Julien Reszka
La Maison du Bitcoin opened today on Rue du Caire in Paris and I went to the inauguration.
The space is small and clean. There are explanations on the walls and a few terminals. The people there were enthusiasts, early adopters, and a handful of journalists. Nobody looked like a banker.
I bought a small amount of bitcoin before I left. I am not sure why exactly. I did not have a plan for it. I did not have a thesis about where the price was going. I just felt like I should have some, the same way you feel like you should read a book you keep hearing about even before you know if it is good.
What I actually understood at that point:
- Bitcoin is a currency not controlled by any government or central bank
- Transactions are recorded on a public ledger nobody owns
- The supply is capped and new coins are created by solving computational puzzles
- A lot of very technical people take it seriously
- A lot of other people think it is a scam
What I did not understand:
- What to do with it after buying it
- How wallets actually work or how to keep it safe
- Why the price moved the way it did
- Whether any of this would matter in ten years
The honest answer is that I bought it because being in the room made it real in a way that reading articles had not. The transaction happened. I had a small number in a wallet on my phone.
I do not know if this will turn out to have been a smart decision or an irrelevant one. But I know that having a small amount of something focuses your attention differently than having none of it. I will follow this more carefully now.
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