“If trust can exist without people, the world could change completely.”
Why Should We Talk About Bitcoin?
These days, when someone brings up Bitcoin, most people react with, “Isn’t that just for investment?” or “Oh, the digital gold thing?” Indeed, many view Bitcoin purely as an asset whose price might go up.
But is that really all there is?
Bitcoin isn’t just money, or gold, or a currency—it defies such simple labels. That’s because at its core, Bitcoin designs an entirely new system of trust. Its true identity lies in redefining what trust means—and in doing so, it encompasses roles traditionally held by assets like gold or fiat currency.
In other words, Bitcoin can function as a store of value like gold, a medium of exchange like money, and more. The truly remarkable part is this: it maintains trust without people—without central institutions. A system that sustains trust on its own is revolutionary.
When you think about it, nearly all the systems we’ve built to sustain society are based on trust. We use banks, courts, and intermediaries because we need someone to rely on. But when that trust breaks down, the cost is huge—just look at financial fraud, embezzlement, phishing scams.
To prevent such failures, we accept intermediaries and pay them for the service of creating trust.
But… does trust always have to come with a cost?
Bitcoin Turned Trust into a System
What makes Bitcoin truly special is this: it created a system where you don’t have to trust people. That might sound strange at first, but it’s real. Bitcoin’s structure means you don’t have to worry about someone trying to cheat you—it’s built to prevent that from the start.
Take sending money to a friend, for example. In the traditional system, a bank is the middleman verifying and processing the transaction. But in Bitcoin, there is no central middleman.
So, how can we trust it?
Here’s how the system ensures trust without people:
- Blockchain: A transparent, public ledger of all transactions. Instead of being held by a single party, it’s distributed across thousands of computers worldwide. Any attempt to tamper with it would be immediately exposed.
- Decentralization: No single entity runs the system—not a government, not a company. It’s maintained by a global network of volunteers. This means no one can unilaterally manipulate or shut down the system.
- Verification (Consensus Mechanism): When someone claims “I made this transaction,” it’s not blindly accepted. The network runs complex computations to verify the transaction before recording it. This ensures no lies can slip through.
The result? A system where you don’t have to trust people—just the math and the structure. That’s why we call Bitcoin trustless: trust is no longer placed in people, but in the system itself. Hence the term “trustless trust.”
How Is This System Sustained?
Bitcoin operates without a central authority. No one can shut it down or block your transaction. Why? Because the system is literally run by its participants.
Some verify transactions, some build blocks, some improve the software. These are miners and node operators—volunteers, yes, but they’re not doing it for free. Bitcoin rewards participation: miners earn new coins or transaction fees.
This reward system keeps the network alive. Without participation, the system doesn’t work.
However, here’s a concern: participation is declining. Why? Because more people now treat Bitcoin like digital gold—a thing to hold, not use. Institutional investors, too, often store Bitcoin with custodians rather than using the blockchain itself.
That leads to fewer on-chain transactions. If two firms use the same custodian, they can just adjust balances internally—no need for the blockchain, no fees.
But these off-chain transactions don’t contribute to the network. Less usage means fewer fees, which means less reward for miners.
Right now, new Bitcoin is still being created, which helps—but Bitcoin has a fixed supply, and one day, no more new coins will be minted.
When that time comes, miner rewards will rely solely on transaction fees. If there aren’t enough transactions, the system might not be worth sustaining.
That’s why holding Bitcoin alone won’t keep it alive. It needs active participation: people verifying, transacting, building blocks. That’s what breathes life into the system.
At the end of the day, Bitcoin is just one project. But within this one project lies the core essence of blockchain: the ability to build trust without relying on people.
Bitcoin was the first chapter in this grand experiment—and still the most powerful example we have.
But the future of blockchain doesn’t belong to Bitcoin alone. The structural ideas it revealed can expand in many directions—into new projects, new applications, maybe even into how society is organized.
It’s not about the technology itself.
It’s about how we participate, how we redefine trust together.
This isn’t just about a coin. It’s about a bold attempt to reimagine the foundation of trust. And that experiment began with Bitcoin.
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