I never used to think much about money beyond what I spent or saved - until recently. Like most people, I had quiet assumptions about it that shaped how I saw the world. But when I stumbled across these three insights, something clicked: Bitcoin’s importance suddenly made sense. Before, it was just funny internet money - some eco-villain I couldn’t distinguish from other cryptocurrencies. Now? I reckon Bitcoin might just be bloody crucial for society. Here’s how I got there.

1. Money Doesn’t Require a Government Stamp

I Realised Money Doesn't Need a Government's Approval I used to think money was whatever the government handed out (not literally - I still had to work for it, sadly). It was money because some authority said so. That’s how our fiat world operates (the word “fiat” comes from Latin, meaning “let it be done,” hinting at a top-down decree). Then I looked at history: cigarettes traded in prisons, salt (hence "salary"), cattle (Latin "pecunia"), or even seashells in other times and places. Money wasn't always a governmental thing - it was what people implicitly agreed worked best as medium of exchange, store of value, or unit of account. Austrian economists put it nicely: money’s more like an adjective - some things are just “more money-like” than others. Bitcoin, I realised, fits that bill perfectly. No official stamp needed.

2. Money Is Neither a Mere Collective Hallucination Nor Needs Backing to Have Value

I kept hearing two clashing takes: money’s just a collective hallucination—paper worth what’s printed on it—or that Bitcoin can’t be money because “it’s not backed by anything.” Leaving that obvious contradiction aside, I started wondering about our own currency. It’s not tied to anything valuable anymore, not since the gold standard ended. But here’s the thing: even when the dollar was pegged to gold, its worth wasn’t about gold’s “intrinsic value.”

I understood—scarcity was the key. Gold’s rarity made the dollar rare, and scarcity plus demand (driven by money’s useful traits) creates value. Simple economics, but a massive penny-drop moment. Bitcoin’s scarcity—capped at 21 million coins—and its clever tie to energy via proof-of-work flipped my view. It’s not hallucination or nothing; it’s engineered worth.

3. Inflation Isn’t an Accident Nor a Law of Nature—It’s a Political Choice

I always figured inflation was just a fact of life—prices go up constantly, money loses value. End of story. But digging into it, it felt more intentional. Classic economics splits it into monetary inflation (more money in circulation) and price inflation (rising costs), but I started seeing them linked. Rising price levels are a consequence of more money “printed.” Pump up the amount of money in the system, leave goods and services the same (or rising slower than the money supply), and prices climb. At its core, inflation is a monetary phenomenon. Strikingly simple to understand.

What struck me: if no one deliberately or implicitly pumped up the money supply, overall prices wouldn’t rise—not everywhere, anyway (some sectors might still shift, but I mean the big picture). Governments and central banks decide to do it; it’s not inevitable. Bitcoin, with its fixed limit of no more than 21 million coins, showed me the alternative.

These realisations crept up on me as I poked around. First, I saw money doesn’t need a government’s nod—just people’s trust, like Bitcoin’s grassroots vibe. Then I grasped that value isn’t about “backing” but scarcity and market faith, beautifully baked into Bitcoin’s energy-driven system. Finally, I realised that inflation’s a political move, not a must.

So let’s at least have an honest discussion about it—or use just Bitcoin to opt out.