After the spectacular run-up in bitcoin in 2017, there are many people who claim to be “early” bitcoin investors — early meaning 2013, or even as late as 2016.
But bitcoin has been around since 2009, and there are few people who have been following the space since then, let alone investing in the volatile cryptocurrency. Trace Mayer, host of the Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast is one of them. He has invested in bitcoin since 2010, and started publicly promoting it in 2011.
Even more impressive than the number of bitcoin he holds from the early years is the knowledge he accumulated in the eight years since he has been following bitcoin.
The Epoch Times spoke to Trace Mayer about bitcoin’s value proposition, its geopolitical significance, and the idea of monetary sovereignty.
The Epoch Times: How did you get into bitcoin so early?
Trace Mayer: I came across sound money in gold and silver. I was taking an American legal history class, and I had to write a paper, so I chose the topic “History of Money and Currency in American Law.”
Gold and silver aren’t barbarous commodities, but essential checks and balances in the political machinery. They are the guarantees of our monetary sovereignty. They enable us to be free humans, especially when it comes to the value we create.
When I finally came across bitcoin in its very early days. I connected all of the dots between the technology, sound money, and the game theory behind it.
I was already a fairly popular blogger in the gold niche, so I shifted the focus on bitcoin to my target audience, which was the libertarians. It was off and running from there. I started the Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast where I interview top people in the bitcoin world.
Bitcoin’s Value
Epoch Times: What is bitcoin’s value proposition?
Mr. Mayer: It’s about the network effects. The first network effect is speculation. People have been collecting and speculating in gold and silver and sodium bicarbonate for centuries.
The second network effect is going to be merchants accepting bitcoin because people are holding it speculatively. Then merchants are going to start using it as payment themselves because they accept it.
Because all these people are demanding bitcoin and are giving value to it, it becomes lucrative for miners to provide security to the blockchain.
All the network effects are exponentially reinforcing each other. The more secure the blockchain is, the more developers are going to want to work on that blockchain.
There are also reasons at the protocol level and in companies around it. You want to build your company on the most secure blockchain. Why? Because it will still be around in the future.
Source/More: Trace Mayer: Bitcoin Can Become Reserve Asset | bitcoin | gold | silver | The Epoch Times