History is happening right before your eyes – Bitcoin Magazine
This is an opinion piece by Tomer Strolight, editor-in-chief of Swan Bitcoin and author of “Why Bitcoin.”
History is neither just what happened hundreds of years ago, nor just wars and human disasters. If you zoom out just a little, you can see that the story is happening all the time. Our civilization, our culture, our technology and even ourselves are changing – influenced by megatrends that are shaping all of humanity. Changes often happen quickly, but their imprint remains.
Even just taking a snapshot of highlights from a single year over a few 10-year periods reveals how much change is happening. Consider the years 2012, 2002, 1992 and 1982.
Just 10 years ago, the average home price had fallen to $238,400, still coming off the housing crash of 2008. Ten years before that, it had been $188,700. And 10 years earlier it was only $119,500, while in 1982 it was only $69,600. Today it is $454,900.
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Technology has, of course, been tremendously advanced, and affected the price of many things and the culture as well. It’s only been 10 years since Google Play was created. People once lived without apps! (Although iPhone users had a head start.) 20 years ago, Apple launched the iPod, a revolutionary portable digital music player that changed the music industry. 30 years ago no one had heard of a web browser because it hadn’t been developed yet! And 40 years ago, the IBM Personal Computer had just completed its first year on the market, and it became the first inanimate object to be named Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year.”
Time Magazine’s “Man Of The Year” in 1982 was the personal computer.
Oh, how the news and culture have changed too. For example, in 1975 there was concern that an ice age was coming after America experienced its coldest winter in a hundred years. In 1981, MTV, a television channel dedicated to showing music videos, had just come on the air. It seems like a completely different civilization, but about half of America’s current population was alive at the time and experienced it.
Of course, all this took place under the dual forces of the ever-growing creep of fiat currency and the rapid development of computer technology. These are probably the two strongest megatrends over the entire time period. One was exponentially inflationary; the other, deflationary. One was based on hard science; the other about unwanted, postmodern economic theories. One delivered goods that seemed magical; the other brought crisis after crisis. The battle between these two forces now seems to be at a climax and history is about to be made again.
The coexistence of these two forces that have defined history for the past 40 years may be coming to an end. Technology and the central bank are in conflict. Technology has produced its champion to kill fiat money. And we all know who that champion is: Bitcoin. Bitcoin will resolve a historic tug-of-war for control of humanity’s wealth. As government goes digital, digital goes to government. We are here to witness the performance. And to be a part of it.
At Pacific Bitcoin, we will try to create our own version of a time machine to explore the last 40 years of history through dialogue. Over two days, four separate panels will take the stage to discuss 1982, 1992, 2002 and 2012, focusing on the culture, economy and technology of the time. Panelists will include Jeff Booth, Greg Foss, Bob Burnett, Warren Togami, Lawrence Lepard, Carla from Crypto Couple, Ben de Waal, Isaiah Jackson, Dustin Trammel, Allen Farrington and Pete Rizzo. I hope to see you there.
This is a guest post by Tomer Strolight. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
