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SLOW BURN

by Slow Burn Team
Weekly explorations into emerging crypto trends and how to navigate 2023 from
the Slow Crypto Team, Sam Lessin, Clay Robbins, and Caroline Cline
Subscribe to Slow Burn


RE-EXAMINING BITCOIN

The last several months have been turbulent—even by crypto’s generous standards.
The spectacular collapse of FTX, a centralized custodial exchange, was
unexpectedly followed by a regional banking crisis that challenged the
resiliency of traditional financial institutions at large. In an effort to
increase control over and visibility into financial activity, monetary
authorities have advocated the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currencies
(CBDCs) they can issue, manage, and track. But amidst the chaos of failed
blockchain projects, black swan events, and intensifying regulation, Bitcoin has
been quietly and consistently performing since 2009.

Created by the pseudonymous developer(s) “Satoshi Nakamoto,” Bitcoin was the
first decentralized system to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions online. Its
finite, 21 million tokens are secured by a global network of machines and issued
according to a fixed supply schedule, effectively rendering it digital “hard
money” that is immune to both human error and the impact of inflation.

Though Bitcoin originated the crypto ecosystem, newer protocols (like Ethereum
and Solana) have spearheaded on-chain innovation—in part because they introduced
Turing-complete languages (e.g., Solidity). Their native languages enable the
general-purpose smart contracts that underpin use cases such as DeFi, NFTs, and
gaming. But whereas ETH and SOL are "moving fast and breaking things," Bitcoin
is "moving slow and breaking nothing,” refusing to sacrifice security or
decentralization. Upgrades to the protocol are contentious and incremental, a
testament to the community's dedication to essentialism.

14 years into the Bitcoin experiment, these ostensibly modest changes have
cumulatively improved the protocol without compromising its core principles. And
with the emergence of scaling solutions like Lightning and expressive primitives
like Ordinals, Bitcoin has entered an era of careful experimentation that could
greatly extend its utility.

In relation to the macroeconomic backdrop, Bitcoin's current state resembles its
beginning. As the specter of regulation looms over the industry it created,
Bitcoin's slow, methodical progress warrants a re-examination. Its continued
stability and commitment to decentralization serve as the most effective
fortifications against human and regulatory intervention.

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ABOUT SLOW BURN

Weekly explorations into emerging crypto trends and how to navigate 2023 from
the Slow Crypto Team, Sam Lessin, Clay Robbins, and Caroline Cline.

Read the Archive | Subscribe for Free

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