Happy Birthday Bitcoin. Ten years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin White Paper
announcing the creation of the most important innovation in our lifetime. While the monetary
regime we live under today may seem permanent to those alive today, it is
an anomaly that will not last long. Sound money, like bitcoin and gold,
is the norm of human history, and we will return to it with
Bitcoin. Looking back at the past ten years, there have been many important
dates for Bitcoin, alike the first time bitcoin reached the dollar parity in February
twenty eleven, no one could have ever imagined that one bitcoin would one day
cost a whole dollar, and when it did. When bitcoin did go to
one dollar per bitcoin, the idea the bitcoin would continue to grow seemed equally
impossible. The rest is history, same thing, different day. Another equally
important day was when last Lahniks on May tenth, two thousand and ten,
paid ten thousand bitcoins for two Papa John's pizzas. Laslow is a hero in
the bitcoin community, to say the least. He made the first real world
transaction with bitcoin, and he deserves all the credit for it. But here's
the thing. There is no agreed upon date for Bitcoin's birthday, but there
are three candidates. The question is listen. The question is which happening best
represents the birth of Bitcoin. October thirty first, two thousand and eight,
the Bitcoin White Paper is published, The invention is announced. January third,
two thousand and nine, The Genesis Block, the first Bitcoin block, is
created. January ninth, two thousand and nine, Bitcoin comes online, the
network starts operating, and how Finny, the late and famous cryptographer, receives
the first Bitcoin transaction ever. Bitcoin is the best expression of money in the
history of mankind. When the Bitcoin network launched in two thousand and nine,
a very few people understood its significance. Never in the history of the world
had it been possible to transfer value between people at opposite ends of the world
without relying on a trusted intermediary such as a bank or government. This is
a much much bigger deal than most understand, and now, ten years after
the publication of the Bitcoin White Paper, Bitcoin's market capitalization stands at over one
hundred billion dollars and will only continue to grow. It's been a bumpy ride,
as with any new technology, but the trend is clear, and more
importantly, Bitcoin cannot be stopped. The gene is out of the bottle.
All Bitcoin needs is time. Bitcoin is a black hole that will absorb a
tremendous amount of value. Bitcoin continues to absorb dollar after dollar, and it
won't stop. Bitcoin has the opportunity to become the new world reserve currency with
a market capitalization that will far the market capitalization of all fiat currencies combined.
When Bitcoin's market cap is in the trillions of dollars divided by the sixteen point
eight million bitcoins that will be available when all twenty one million bitcoins have been
mined by the year twenty one forty, there is going to be a lot
of value packed into each bitcoin. The first decade has passed, the riot
has been nothing short of amazing. We are still very early in this technology.
In fact, it's so early that no one really knows what bitcoin is
yet. No one knows where bitcoin is going. But I'm absolutely certain that
the next decade will be even more spectacular. Thank you, Satoshi, wherever
you are.