Bitcoin under attack

The FTX meltdown, "Operation Chokepoint 2.0," and a "crypto winter" have only strengthened the resolve of the enthusiasts Reason spoke with at the annual National Bitcoin Conference in Miami.

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Fifteen years after Satoshi Nakamoto dropped a nine-page white paper on an obscure email list sketching out an idea for a new peer-to-peer digital currency, bitcoin has become a global phenomenon. And nowhere is its pomp and promise more on display than at the blockbuster annual conferences put on by Bitcoin Magazine in Miami Beach.

But it's also had a disappointing couple of years.

Bitcoin was supposed to be an inflation hedge. But after the Fed fired up its money printer during the pandemic and the dollar lost value, bitcoin went in the same direction.

Bitcoin was supposed to be a way to transfer money "from one party to another without going through a financial institution," to quote Satoshi. But 15 years later, a lot of users are still trusting regulated financial institutions to manage their holdings.

Bitcoin was supposed to be above politics, but the community around it has seen bitter in-fighting, and some worry that bitcoiners' intolerance of dissenting ideas has turned it into something akin to a cult.

"It's certainly not the only secular religion out there, but it's a particularly pernicious breed," says Nic Carter, a writer and crypto investor who cited security concerns as his reason for not attending the conference.

But despite the disappointing price drop and ongoing internecine squabbles, the bitcoiners Reason talked with in Miami seemed convinced that its value proposition—a decentralized money that governments can't censor or destroy—is as strong as ever.

Are bitcoin's troubles a sign that the project is failing, or just the inevitable bumps on an upward trajectory that will one day result in monetary freedom for the entire world?

Produced by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe; edited by Justin Zuckerman; graphics by Isaac Reese and Regan Taylor; audio mix by Ian Keyser; camera by Jim Epstein.

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Music: "El Monte" by Luke Melville via Artlist; "Still Need Syndrome" by Yarin Primak via Artlist; "Out of Flux" by PUNKD via Artlist; "Notize" by Density Wave via Artlist; " Elevation" by Stanley Gurvich via Artlist; Vuelta al Sol by Tomas Novoa via Artlist; Civilization by Icarus via Artlist; "All STar" by ANBR via Artlist; "Ultra Light" by The Cliff via Artlist