Bitcoin, which pushed past $66,000 last week, setting all-time price highs, has come a long way since January 2009, when a programmer with the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the cryptocurrency that would become a religion for some, a nuisance for others, and a looming threat to both the environment and the financial markets.
The Winklevosses, who own the Gemini exchange, one of the most popular places where investors can buy and sell cryptocurrencies, believed that an ETF would legitimize Bitcoin and open up the opportunity for big money investors to boost the price.
Now that Bitcoin is finally taking the stage as a member of society, it’s worth asking whether this gambit will pay off and how it might change how we think about big, bad Bitcoin.
The spirit around cryptocurrencies back then was far more anarchic and apocalyptic than it is today, which interested me because my own politics tend to run in the opposite direction.
There were plans for Bitcoin utopias in the deserts of Nevada, sovereignty movements by groups calling themselves “The United States of Bitcoin,” and pages and pages of speculation on how the blockchain, the ledger-like technology that powers cryptocurrency, would quickly change every industry on the planet.
In those years, there was also a growing divide between believers.
The maximalists would charge the assimilationists with selling out the entire point of the project, which I agree was a fair critique.
Bitcoin maximalism still exists, but it’s already seen as an unfortunate and ultimately divisive relic by many in the cryptocurrency space.
The implications for this on international finance — think of the currency disruption that could take place if wealthy people in developing countries suddenly converted their fortunes into a Facebook coin — were clear from the start.
The mix of shared purpose and alienation in NFT online communities came, in part, from earlier iterations of Bitcoiners, who, aside from spreading their gospel, would proselytize about everything from food choices to politics.
Bitcoin’s market cap now weighs in at over $1 trillion, and while it’s hard to tell how this ETF will continue to affect the market, it’s also become increasingly unclear what Bitcoin is supposed to do.
What’s clear to me is that the problem with equity in the system isn’t really because of testing, but has to do with overall exclusivity.
My solution to this problem is to expand significantly the community college transfer program.
Tuitions are too high, and the admission rates at many state schools are too low, which then forces high school students to focus on competing with one another.
The bigger problem is that there aren’t enough paths into these schools, which, in turn, forces too many students to try to push through a narrow doorway.
Biden’s plan would not have solved all that ails higher education, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone that community colleges and their students would be first up to the budget chopping block — they are always an afterthought in any conversations about higher education.