Hey guys! Hope you are all having a fantastic weekend!
So today I wanted to talk about two things that I am a big fan of: Bitcoin and ... Death Note! They are fundamentally completely opposite, but yet they share very interesting similarities. Now before you start to read this post keep in mind that I am not trying to compare Bitcoin with Death Note (that would be very silly). Like I said, they are indeed completely different. However, I happen to be both a Geek and a huge manga fan, thus I could not help to see some subtle similarities between both.Again note that this post was written only for fictional and educational purpose. So let's jump into it guys!
I- What is Bitcoin?
Because I am assuming that the vast majority of people who will read this post know about Bitcoin (well duh! :D), I am not going to spend a lot of time on the definition of Bitcoin. If I was to to sum up what Bitcoin was, I would say that Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency that follows the laws of Austrian economics. It is owned by no one and is intended to bring peace and prosperity on earth like we have never seen before. Bitcoin is both money and a payment system. 
II- What is the Death Note?
Death Note is a very popular manga that was created by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated Takeshi Obata in 2003. It is the story of a high school genius named Light Yagami, who happens to randomly find a mysterious book called the "Death Note". The Death Note is a sort of magical book that can kill a person, should somebody write the name of that person into it (at the same time of picturing an image of the victim).
At first, Light Yagami decides to bring "justice" on earth (whatever that means) with the Death Note. You notice that I put justice in quotation marks because "justice" can be very subjective at times, which is clearly shown throughout the manga/anime. Everyone has his definition of justice. Of course there is some basis that most people agree on, but I think it is never the case that two people have the exact same criteria of what is justice.
So Light Yagami thinks that the world is rotten and that true prosperity can be achieved if he was to kill all the criminals on earth. That's what he starts doing, but he quickly becomes corrupted by this new superpower to the point where he considers himself "the god of the new world". He does not hesitate to kill people that did very minor felonies and even worst, non criminal people that are on the verge of discovering his true identity or that threaten his sovereignty. He does not hesitate to use other people as well "in the name of justice", so that he could remain anonymous even if that means the death of those people in the first place.
Well, quickly the crime rate and wars around the world drastically go down, and it appears that there is more "peace". However, everyone is living in fear... Now that I have quickly summarized what is the Death Note, I am going to show how fundamentally opposite it is from Bitcoin. Once that aspect will be clarified, I will finally show why Death Note and Bitcoin share subtle similarities.
III- Why Death Note and Bitcoin are fundamentally opposite?
For everyone to understand the hidden similarities between Death Note and Bitcoin it is important to understand at first why they are fundamentally opposite.
1) Bitcoin is peace while Death Note is violence
Bitcoin uses Math to bring peace and prosperity on earth, keeping regular people away from the inflation (hidden tax) that happens with FIAT currencies. In the manga, Death Note uses violence to bring prosperity. So many people died during the Death Note manga, "in the name of justice" (again whatever that means). Well it is true that there was no more corrupt government or wars, but now people were in fear of something new: the Death Note. Is it how things have to be? Is it even sustainable? I obviously do not think so.
At the end of the anime, Light Yagami looked more like the head of a very evil mafia organization than anything else. He completely ceased to think like a human being in my opinion. He even became the slave of the Death Note -- it basically owned him by that point. In other words, Light Yagami became completely addicted to it to the extent of having fun when killing people. Bitcoin on the other hand does not own anyone and at the same time no one "owns" Bitcoin". Bitcoin is the decentralized system that is meant to bring true peace, prosperity and creativity into people's lives, just by using math. This is truly amazing.
2) The Death Note is completely centralized
You probably understood it by now, the Death Note is a completely centralized tool. It is only "owned" by Light Yagami (should nobody find it of course). Because it is such a highly centralized superpower, it can corrupt its owner very easily. Power corrupts, just like it is explained in the Lord of the Rings.
Lord of the Rings: Power Can Corrupt the Best
Bitcoin on the other hand is a truly decentralized community that is owned by no one and everyone at the same time.
3) Bitcoin means freedom while Death Note means fear and slavery
Bitcoin is true freedom and brings true free market as described in Austrian economic books. Bitcoin brings freedom by protecting people's purchasing power from the inflation. Also, with Bitcoin there is no middleman when doing a transaction. Death Note is completely opposite from that. Throughout the Death Note manga, you can easily tell that despite the "peace", people were constantly living in fear. That is not true freedom to me. It is better for people to be educated about the good and the bad consequences of their actions instead of being constantly kept in fear. No true creativity and prosperity comes from fear. In other words, I see people in Death Note as slaves of Light Yagami, who in turn is the slave of the Death Note itself (how ironical).
Now we can finally discuss the hidden similarities between Bitcoin and the Death Note.
IV- The hidden similarities between Bitcoin and the Death Note
1) Both attempt to create a new world
No matter how you look at it, both Death Note and Bitcoin attempt to create a new world. Different of course but still a new world from our existing world. Bitcoin came from the ashes of the 2008 economic crisis, in attempt to create a new monetary system that would keep people from being dependent on the current Banking system and free from corruption. In Death Note, Light Yagami attempts to bring a world of "justice" and peace free of corruption as well. I think that he pretty much reached his goal by the end of the anime, which is also why it is quite easy to point out all the flaws (and there are many) of the Death Note.
2) Both Satoshi Nakamoto and Light Yagami are anonymous
Satoshi Nakamoto is the inventor of Bitcoin and nobody knows who he is/they are. Light Yagami is the person who found the Death Note, and he is known as "Kira". They are both anonymous. Just like there are many myths about who Satoshi Nakamoto is, this is also the case for Kira in the anime and I find it quite interesting. Just like some people claimed to be Satoshi in the case of Bitcoin, some people tried to claim that they were Kira in the case of the Death Note -- But at the end of the day nobody knows who Satoshi truly is and even in Death Note it's only at the end that Kira's true identity is revealed. That anonimity makes both Bitcoin and Death Note quite legendary in my opinion.
3) Both Bitcoin and Death Note cannot be destroyed
Ironically, none of both tools can be destroyed, and I am going to explain why. Bitcoin is decentralized and the even more decentralized it gets, the more secure it gets, thus making it impossible to be destroyed. The limited supply of Bitcoin (21 million coins) makes it even more valuable and secure. I mean of course you could argue that if there is an Internet kill switch Bitcoin could disappear. That is true, but I think that more technologies are being developed to make the infrastructure of the internet more decentralized such as mesh networks or the Internet with light (aka Li-Fi). You could also argue that with Quantum computers, the security of cryptocurrencies could be at risk but new technologies that are Quantum attack proof such as IOTA are being developed. You could also argue that the power could be turned off but at the end of the day I think that fundamentally Bitcoin cannot be destroyed.
Death Note on the other hand cannot be destroyed either, even though it is completely centralized. In the manga/anime, it is implied that the Death Note has been around for centuries and had many owners. So how come nobody just burned it? The response is because power corrupts. I think it is pretty much impossible that somebody in the anime would find the Death Note and think about destroying it. No, he would be curious at first, then would slowly get corrupted by the Death Note power, that is how it works. Even in the anime, I don't think that it is implied that the Death Note is ever destroyed, even in the hands of the police. Now of course in the case of the Death Note, the more people knowing where a Death Note is, the lesser is the probability of corruption in my opinion -- But there is always that outsider who will try to rob the Death Note and do some bad things with it. For all of those reasons, to me the Death Note cannot be destroyed either.
4) People see Satoshi Nakamoto and Light Yagami as saviors, but for very different reasons
Now keep in mind that I am by no means trying to compare Satoshi Nakamoto and Light Yagami, as to me they are fundamentally opposite. I just try to note subtle similarities in our world and the Death Note world for educational and fictional purpose.
Satoshi is seen as a savior by many people, and to me he truly deserves it. He used Math and peace to create a better alternative at a time where there was a growing skepticism about this system as a whole. PS: See my post about the 10 year anniversary of Satoshi for more info.
Light Yagami is by all means feared in the anime, but he is also seen by many people as "a God". Especially when they can get to comment anonymously on the Internet. Those people worship him and would do anything for him because he is both the savior and "the God". You can clearly see that with the character Teru Mikami, one of the guy in the anime who literally calls Kira "God".
Ok that was it for today folks! Hope you guys enjoyed it. Let me know what you guys think in the comment section below.
Again note that this post was written only for fictional and educational purpose.
Pictures
Picture 1 was taken from https://goo.gl/bNQdL1 and https://goo.gl/GttLm8
Picture 2 was taken from https://goo.gl/TKD2zh
Picture 3 was taken from https://goo.gl/ze2iTd
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juv79505 sincerely thank you for reading this article. Please feel free to comment below in case you have ideas, questions, suggestions or simply want to criticize this article. Also, note that all pictures used in this article were extracted from the Google section “pictures labeled for commercial reuse”. Stay tuned for more articles on health, environment, artificial intelligence, video games, technology in general, books, graphic novels, geography, history, sports and much more!