Bitcoiners celebrate August 21st (written in the U.S. as 8/21, which looks a bit like ∞/21MM) as Infinity Day. This day is an occasion to contemplate the astonishing premise originated by Knut Svanholm: Money with a fixed supply has no upper limit to its value.

How might we measure the value of money? Ultimately, its value must be based on what it can purchase.

If the last few thousand years are any guide, value creation will accelerate as population expands and technology advances. Life extension, interplanetary travel, and abundant energy will manifest "goods and services" that will continually enlarge the economy. There is no reason to presuppose an upper bound on economic expansion.

If the supply of money is finite, then that fixed amount of money must account for the value of everything in the economy – even if that "everything" grows forever. In contrast, when the money supply is not finite, the value of money cannot accurately reflect the size of the economy, and is subject to erosion, manipulation, and upheaval.

Some bitcoiners use the phrase "number go up," or NGU, to describe the ever-rising value of bitcoin. NGU can imply that price increases will make bitcoin holders rich. More importantly, it expresses the profound idea that a fixed amount of money can be used to mediate an ever-expanding economy.

If the supply of bitcoin is fixed, and there is no limit on economic expansion, then there is no limit to the growth in value of bitcoin. Instead, the value of bitcoin is like a mirror that reflects the total value of the economy. As long as human progress continues, the value of fixed money continues to rise. The ultimate value of bitcoin may have no limit.

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News

📉 Unsettling economic indicators continue

While credit card debt soars, CPI averages for utilities, gasoline, food, and electricity increased. This combined with hawkish Fed comments to send markets tumbling. Markets await forward guidance from the Fed's annual Jackson Hole meeting. In related news, the Wall Street Journal reported it costs $300,000 to raise a child.‍

‍🤓 Bitcoin symbol added to Excel

You know you've made it when Excel deems you worthy enough for their platform. The industry leading spreadsheet software has updated their list of world currencies to include bitcoin.‍

‍💸 Student loan forgiveness gets mixed reactions

The White House announced a student loan forgiveness package of $10,000 for those who make less than $125,000 and $20,000 for recipients of Pell Grants. Some who qualify welcomed the news, while others derided it as a political ploy with elections looming. The forgiveness plan is estimated to cost nearly $300 billion, prompting some on twitter to speculate why the US Treasury recently raised their Q3 borrowing estimate from $182 billion to $444 billion. ‍

Bitcoin adoption continues

The Built With Bitcoin Foundation built a school and a water well in Nigeria funded by bitcoin, with over 100 more schools in the pipeline. ‍

Football history was made as the Tennessee Titans became the first NFL team to accept bitcoin for tickets.‍

Samsung filed to create a bitcoin and digital asset exchange in South Korea.‍

Mastercard CEO announces on his LinkedIn a new service to enable to bitcoin payments in 90 million stores worldwide will start in "Argentina and plans to expand from there."‍

Visa has partnered with digital asset provider Ripio to offer users a high yielding 5% cashback in bitcoin on all prepaid purchases.  ‍

Local demand in India for bitcoin and digital assets is surging as a new report shows 15% of the population hold or have traded crypto in the past six months and another 10% plan to in the coming six months.

How bitcoin works

Learn one key idea about bitcoin each week. This week: Bitcoin is objective.‍

Bitcoin is cold, hard truth.  

It is objectivity in a world plagued by the subjective. A world vulnerable to decisions made by humans with conflicting personal incentives.

These incentives are no longer relevant on a bitcoin standard. This is because bitcoin obsoletes human governance over money.

Rather than relying on people, bitcoin relies on energy. The network successfully ties the digital world to the physical.

In its Proof of Work mechanism, human intervention is obsoleted by the true arbiter of the network: Energy. This energy, or “work,” is expended to determine the state of the bitcoin accounting ledger, or blockchain.

There is no banker, Federal Reserve Chairman, or congressperson involved.

There is only real-world energy securing the network. Because of this, anyone who elects to mine bitcoin must have calculated that diverting real-world resources to obtain bitcoin is worth the cost.

Coin check

How often are new bitcoin blocks mined?

1. Roughly every 10 minutes
2. Exactly every 10 minutes
3. At the network speed, which is 21 MHz (21 million times per second)
4. Weekly, on Sunday nights at 8pm Eastern Time, 5pm Pacific.

Check your answer at the end of the page.

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Answer: A. Roughly every 10 minutes

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