Bridge to Phase 4

Phase 3 covered the fundamentals of getting started — exchanges, wallets, security, common mistakes.

Most of it was about protection. How to hold Bitcoin safely. What can go wrong. How the pieces fit together.

Phase 4 is about history.

In its short life, Bitcoin has been through more than most assets see in a century. A price that went from less than a tenth of a cent to over $100,000. Crashes of 80% and more. Exchanges that collapsed and took customer money with them. Governments that banned it, and governments that made it legal money.

For the next sixty days, we’ll walk through that story in order.

The early years — the first price, the pizza, the Silk Road, Mt. Gox, and the crashes of 2011 and 2013. The institutional era — companies and countries buying in, the 2021 peak, and the collapse of Luna and FTX. The maturation — the 2024 halving, the ETF approval, and Bitcoin in retirement accounts. Bitcoin around the world — Nigeria, Argentina, Turkey, Ukraine, and the people who have no bank at all. And the big picture — the four-year cycle, what the on-chain data shows, and what could actually kill Bitcoin.

Why spend two months on the past? Because most of the frightening headlines you will read about Bitcoin have happened before, in some form. Knowing how those stories ended is one of the best protections against making decisions out of fear.

Phase 3 taught you how to hold Bitcoin. Phase 4 shows you what holding it has actually looked like.

See you there.

— The Daily Bit