Thread by @giacomozucco

0/n
Politicians, normies and MSM-pundits call #Bitcoin "Virtual Money", but it is actually the VERY OPPOSITE of that!

Bitcoin is really a huge step in the process of (RE-)DE-VIRTUALIZATION of Money!

The process of money virtualization had already started very long ago.
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1/n
The first step of money virtualization was COINAGE. Money was still a physical token, but its market value was often driven by INFORMATION printed on it, more then by metal content (especially when political power mandated that, or when people didn't independently verify).
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2/n
The second step of money virtualization was SEIGNIORAGE, where the increasingly huge, long-term decoupling between face-value and metal-value of coins (before just due to accident or fraud) was accepted and normalized as the typical business model for the coinage provider.
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3/n
The third step of money virtualization was CUSTODY. Money was not a physical token anymore, it had instead become INFORMATION support (banknotes) used to represent it and (hopefully) redeem it. But there still was some level of reality behind the representation: reserves.
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4/n
The fourth step of money virtualization was FRB, where the increasingly huge, long-term decoupling between circulating banknotes and actual reserves (before just due to accident or fraud) was accepted and normalized as the typical business model for the custody provider.
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5/n
The fifth step of money virtualization was FIAT MONEY, where the redeeming was "suspended" (as a "temporarily" measure, of course🤭🤫), turning money into pure INFORMATION, conveyed by physical bearer instruments, without any residual connection with physical commodities.
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6/n
The sixth and last step of money virtualization was DIGITAL FIAT, where even physical bearer instruments were gradually restricted, moving INFORMATION to identity-based central ledgers. Increasing censorship and exclusion, and decreasing costliness for monetary expansion.
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7/n (n=7)

It may come to you as a surprise, but...well...BITCOIN FIXES THIS!

#Bitcoin effectively DE-VIRTUALIZES money, completing the cycle, bringing it back to physical scarcity (difficulty-adjusted PoW) and bearer control (private cryptographic keys).