When talking about Bitcoin, it is necessary to consider basic concepts about how it works in order to understand whether it is “good or bad” as an asset.
The three most common questions that arise are:
- Who stores Bitcoin?
- What happens if the Internet is shut down?
- Who to contact in the event of losing the password for accessing a wallet or an exchange?
The truth is that, like with all new things, people try to apply an old way of thinking to a new system that requires a completely different mental approach in order to be understood.
It took me several months before I understood what makes a decentralized world like that of Bitcoin profoundly different from a classic centralized system with which we have been operating constantly for a lifetime and from which we struggle to disconnect.
After months of studying in order to understand how these new technologies work, which are not that simple for those who aren’t experts, the conclusion is that we ourselves are part of the problem, probably too accustomed to delegating to third parties the management and security of our finances and unfortunately often not only those.
As with many other things in life delegation to third parties has a cost: all conveniences have a cost and despite making us feel calm and serene it is often the case that not everything that glitters is gold.
This revolution, which is increasingly gaining ground in the lives of many of us, was born to give us the opportunity to become the only custodians of our finances and ensure, thanks to the most transparent and sophisticated information technology, the blockchain, that we are the only owners and the only ones responsible for our digital assets.
One of the biggest challenges we have with this new way of managing digital assets is probably accepting that we are not allowed to make mistakes.
Indeed, the management of our finances with this new technology becomes our sole responsibility.
We have always been accustomed to the old centralized system and we have an unavoidable requirement to have a toll-free number to call in case of mistakes.
We need the easiest solution to remedy our mistakes and have a feeling of security that makes us sleep peacefully.
Bitcoin between old and new
Like with all great changes, the comparison between the old and the new has its pros and cons: convenience, simplicity, the possibility of having a reference person who can remedy our mistakes, represent some of the attractive advantages of the old system.
However, the possibility of having a digital asset guaranteed by the highest cryptographic security, with very low management costs, not confiscable, independent of governments and states, could be just as tempting.
In reality, no one is forcing us to choose, the important thing is to understand what the two solutions have to offer, whether or not to start looking into them, to understand what advantages they bring.
But perhaps above all, asking ourselves which of the two solutions gives us more comfort when it comes to the security of our finances.
Someone might say: the Bitcoin world is still too difficult to understand and too new to be considered good, reliable and secure.
However, when evaluating the facts objectively, it is safe to say that 11 years after Bitcoin’s birth (despite being declared dead hundreds of times), the technology at its core continues to evolve rapidly and is increasingly entering our lives.
So why not be prepared in advance!?
Riccardo A.G De Mori
