Genesis: Hayek's Prophecy
💡 Exploring the intellectual origins of Bitcoin's birth. In 1976, Nobel Prize winner Friedrich Hayek made a "crazy" prophecy: strip governments of their power to issue money. This idea, considered utopian at the time, became reality in the digital world 33 years later. Once planted, the seeds of thought will eventually sprout at the right moment.
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"Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them."
—Hebrew Bible, Genesis, Tower of Babel
The Hebrew Bible records: Originally all people in the world spoke one language and decided to build a tower reaching to heaven. When God learned of this, He said: "Behold, since they can do this, nothing they propose to do will be impossible for them." So He confused their language and scattered them across the earth, causing the Tower of Babel project to fail.
This is not Bitcoin's story, but in my heart it is the most fitting prophecy—when humanity once again possesses the same "language" (code) and unites for a common ideal, they truly built a tower to heaven.
Our story begins with prophecy.
The Mad Prophet
Nothing in history happens without trace; there are always visionaries who see far ahead. Unfortunately, human life is limited, and they often cannot witness the day their prophecies come true. But thoughts are immortal. They pass on the flame in darkness until they meet someone who can turn the spark into a prairie fire.
📅 1976, 33 years before Bitcoin's birth
This year, 77-year-old Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek quietly completed a small book—The Denationalization of Money. This old man was no ordinary figure: 1974 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, leading figure of the Austrian School, and an economic giant on par with Keynes. You'd think such a heavyweight's writing would attract universal attention. But when this booklet was published, the entire economics profession's reaction could be described in four words: collective silence.
Why? Because old Hayek proposed a view that seemed extremely radical at the time:
"The root of all monetary evil is the government's monopoly on money issuance."
"We should strip governments of this power and allow private institutions to issue money, competing freely in the market."
Think about it—what concept was this? In 1976, the Cold War was in full swing, with capitalist and socialist camps fighting to the death. But regardless of which camp, one thing was common: the right to issue money is a core state power—this was an undisputed political axiom. Hayek actually said this power should be given to the market? Mainstream economists at the time almost unanimously agreed: Had this old man lost his mind? This wasn't academic theory; this was senile rambling, a utopia that could never be realized.
The Prophet's Insight and Loneliness
But why did old Hayek have such "mad" ideas? The story must begin with August 15, 1971. On this day, U.S. President Nixon gave a televised address announcing the decoupling of the dollar from gold, known as the "Nixon Shock." Before this, the Bretton Woods system stipulated that the dollar was pegged to gold (35 dollars per ounce of gold), and other currencies were pegged to the dollar. This meant the dollar couldn't be printed recklessly—how much you printed had to be backed by gold reserves. After decoupling, it was like unleashing the printing press, running at full capacity, printing as much as desired.
Historical data is shocking: Before 1971, U.S. inflation remained around 2% for long periods, but in the 1970s inflation soared to double digits. The 1973-1975 oil crisis accelerated hyperinflation, currency purchasing power plummeted, and middle-class savings vanished. Hayek saw through this trick, pointing out with calm and rigorous logic:
"History is to a great extent a history of inflation, and usually of inflation engineered by governments for the gain of governments."
Hayek's proposed solution sounded earth-shattering: monetary competition theory. He believed governments should be stripped of their monetary monopoly, allowing commercial banks and private institutions to issue money, letting the market freely choose, with survival of the fittest producing the highest quality currency. More importantly, he proposed the core of his prophecy:
"I don't believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government. But we can't take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can't stop."
This statement, heard 33 years later, sounds like a perfect prophecy of Bitcoin. But in 1976, this idea was tantamount to challenging God's authority. The economics profession, politics, and finance—almost no one took it seriously. The first edition of The Denationalization of Money only printed 3,000 copies and sold poorly. Hayek knew his loneliness; he wrote in the book:
"What we need is not revolution but evolution; not violent overthrow but silent infiltration."
From Prophecy to Reality
📅 March 23, 1992, 17 years before Bitcoin's birth
Hayek passed away peacefully in Freiburg, Germany, aged 92. Like most prophets in history, he didn't live to see how the spark of thought he ignited would evolve into a raging fire. But once planted, seeds of thought never die. They only spread silently in darkness, waiting for the right moment, right soil, and right person to sprout in a way no one expected.
From 1976 to 2008, over 32 years, Hayek's book grew from 3,000 copies to hundreds of thousands, translated into dozens of languages. Generation after generation of thinkers, programmers, and cryptographers drew nourishment from it. Among them was a mysterious Japanese name—Satoshi Nakamoto. When the 2008 financial crisis swept the globe, when people were completely disappointed with "too big to fail" financial institutions, Hayek's prophecy suddenly became incredibly real: Yes, we need something governments cannot stop. Yes, we need some sly roundabout way. Yes, we need to take money out of government hands. And this thing was Bitcoin.
Today, when Bitcoin's market cap exceeds one trillion dollars, when hundreds of millions globally hold this "unstoppable by government" currency, Hayek's spirit is smiling. His prophesied "monetary competition" is happening: Bitcoin competing with fiat currency, decentralization wrestling with centralization, mathematics contending with politics. Most importantly, his prophesied method is being fulfilled: not revolution but evolution; not violent overthrow but silent infiltration. Bitcoin hasn't occupied any government buildings or overthrown any financial institutions, yet it's quietly reshaping the entire monetary order. This is exactly what Hayek called the "sly roundabout way."
The 1976 prophecy, the 2008 whitepaper, the 2009 genesis block—a 33-year chain of intellectual inheritance, complete and unbroken. Hayek planted the seeds of thought, Satoshi watered them with technological rain, and millions of Bitcoin believers provided the sunshine of faith. That tower reaching to heaven finally rose from the digital world. And this is just the beginning of the story...
Hayek's original edition of "The Denationalization of Money" only printed 3,000 copies and sold poorly at the time. This "heretical" work, marginalized by the economics profession, became popular again 17 years after Hayek's death due to Bitcoin's emergence. Ironically, those economists who once mocked old Hayek's "madness" now must reexamine this "prophetic book." History is always like this: prophets are madmen in life, gods in death.