₿i͎t͎c͎o͎i͎n͎ ✶

Happy bitcoin halving day!! For the first time in history, humans have a form of money whose supply increases by less than 1% per year. This is a big deal because the hardness of our money is a control knob for our time preference: the degree to which we discount the future. The harder the money, the less its supply increases, the better it holds value into the future, the more it allows you to plan and provide for the future, the more you are able to curb your base immediate impulses in favor of rational future orientation. All human progress and civilization is intertwined with us finding harder moneys. From cattle to salt to seashells to metals to precious metals, we've constantly progressed by moving to the harder money, allowing us more reliable ways for providing for the future, making us more future-oriented. This culminated with gold becoming the whole world's only money by the end of the 19th century, with annual supply growth of ~2%. Everyone on Earth could save in gold without fear of inflation. A century of human catastrophe followed when governments banned the monetary use of gold & replaced it with their fiat credit, whose supply increases at ~14% per year. Saving became unattainable and the future more uncertain. Time preference rose as people became more present-oriented, and governments had infinite spending power at the expense of their serfs. Wars became longer and more likely with governments able to rob their citizens effortlessly to finance them. Bitcoin fixes this. Not only does bitcoin allow us a form of money outside government control, it's also the hardest money to ever exist, making it the most advanced form of money ever, better than even gold. No matter what happens, you can be sure your bitcoin will never be diluted by more than 1% per year. I discuss these ideas in more detail in my books: The Bitcoin Standard: amazon.com/Bitcoin-Standard-… And The Fiat Standard: amazon.com/Fiat-Standard-Sla…