The first industrial use of steam engines was to pump water out of mines, but nobody talks about that because the engines were stationary and hidden in the dark. Three generations later, inventors started adding wheels to the engines. Setting that power free and bringing it into the light made everyone take notice, and that’s when steam changed everything.

Archimedes famously (is supposed to have) said: “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” While you’ve gotta love the bravado, the quote also reflects the simple point that the right technology at the right place and the right time can move the world. Steam power was nearly 2000 years old before the conditions were right for it to scale and change everything.

All bitcoiners since Satoshi have known this instinctively. This knowledge is what makes it rational to spend time and money on a technology that’s still ripening. We know that when the conditions are right, when the technology has become efficient and convenient enough, and when people’s exasperation with fiat exceeds their fear of novelty, bitcoin’s time will have arrived.