Bitcoin is mystical, transforms energy into money, creates its own time calculation, encrypts and decrypts information, and contains symbolism. Some of this is reminiscent of the obscure secret doctrine of alchemy, which has been practiced for several thousand years in various places around the world.

The level of contempt that Bitcoin attracts is unparalleled and cannot be explained rationally. Bitcoin seems to embody a primal human fear of innovation. Where that comes from and how humanity has dealt with it over the past 2000 years is the subject of this article. 

The discussion of whether Bitcoin is right-wing or left-wing has been circulating on social media for quite some time. And it's unsurprisingly controversial. Some Bitcoiners are instantly rejecting because it seems absurd. Isn't Bitcoin simply a technology that treats everyone the same? Doesn't it just work? But that's not the whole story.

This framing is about showing why Bitcoin is much more than a singular and disruptive technology. After all, Nakamoto's "peer-to-peer cash system" doesn't simply exist and is consequently used by many. It is almost the other way around: only the cooperation of all participants results in the secure, neutral and decentralized money system. 

The comparison of money and language is not new, neither in relation to Bitcoin nor to money in general. As early as the 17th century, the English philosopher John Locke noted that the manipulation of silver coins he observed was accompanied by a collapse of the public vocabulary. For him, words were “coins of intellectual exchange.”

Some of Bitcoin’s properties sound abstract. It’s all about digital ownership, censorship resistance, decentralization, and more. But the deeper you dig into the Bitcoin rabbit hole, the more you realize that Nakamoto even implemented some of what are actually mutually exclusive properties.

Bitcoiners are among the few people who make a cult out of spending as little money as possible in our current consumer culture. With memes like "Stacking Sats," "Hodl," or "BTFD" ("buy the fucking dip"), they not only intelligently overcome the emotions of the market. But, there's much more to it: It's the rebirth of a savings culture.

The purpose of this article is to show why #Bitcoin represents the first and only economic measurement system of humankind. The particular challenges it overcame are similar to those presented themselves in length measurement history. This is why the development of the metric system is a fascinating analogy.

Objectively speaking, Bitcoin is already a massive success. In just 12 years, Satoshi Nakamoto’s idea has grown from being a conceptual PDF file in 2008 to storing around 1 trillion USD in 2021. This and any number from other metrics are testament to a form of mass adoption that only compares to the phenomenon of the internet in its early years. Still, despite this track record, the negative news and dystopian scenarios continue.