The bad blood between bankers and bitcoin dates back to the beginning …
and this battle just got real.
In the very first bitcoin block in January 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto
embedded this message, accurately describing the zeitgeist of the times:
The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.
That first block, also known as the genesis block, marks a pivotal point in history.
It will be no different than similar world-changing events such as the Boston Tea Party,
“the shot heard round the world” and the Reformation.
That’s because bitcoin, and the underpinning blockchain technology,
marks a monumental paradigm shift in our reliance on centralized authorities.
For the first time in human history, we can create a unique piece of digital value
that is censorship-resistant and can easily be stored and transferred
without the need for a middleman.
With this new technology, centralized companies and governments that procure
and profit off their intimate knowledge of the behavior of private individuals
will face competition from decentralized networks.
The blockchain ensures that data no longer needs to be stored in centralized locations,
meaning no central authority has control of that information.
This has wide-ranging implications for the nature of both
businesses and governments.
And the spread of this new technology was a direct result of the
prevailing conditions of the times.
Following bitcoin’s 2009 launch, a decade-long perfect storm of economic,
political and social conditions gave way to a price move from $0.001 to $10,000,
as public trust in governments and banks plunged to an all-time low.
Since the 13th-century advent of the fractional-reserve banking system,
banks have been the crucial gatekeepers to the creation of money.
They decide who is creditworthy and who is not.
Originally skeptical of the new technology that could potentially replace them
in the banking hierarchy, bankers have publicly dismissed blockchain,
calling it a “fraud”, a “scam” and a “Ponzi scheme.”
But recent headlines from a few multinational banks suggest that they are starting
to take blockchain and bitcoin (you can’t have one without the other)
more seriously than ever.