Could Bitcoin’s maturation kill what made it revolutionary?

I STILL remember the sinking feeling. African Tech Roundup had received a $25 000 grant from the Celo Foundation, tokens that briefly tripled in value (in fiat terms) during the bull run.

- ANDILE MASUKU

Instead of converting to fiat to fund our project as intended, we held. Then the market turned. By the time we needed that funding, we'd operated at a loss, forfeiting the remaining $10 000 rather than continue.

No shade to Celo. I remain grateful for that collaboration, and much of the blockchain education content we published circa 2021-22 with their support remains singularly some of our most-read and listened material. The appetite for the solutions crypto promises is undeniable.

But that experience taught me something crucial about my own susceptibility to making poor reads on what constitutes a solid investment versus a gamble, however, rooted in noble idealism or grounded bullish sentiment. That lesson surfaces every time someone pitches crypto's revolutionary promise.

Which is why I listened with particular scepticism when a FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google) technologist and executive with African roots, now based in Singapore, spent a fair chunk of 79 minutes trying to convince me that Bitcoin is different.

He's currently concepting a crypto venture in stealth and leans somewhat maximalist, positioning Bitcoin not as speculation but as a solution to what he calls the "global money problem.'

His thesis resonates with lived African experience: most people work for currencies that constantly lose value through no fault of their own, and Bitcoin offers an escape from this structural theft.

It's a seductive argument, particularly when you consider that I literally lived through the agony of watching the speculative fiat value of precious digital tokens evaporate.

Back in May, I wrote a piece questioning whether stablecoins simply shift financial power rather than decentralise it. Now, watching Bitcoin mature into what proponents call "pristine collateral," I'm recognising the same pattern.

From rebellion to reserve