“When people pay online for goods from Lazada, or lodging at Airbnb, or bills with Gcash, or food with Grab, they are using government-issued money from their credit/debit cards. Put differently, they are using the payment rails of the traditional or legacy financial system regulated by government. These rails are part of a larger architecture that links money and state, or the fiat system. For every transaction in the fiat system, the ultimate middleman is the State, kill switch in hand, with power to intervene in transactions between parties—persons or corporations alike—and with full authority to kick people off the rails.
In contrast, the token of the Bitcoin network—bitcoin—is issued or created pursuant to the rules of the Bitcoin software. This network is an entirely different platform for exchanging value, separate from fiat, and an independent monetary system with its own rules. It runs on code and electricity, and is not influenced by votes and impassioned speeches. Because it is software, this network is both digital and programmable, making possible things that cannot be done under the current fiat system. The money that circulates in the Bitcoin network is not government money, and people who transact with one another are exchanging value peer-to-peer outside the fiat monetary system. It is architected differently, and thus has a different set of rails—digital native, frictionless, decentralized. In this world, money is separate from the State.”
