BitcoinUnplugged on Nostr: No Frame of Reference: Why Bitcoin Is So Hard to Understand People ask me all the ...

No Frame of Reference: Why Bitcoin Is So Hard to Understand


People ask me all the time, "Why is Bitcoin so hard to understand?" And I think the answer is pretty simple when you really think about it. We have no frame of reference. None. Humans are a series of experiences, writing on blank paper. Each experience shapes us.

Imagine you're living in the 1400s, right? You're a native on an island, and you see these massive ships coming toward the shore. You have no frame of reference for what a ship even is. You've never seen one. So your brain does the best it can — "Oh, the mountains are moving." That's the only explanation that makes sense to you.

I think Bitcoin is exactly like that. It's like aliens handed us something that's beyond our comprehension, and we're all just standing around trying to explain it with banal concepts that don't even apply.

People say, “it’s a Ponzi”, “Oh, it's digital gold." No, it's not. "It's a currency." No, that's not quite it either. "It's a store of value." Getting closer, Because here's the thing — Bitcoin is an emergent phenomenon, a network, it’s us finding a Nash equilibrium. We've never seen anything emerge like this on a global financial scale.

Think about it like this. If you showed someone from 200 years ago a cell phone, they'd think you were a witch. Magic! And Bitcoin is the same way. It's something we've never seen before.

Something beyond our comprehension. Because the more you learn about thermodynamics, energy, the laws of physics — Bitcoin aligns with all of it in this way... it's so asymmetric in nature. It's like someone or something gave us exactly what we needed at exactly the right time.


We're watching the mountains move across the water, and we're trying to explain it with concepts that don't even apply. We don't have the words yet. We don't have the frame of reference.

I think that's beautiful. I really do. Because it means we're witnessing something that's never happened before. Something that's going to change everything, not a revolution, an evolution.