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Evergreen writing on Bitcoin, Austrian economics, and the transition off fiat. No price predictions. No trading signals. No hype.
The Characteristics of Money: The 5 Properties of Sound Money
Good money has a handful of characteristics: it is scarce, durable, portable, divisible and easy to verify. Gold met these tests for thousands of years. Fiat currency fails the one that matters most, scarcity. Bitcoin meets all five, and the scorecard below shows how each money compares.
Who Controls the Money Supply? A Guide to Central Banking
Most people assume the government prints money. The reality is more complex: commercial banks create the majority of new money through lending, with central banks setting the conditions. Here is how it actually works.
Why Does Money Have Value? The Answer Most Economics Gets Wrong
The standard answer — 'because the government says so' — is not an answer. Governments have decreed many currencies that became worthless. The real explanation involves subjective value, network effects, and monetary properties.
A Short History of Money: From Shells to Satoshis
Money has been reinvented dozens of times across human civilisation. Each transition followed the same pattern: the market selected for the hardest available option. This is that story, ending with the most recent selection.
The Cantillon Effect: Who Gets New Money First, and Who Pays
The Cantillon effect is the uneven way new money spreads through an economy. Whoever receives it first, such as banks, governments and asset owners, can spend it before prices rise; whoever receives it last, such as wage earners and savers, meets the higher prices. That is why inflation is never neutral.
How Is Money Created? Most New Money Is Made by Banks
Most new money is created by commercial banks when they lend: the loan creates a matching deposit, and repaying it destroys the money again. Central banks create the reserves banks settle with and set their price. As the Bank of England explained in 2014, banks do not simply lend out their depositors' savings.
What Happens When All 21 Million Bitcoin Are Mined?
The last bitcoin will be mined around 2140. What happens to miners, to network security, and to the protocol when the block subsidy reaches zero?
The Root Problem with Conventional Currency: What Satoshi Saw in 2008
In February 2009, Satoshi wrote a single paragraph that contains more monetary insight per word than most central banking textbooks. This is what he meant.
Bitcoin vs Real Estate: Which Is the Better Store of Value?
Real estate has been the default store of value for a generation. Here is why that happened, what it costs, and why bitcoin is structurally better suited to the role.
How to Calculate Your Real Purchasing Power Loss Since 1971
Official inflation tracks a basket of consumer prices. Measured against gold, houses or bitcoin, holding fiat since 1971 cost far more. Here is how to calculate it.
What Did Satoshi Mean by 'Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash'?
The phrase 'peer-to-peer electronic cash' is in the title of the whitepaper. Most people read it without thinking about what each word means. This article does.
What Is a Satoshi? Bitcoin's Smallest Unit Explained
A satoshi is the smallest unit of Bitcoin — one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin. Here is why that matters, and why it changes how you should think about ownership.