{"id":5323,"date":"2025-03-24T09:37:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T23:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strawman.com\/blog\/?p=5323"},"modified":"2025-03-28T12:21:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T01:51:35","slug":"bitcoin-upgrading-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strawman.com\/blog\/bitcoin-upgrading-the-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin: Upgrading the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">There are few inventions in human history that can match the transformative impact of the internet. Fire, the wheel, language, the printing press, the Magna Carta\u2014each fundamentally reshaped society. The internet belongs in this pantheon. It has revolutionized not just communication but commerce, finance, culture, and governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is difficult to overstate its significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At its core, the internet is an open, permissionless, decentralized network. Anyone, anywhere, can access it without needing approval from a central authority. This freedom\u2014this openness\u2014is what enabled its explosive growth. Had it been owned and controlled by a single entity, its impact would have been vastly diminished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The internet didn&#8217;t just improve existing systems; it <em>dematerialized<\/em> them. The first industries to fall were news, mail, and message boards. Then commerce, music, telephony, television, radio, and banking followed. Eventually, it became the backbone of our global economy, politics, and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it\u2019s only getting started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As more of our world connects to the internet, the advantages of being online become impossible to ignore. The acceleration is relentless. The introduction of artificial intelligence\u2014models that can ingest, process, and recombine all of humanity\u2019s knowledge\u2014will only compound this trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, despite its ubiquity, one thing has been conspicuously absent from the internet\u2019s architecture: native digital scarcity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was the year the internet gained a new layer\u2014one just as open, neutral, and permissionless as itself. A monetary layer. Bitcoin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s easy to look back today and say the internet was always going to dominate. But in the early 1990s, most dismissed it as a novelty. They couldn\u2019t see its inevitable trajectory. Bitcoin is following the same path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its early days, Bitcoin was ridiculed. It faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Governments ignored it. Financial institutions mocked it. Experts dismissed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet, it survived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, the Bitcoin network is valued at around two trillion dollars. It sits on the balance sheets of major corporations. It trades on the world\u2019s largest markets as ETFs. The U.S. government holds it in a strategic reserve. Every year, its network strengthens\u2014more users, more transactions, more computing power securing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet, many still deny it. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps because Bitcoin has been lumped in with the grift and excess of \u201ccrypto.\u201d But Bitcoin is not &#8220;crypto.&#8221; It is the internet\u2019s monetary protocol\u2014its first and only native form of incorruptible digital scarcity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A neutral, open, global money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bitcoin is not a speculative bet. It is not a casino token. It is an upgrade to the internet\u2014arguably the most significant in it\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the first time, the internet has a value transfer protocol. Just as TCP\/IP allowed information to flow globally, and SMTP enables email, Bitcoin allows value to flow globally\u2014without intermediaries, without gatekeepers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are bullish on the internet, you must be bullish on Bitcoin. Because Bitcoin is not separate from the internet. It is the internet, just as email, websites, and streaming are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The internet found a way to digitize nearly everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, it has digitized money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it changes everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-very-dark-gray-color has-very-light-gray-background-color has-text-color has-background has-normal-font-size\"><em>Strawman is Australia\u2019s premier online investment club. <br>Members share research &amp; recommendations on ASX-listed stocks by managing Virtual Portfolios and building Company Reports. By ranking content according to performance and community endorsement, Strawman provides accountable and peer-reviewed investment insights. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button aligncenter\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-very-light-gray-color has-tertiary-background-color has-text-color has-background has-text-align-center wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/strawman.com\/member\/landing\/signup\"> Create your FREE Strawman account<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-text-color\"><em><strong>Disclaimer\u2013<\/strong> Strawman is not a broker and you cannot purchase shares through the platform. All trades on Strawman use play money and are intended only as a tool to gain experience and have fun. No content on Strawman should be considered an inducement to buy or sell real world financial securities, and you should seek professional advice before making any investment decisions<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-cyan-bluish-gray-color has-text-color\">\u00a9 2025 Strawman Pty Ltd. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">| <a href=\"https:\/\/strawman.com\/member\/landing\/privacy\">Privacy Policy<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/strawman.com\/member\/landing\/terms\">Terms of Service<\/a> |<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are few inventions in human history that can match the transformative impact of the internet. Fire, the wheel, language, the printing press, the Magna Carta\u2014each fundamentally reshaped society. The internet belongs in this pantheon. It has revolutionized not just communication but commerce, finance, culture, and governance. It is difficult to overstate its significance. At its core, the internet is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bitcoin: Upgrading the Internet - Strawman Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/strawman.com\/blog\/bitcoin-upgrading-the-internet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bitcoin: Upgrading the Internet - Strawman Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are few inventions in human history that can match the transformative impact of the internet. Fire, the wheel, language, the printing press, the Magna Carta\u2014each fundamentally reshaped society. The internet belongs in this pantheon. It has revolutionized not just communication but commerce, finance, culture, and governance. It is difficult to overstate its significance. 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