Moving from freedom money to just being part of the “system”

The simple answer is both yes and no.

There is no denying how far Bitcoin has come since its creation. Back then, if you had told Bitcoiners that just about 15 years later it would not only be priced at nearly $120k per coin, but that Wall Street and the President of the United States had completely joined the Bitcoin bandwagon, it is likely they would have thought you were crazy.

We are currently in unprecedented territory with Bitcoin. Where anything that was previously thought impossible is now very likely to happen. There have been price predictions of Bitcoin reaching $200k, $500k, $1 million, and far above that on a long enough time frame.

All of that sounds incredibly bullish, yet along the way, Bitcoin lost something.

When Bitcoin was first created, its intention was to be a money that gave you freedom from the government. A way to opt out of the system that had become so corrupt over the years.

It was also supposed to be a better way to save your money. No longer would you have to worry about your hard-earned savings being inflated away by the government.

Without a doubt, Bitcoin has been very successful at fulfilling that second intention. Anyone who has consistently been investing in Bitcoin for the long term would have been able to make life-changing money. People no longer needed to become expert investors just to have a hope of someday being able to retire. Picking the correct stocks, real estate, and or other assets. Instead, all they needed to do was work hard at their 9–5 job and devote their extra savings to Bitcoin. Growing your wealth had become THAT easy.

With all of that said, one could argue that Bitcoin has lost its identity over the years with that first intention.

To be more exact, Bitcoiners have lost their way.

This is a story as old as time. Young people who lack financial resources are often highly motivated to change the world. However, once they obtain wealth beyond their wildest dreams, that is when their focus shifts towards preserving their wealth. And their dreams of changing the world get put on the back burner or forgotten altogether.

That is the reason many liberal Bitcoiners have been disappointed with the direction that Bitcoin appears to be heading.

It was supposed to be a new financial order. A way to opt out of the corrupt financial system. Yet this crypto cycle’s main narrative appears to be Wall Street, Treasury companies, and governments entering Bitcoin.

We are becoming what we set out to beat, and we are welcoming it with arms wide open.

As long as it pumps our bags, most people don’t seem to care.

However, there is hope.

Recently, a small mindshift has begun amongst Bitcoiners, and this has given me hope for the future.

During previous cycles, there was little room for debate within the Bitcoin community. You were either with them or against them. If you were against them, they would do everything in their power to exile you or make you an outcast. These popular groups had seemingly decided that Bitcoin’s blocksize shouldn’t be increased, and that it should only be used as wealth preservation akin to “digital gold.” Believing that there shouldn’t be DeFi or anything else built on Bitcoin. The closed-mindedness on Bitcoin eventually disheartened developers, and there was a real “brain drain” over the years.

Love them or hate them, Ordinals on Bitcoin changed everything. What was thought to be impossible on Bitcoin had suddenly become possible.

It brought excitement back to the Bitcoin ecosystem. All of a sudden, Bitcoin was the talk of the market, and experimentation once again was happening on Bitcoin. Runes came, talks of DeFi coming to BTC, and there were tokens being built on BTC. The developers were coming back. For the first time in years, there was more to be excited about with Bitcoin other than just the price going up.

Yes, many Bitcoiners have indeed lost sight of why they first entered this market when they began making large amounts of money. However, it truly seems that BTC could be heading in the correct direction. It was always inevitable that if Bitcoin became big enough, Wall Street and governments would want to enter the game.

The only thing that matters is what we do from here on out.

How about you? Do you think Bitcoin has lost its identity?

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As always, thank you for reading!