Why Bitcoin? If you still need reasons

There’s no shortage of articles and posts about Bitcoin or crypto. But I thought I’d write a summary in a digestible format, but mostly for me to have one pager of my own thoughts that I can send to my friends and family, with whom I keep constantly debating why I’ve YOLO’d most of my money into it. I’m honestly a bit tired of repeating myself over and over, so here are a few highlights why Bitcoin is not only sound money but the best store of value:

1. It has limited supply — only 21M bitcoins available in total, no one can create more. Unlike fiat currency such as USD, which has been printed into existence in trillions since Nixon decoupled gold from dollar, effectively ending Bretton Woods agreement. In 2020 Federal Reserve has printed over $3T which is ~ 25% of the entire USD circulation. In 2021, we’re already at $2T new money with additional $3T just around the corner. What do you think that means to the value of the dollar and all the other major currencies that are pegged to it? What about the rest of the world’s currencies that we already see collapsing? Bitcoin’s value is appreciating not only because more people are adopting it, but also because dollar with all other currencies are depreciating against it.
2. It is decentralized — there is not one entity that controls bitcoin or its transactions. If your bank goes bankrupt or decides to lock you out of your account, you will have a hard time getting your money back.
3. Your money is your money — the power of banks and their control over when/where/how much you spend/deposit/withdraw has been around forever, but now bitcoin holders are in control of their own money, as it should be.
4. It’s available 24/7 and anywhere in the world, all you need is an internet connection. Unlike banks or stock market, crypto world is open all the time, and you’re able to transfer money to anyone with a crypto wallet regardless where they are in the world. No more wire transfers, no more outrageous fees or days of waiting for money to be received.
5. It’s fair, fast, secure and backed by the biggest computational power in the world. No matter who or where you are in the world, your bitcoins have the same value and power as anyone else, and will take as much time to send or receive. Each transaction is validated to prevent double spend, which simply means no one can spend money they don’t have.

Now a lot is happening in the space every day that sometimes even I can’t keep up with, but here are some of the additional recent news since the beginning of 2021 that make Bitcoin less scary, or as internet people say, to stop the FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt). Bitcoin is being adopted more and more not only by nerds and geeks of the world, but big — and I mean BIG — players:

1. Visa, MasterCard, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon , Stone Ridge — all either have adopted it or are starting to accumulate it.
2. PayPal, Square are the biggest fintechs in the world that allow buying/selling Bitcoin and other crypto. PayPal now opened up a gateway for people to pay millions of merchants with crypto.
3. Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US with presence in many other countries, is officially to IPO on April 14th, 2021.
4. Tesla, MicroStrategy, Square and many others are putting bitcoin on their corporate balance sheet.
5. Tesla now accepts payments for the cars in bitcoin. There are a lot of others
6. Fidelity, Grayscale and Canada’s Bitcoin ETF are forming first 3 bitcoin ETFs in North America
7. Plenty of Bitcoin IRA companies in US have been around for years making a pretty great return for your retirement years.

Bitcoin seems to be just the first step to get into the new realm, while there’s already so much going on in the space. But for those who are just starting, this is the first post. Next on to altcoins, NFTs and Metaverse.