“Bitcoin is a swarm of cyber hornets serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth, exponentially growing ever smarter, faster, and stronger behind a wall of encrypted energy.” — Michael Saylor
Embarking upon the venture of this essay with an invocation of Michael Saylor’s words introduces an element of hazard. For those who are initiates or devoted followers in the realm of cryptocurrency, and especially for those who have cast their digital lot with Bitcoin, such a prologue is bound to capture their imagination. The quotation that Mr. Saylor has elected to feature prominently on his social media profile is saturated with qualities both vivid and metaphorical; it is a concoction of creativity, provocation, mystery, intensity, and an element of the arcane. It represents, in every sense, an idea that is both unique and intricately spun from the loom of the abstract and the profound.
Yet, it is incumbent upon us to consider those positioned at the antipodes of this spectrum — individuals whose skepticism toward the entire edifice of the digital asset industry is not merely persistent but is deeply ingrained. To these observers, Mr. Saylor’s eloquent selection might seem nothing less than opaque, bordering perhaps on the peculiar or unconventional. The citation, laden with metaphor and complex imagery, risks obscuring its own message, thus failing to impart a lucid comprehension of Bitcoin to the uninitiated. It is reasonable, then, to surmise that this particular group might find themselves disillusioned, opting to withdraw rather than delve deeper into the discourse.
However, my bet is placed on captivating a third group of readers. These are individuals propelled into this inquiry not by pre-existing allegiances or by any fixed perspective on the global economic and monetary systems. Their engagement is prompted by a more immediate, almost tangible reality that they encounter in their day-to-day existence.
They resemble, in a manner, the archetype depicted in that remarkably clever Coinbase commercial ‘Break the Cycle’ — the overachievers. They pursued higher education, emerged as diligent workers earning honest incomes, yet they grapple with the increasing burden of taxes, the escalating costs of property, the mounting expenses of living — from raising children to paying utility bills, from the substandard and costly medical care to the daunting challenge of providing for aging parents. Despite their endeavours, the maxim that hard work correlates with financial improvement feels more theoretical than practical, as they find themselves perennially strapped for cash, far removed from the notion of prosperity or even the simple ambition of bequeathing assets to their progeny.
Then there are those slightly better off, with a modest surplus to invest, hopeful for growth. Yet, even their investments at best yield a nominal return of 20%, which, after adjusting for the real rates of inflation, scarcely amounts to a sum enticing enough for a comfortable retirement, let alone for the generational transfer of wealth.
For these individuals, navigating their daily lives is tantamount to being ensnared between a rock and a hard place. Compelled by necessity, they soldier on — working diligently for their salary, managing rent or mortgage payments, all while being at the whim of fluctuating bank rates. The years stretch ahead of them, leading to a distant retirement, with the underlying illusion that they can endure until the age when pension withdrawals become a reality. It’s a journey marked by misery, where the only option seems to forge ahead.
T.S. Eliot, in his seminal work The Waste Land, paints a haunting tableau of the daily, monotonous commute of city workers traversing London Bridge. This procession is likened to a soulless, zombie-like march, emblematic of the disconnection and mechanised existence that pervades modern urban life. His vivid imagery serves as a poignant critique of the dehumanising impacts of modernity on the individual, particularly in the aftermath of World War I. However, beneath the surface of this cultural dissection lies an absent economic undertone.
Unreal City
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine…
— T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
For the individuals caught in this modern quandary, the pursuit is not a mere scramble for quick riches but a search for an alternative system — one that genuinely recognises and rewards the honest economic endeavours of its participants within the global economy. Amid the prolonged era of expansive monetary policies, colloquially dubbed ‘money printing,’ a stark reality unfolds: only a minority fully comprehend how their economic contributions, earnestly offered through daily toil in their selected careers or economic activities, are being insidiously eroded. The value of their labor and output, rather than being safeguarded, is subtly diminished by the swelling currency supply, leaving them in quest of a system that respects and fairly compensates their efforts.
Concurrently, they are drawn to the magnetism of headlines, captivated by news flashes such as ‘Bitcoin hits $70,000 in new record high’ from the Telegraph , ‘Bitcoin Rises From the Dead and Could Keep Going,’from Bloomberg, and ‘Bitcoin will keep going boom and bust until we all die’ from Business Insider, guiding their curiosity for an alternative. (This avoidance of crypto-centric outlets such as Cointelegraph, Blockworks, and CoinDesk is deliberate; those platforms cater to an audience already familiar with the nuances of digital finance, leaving everyday individuals — those not yet initiated into the cryptosphere — more likely to stumble upon Bitcoin through mainstream media’s broader reach.)
If you have journeyed with me this far, propelled by a blend of curiosity and resilience, without succumbing to the impulse to abandon our discourse, it’s conceivable that the specialised jargon of our digital epoch — terms like CEX, DEX, or DeFi — might linger outside the realm of your regular parlance. You may find yourself at once intrigued and slightly disoriented by the notion of a self-custodial wallet, or perhaps even more profoundly, daunted and deterred by the lexicon that permeates distributed ledger technology or the arcane subtleties of Byzantine agreements. In this, you bear no fault. The metamorphosis of a nation’s populace from engaged participants in a vibrant array of economic activities — intended to propel a flourishing civilisation — into a consortium of financial instrument traders adept in the nuances of modern finance and cryptography, this alone does not suffice to achieve the noble aspirations befitting a society of great ambition. Such terminologies, rather than elucidating, often serve to alienate, thus marginalising a significant majority that visionaries like Michael Saylor seek to reach and enlighten.
Yet, you would find it compelling, would you not, to question why a salary, modestly shy of £100,000, incurs a formidable tax rate of 40%, atop a VAT of 20% on all purchases, not to overlook council taxes, environmental fuel surcharges, and the plethora of stealth taxes ingeniously inserted before your earnings ever settle into your wallet? It becomes equally compelling, spurred by nothing less than rational inquiry, to ponder why, despite adhering to the age-old, prudent teachings of thrift, the dream of savings remains persistently elusive. And when push comes to shove, especially for those among Generation Z embarking on their careers with a starting salary of £35,000, not cushioned by the comforts of affluence, the daunting query of how one might ever amass sufficient funds for a deposit on a first home transforms from pressing to acute. Ownership of property, long heralded as the singular, universal aspiration of modernity and the hallmark of a prosperous nation since the tumult of two world wars, now looms as the most burdensome challenge for the vast majority in servicing the debt on their mortgages. How does one navigate this gulf when familial reserves offer neither bridge nor bequest to ease the passage? This question transcends the immediate; it becomes the defining challenge of an entire generation. Thus, the discourse around ‘generational wealth’, particularly among those of Generation Z who navigate the cryptosphere, gains prominence.
From Digital Gold to a Catalyst for Economic Renaissance
“The expansion of money supply — it’s awful.” — Michael Saylor
Should you find yourself stirred by a sense of inequity or injustice, a sentiment often echoed in headlines — that the fault lies with avaricious bankers, a malevolent Russian government, or manipulative Chinese currency policy — it may be time to broaden your perspective. The path to our current predicament has been charted by numerous esteemed commentators and analysts in the wake of the financial crisis, each contributing their insights into the implications of expansive monetary policies on global wealth. Therefore, I shall refrain from reiterating their analyses here. However, it is Mr. Michael Saylor’s elucidation, through his analogy that likens the often dry and tedious economic indices such as CPI and PPI to a framework of economic energy, drawing inspiration from aerodynamics, that presents a compelling case for examination.
“Money is monetary energy, or economic energy…so the expansion of the currency creates a huge inefficiency in society…what we are doing is we are bleeding civilization to death.” — Michael Saylor
For those readers intrigued to delve deeper, insights can be gleaned from his extensive interview with Lex Friedman, where Mr. Saylor articulates a critical discourse on the economic challenges confronting global populations, especially those born after the 1990s. He underscores the disparity between the soaring prices of assets and wage growth, illustrating how, despite diligent labor and savings, individuals increasingly find it arduous to afford assets like homes, as asset prices surge well beyond the pace of economic growth. Saylor, along with other Bitcoin maximalists, traces this dilemma to prolonged periods of monetary expansion and the inadequacy of traditional economic indicators used by the policy makers to measure the health of the economy, such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), to accurately reflect the real impact of inflation on the average person’s capacity to secure quality assets.
Saylor critiques the conventional understanding of inflation for grossly understating the turmoil it wreaks upon the working class and mainstream enterprises, describing it as a colossal wealth transfer from the working to the propertied class, and a redistribution of power from the free market and the populace to the government and centrally controlled markets. He denounces the inflation of the past century, highlighting the disjunction between nominal and real returns on investments, and the inefficiency it introduces into the economy by distorting the valuation of economic and technological advancements.
This tragic reality, he asserts, is the direct consequence of years of deceptive government policies and inflammatory government interventions across a wide spectrum of economic activities. An apt analogy here might be that years of an expansionist monetary environment, coupled with questionable approach to the calculation of inflation, is akin to unleashing Pandora’s Box, leaving hope as the sole refuge.
Saylor posits that Bitcoin, as introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto, offers a beacon of hope against this backdrop, signalling a shift in global sentiment and providing an alternative for younger generations bereft of generational wealth. The critique of the expansion of the money supply for engendering inefficiencies and essentially “bleeding civilization to death” by devaluing currency and propelling investment towards more stable stores of value like property or gold, underscores a failure among economists to acknowledge the inflammatory and inflationary consequences of policies that disrupt free market operations, resulting in a hidden tax on society.
Charting the Course: Bitcoin’s Place in a Trillion-Dollar Global Economy
For those who navigate the markets not merely as casual participants but from the vantage point akin to Michael Saylor’s, his discourse — particularly as articulated during the Bitcoin Atlantis event on the idyllic island of Madeira — acquires a more concrete manifestation, echoing the sentiments introduced at the beginning of this essay. It’s a call that transcends the transactional, aiming for a foundation much deeper within our collective economic existence.
The message was clear and inclusive: ‘Bitcoin is for everyone’ — a declaration intended for all, including those yet to embrace Bitcoin. Remarkably, just four days post his presentation, Bitcoin’s price soared to an unprecedented $70,000, marking a significant milestone.
The essence of diving into the numerical core of this discourse, and the importance of such a straightforward message, cannot be overstated. It is plausible to infer that Saylor’s vision — which seeks to preserve and rejuvenate the economic energy of human civilisation, long drained by the deluge of devalued currency over the last century — requires a much broader and more formidable assembly than currently exists.
At this precise moment, 10 March 2024, 13.30 GMT, the global crypto market cap stands at $2.63 trillion, with Bitcoin commanding a substantial majority of slightly over 52.05%.1
In comparison, the global finance landscape is vast. As of 2023, the equity markets loom large at an astonishing $109 trillion, with the United States alone accounting for nearly 44.9% at $49 trillion.2
Venturing into commodities — from industrial and precious metals to agriculture and energy — the domain is projected to reach a nominal value of $131.3 trillion by the end of 2024.
The narrative of gold, that perennial symbol of wealth, reveals some 209,000 tonnes have been mined, amounting to an estimated $12 trillion in value, a figure that speaks to humanity’s undying allure for its radiance.3
Moreover, the global economy itself is expected to expand to a GDP of $105 trillion by the end of 2024.4
Each statistic, each measure, is not just a number but a lighthouse, guiding us through the vast economic oceans where the crypto market, at a mere $2.5 trillion, is but a solitary ship.
To consider Bitcoin, or the wider cryptosphere, as the forerunner of a new epoch in asset valuation is to stand on the precipice of a great divide. The meteoric rise of Bitcoin’s price to $70,000 from $25,000 within a year — an impressive surge of approximately 176% — might exhilarate the individual trader, speculator, or investor. Yet, it casts a modest shadow when juxtaposed against the sheer magnitude of global capital markets and the monumental endeavour of catering to the global economy. This contrast underscores the ambition to recalibrate the economic energy of humanity, squandered over the last century, a mission that Michael Saylor champions with both passion and a hint of the transcendental.
Approaching this line of reasoning as a thoughtful exploration, one might cautiously align with Mr. Saylor’s vision for humanity’s economic future — a vision of recuperating the lost economic energy through a perspective that is as philosophical as it is financial. Though his argument, presented with unyielding conviction, strikes a chord, it represents but one viewpoint — one that I interpret with both respect and circumspection. Hence, should Mr. Saylor or any reader discern any misinterpretation in my account, I offer my apologies and remain receptive to rectification.
The Art of Communication
In the expansive and often tumultuous world of cryptocurrency, there is a notably pervasive reliance on computer-generated imagery for communication. These creations, frequently criticised for their lack of sophistication and inventiveness, alongside a monotonous penchant for the hues of gold and black or elementary renditions of bull markets, signal an unmistakable plea for an alternative capable of engaging a broader spectrum of enthusiasts. It is widely acknowledged that visual representations hold considerable sway in defining the ethos of any societal movement. Each epoch of social progress bequeaths a legacy to its successors, a tradition of cultural enrichment and intellectual advancement.
One might entertain the hope that the newly affluent, those in the league of Michael Saylors, could adopt a more earnest approach to this endowment, leveraging their newfound prosperity for the greater good. At the core of this discussion lies a discernible tension: the boundless potential of digital creativity contrasted starkly against the frequently uninspired outcomes that predominate. The predilection for a colour scheme that aims to summon the allure and opulence associated with gold and black, purported symbols of wealth and mystery in the digital currency domain, ironically risks imparting a uniform and shallow perception of value. Gold, a timeless emblem of affluence and success, when misapplied in a digital format, diminishes in significance, revealing a scarcity of inventiveness in capturing the intricate and vibrant essence of the crypto market.
The routine portrayal of bull markets, depicted through simplistic images, does little to encapsulate the inherent complexity and unpredictability of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Such representations overlook a valuable opportunity to delve into the collective psyche of the investment community, to explore through allegory and abstraction the emotional and psychological undercurrents of economic optimism. By opting for direct, unembellished depictions, these narratives are rendered into their most elementary forms, thereby forfeiting a depth of meaning and connection.
The fundamental issue with these digital creations is their apparent focus on swift production and dissemination at the expense of thoughtful artistic expression and depth. In the fervour to capitalise on current trends or sentiments, there is a marked tendency to abandon the artistic principles that imbue art with enduring significance — namely, originality, emotional resonance, and the capacity to incite reflection and inspire. The cryptocurrency community, situated at the forefront of technological innovation, stands to gain considerably from embracing a form of digital art that dares to challenge conventional perceptions, push the boundaries of creativity, and thereby enrich the collective understanding of digital currencies and their societal implications.
For those who have graciously allocated their time and patience to this discourse, it would seem fitting to conclude with a visual interlude featuring selections from the British Museum’s digital collection of ‘Money Matters’, under the auspices of the venerable institution Citi Bank.5
It is a fervent wish that industry leaders such as Mr. Michael Saylor, already noted for their philanthropic contributions to education, might be inspired to galvanise their extensive following towards establishing a foundation. This foundation would commission a diverse array of experimental contemporary artworks emanating from the crypto movement, with the noble aim of bequeathing to future generations a visual and auditory legacy that meticulously chronicles their historical movement.
评论 (0)