The Power of Sound Money
Crypto’s advantage over the traditional finance and fiat complex (TradFiat) begins with Bitcoin’s role as sound money, the bedrock of value. It then extends through an ecosystem of innovations that radically redefine the scope and scale of what a modern economic system can achieve.
Mapping the Crypto Ecosystem
The total crypto market cap exceeds $3T today. Bitcoin is ~63%, Ethereum ~9%, and the remaining ~28% spans Layer 1 chains (Solana, XRP) and a wide range of applications. These include decentralized exchanges (DEX), lending platforms, fiat “stablecoins”, oracles, L2 scaling solutions, non-fungible tokens (NFT), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO), cross-chain bridges, prediction markets, decentralized storage and AI, among others.
Industry unicorns such as Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, Consensys, and Circle account for an additional $250B in market value and generate over $45B in revenue acting as bridges between the legacy financial system and crypto.
Immune Response of Legacy Finance
Crypto now poses an existential threat to TradFiat as more capital is deployed and amassed across its networks. In response, TradFiat fights back by grabbing and locking up Bitcoin, marketing it as a treasury asset in trusts, ETFs, structured notes, or reserve holdings. It uses leverage, credit, and crypto-backed loans that can trigger forced liquidations, rehypothecate client assets, manipulate ETF flows, and sell high-fee products—tactics that aim to separate people from their Bitcoin and choke off the growth of the crypto ecosystem.
Challenging Abuses of the Political Elite
TradFiat has goals beyond seeking direct financial profit. It also preserves power dynamics and privilege, locking in advantages for political elites and enabling them to spend public funds unchecked. Elon Musk’s DOGE revelations illustrate the sheer scale of clandestine spending beyond public scrutiny as well as the fierce backlash from mainstream media and political circles when anyone dares to challenge the status quo.
Crypto cuts through this by offering a reliable, censorship-resistant, decentralized system built on transparency. Its value and network effects stem from integrity rather than entrenched privilege and manufactured consensus. While TradFiat remains hamstrung by bureaucracy, duplicitous regulation, legalese and antiquated technology, crypto is delivering a faster, more secure, and radically more inclusive economic system.
The Bitcoiner Ultimatum
Bitcoin was created to disrupt TradFiat, not become just another asset dominated by it. Anyone calling themselves a bitcoiner faces a clear choice: uphold TradFiat or champion crypto. No genuine bitcoiner can reconcile crony capitalism, central banking and Wall Street ponzinomics with the sound-money principles and financial innovation of Bitcoin. Bitcoiners should therefore embrace the broader crypto ecosystem to achieve escape velocity and fully decentralize the global financial system.
Yes, some crypto projects are scams, but TradFiat itself is rooted in economic theories and crony capitalism that oppose the very ethos of Bitcoin. Meanwhile, the broader crypto movement is anchored in permissionless networks, open-source freedom tech, sound-money principles, and decentralization, because these principles free individuals to transact beyond the heavy-handed controls and rent-seeking of the establishment. Crypto and the freedom it aims to provide are exactly what the powers that be fear.
Maximalists weaken crypto’s promise when they dismiss the substantial innovations beyond Bitcoin. We must demand that crypto catalyze genuine financial and technological progress rather than bolster entrenched elites, a trap Bitcoin risks falling into as it gains wider adoption by the machinery of the state.
We can build decentralized systems that serve the world fairly or uphold a regime of exploitative power dynamics. The choice is binary: Fiat or Crypto.