Bitcoin is a store of time

In 2050, we establish contact with remote planet Qasniuq. Qasniuqians are highly intelligent beings and have different extra sensory capabilities. The planet has variety of precious mineral wealth and a different atmospheric composition.

We then wish to trade goods with them. Qasniuqians though, are highly sceptical of our currencies and our banks (rightly so). Trading with elements like Gold, Silver is a problem because these are available in abundance on that planet and have no value for them. Also manufactured items available there have socially no value here. We come up with an ingenious way to exchange goods. We trade one Human with one Qasniuqian.

Once we have enough Qasniuqians , we goto their plant and trade Qasniuqians for minerals of same value and bring them back. The reason this works is that an adult human is actually a measure of time. Since, we don’t have anyway to speed up biological processes. We are sure that a Human worth 50 years can be exchanged with a 50 years old Qasniuqian. In essence, we are basically trading time.

Back to current time, many people have difficultly understanding the value proposition of bitcoins. Bitcoin code ensures that the amount of bitcoins produced in a given amount of time is fixed. This means that even if we have insanely large amount of machine power; if we follow bitcoin code, the difficulty will change to make sure that one block is produced every 10 minutes. This basically means that the amount of bitcoins produced are cryptographic proof of amount of time. We have no other way of producing more bitcoins in a given time unless majority are dishonest and run a fundamentally different code.

Bitcoin Beginners have a variety of questions when they discover the currency. Like

Why do I need this currency when I have my bank ?

Bitcoin is already 600USD, should I buy now ?

What gives value to this currency which seems to have come out of thin air ?

To all these questions I have a single answer:

“Its Time”