With the future of money in the hands of Satoshi Nakamoto’s brilliant protocol, inexact central planning would be replaced by algorithmic decentralization.
Of course, none of that has happened. And it’s exceedingly likely that none of it will.
After all, the difference between the Seekers’ apocalyptic prediction and the Bitcoin dream is that the latter can self-fulfill. The nature of a speculative commodity like Bitcoin is that it essentially runs on hope – the more people who buy the hype, the higher the value goes, and the more firms like Andreessen Horowitz are willing to pump money into strengthening the Bitcoin ecosystem. Wish for the UFO hard enough, and it might actually arrive.
But the Bitcoin dream is all but dead. Now the true believers are trying to cope with their setbacks by increasing their numbers. And if history is any guide, they’ll keep telling you the bright future of Bitcoin is just ahead, long after they’ve ceased to believe it themselves.
Eulogy made by Kevin Roose
