Why bitcoin is different from every other monetary promise in history

00:00 Speaker A

Bitcoin does not promise to eliminate recessions, wars, bank failures, or irresponsible governance.

00:06 Speaker A

It cannot stop politicians from borrowing or people from making terrible financial decisions.

00:11 Speaker A

It changes one very specific thing.

00:13 Speaker A

No president, parliament, or central banker can independently decide to create 21 million additional Bitcoin.

00:20 Speaker A

New coins are issued according to rules enforced across the network.

00:23 Speaker A

Those rules change only if participants voluntarily accept the change.

00:27 Speaker A

Anyone who rejects it can continue enforcing the existing rules.

00:31 Speaker A

That is fundamentally different from every monetary promise we have discussed.

00:36 Speaker A

Gold was scarce, but government suspended redemption.

00:39 Speaker A

Silver coins had weight, but emperors and kings reduced it.

00:42 Speaker A

Paper notes promise convertibility until convertibility interfered with political reality.

00:48 Speaker A

Bitcoin does not make the promise harder for a government to break.

00:52 Speaker A

It removes any government's exclusive authority to break it.

00:56 Speaker A

That does not automatically make Bitcoin better money for every purpose.