Bitcoin Changes You For The Better
The Bitcoin protocol has been around for 15 years and just it keeps on going doing its thing with improvements made along the way to make it better and stronger. Bitcoin has always been described as a way to change the world by fixing the money. It will certainly do that with enough time and adoption by everyday folks around the world.
What isn't discussed as much as it should be is what Bitcoin does to you emotionally and how it completely changes your worldview and opens your eyes to the manipulation and distortion of reality created by fiat currency. I can only speak to my personal experience but I have seen multiple instances on X and nostr where people describe having transformational changes because of Bitcoin.
I found Bitcoin in 2020 by chance to be honest, I was scrolling Twitter when I stumbled upon someone saying that Bitcoin was freedom money. I remember thinking to myself "what the hell is freedom money?" I like to learn and I am curious by nature so I started to research what this Bitcoin thing was.
What I discovered blew my mind! As a avid fan of Ron Paul and Austrian economics I felt like I was primed and ready to go down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. Needless to say I jumped in with two feet first and haven't looked back since but I have come out the other side a changed person.
HODL CULTURE
Once you start down the rabbit hole there are so many twist and turn that you can take where it becomes a little overwhelming. What helped me get my bearings as I was learning about Bitcoin was the HODL culture that had been cultivated on Twitter. We all the know the catchphrases"
- "Not Your Keys, Not Your Coins"
- "There Is Only 21 Million"
- "Have Fun Staying Poor"
- "Bitcoin not Shitcoins"
- "Don't Sell Your Bitcoin"
- "Code Is Law"
Hearing and seeing this over and over gave me a firm ground to stand on and helped me understand that Bitcoin is step change function in how society interacts with money. For the first time in history we have a money that can't be manipulated by governments or other malicious third parties.
Bitcoin opens your eyes to what governments can do with an unlimited power to print money. They start world wars, stage coups all around the world and distort the perception of their citizens with propaganda. It is truly sickening that governments have gotten away with this for this long. Millions upon millions of people have died because of fiat currency. Bitcoin smashes the war machine and makes war costly thus making the world more peaceful.
I personally want to thank the toxic Bitcoin maximalist for standing on principle and staying true to the message despite the harsh criticism many of you have faced. I am forever grateful for your steadfastness to the Bitcoin revolution.
Hodl culture is firmly engrained into the Bitcoin community and will help countless others to see how Bitcoin is different from fiat and other digital assets. A by product of HODL culture is that it naturally encourages you to lower your time preference and appreciate the small things in life.
Low Time Preference
Low time preference was a term that I wasn't familiar with until I read Saifedean Ammous's book the Bitcoin Standard. For those that are unaware of the concept, the basic idea is when you have a money that doesn't store its value well you tend to focus on the here and now because you know your money is going to be worth a lot less in the future.
Why save for a new house or new car when you know that if you hold dollars for any amount of time your purchasing power is going to be less than it is today. This is why the savings rate among Americans are abysmal and will not get better any time soon. Most people are simply making a rational choice to maximize their purchasing power today versus waiting for tomorrow.
Not only are consumers are doing this but businesses are too. Have you noticed the quality of your appliances keeps getting worse? Back in the day, you could buy appliances that were built to last 15-20 years. Now you would be lucky to get an appliance that last more than 18 months without some major issue. Business are incentivized to thinking about short term profits versus building solid products that last and building a brand known for quality.
Bitcoin flips this whole situation on its head where the longer you hold Bitcoin the cheaper the product that you want gets cheaper over time. This foundational function of Bitcoin has made it where I don't want much of anything these days. I've noticed the dramatic behavior change within myself. Before Bitcoin I would buy a new car probably every 3-4 years. Since learning about Bitcoin I haven't had the urge to replace my car, in fact I've learned to appreciate that I have vehicle that gets me from point A to point B and back. I don't need the fancy new car with all the bells and whistles.
Having a low time preference helps you focus on what is important in life such as family and your personal health and wellness. It's not wealth, a big house or a fancy car. Sure you might acquire some of these things as the Bitcoin price appreciates but it is not the main motivator for true Bitcoiners who truly want to transform the world we live in. Imagine a world where everyone had a lower time preference than they do now.
People would be less stressed out, healthier, and happier. Work would no longer define who we are or what we think of ourselves. Instead work would be something that we do for leisure when you want to earn more Bitcoin. Our buildings would be beautiful again because we could spend more time creating works of art instead of industrial soulless buildings. Our environment would be cleaner because we wouldn't have rapacious mega corporations scavenging the world for minerals, instead they could focus on innovating or using the minerals that we have out of the ground more efficiently.
Fostering a low time preference is Bitcoin's superpower that you don't even realize is changing you into a different person. Bitcoin changes you and the world for the better. I hope more people choose to embrace Bitcoin and see what we see in it.