I said Milton Friedman predicted bitcoin. I didn't say he tried to create it.


Links are fixed.

(I see that you beat me to it. But I'll post it anyways.)

If you want to go back even further, another famous Nobel economist named Friedrich Hayek predicted, and advocated for the principles behind bitcoin back in 1984 (over 40 years ago). He was a big critic of the broken fiat money system, and described the need for a sound system of money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBIidtaUCzs

Hayek even advocated for the DENATIONALIZATION OF MONEY, which is exactly what bitcoin is - a totally denationalized form of money or store of value.

It's amazes me how far back the philosophical roots of bitcoin goes. Bitcoin is an idea whose time has come.

i was just about to say that yes in year 2025 when you read the quote it might seem like he is describing exactly what bitcoin is but it is still a little vague and still a lot of things missing a lot of factors that a lot of people from his time could not have imagined that would come into reality a decade later and even more things that would not seem possible two decades after
what is very impressive with his idea is he was already pushing the idea of decentralization he might have sounded crazy to a common man before since technology was just being developed and decentralization may not be at the top priority of everyone at that time but the fact that he already had the idea for it just shows how much needed bitcoin was

You know it would be so great if somehow someway we could look into the past of satoshi's life and hear satoshi's story. Like picture a scene from a movie when a young satoshi was in his studies and came across this Milton Friedman quote and then had this massive idea pop into his head. I wonder if there will ever be some sort of final note from him after he is old and grey. Maybe he is gone or maybe it was a group and they're all scattered living remotely somewhere in the mountains far away from any blockchain connectivity etc! Maybe Satoshi is at large and still changing the world from a far in another crucial area. He could potentially be a living legend. I guess it will always remain a mystery.

I presume it was meant to happen at one point in the future.  These are ideals.  A system where nobody has control over what another person holds was ideal.  So some people started working on turning that to reality and then the Bitcoin success happened.  But only after many other known attempts and most likely MANY other private attempts at creating such a system.

Have you ever watched a very old Science Fiction movie?  Write down all the things they were showing in that movie that did not exist at the time and then make a check list of how many of them turned to reality so far.  People hoped there was a way to communicate from a distance faster, radio and cell phones happened.  Things like that.

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It is true, the world was much more Private back in the days when the Internet was inexistent.  Now when everybody has Internet, there is a new found way to spy and surveil but there are also very positive outcomes too.  Back then, how would you send an exceptionally secret message to somebody else with out having anybody know?  Now there is Encryption and messages can reach the recipient in seconds fully encrypted and secured.  How would you move Money from A to B back then with out having any thing on you physically?  Today you can learn a set of words or take a piece of paper into your Wallet and move as much Money as you will.

It is better and worse at the same time.  I would be one to agree that the Internet reduced the role of Governments significantly.  That happened on multiple levels in most countries of the world.

I won't call it an endorsement. Friedman was just reading the signs of the times and made a bold prediction. He proved to be accurate. But he wasn't endorsing; he was just being realistic of what the internet would bring in the future. He foresaw that such internet money would somehow help criminals do their thing easily. It would also make tax collection harder.

But one thing I easily remember about Milton Friedman is his association with Monetarism, a school of thought in economics which believes that governments controlling the supply of money will make them achieve economic stability. That's basically courting danger. That's basically putting too much power in the hands of a few policymakers who are corruptible.

As it was said - many people had speculations about if there would be a thing like Bitcoin, however, his words, in my opinion, hit the nail well.
And his interview and views are still there.

If it was a group of people who created Bitcoin, then that secret would be leaked because a group of people never keep the secret. Besides Bitcoin, it's phenomenal that Satoshi managed to keep his privacy and stay anonymous, it deserves another Merit on its own but I believe that he is dead, that's why his identity is still a secret. He created Bitcoin and then probably died in the next few years. I can't find any other explanation.

What did he exactly mean when he said The internet is going to be one of the major forces for reducing the role of government? I think, he meant that the government won't have as much influence during the era of internet and in that case, he is true. In the world of internet, influencers have more power than the actual government. Just imagine, Messi telling Argentinians to choose man X as a president, what do you think will happen? Messi wins, easily.

I believe that internet did 10000 times more good than bad for humans. It's easy for people to learn something online, anytime, anywhere they wish. It's hard to censor anything online, so we have access to every information but in this case we depend on our brain and that's what I like. It will really take me hours to write down everything that internet bought in our world, for absolutely everyone.
In the era of internet, it's hard to form North Korean like management in any country. Without internet, I think it was easier to brainwash people, with internet and less censorship, it's hard to hide truth. They still successfully brainwash people but at least you can show them the reality and it might change the way some people think while in the past, it wasn't possible. Well, if someone is stupid, no internet is gonna help them.