Know Bitcoin Is Not a Bubble

Daniel Krawisz - May 3, 2014

The difference between money and a bubble is that a commodity whose price is a bubble actually has some underlying value.

---

How to Market Bitcoin

Daniel Krawisz - April 26, 2014

Does Bitcoin need to be sanitized and separated from its anarchist, black-market roots in order to become acceptable to the general population? Absolutely not!

---

Hyperbitcoinization

Daniel Krawisz - March 29, 2014

Government currencies will rapidly lose value as Bitcoin supplants it. What will such an event be like and how can it be understood economically?

Also available in: Arabic, French, German, Persian, Russian, Spanish

---

The Coming Demise of the Altcoins (And What You Can Do to Hasten It)

Daniel Krawisz - March 14, 2014

What falleth, that shall one also push!

---

Bitcoin Has No Image Problem

Daniel Krawisz - February 25, 2014

The best way to improve Bitcoin’s image is simply to improve the Bitcoin economy.

---

I'm Hoarding Bitcoins, and No You Can't Have Any

Daniel Krawisz - February 12, 2014

The real hero is the hoarder.

Also available in: Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish

---

Why Bitcoin Will Continue to Grow

Daniel Krawisz - February 1, 2014

For now at least, Bitcoin’s present trend is self-reinforcing with no equilibrium in sight.

---

I Love Bitcoin's Volatility

Daniel Krawisz - January 28, 2014

Those who worry about Bitcoin’s volatility fail to understand what it actually means for Bitcoin.

---

Mastercoin is a Nightmare of Insanity

Daniel Krawisz - December 20, 2013

No one should ever use Mastercoin under any circumstances or appraise their value as anything above zero.

---

The Bitcoin Central Bank's Perfect Monetary Policy

Pierre Rochard - December 15, 2013

The Bitcoin Central Bank will be the longest lasting institution of its kind thanks to the anti-fragile independent monetary policy it has set in stone.

Also available in: German

---

The Problem with Altcoins

Daniel Krawisz - August 22, 2013

In short, the altcoin phenomenon is the product of greed and bounded rationality.

---

The Original Value of Bitcoins

Daniel Krawisz - July 2, 2013

Once it was known that bitcoin could be sold, even for a pittance, new possibilities opened up.

---

The Proof-of-Work Concept

Daniel Krawisz - June 24, 2013

Proof-of-work should not be seen as a mysterious or wasteful system, but as something functional, natural, and potentially of value for the design of any communication protocol.

---

Crypto-Anarchy and Libertarian Entrepreneurship

Chapter 4: The Risk from the Software Industry

Daniel Krawisz - June 5, 2013

Stay one step ahead of the government and don’t get embroiled in politics.

---

Crypto-Anarchy and Libertarian Entrepreneurship

Chapter 3: The Killer App of Liberty

Daniel Krawisz - May 29, 2013

If Bitcoin becomes money, the government’s control of money will have ended.

---

Crypto-Anarchy and Libertarian Entrepreneurship

Chapter 2: Public-Key Cryptography

Daniel Krawisz - May 24, 2013

Public-key cryptography is the greatest tool of liberty ever devised.

---

Crypto-Anarchy and Libertarian Entrepreneurship

Chapter 1: The Strategy

Daniel Krawisz - May 22, 2013

With cryptography, one libertarian inventor can create an entire libertarian society.

---

Fractional Reserve Banking is Obsolete

Pierre Rochard - February 22, 2013

There is no reason to deposit your money with a 3rd party. Bitcoin makes fractional reserve banking an obsolete technology.

---

End the Fed: Hoard Bitcoins

Pierre Rochard - February 19, 2013

Low transaction costs make Bitcoin the most competitive medium of exchange in humanity’s history, and it may be the case that a currency with even lower transaction costs is theoretically impossible.

Also available in: Spanish

---

Working and Saving are Revolutionary Acts

Pierre Rochard - December 24, 2012

New capital formation is the impetus for two trends that push the equilibrium of all industries towards decentralized markets: increasing technological sophistication and a deepening of the division of labor.