When we were discussing about Michael Saylor and his vision about bitcoin in discord chat rooms, some of my friends showed distrust in Michael Saylor as a businessman and a CEO of a public company. They shared articles describing past issues with SEC, fines, criticisms by stakeholders, etc. Some even called him a scammer. Having watched many of interviews with Michael Saylor, I couldn't understand this. I still can't. Or perhaps, I don't want to. I didn't even know who he was until he became an investor in Bitcoin and a loud speaker for Bitcoin.
Maybe as some say he hasn't been a good CEO, but the fact remains that he is still a CEO of a company he founded and he has been in this role for a long time. It seems he might even be the CEO who held this position for the longest among the tech companies.
I am not really interested in MicroStrategy as a company, its history, and what it has to offer. But I am interested in Bitcoin, I am interested to hear why investors make such decisions, I am interested to hear the ideas that make companies go into Bitcoin with their cash. Obviously, I would be interested to know what made Michael Saylor and MicroStrategy bet everything on bitcoin.
Michael Saylor's bitcoin vision can be summarized in his following quote:
Bitcoin is a bank in cyberspace, run by incorruptible software, offering a global, affordable, simple, & secure savings account to billions of people that don’t have the option or desire to run their own hedge fund. Michael J. Saylor
Having watched many interview with Michael Saylor, I haven't seen a single evidence that would suggest he is not genuine about his thoughts about bitcoin. I haven't seen a single evidence that he may have ulterior motives that may end up hurting other bitcoin investors and hodlers. I find his thoughts, vision and action to be the quite opposite. His views and explanations seem to bring more clarity about bitcoin and its future.
In crypto space we have many who have voice of influence. Unfortunately, we also see scammers, hypocrites, and selfishness having loud and influential voice. Many bring forward and share good ideas, but some end up contradicting their ideas with their actions. I could name people who try to be promoting decentralization, while in action actively try to sabotage it. I could name people who preach decentralization, but when showed options they go back to centralized solutions for various reasons. There are also those who will only embrace decentralized solutions and innovation only if their names are attached to them as founders, co-founders or if they have other interests in them.
With Michael Saylor, I see none of these. I see a brilliant businessman who discovered the innovation that may change the world. That's why I am happy to see something like him in this space who continues to share his thoughts with public and other companies. When I listen to him, I hear someone well educated not only in aeronautics, astronautics, science, and technology but also who has a solid understanding of money, its history, and how bitcoin compares to the traditional forms of money.
He believes that with Bitcoin we have discovered the best money for our times, and over time not only it will surpass gold as store of value but also stocks, bonds, real estate, sovereign debt, etc. That is a big vision. That would make bitcoin the standard store of value in this $500 trillion monetary planet.
Currently, Bitcoin's market cap is around $1 trillion dollars. By comparison gold's market cap is at $10 trillion dollars. For most hodlers of Bitcoin Bitcoin going over gold's market cap is inevitable. For someone like Michael Saylor, that will just be the beginning.
In explaining his position about Bitcoin, in my opinion, he brilliantly shows comparisons between bitcoin and other asset classes. He uses analogy of energy and describes money as energy to make his point.
When comparing to fiat, he points out that holding fiat vs bitcoin, energy is lost due to the central banks printing unlimited amount of money. Those who hold fiat currency, lose a lot of its value over short period of time. Scarcity of bitcoin makes superior to fiat and other class assets.
When comparing with gold, he points out how bitcoin is not only more scarce but also doesn't have costs associated with storing and transferring gold from one place to another. While gold is more scarce than fiat, it also has inflation rate based on the mining new gold and finding new gold mines.
When comparing with real estate, he points out how such investments would also lose energy in the form of property taxes among other reasons.
He also explains importance of recognizing new technology and networks. He uses examples of Apple as network of mobile devices, Amazon as network of online shopping, Facebook as network of social media, Google as a network of data, etc. In his view, Bitcoin is the ultimate network of money and the winner as such.
My understanding of his Bitcoin vision is that Bitcoin is the next stage of money, of the money that can retain its value through space and time.
I should also mention that, he is not someone who is interested in other cryptocurrencies and crypto projects. Unlike others though he is clear and open about his position. He found the winner and went all in.
We on Hive, may disagree that Bitcoin is the only winner in the space. We believe Hive has a special place in this movement of decentralizing web. However, we also recognize that we have more work to do to become the undisputed winner in the competition to become a network of decentralized web.