Bitcoin Quotes

I don't believe we shall ever have good money again before we take it out of the hands of government. We can't take it violently. All we can do is by some sly, roundabout way introduce something they can't stop.

— Friedrich Hayek, 1984-05-01

There has never been a government that didn’t sooner or later try to reduce the freedom of its subjects and gain more control over them, and there probably will never be one. Therefore, instead of trying to convince our current government not to try, we’ll develop the technology that will make it impossible for the government to succeed.

— Wei Dai, 1995-02

The steady addition of a constant of amount of new coins is analogous to gold miners expending resources to add gold to circulation. In our case, it is CPU time and electricity that is expended.

— Satoshi, 2008-10-31

The network is robust in its unstructured simplicity.

— Satoshi, 2008-10-31

Nodes are not going to accept an invalid transaction as payment, and honest nodes will never accept a block containing them.

— Satoshi, 2008-10-31

Governments are good at cutting off the heads of centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own.

— Satoshi, 2008-11-07

The proof-of-work chain is the solution to the synchronisation problem, and to knowing what the globally shared view is without having to trust anyone.

— Satoshi, 2008-11-08

I had to write all the code before I could convince myself that I could solve every problem, then I wrote the paper.

— Satoshi, 2008-11-08

Coins have to get initially distributed somehow, and a constant rate seems like the best formula.

— Satoshi, 2008-11-08

As computers get faster and the total computing power applied to creating bitcoins increases, the difficulty increases proportionally to keep the total new production constant.

— Satoshi, 2008-11-08

I like the idea of basing security on the assumption that the CPU power of honest participants outweighs that of the attacker. It is a very modern notion that exploits the power of the long tail.

— Hal Finney, 2008-11-08

I ... do think that there is potential value in a form of unforgeable token whose production rate is predictable and can't be influenced by corrupt parties.

— Hal Finney, 2008-11-08

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.

— Satoshi, 2009-01-03

(embedded in the Genesis block)

Running bitcoin

— Hal Finney, 2009-01-10

(in a tweet announcing his experimentation with the Bitcoin software, as possibly the first person after Satoshi to run it)

It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on. If enough people think the same way, that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

— Satoshi, 2009-01-16

With e-currency based on cryptographic proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman, money can be secure and transactions effortless.

— Satoshi, 2009-02-11

The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that's required to make it work.

— Satoshi, 2009-02-11

The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.

— Satoshi, 2009-02-11

[Bitcoin is] more typical of a precious metal. Instead of the supply changing to keep the value the same, the supply is predetermined and the value changes.

— Satoshi, 2009-02-18

The possibility to be anonymous or pseudonymous relies on you not revealing any identifying information about yourself in connection with the bitcoin addresses you use.

— Satoshi, 2009-11-25

For greater privacy, it's best to use bitcoin addresses only once.

— Satoshi, 2009-11-25

The design and coding [of Bitcoin] started in 2007.

— Satoshi, 2009-12-10

[Lost] coins can never be recovered, and the total circulation is less. Since the effective circulation is reduced, all the remaining coins are worth slightly more. It's the opposite of when a government prints money and the value of existing money goes down.

— Satoshi, 2009-12-10

There are more coming.

— Satoshi, 2009-12-12

(discussing new exchanges and payment systems joining the network)

Being open source means anyone can independently review the code. If it was closed source, nobody could verify the security. I think it's essential for a program of this nature to be open source.

— Satoshi, 2009-12-12

[Mining is] easy now but it'll get harder as the network grows.

— Satoshi, 2009-12-12

In a few decades when the reward gets too small, the transaction fee will become the main compensation for nodes.

— Satoshi, 2010-02-14

I'm sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume.

— Satoshi, 2010-02-14

The nature of Bitcoin is such that once version 0.1 was released, the core design was set in stone for the rest of its lifetime.

— Satoshi, 2010-06-17

Lost coins only make everyone else's coins worth slightly more. Think of it as a donation to everyone.

— Satoshi, 2010-06-21

If you don't believe it or don't get it, I don't have the time to try to convince you, sorry.

— Satoshi, 2010-07-29

(in response to a disagreement about 10-minute block settlement)

The utility of the exchanges made possible by Bitcoin will far exceed the cost of electricity used. Therefore, not having Bitcoin would be the net waste.

— Satoshi, 2010-08-07

Proof-of-work has the nice property that it can be relayed through untrusted middlemen.

— Satoshi, 2010-08-07

It doesn't matter who tells you a longest chain, the proof-of-work speaks for itself.

— Satoshi, 2010-08-07

We shouldn't be counting or spending transactions until they have at least 1 confirmation... unconfirmed transactions are very much second class citizens.

— Satoshi, 2010-09-30

No one has found the bottom of the Bitcoin rabbit hole.

— Jameson Lopp, 2010-11-10

I see Bitcoin as ultimately becoming a reserve currency for banks...

— Hal Finney, 2010-12

The project needs to grow gradually so the software can be strengthened along the way.

— Satoshi, 2010-12-05

Ultimately it’s good for the network for mining to be expensive. It makes it that much harder for a well financed attacker to dominate the network.

— Hal Finney, 2011-01

For Bitcoin to succeed and become secure, bitcoins must become vastly more expensive.

— Hal Finney, 2011-03

Every day that goes by and Bitcoin hasn't collapsed due to legal or technical problems, that brings new information to the market. It increases the chance of Bitcoin's eventual success and justifies a higher price.

— Hal Finney, 2011-06-04

Writing a description for this thing for general audiences is bloody hard. There's nothing to relate it to.

— Satoshi, 2011-07-05

(lamenting the difficulty of capturing the essence of Bitcoin succinctly)

I am very intrigued by Bitcoin. It has all the signs. Paradigm shift, hackers love it, yet it is described as a toy. Just like microcomputers.

— Paul Graham, 2013-03-18

...the price gyrations of bitcoins are entertaining to me.

— Hal Finney, 2013-03-19

Bitcoin may be the TCP/IP of money.

— Paul Buchheit, 2013-04-29

I AM HODLING

— GameKyuubi, 2013-12-18

If it's your keys, it's your bitcoin. If it's not your keys, it's not your bitcoin! That's a lesson that we all learned during Gox, so...let's try not to have to be taught that lesson again.

— Andreas Antonopolous, 2016-04-14

First step to understanding Bitcoin: admitting you don't understand Bitcoin.

— Jameson Lopp, 2017-02-08

We need one planetary scale proof-of-work system to offer us true, energy-dependent immutability. But maybe we can only afford one. Turns out, that might be Bitcoin's killer app.

— Andreas Antonopolous, 2017-12-12

I don't think we can affort two proof-of-work systems on this planet, but I think we might only need one.

— Andreas Antonopolous, 2017-12-12

By attaching energy to a block, we give it 'form', allowing it to have real weight & consequences in the physical world.

— @hugohanoi, 2018-02-10

History shows it is not possible to insulate yourself from the consequences of others holding money that is harder than yours.

— Saifedean Ammous, 2018-04

(from The Bitcoin Standard)

One of the greatest things that Satoshi did was disappear.

— Jimmy Song, 2018-04-02

Decentralized digital scarcity is the real innovation... Bitcoin was the first, and... continues to be the only such coin.

— Jimmy Song, 2018-04-02

For people living under authoritarian governments, Bitcoin can be a valuable financial tool

— Alex Gladstein, 2018-12-28

Bitcoin is a way out of our current system, which is exclusionary and unjust, and tends to prey on the weak and disenfranchised while letting the corrupt Davos crowd walk free.

— Alex Gladstein, 2019-03-13

Stay Humble. Stack Sats.

— Matt O'Dell, 2019-04-02

Decentralized and private payments are a necessary innovation for a digital future where we retain our civil liberties and personal freedoms.

— Alex Gladstein, 2019-06-26

The twin pillars of Bitcoin's value proposition: (1) It's possible to secure and transport your wealth without anyone's permission (2) Your wealth cannot be debased. Everything else is noise.

— Vijay Boyapati, 2019-07-02

There is no capacity to kill Bitcoin.

— Patrick McHenry (US Representative), 2019-07-17

You may deride Bitcoin, no matter. Bitcoin will be there for you when you need it.

— Nic Carter, 2019-09-07

Bitcoin is absolutely profane, so much so that it hardly bears contemplation. It challenges the State’s most treasured privilege: its ability to finance itself through inflation and seignorage.

— Nic Carter, 2019-09-07

[Bitcoin is] a claim on the future productivity of the planet, in perpetuity, discounted to the present.

— Trace Mayer, 2019-10-09

Tick tock, next block.

— Brady Swenson, 2019-10-18

Bitcoin endures because the engineers that build it expect the unexpected. Money is a dangerous game, and any weaknesses, no matter how small, will be exploited.

— Neil Woodfine, 2020-01-06

This thing is not a toy anymore, and it’s maybe not an asset anymore as well. It is going to be much bigger than that.

— Plan B, 2020-05-01

Bitcoin is radically changing the world by being unchangeable.

— Robert Breedlove, 2020-05-21

#bitcoin blockchain is the new wonder of the world, more work and human ingenuity, than went into the great pyramids of Egypt. The biggest computation ever done, a digital monument, a verifable artefact of digital gold - the foundation of a new digital age

— Adam Back, 2020-06-04

The more loathsome people that use bitcoin, the better. The more it works even if teeming with people that mutually despise each other, the more faith I have in its ability to protect us all

— Nic Carter, 2020-09-07

Anybody who says they can’t afford #Bitcoin is missing the point.

— Cedric Youngelman, 2021-02-23

If nuclear war destroyed half of our planet, [Bitcoin] would continue to live, uncorrupted.

— Ralph Merkle, 2021-03-12

#Bitcoin is the one thing that can't be shutdown. A beacon of freedom in a benighted world.

— Vijay Boyapati, 2021-06-05

For the first time in human history, we can grant property rights to 8 billion people.

— Michael Saylor, 2021-06-05

(at the Bitcoin 2021 conference; in the Fireside chat with Max Keiser)

We don't need the banks anymore.

— Jack Dorsey, 2021-06-05

(at the Bitcoin 2021 conference; in 'Banking the Unbanked')

There is nothing else that compares to Bitcoin

— Jack Dorsey, 2021-06-05

I don't think there is anything more important in my lifetime to work on [than Bitcoin].

— Jack Dorsey, 2021-06-05

(at the Bitcoin 2021 conference; in 'Banking the Unbanked')

Bitcoin changes absolutely everything.

— Jack Dorsey, 2021-06-05

(at the Bitcoin 2021 conference; in 'Banking the Unbanked')

Bitcoin is a once in a thousand year monetary innovation and it's too late to ignore that fact.

— Nik Bhatia, 2021-07-10

There is no link between the informational realm and the physical realm. Proof of work is the only thing that creates this link in a probabilistic fashion, because it creates information that speaks for itself.

— Gigi, 2022-05-12

It seems that #bitcoin attracts a great number of very technically gifted people... It also seems to pull in people that are more likely to ask questions or develop their own opinion, and want to make a difference.

— Adam Back, 2022-06-24

Bitcoin is the most valuable, most secure, and most credibly neutral internet-native asset in the world.

— Andrew M. Bailey and Craig Warmke, 2022-11-17

Bitcoin is King

— Andrew M. Bailey and Craig Warmke, 2022-11-17

Humans are driven by incentives. #Bitcoin is a monetary system, but it’s also an incentive for humans to master energy.

— Brandon Quittem, 2022-12-09

The best way to make Bitcoin fail is to believe that its success is guaranteed... The big compromise in a strongly decentralized system is that it's all of our jobs to look out for it.

— Greg Maxwell, 2022-12-19

Bitcoin is a peaceful protest against the financial system that has failed us.

— Jimmy Song, 2023-04-05

Amidst a sea of rent-seeking "cryptocurrencies" created by opportunistic venture capitalists, bitcoin stands alone as neutral, immutable money with rules, but no single ruler.

— Nik Bhatia and Joe Consorti, 2023-04-27