Bitcoin was not originally intended as an investment, and in my explanation, I want to briefly touch on why Bitcoin is actually quite simple to understand, especially when looking at it as a digital store of value. Many people compare Bitcoin directly with memecoins or associate it with fraud. However, cash can also be used for fraudulent purposes, and as an investment, you have to look at Bitcoin from a different perspective. Today, I just want to answer a few questions briefly. I also want to explain how my shop, Bitcoinhaha, and my passion for crypto fashion came to life.

I never really strayed away from Bitcoin as a value investor after I read the Bitcoin whitepaper. The whitepaper is like a small user instructions like how to use a new mobile phone, except this one is only about the technology behin Bitcoin. And many people don't even know this: even though I have to admit that I'm not a passionate reader, the Bitcoin whitepaper is only nine pages long.

That's all.

No foreplay, no blah, no fluff — just the core substance.

It's fascinating that a nine-page explanation of software and a financial system could eventually grow into something with over a 100 billion global market value this days. And when a system like Bitcoin creates such a market presence over the years, while maintaining a level of independence that has forced regulators to recognize and deal with it as it exists, I think that is true power.

Just like in one of those shared articles:

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It was actually one of those days when I thought I was at least prepared and could be sure that everything would go according to plan. Well, it started with an emergency wake-up. The evening before, I had washed a few things and suddenly realized that not only was

MRONECENTMichael Yumin Gehles

I remember being in downtown Monaco at a Steak 'n Shake restaurant, where I was able to pay with Bitcoin. And right there, you could see the change compared with the past decades. What started as payment software evolved over the years into something much bigger. A global system built around independence, digital scarcity and a completely different way of thinking about money. For me, that is what makes Bitcoin so interesting.

PART I: WHY?

Like everyone who experiences defining moments in life, at some point you have to understand why Bitcoin was actually developed in the first place. We have to understand the world in 2008. The world was going through a major financial crisis.

As a teenager, I subconsciously felt the impact when my father was frequently at home due to reduced working hours. Not only banks, but governments around the world were under enormous pressure.The financial system had become trapped between greed, power and, in the end, enormous amounts of debt and leverage. The global economy came dangerously close to collapse, together with the idea that certain institutions were simply too big to fail but failed anyway. In the end, society paid the price for the consequences of this financial system.

As the saying often attributed to Mark Twain goes:

“History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”

Then something happened that would change the way people think about the global financial system today. It started on October 31, 2008, when someone using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper. The underlying idea was brilliant and simple: To create an electronic payment system that allows people to make payments directly to each other without requiring a central financial institution to process every transaction.

But there was a much bigger problem to solve. Digital payments already existed. The difficult part was creating a digital payment system that could work without a central authority while preventing the same digital unit from being spent twice. A peer-to-peer electronic cash system, as Bitcoin was described in the whitepaper. That was one of the fundamental problems Bitcoin was designed to solve.

And this was the moment when the realization across my entire brain cells changed my perspective about Bitcoin and the finacial market. Because the older I became, the more questions I had about the traditional banking system. Credit scoring. Blocked payments. Compliance risk, eventhought its my own hard worked money. But we accept the reality we are presented with. It's as simple as that. A little bit like in the movie The Truman Show 1998.

PART II "JUST A LITTE DIFFERENT"

In the end, Bitcoin's transaction process is like a normal bank transfer, just with a few additional terms you need to understand. The difference is what happens in the background. Normally, when Client A makes a classic bank transfer to Client B, the payment goes through a banking system, with the bank acting as the intermediary. The bank processes and records the transaction.

What already made me angry while growing up was that the bank could earn money from my transactions, while also holding the power and privileges within its system. The money I kept in the bank could become part of the banking system's lending activities, allowing the bank to make money from the financial system built around my deposits.

With Bitcoin, it works differently. What does “differently” mean? The background execution of the payment works differently. Bitcoin uses a decentralized network where transactions are processed and verified 24/7, 365 days a year by the miners who act like global accountants and documented and record on a the blockchain. This makes Bitcoin not only difficult to manipulate, but also creates a system that is fundamentally different from traditional banking. Bitcoin is not controlled by one central bank. Far away from who can use a bank account to unfair loan interest just because you know the bank berater.

From deep in the bush in Africa to some of the poorest countries in the world, Bitcoin gives people the possibility to access a global payment network without needing permission from a traditional bank. And who would have guessed that to this day, a significant part of the world's population still doesn't have access to a traditional bank account? No deflation or inflation. no playing with my money. Fully control of my financials.

The miners, acting as the network, earn money by checking transactions around the clock within the Bitcoin protocol's blockchain. You and I, when transferring Bitcoin among each other, pay a fee for this that is the fee paid to the miners. There is no single bank that alone decides whether a Bitcoin transaction is valid or not. Exactly how it should be with my hard-earned money. No one can take your Bitcoins unfairly away form your bitcoin wallet. Bitcoin itself is a decentralized protocol and network, fulfilling the footsteps of the peer-to-peer electronic cash system everywhere as we know it.

PART III: "DIGITAL STORE OF VALUE"

How much money do you know does the Central Bank around the World creates each day, do you know? I don’t know, but I know Bitcoin has only a supply of 21 million bitcoin that’s it. No more decemitals, no more bitcoins.

This is one of the reasons Bitcoin is often described as the associated and characteristics to gold. Over the years, the term “digital store of value” became increasingly associated with Bitcoin. However, this is no guarantee that Bitcoin will hold indeed its value or rise in the long term. The more people trust the technology and the system behind Bitcoin, the more valuable it could potentially become. But that is something time will decide.

Nowdays financial markets have also taken notice and are playing the same game as with other financial prodcuts. Futures contracts. Options. Short and long positions. Everything is there to buy and sell Bitcoins for profit whatever it takes.

For me, however, the interesting part is not simply watching the Bitcoin price move up and down. It's about understanding why someone created a decentralized monetary system in the first place, what problem it was trying to address, and why people still discuss its relevance today. That's why I understand why the creator tried to remain anonymous.

It would not only have put his or her identity at risk, but could also have created enormous political, legal and social pressure. And there is another part of this story. Bitcoin was not released as a traditional company. There was and never will be a central CEO.

No private company owning the protocol.

No expensive patent strategy built around the idea.

No personal empire created around it.

I believe Bitcoin has the potential to become an important part of the future of money and wealth, especially as a digital store of value rather than simply as a payment system. Today, other cryptocurrencies have developed as established global payment services that are faster and cheaper than Bitcoin. Yet Bitcoin stands alone in its uniqueness. Its independence and maximum supply of 21 million make it, in my opinion, one of the most interesting digital store-of-value assets of our modern era.

In the end, every investment cycle has a beginning. But Bitcoin didn't begin as another investment product. It began as a payment system. And that is exactly what makes the story so interesting.

Today, Bitcoin is among the largest assets in the world, right behind gold. Today, I can rent out my Bitcoins like real estate and not only earn interested, but also benefit from internal asset grow. Maybe one day people will look back and realize just how early this all was.

PART IV: "THE IRONY OF LIFE"

To this day, people sometimes smile when I talk about my fascination with Bitcoin. And I understand it. I have spent years explaining that Bitcoin is not simply another “coin” and that there is a fundamental difference between Bitcoin and thousands of other cryptocurrencies. At some point, my fascination with Bitcoin became part of my personality. And then came the irony. BITCOINHAHA.

My Bitcoin shop was born out of irony rooted in my German culture. What started as an idea became a shop. Today, my shop, Bitcoinhaha, doesn't just feature various Bitcoin products and designs. It uses fashion to connect Bitcoin with the rest of the world. It has a uniqueness that I express through a variety of Bitcoin stickers, seed-phrase products, legendary 18-karat gold-plated Bitcoin pins, and unique Bitcoin gift boxes.

Some people see it as an investment.

Some see it as technology.

Some see it as money.

Some simply think it's crazy.

I see a little bit of everything in it. And maybe that's exactly why I like it. It became part of my own story. To be and stay different. It's only a matter of time.