Bitcoin is a virus spreading with no cure. It transmits itself through the ideas of others and travels via digital networks of information. Eating up the processing power of computer systems and decaying the roots of analog money, Bitcoin is the spread of a benevolent virus.
The ALS ice-bucket challenge is a prime example how an idea can spread virally, and enabled by digital information. Every participant becomes involved by being referred by a previous one, and they themselves refer two more in turn, creating viral growth of the idea. The driving factor behind this viral growth is the implanting of an idea of the host, from there it can often come to consume the participant.
A cancer which develops in the body grows by way of turning existing cells into deadly cancer cells. Every patient who has ever dealt with cancer before knows that once that growth of cancer reaches a particular point, there is no hope of a recovery. The cancer will take its course and there is very little the host can do to combat it. Eventually, this cancer grows so large that it self-destructs as it effectively kills the very environment, which had allowed it to thrive.
Have we surpassed the point of no return? One where the option to go a different course no longer exists? What or who then is the host observantly being killed by this cancerous disease?
As a display of adoption, Bitcoin will be undeterred by decisions made by legislators or physical actors, similar to how a virus with no viable antibiotic would surpass all prescription. With no cure, blockchain networks are bent on infecting themselves and taking hold of the host organism(s), in a way which will not be repressed.
The main difference of this analogy is that this time, Bitcoin is actually a welcomed virus. It is the combatant of the cancerous growth we've had seething under our skin, a virus, which will leave most people better-off in the long-run, burning clean the sludge built up from past occupancy.
The endless striving for more and the need to continually consume is a dysfunction of our current system -- a reckless, uncapped system, which implies the main target is multiplication while assuming infinite resources. These systems always, necessarily, bring about their own demise. Endless growth is disease. With the benevolent virus of Bitcoin burning this disease clean, the path forward is not to multiply, but to refine.
Did you enjoy this article? You may also be interested in reading these ones:
- Blockchain Technology Could Have Prevented Louisiana’s Deadly Bacteria Leak
- Ebola Fight Turns to Bitcoin to Deliver Results in Africa
- Torrenting Watch Dogs? Watch for Viruses