Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Bitcoin is a one time per sentient species event: what does digital scarcity mean, Bitcoin's "Je Ne Sais Quoi," and the first and only digital land grab

Prior to the first Bitcoin block and the absolute scarcity that the network introduced to the world, every single object or resource in the physical realm had no absolute cap of availability. But now we have Bitcoin, the first truly scarce "thing" known to man. And it just happens to be digital. Yet, what does this actually mean--an absolutely scarce digital thing?

Well in my view, it is something that can happen only once.

Here is a hacked together logical proof replete with logical errors and random commentary:

PROOF:

1.) Absolute scarcity is not possible in the physical realm (barring extinction of living creatures and plant life of course).

2.) Therefore, absolute scarcity can only occur in the digital realm.

3.) Since absolute scarcity can only occur in the digital realm, what is it about the digital realm that allows that scarcity? With adequate security, computers have the ability to execute immutable rules.

4.) Given that all computers with adequate security can execute immutable rules, what differentiates Bitcoin from ETH, Shibacoin, Fortnite V-Bucks, Fedcoin, or RuneScape party hats?

5.) Bitcoin is a decentralized consensus based P2P open source network with absolute scarcity as its founding principle. All of those other digital tokens are subject to the whims of their owners with varying degrees of centralization and unpredictability.

Still, this isn't quite satisfying, is it? After all, couldn't this sub just make a new bitcoin called "hodlcoin" with a 3.1 million coin limit, using exactly the same software as the bitcoin protocol. Yep! Could every sub on reddit do the same thing? Yep! Then we would have a trillion new coins floating around with 3.1 million coin limits for each sub protocol (dibs on WSBcoin) and some of the protocols would probably even be decentralized.

So what is that extra "je ne sais quoi" about Bitcoin that makes it unique? Bitcoin is both a discovery and an invention. Satoshi invented Bitcoin and discovered absolute scarcity in the process as a byproduct (the potential for which always existed in the digital realm). This is why absolute scarcity cannot be replicated. The discovery has been made.

Interestingly enough, this also aligns with what the world needs. The world only needs 1 absolutely scarce digital asset because Bitcoin can effectively store decillions of dollars of USD value right now. The price of a bitcoin in USD is essentially meaningless to the network.

So then, what does all this word salad mean? Pretty simple really. This is the age of the digital land grab. Those who understand Satoshi's discovery earliest will be the landed gentry of tomorrow. Those who don't, serfs servicing the robots that replaced them for one years salary.


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