Bitcoin wasn’t an invention, so much so as it was a ‘discovery’ of an insight that, underlying the ultimate root of human value is ‘future scarcity’ (or, put more bluntly, ‘our death’).

The corresponding ‘mechanism’ was the declining issuance rate into the future, held constant to an approximate 10 minute interval by means of proof of work and difficulty adjustment.


The genius of Satoshi was creating the mechanism that linked future scarcity to present day work.