Why can't you understand Bitcoin? Because you are still fantasizing that money is real.

Question

This is a brainstorming session: the US dollar is actually as虚 as BTC.

In the US dollars that are currently in circulation, 90% do not exist in the form of paper bills or coins, but rather as digits in the banking system. The Federal Reserve can print as much as it wants—between 1959 and 2017, the M2 money supply increased nearly 50 times. This is what is known as “fiat currency,” which in Latin means “let it exist.”

Looking at BTC from the other side:

Total supply fixed at 21 million coins, expected to be mined by around 2140, and no further issuance is possible.
Transaction records are on a tamper-proof distributed ledger.
Does not rely on banks or government authorities

In simple terms, both are essentially confidence games. The difference is:

The Confidence Basis of the Dollar: Built on government credit, but history has repeatedly proven that governments will abuse this power (inflation devaluation, government misappropriation of deposits, etc.). When Cyprus forcibly froze bank accounts in 2013, the price of BTC soared directly—people were seeking a “safe deposit box” in the midst of a crisis of trust.

The Confidence Foundation of BTC: Built on cryptography and decentralized network consensus, it no longer relies on Satoshi Nakamoto once it is launched. Although it was hacked in the early days (Mt. Gox lost 800,000 BTC), the underlying ledger has never been breached.

The Real Issue

Early developers relied on their integrity to keep BTC alive until today. However, the credibility of core developers has declined, and many people feel that they only care about their own coins. This lack of trust may be more dangerous than any technical risk.

Some people say “BTC is used for dark web crimes”, but even a hundred dollar bill has traces of cocaine on it—money itself is dirty, but that doesn't change its value.

Bottom Line

All currencies, whether fiat or crypto, are on the brink of “potential collapse at any moment”. As long as the impulse to cheat exists in human nature, safeguarding any currency system relies on a group of principled people to remain vigilant at all times.

When Satoshi Nakamoto launched the genesis block in 2009, he inscribed a message: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”—BTC has been a critique of the traditional financial system from the very beginning.

Perhaps this is the key point: it's not that BTC is more real than the US dollar, but that you finally have a choice.