The Internet of Money - we are still early.

In the early days of the Internet, before the emergence of the World Wide Web in the '90s, getting online took determination. One had to wrangle with the SLIP and PPP protocols, a phone line was required to call access points, modem speeds were 300/1200/2400 baud. Thats bits per second. Slow enough to read the text as it was loading to screen. If you wanted to download an image, one set it up so that the next day, it might be there if your connection survived uninterrupted during the night. A single image. People were talking about how the Internet was a fad that will go away. It was like ham radio and model rocketry - for geeks only. Then they said the Internet was for criminals and pedophiles because it could not be censored. Sound familiar?

56k baud modems were fast enough to load images in seconds instead of hours. Connections were still flaky. Calls, even local calls, were expensive. Content was minimal but growing. It was mostly tinkerers, early adopters, and chat groups with other enthusiasts. Text only interfaces. Then Mosaic came out and the Web emerged. Today the Internet sits in the background and one needs very little technical expertise to get online. And no one claims the Internet will fail or is only for geeks and criminals anymore. It is not an understatement to say that the Internet is essential for modern civilization.

Bitcoin is the Internet of Money and we are still in the "it's complicated" phase. It takes some research to implement sovereign ownership - NYKNYC. Transaction fees can be expensive. Running a full Bitcoin node takes some technical setup, but every day it is getting easier. Running a Lightning node requires technical expertise currently. There will come a time when these technical kinks have been fully ironed out and we will have an indisputably better sound money system in place. And just like the early days of the Internet, special interests are trying to capture it and control it, because they have come to the realization that they cannot kill it.

We are early. There are challenges. But Bitcoin will prevail. Like the Internet, it's inevitable.

​

Pre Internet BBS running on a 2400 baud modem