How studying Bitcoin taught me patience.

Somebody asked about patience earlier and i wanted to chime in the comments, but the comment got long so i figured i'd make a post about it.

TLDR: studying Bitcoin teaches you about money, that knowledge keeps you humble, and humility gives you patience. it's not about the price, it's about how much you own.

so check it. owning Bitcoin is like having a slice of a limited pie that more and more people will want to own some day. not because they're trying to get rich, but because they need Bitcoin. this is why people say the world needs Bitcoin, and why patience comes to those who truly believe in it.

you see, time is the most valuable asset. when you notice that Bitcoin becomes harder and harder for more people to obtain over time, the criticisms become easier to ignore. because if you truly study Bitcoin, you'll learn about money, the history of money's evolution, and how the world has been searching for the perfect money this entire time.

the only real reason we're sitting here having this conversation (disagreement) about Bitcoin and its price in paper money is because the world was taught by governments and economists alike to believe that paper money WAS the perfect money. so to this day, people still price everything in dollars, pesos, euros, etc.

shifting into the digital era unlocked a new biome, a new level, an area for us to explore. a world most people still haven't taken the time to learn about. too much information, everyone thinks they're right.

but regardless, it still contained new possibilities and new opportunities to improve upon different systems; one of which being the monetary system itself, once again. very few pioneer and act on the impulse to step outside the circle and discover opportunities in new landscapes. but you only need to discover them once, and given enough pressure, somebody eventually does.

remember: most of us were never really taught how computers work, let alone how money works. so it's easy to stay at the surface layer and go with the flow. i was there too.

so what you get is a world full of people who trust the not-so-perfect paper money system, to the point that they're willing to fight for it. by believing monetary policy is necessary to keep the market balanced, they defend it. in a free market, prices move towards the marginal cost of production. goods and services move to where they're most valued. capital flows freely and naturally, without the need for intervention.

but somewhere along the line in the early 1900s, some jackasses in power figured out real quick that if you can intervene in the free global market, you can capitalize on its motions by adjusting the flow and the stock of goods/services being traded. all they had to do was centralize the money, decree it payable for all debts public and private, convince the rest of the citizens (i.e. countries, the world) that it was a necessary part of advancing economically with all these new inventions, and then print the hell out of it once everyone had their hands on it.

"all spending is good spending" is basically what we were told.

and that led to where we are today, and to what we've seen at certain points in history: a world whose money is controlled by nation-states, through what Hayek called "monetary nationalism," for the sake of profit under the mask of innovation.

the saddest part is that it has made people so impatient and stretched thin that it's hard to stop and ask questions. it keeps us trapped in the system. but you can't blame anyone for that. we're all a product of our environment, taught to work for a depreciating asset while being told to hedge against it because it's what everyone does and it's how the system is supposed to work.

eventually, it all makes sense for everyone. but since we're still early in this value shift, when you challenge the system in front of those who live off its fruits, their reality won't let them make much sense of it. Bitcoin is such an abstract concept that it's hard to grasp for what it is until there are few options left and the abstraction finally clicks.

all of this knowledge keeps you humble every day, and so long as you stay humble about what you know, you will be granted patience. those who understand Bitcoin now can have patience for those who will understand it later.

because at the end of the day, everyone will eventually recognize that it's less about the price of Bitcoin in dollars, and more about how much Bitcoin you actually own.

edit: TLDR