[This post assumes a basic grasp of the tech and story behind the Bitcoin network].

Every day, and more, there’s that urge to check the price. Where is Bitcoin at? Is it threatening the status quo today or is it getting slapped down by ‘the man’? Are risk-inclined traders shorting it on impulse or are wise hodlers smiling on another runaway bull-wagon? Is any one of the flashier altcoins on a streak of glory to surpass it? Is there any sign of an unforeseen chink in its well-weathered PoW armor coming to light? Any new hack attempts against it or just at another centralised exchange? Are ordinary people basking in its renewed glow or are fresh investors retreating back to traditional stocks, or gold…

There are many bearish and bullish forces that forge the sides to this fascinating story developing every moment. Whatever the case, bitcoin is a beast that has lately rampaged, catching the attention of the world. Still wild, it has yet to rise up…again… again…

For what does it represent? Besides being this animal that is out of anyone’s direct control. It is no regular stock, or currency, residing under the direction of a company, or adjusted by a central bank. It was unleashed by a small group of ‘cypherpunks’, fed up with the unreliability of the banking system, of things that could be controlled or suddenly attacked and made vulnerable. This rebel alliance carved a digital spark to light a global force. Its former heroes – mysterious jedi architects – of this decentralised movement are inspiring the techies of today and forging new ones – and new rivalries.

When you look down at that price, what else does it reflect?

Love, hate, everything else… People’s future hopes; a hedge against everything past or present that tries to control or over-charge people. It represents… fear. The present level of it for uncertainty, about our current systems; a reading of our general disappointment with centralised activities and middle-men. Another bad headline about Google, Facebook, a data breach or an identity theft: Bitcoin goes up, and its eager fellow coins offering future remedies take note and return to work.

Perhaps it’s this, the real ‘store of value’ – our hopes – stored inside a technology dispersed across the planet and free from direct manipulation. Like a dream, or an idea, it exists in multiple locations.

Sure, there are or have been ‘whales’, but they too know that they will be swept aside in its wake, and many likely share a love for all that bitcoin stands for…

Freedom. An investment vehicle for the world; an account for anyone.

own a unique, tokenised version of this image on Opensea.io for ETH

Just like any power it attracts greed, corruption; the desire to replicate the success or failure it has bestowed upon others. Spammy websites, flawed ICOs, pointless shitcoins, desperate hackers; they grow alongside it. It is a boat, creating other boats that may sink, setting sail upon new seas of uncertainty. It is a shiny new global tool for the individual that works and holds vast implication. It’s the second internet boom of the 90s, and many old worms – and victors – are coming out of that woodwork, assuming they belong in this new time.

Can Bitcoin bear all this weight? Can governments unite to crush it before it breaks out again? Well they can’t. It’s an unstoppable force now, even if – in its current form – it doesn’t survive.

Welcome to the story of the cryptocurrency space, featuring the dashing Zorro Bitcoin, a technological Robin Hood tour-de-force.

Have you got the Blockfolio app (or similar) on your smartphone? Have you invested any kind of sum into Bitcoin via Coinbase etc? Then… yes, you’re one of the addicted. You’ve taken the red pill. You too are part of it now.

Bitcoin as a benign blockchain-bound Skynet. It’s the story of a generation, of a lifetime. The story of how the next technology has been unleashed literally like a disruptive virus into the fabric of our social-media saturated, web-dependent, device-bearing lives. If we weren’t so connected, it would have taken far longer, but the pace only quickens after the first wave and more waves are coming…

Sure, you can sell out, turn off your desktop notifications, take a break, even delete your portfolio tracker apps and alerts etc. But you’ll be back. You’re chained to this beast.

Bitcoin is ‘at large’, with all its new offspring or upstarts…

It may crash greatly, but it will bounce to rise, and rise, until it is replaced by any of its fellow replications that now form part of its disruptive reach… spreading out… moving closer to many an existing system and rich institutions that thought themselves ever above or immune to change.

This was once a ramble, perhaps, or a dream. Pub talk. But now it isn’t.

Better go check the price……………………………………………………..

[Published also on Steemit.]