I. From White Paper to 'Digital Gold' — A 15-Year Minimal History
1. 2008–2009: Genesis in Crisis
- 2008-10-31, Satoshi Nakamoto released a 9-page white paper (Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System), proposing to solve the 'double spend' problem with PoW, without any trusted third parties.
- 2009-01-03, the genesis block was mined, featuring (The Times) front page headline 'Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks', protesting against centralized finance using technical means.
2. 2010–2012: Adolescence — 'CPU Vote' and the First Price Bubble
- Early nodes could mine with laptops, receiving 50 BTC per block; on May 22, 2010, 10,000 BTC were exchanged for two pizzas—marking the first known price valuation.
- GPU mining emerged starting in 2010-12, quickly marginalizing CPU mining; Satoshi publicly opposed early mining pool prototypes on forums, fearing 'centralization.'
3. 2013–2016: Youth Phase — Rise of ASICs and Exchanges
- The first ASIC miner launched in 2013, causing a 4-order-of-magnitude surge in network hashrate; mining power became concentrated in a few mining pools, rendering personal computer mining virtually obsolete.
- The Mt.Gox incident (2014) was the first global wake-up call about the risks of 'exchange centralization,' yet BTC's price rose from $100 to $20,000 by 2017, with investment attributes overshadowing payment utility.
4. 2017–2020: Adulthood Phase — Formation of 'Digital Gold' Consensus
- The scaling debate ended in compromise with 'SegWit + Lightning Network'; on-chain throughput remains approximately 7 TPS, and the main chain has proactively abandoned high-frequency payment scenarios.
- Wall Street introduced futures and Grayscale Trusts; macro funds like Paul Tudor Jones began listing BTC as an 'inflation hedge'; the 'electronic cash' narrative gave way to 'digital gold.'
5. 2021–present: Institutionalization and ETF Era
- Coinbase went public in 2021, El Salvador declared BTC legal tender; in 2024, the U.S. SEC approved spot ETFs, with traditional giants like BlackRock and Fidelity holding stakes; over 60% of BTC supply has not moved in a year, fully overshadowing payment functionality with asset storage.
II. Why 'Satoshi's Original Intent' Has Failed
1. The decentralization vision has been undermined by mining pools and chip giants
- Original whitepaper statement: 'One CPU, one vote.' Today, the top five mining pools control over 70% of hashrate, and chip manufacturing is nearly monopolized by two Chinese companies (Bitmain, Micree). PoW competition has evolved into a race of capital and electricity; individuals can no longer participate equally as in the early days.
2. 'Peer-to-peer electronic cash' has become a high-volatility store of value
- Mainnet average fees have remained steadily between $1–$50, with confirmation times of 10 minutes or more, making it impossible to compete with Visa or Alipay for daily payments; the Lightning Network has locked less than 5,000 BTC in three years, with low usage rates.
- In contrast, BTC's annual price volatility exceeds 50%, and it is increasingly viewed as 'digital gold' or a high-risk alternative asset rather than a 'trustless medium of exchange.'
3. Financialization and leverage contradict the 'anti-banking' spirit
- Wall Street has launched dozens of BTC-based ETFs, futures, and options, with traditional investment banks serving as custodians; chain-native assets are collateralized to generate WBTC, renBTC, and other tokens entering the DeFi leveraged cycle. The 'derivatives frenzy' of the 2008 financial crisis has been replayed in the crypto world—making it nearly indistinguishable from the banking system that Satoshi mocked in the genesis block.
4. Wealth distribution is more concentrated than in the traditional world
- According to Bitinfocharts data, 2.3% of addresses control 95% of BTC; if Satoshi still held 1 million BTC (about 5% of total supply), he would rank among the world's top 30 richest people—showing that the 'decentralized' network has produced even more extreme wealth concentration than fiat currencies.
5. Governance and upgrades depend on core elites, not 'code is law'
- The 2017 SegWit2x fork and the 2021 Taproot activation were effectively decided by closed-door negotiations among a small group of Core developers, mining pools, and major exchanges on GitHub; ordinary holders could only passively accept the hard fork outcomes. On-chain governance voting power is tied to hashrate and capital, exhibiting a 'techno-oligarchic' characteristic.
Conclusion
Bitcoin has proven over 15 years that blockchain can 'live' and be valuable, yet it increasingly resembles less the 'decentralized, unstoppable peer-to-peer cash machine' envisioned by Satoshi. It has evolved from an 'anti-establishment weapon' into 'establishment assets,' from 'CPU democracy' into 'mining pool oligarchy,' and from a 'payment tool' into 'digital gold.'
Satoshi's original ideal—a decentralized payment system maintained collectively by personal computers worldwide, accessible to everyone at low cost—has been permanently rewritten by technological evolution, capital influx, and human greed. BTC remains great, but what it has achieved is precisely what it once sought to overthrow.
