Bitcoin: A Free Market Flag vs a Suffisticated Marketing Brand

A real product for haters and lovers

Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they are finished.- Daniel Gilbert, PhD

The person you’re going to be five or ten years from now is going to be more different than you expect.

Yet, society, in general, have the mindset as we don’t imagine our future self as a different person.

This is one of the key myths of personality.

Your personality isn’t innate. Your personality comes from your view of your own future, but most people weren’t educated to think that way.

We have huge difficulties to have enough imagination about our future self. We don’t even take time to think about it, the more we do a deep reflection on the subject.

So, how can we deeply understand an era of profound disruption innovation?

Are you able to do a serious self-criticism? Can you realize that your prejudices are influencing the perception of the disruptive future ahead?

I’ve been writing about disruptive innovation and cryptocurrencies with my mind open. I’ve read all the messages I receive. Some of them criticizing my optimism and my belief in some of these technologies.

Reading all messages makes me reflect on my beliefs. And this exercise is super healthy. I love receiving criticism because it makes me open my mind to other ways of looking at matters. Other ways of reasoning.

That said, why do I keep my belief in most of these disruptive innovations? Why do I believe in Bitcoin? Or in companies like Tesla, Square, Opendoor, Digital Turbine, or Invitae?

The Answer Is Free Market Capitalism

Debates about capitalism can go wherever we want them to go. Nobody has the reason on their side. Only different perspectives.

Yet, as much I read about macro-economy, trends, and stock markets, the more I start to understand the game theory behind every move. And there is no science. There are multiple formulas. Warren Buffett’s formula. Ray Dalio’s formula. Carl Icahn’s formula. It’s a game, in the pure sense of the word.

And while everybody plays, every single one hopes his theory works the better. Nobody knows what the future is, but the best know how to do it on a daily basis. And different strategies can bring the same result- meaning, money.

Betting on the future of companies is an activity for those who really know. In the long run, knowledge, mixed with a little madness, and a lot of courage results in incredible success.

On the other hand, those who do not understand the game theory, end up in bitterness, trying to win in short-term bets, provided only by luck as an ally.

External players also try to survive. Central banks and governments try to maintain power over money, and therefore over everything that moves on planet Earth.

In economical cycles, they tend to benefit the wealthier first. Yet, sometimes things get to a point where money can’t save you from the abyss. In 1923, the hyperinflation in Germany destroyed their economy. The more money the government printed, the more the money became worthless.

Some think the US suffers from the same risk, with the amount of money printed and the steep rise in debt.

So, we get to a point of typical prisoner’s dilemma.

The prisoner’s dilemma is set up in such a way that both parties choose to protect themselves at the expense of the other participant.

On one side, we have central banks. On the other side, we have the creditors.

In this push game, an alternative emerges out of the reach of central banks called Bitcoin. The refuge of the first who arrived. The doubt and skepticism of those most adverse to change. The total disbelief of those who uniquely and exclusively see the existing system as the only solution.

We have central bankers and bitcoiners fighting for supremacy. Both parties are trying to protect themselves at the expense of the other.

Central banks have all the monetary power. Bitcoin has all the philosophical libertarianism that somehow, in this disruptive era is truly exotic.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Marketing

Carl Icahn caused Apple shares to skyrocket 5.6% in August 2013.

After what he described on Tweeter as a ‘pleasant conversation’ with Tim Cook, during which the two discussed a larger stock repurchase program.

Icahn wrote on Twitter about his investment company:

“We currently have a great position at Apple. We believe the company is extremely undervalued.”

This tweet alone added nearly 12.5 billion dollars to Apple’s market cap in just 100 minutes.

It reminds me of Michael Saylor’s tweets about Bitcoin. Of course, the CEO of Microstrategy wants his theory to work too. As Carl Icahn, he wants to make money and to be right on his bet. Or at least don’t lose money to inflation, as Saylor justifies. Yet, marketing does these things. It has the power of influence.

If Carl Icahn, with a single tweet, added 12.5 billion dollars to Apple’s market cap, imagine how much money he won?

Michael Saylor is doing the same thing on Tweeter every day. He’s fighting to be the winner at the expense of the other player- the dollar itself.

After March 2020, the world had a problem of monetary expansion. And if you’re an engineer, you’d look for a technology solution to a problem. There are a lot of non-technological solutions to monetary expansion.

Gold is a 5,000-year-old non-technology solution. And Bitcoin is the technology solution, in Saylor’s opinion.

Is the world going to do a rational decision to choose a technological solution to their problem?

Saylor believes that we’re losing 15% annually on our purchasing power for the dollar. So, his company decided to dematerialize cash in a 1.3 billion dollar position on Bitcoin.

Whatever explanation anyone tries to give me about buying gold or Bitcoin, the future has always to do with belief. It’s not only technical justifications.

And the best weapon to change behavior, and so, belief, is marketing.

I don’t think gold will have any chance of fighting Bitcoin in terms of marketing. And so, we started to see massive money transfers, from gold ETFs to Bitcoin. And the party has just begun.

Final Thoughts

Disruptive innovation describes a process by which a product or service powered by a technology enabler initially takes root in simple applications at the low end of a market — typically by being less expensive and more accessible — and then relentlessly moves upmarket, eventually displacing established competitors.- Clayton M. Christensen in sloanreview.mit.edu

Regardless of what the future holds, it has been a privilege to live in an era of total technological disruption.

Adding to that, the possibility of a monetary revolution.

On top of that, we have a terrible pandemic. Ironically it’s accelerating this paradigm shift.

I believe things will be radically different in the near future. I look forward to this change. The world deserves a better evolution model.

The future of humanity is about space exploration, the eradication of diseases, equal opportunities, and the protection of Mother Nature. And technology can help us to solve all these ancestral problems.

It remains for us to have the courage, vision, and emotional intelligence to know how to walk hand in hand with these new tools.

Making a better world is the ultimate goal, isn’t it?

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