Why Bitcoin doesn’t need a leader, not even Elon Musk

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When one of Elon Musk’s anti-Bitcoin tweeting storms drove thousands of people to sell and its price to plunge, my company added $ 5 million in bitcoin to its corporate treasury.

I had no doubts about Musk’s business acumen. However, I did know something that investors who only bought Bitcoin for a quick return didn’t: Bitcoin doesn’t need a leader – not even Elon Musk. In fact, no one controls Bitcoin, and that’s exactly what makes it so valuable.

Bitcoin is influencer proof by design

Musk isn’t the first influencer to criticize Bitcoin. In 2017, the first investor Roger Ver, who had earned the nickname “Bitcoin Jesus” due to his ability to convert traditional investors into crypto, turned his back on the currency he so heavily promoted.

Ver decided that Bitcoin’s small block size and increasing fees had rendered it unusable and became a supporter of Bitcoin Cash, a derivative currency that he said was more usable than Bitcoin. Its market capitalization, which it believes will exceed that of Bitcoin in 2019, has still not been caught up from a distance.

Why? The truth is, Bitcoin doesn’t need Elon Musk, Roger Ver, or the Bitcoin Mining Council to tell people how they should or shouldn’t use it. Unlike all other blockchain currencies, Bitcoin’s leadership, like the blockchain that supports it, is decentralized by design.

The mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged pseudonym of the founder (s) of Bitcoin, left the network 10 years ago. Nakamoto’s latest email to developers said he was moving on to other projects. Just like that, the cryptographic key used to send network-wide alerts was handed over and Nakamoto was gone. This means that Bitcoin is not ruled by one person, but by their immutable vision and hard-wired rules. Genius.

Decentralized leadership is a difficult concept for those of us steeped in the hierarchical corporate culture of North America to understand, but the benefits are real. If Musk died tomorrow, for example, the fate of his businesses and investments would be in jeopardy. If Nakamoto dies (assuming he hasn’t already), it wouldn’t impact Bitcoin’s market capitalization.

Decentralized leadership also means that anyone who wants to change Bitcoin – and people have tried – would have to convince thousands of people to accept the changes. This is what makes him so precious. Finished Assets will never stray from the original vision set forth in Nakamoto’s whitepaper, and no amount of corporate greed, personal agenda, mixed ideology, or influence can change it.

Bitcoin’s rules are written in code

Traditional investors are used to commercializing corruption. They got used to the dance of buying and selling based on the daily hype and market trends that have nothing to do with the reality of a business or asset class.

With Bitcoin, investors don’t need to wait and see what Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has to say about the US economy and interest rates because its framework is fixed. Everyone knows that there will never be more than 21 million releases. Monetary policy is set, the network is secure, and we can be sure that if we send a transaction it will be received.

This is why China’s repeated refusal to approve cryptocurrency trading has had minimal impact on Bitcoin’s market capitalization. In 2013, the Chinese central bank banned financial institutions from trading cryptocurrencies. In 2017, the bank doubled down, making initial coin offerings illegal. In 2021, federal agencies banned banks and online payment channels from offering customers any service involving cryptocurrency. Interestingly, China has not banned individual investors from holding cryptocurrencies and has signaled its intention to create its own digital currency.

With every news announcement and headline in the media, the price of Bitcoin temporarily declined before the market corrected rapidly. I’m not offering this as a resounding endorsement to buy Bitcoin, but rather a caveat to research and understand what you’re investing in that secures the network, traffic, and total market cap.

Bitcoin’s impact on society is net positive

Bitcoin’s ability to resist influencers, central bank policy, and government decrees boils down to one simple truth: It was designed to create a more equitable future. I am not investing in Bitcoin for quick gain. I invest in Bitcoin because I want to be part of the long term institutional change that it makes possible.

Government control over fiat currency is helping to accelerate the global wealth gap. This has become even more evident due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shined the spotlight on wealth inequality. Oxfam research reveals that from the start of the pandemic to the end of 2020, the wealth of billionaires around the world increased by $ 3.9 trillion. During the same period, the International Labor Organization reports that the combined incomes of workers around the world have fallen by $ 3.7 trillion.

Unlike fiat currencies, Bitcoin is insensitive to inflation. This is important because inflation slows the economic growth of entire countries. It stagnates wages, forcing people to work longer hours for less pay. It helps those who have access to cheap capital and punishes the savers and the working class as their savings and income lose their purchasing power every day.

Bitcoin helps level the playing field because the rules are the same for everyone. There is no financial censorship, no physical borders and no individual, government or central bank can manipulate its value. So as the world waits for Elon Musk’s next storm of tweets, I’m going to sit down, enjoying every dip.

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