Bitcoin’s chief advantage: it is levelling the playing field by making an alt-currency that is far more democratic than gold.

Bitcoin is asymmetrical. It’s much cheaper to personally own it and keep safe, than it is for someone to come and confiscate it (regardless of the amount you have). Libertarians who advocate return to the gold standard do not realise that the gold standard was the reason of accumulation of gold in few of the world’s biggest banks and everyone else getting worthless IOUs positioned as “sovereign currencies”. Gold is heavy and expensive to handle: only the wealthiest can afford to save a lot of it. And equally to take it by force from less powerful.

Bitcoin has had a tremdous run up, but Andreev says that misses the point.

Think of it like the internet: “The web gives us freedom to exchange information. Bitcoin gives us freedom to exchange everything.”

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Creative Commons image from The U.S. National Archives