I think long-term, Bitcoin is a currency of the Internet. So, even if humans don't use it, routers will use it. Web browsers will use it. Web servers will use it.
Naval RavikantRead
China may censor YouTube. China may censor Twitter. They won't be able to censor Bitcoin. There's no central authority. There's no one you can go to and say, 'We're going to turn Bitcoin off.'
Interpretation
What this quote means
Bitcoin operates independently of a central authority, making it resistant to censorship.
Naval Ravikant's quote highlights the decentralized nature of Bitcoin, suggesting that, unlike traditional platforms that can be censored by governments such as China, Bitcoin's lack of a central authority ensures its resilience against such attempts to control or shut it down. This underscores the revolutionary potential of cryptocurrency in promoting freedom of expression and financial autonomy.
Themes
BitcoinCensorshipDecentralizationFreedomCryptocurrency
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about the future of finance, one might say, 'As Naval Ravikant pointed out, China may censor platforms, but they cannot censor Bitcoin.'
More from Naval Ravikant
All quotes →Having a million-dollar net worth doesn't make you a genius, and having less than a million-dollar net worth doesn't make you a fool.
Naval RavikantRead
Humans don't 'need' math-based cryptocurrencies when dealing with other humans. We walk slowly, talk slowly, and buy big things. Credit cards, cash, wires, checks - the world seems fine.
Naval RavikantRead
Rules that may be easy for Wall Street are a death sentence for startups. They are easy to break accidentally and the penalty for noncompliance is severe.
Naval RavikantRead
If you go to a venture firm, what you're doing is you're buying money from them in exchange for equity. They have a commodity that they're selling and they have to differentiate themselves.
Naval RavikantRead
Any competent programmer has an API to cash, payments, escrow, wills, notaries, lotteries, dividends, micropayments, subscriptions, crowdfunding, and more.
Naval RavikantRead
Similar quotes
If you look at our current technology level, something strange has to happen to civilisations, and I mean strange in a bad way. And it could be that there are a whole lot of dead, one-planet civilisations.
Elon MuskRead
I think that technologies are morally neutral until we apply them. It's only when we use them for good or for evil that they become good or evil.
William GibsonRead
For decades, the pace of technological change in manufacturing has outstripped that in the economy as a whole. And, so, firms - manufacturing firms - have found it easier to continue producing by - with - reducing their workforces.
Janet YellenRead
We nonchalantly expect that next year's smartphone will be faster and better than this year's, yet we struggle to imagine that society and our lives could progress at anything like the pace at which technology advances and we meekly accept it when things go backwards.
David OlusogaRead
People are mobile. They move around, and anytime they want to communicate, if you tie them to the wall or the wires, you're restricting them, you're infringing on their freedom.
Martin CooperRead
America tends to assume Silicon Valley-style innovators can drive quick and transformative changes, but even Silicon Valley's would-be masters of the universe have discovered that energy transitions are subject to time spans and technical constraints that defy their reach.
Vaclav SmilRead