Swan Bitcoin CEO Corey Klipsten responded to comments from Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz, rejecting the idea that Bitcoin’s value or utility is primarily driven by trust and shared beliefs among its users.
Klipsten said Bitcoin works not because it has trust, but because it can be verified by anyone, anywhere.
His main point is that users don’t have to trust anyone: governments, banks, exchanges, developers, famous Bitcoin supporters, or even the entire cryptocurrency community. Instead, you can simply check and verify all important properties about your network yourself.
Swan Bitcoin CEO leans into one of Bitcoin’s original mottos: “Trust not, verify.” This means anyone can download Bitcoin software and check the blockchain themselves.
This includes verifying the total supply of Bitcoin in circulation, that the 21 million limit has not been breached, all blocks ever mined, all transactions since Bitcoin’s launch in 2009, that miners are following consensus rules, that new coins are being issued in accordance with the protocol, and more.
Bitcoin is sometimes called a minimal trust system because anyone can publicly audit all of this.
Klipsten also called Bitcoin antifragile. This is a term made famous by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: systems are strengthened by withstanding pressure, rather than relying on centralized oversight.
Related: Corporate Bitcoin holdings soar as companies added 115,000 BTC in Q2
Big difference from traditional finance
In his post, Klipsten also appears to resist the practice of treating Bitcoin like traditional finance. TradFi typically requires participants to trust the central bank to manage their funds, commercial banks to keep their funds safe, clearinghouses to settle trades, regulators to monitor the market, and auditors to check their books.
Bitcoin replaces much of the reliance on institutions with math-based verification and a system where no single party has decision-making power.
This is the exact opposite of what Mike Novogratz said that Bitcoin’s value is built on trust in the network and the people using it. He called it the most stable cryptocurrency simply because of its size, even though the overall market has been depressed this year.
