As Bitcoin reaches new historical highs, people have started discussing the intrinsic value of Bitcoin. The greatest intrinsic value of Bitcoin lies in its creation of a decentralized point-to-point value transfer system that does not require centralized settlement. There was a similar system in the past, called gold. But the characteristics of Bitcoin clearly surpass gold—its divisibility, transferability, portability, value balance, total supply limit, and transparency—all combine the advantages of modern payment systems with the strengths of gold.

But is that all? No. Bitcoin is tens of thousands of times better than gold because of one key point: its fully public on-chain ledger. If we say the above advantages combine sociology, cryptography, and mathematics from modern payment systems, then this one key feature must be something that could only emerge after the advent of the modern internet—namely, the superiority of information dissemination.

How much gold do you own? Unless I bring a scale and a testing device to your home, I wouldn’t know. This is the direct cause of the collapse of the gold standard system, because I can never know the amount of gold in your vault, nor can it serve as a reliable credit backing. But Bitcoin solves this problem.

If someone still doesn’t understand the intrinsic value of Bitcoin, be sure to tell them.