Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of black swan, once mentioned a kind of deep-rooted disease in human society, which is called "agent problem". It mainly refers to the conflict of interests between owners and managers. For example: the boss is the owner of the enterprise, and the management team is the manager of the enterprise. It can not be ruled out that there are impartial managers, but most managers tend to their own interests when their own interests conflict with the boss. Another example is the country, where all the people are the owners of the country, and the managers of the country are the bureaucratic team appointed by all the people. When there is a conflict of interests between bureaucrats and the people, bureaucrats are more likely to consider their own interests. It's human nature, and you can't solve it morally.

What bitcoin is trying to solve is the performance of this stubborn disease in the economic field, especially in the macroeconomic field. Most countries have a centralized central bank in charge of economic regulation and control. They occupy the positions in this field in the name of "experts" and make the people and the government entrust them with such vital matters as "interest rate, reserve ratio, exchange rate and additional currency issuance". They are people's agents in the "Macroeconomic field". The main reason why the agent problem in the macroeconomic field is more prominent than that in the general field is that these agents call themselves "experts", but in fact they are not.

In organic reality, things operate in the form of decentralization, which is the case with economy. Hayek uses "the decentralization of knowledge" to explain this phenomenon. And now, in order to realize the orderly operation of a certain field, human beings may not need "knowledge" at all, or even personal rational thinking. What they need is only a set of paradigm free from external intervention. Such a paradigm does not mean that every participant has equal decision-making power. A small number of active participants may disproportionately affect the development of something they care about (such as the asymmetry of minority rule studied by Taleb). Even so, participants can choose whether to be such activists or not.

With the increase of participants and the expansion of scale, a magical effect will gradually appear: the birth of rational market does not require any individual to remain rational. In fact, the operation of rational market does not depend on any intelligence. In such a paradigm, the market composed of a group of ordinary people can achieve more efficient and smooth operation than the market composed of a group of talents in the planning mode.

That's why bitcoin is a great idea. Bitcoin meets the needs of complex systems, not because it is a kind of cryptocurrency technically, but because of its decentralized nature, no owner, no individual or institution can decide its fate. Bitcoin is in the hands of the ordinary people who use it. From its birth to today, bitcoin has grown and expanded enough to win everyone's serious treatment.

Bitcoin is a currency that does not depend on any government. Some people may ask, don't we already have currencies that are not dependent on the government, such as gold, silver or rare metals? It's not exactly like this. When you buy gold in the market, what you actually buy is the right to claim the gold. With this right, you can really settle the gold you trade in the designated third-party gold trustee. The function of third-party trusteeship is often undertaken by the major banks, and these banks must be subject to the supervision of governments. Compared with gold, bitcoin has a huge advantage in market transactions, because the transaction settlement process of bitcoin does not need any third-party trustee's intervention. Bitcoin for the first time through technical means to ensure the sanctity of private property, no government can get the private key in your mind.

Finally, I would like to say that the development of bitcoin will not be smooth sailing. Bitcoin is likely to fail. Even so, people can reintroduce a similar decentralized currency, because we already know how to invent and operate such a decentralized currency system. Apart from other things, the existence of bitcoin itself is an insurance. It reminds governments that the last target that authorities can control, currency, is no longer their monopoly.

(2021-4-3)