On the 3rd of january 2009, satoshi nakamoto did an extraordinary thing. He put online an invention unlike any invention before in the history of mankind. The i

On the 3rd of january 2009, satoshi nakamoto did an extraordinary thing. He put online an invention unlike any invention before in the history of mankind. The invention is a solution to a supposedly intractable problem that defeated the brightest minds of the information era for more than 30 years. The invention is about how to keep an accurate accounting ledger, such that no two accounts can end up deriving their balance from the same source twice or more, yet have it be run in a fashion that does not require to trust anybody to keep it accurate. Those are already two intractable problems down namely the problem of double spending and the problem of counterparty risk. But satoshi didn't stop there, he also combined this core idea with a protocol and software of extraordinary quality where it mattered, making it possible to use this system in a secure and decentralized fashion. That are two more problems taken care of, which are security and centralization. But satoshi didn't stop there, he also made sure to squash another intractable problem that is how an essentially worthless representation of an account can be protected from the centralized issuance of the units of account. Trough the ages all societies have struggled with that problem where governments invariably started to mint/print their own currency issuance into oblivion to the great detriment of the society they where to "govern". But satoshi didn't stop there either, he also made sure that the rules of the system incentivize people to provide the network to keep this accounting secure and running and provide the necessary resources to do it. Now, I understand when you hear things that seem to sound like "this time is different" that it makes you suspicious. But that's not what what most people who know bitcoin say. What they say is, this is a thing, unlike anything that has come before or since. There's no comparing it to anything that existed so far, because nothing like it existed before it. You should be drawing your own conclusion about how significant an invention bitcoin represents. You might be of the opinion it isn't worth half of the valuation of twitter, which is essentially a non invention to begin with. Or you might be of the opinion it's a substantial invention, worth more than google.