Why Bitcoin?

In short · 5 points

1. 01Money is a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value. The euro is fiat money: its value rests on trust in the central bank.
2. 02Most money is created by commercial banks when they make loans. The M3 money supply in the euro area has almost quadrupled since 1999.
3. 03The ECB aims for 2% inflation. In August 2026 the rate was 3.2% in the euro area and 2.9% in Germany.
4. 04In Germany, €100 from 2020 had around €82 of purchasing power left by 2025 if it earned no interest.
5. 05Bitcoin has a fixed issuance schedule, but has not been reliable short-term protection against inflation: in 2022 its price fell by around 64% (in US dollars).

In short · 5 points

1. 01Since 2013, the price has fallen six times by more than half from its previous record high, three times by 77 to 85%. A total loss cannot be ruled out.
2. 02Criminals use crypto assets: according to Chainalysis, at least $154 billion flowed to illicit addresses in 2025. That is less than 1% of attributed volume, and 84% of it went through stablecoins.
3. 03Quantum computers are not an acute threat, but a serious issue for the future. A migration plan for Bitcoin is so far only a draft.
4. 04Funds, listed companies and states together hold around one sixth of the maximum 21 million BTC, and two mining pools find almost half of all blocks (as of September 2026).
5. 05ECB authors put Bitcoin’s fair value at zero; Bundesbank President Nagel speaks of ‘digital tulips’.

In short · 5 points

1. 01Censorship resistance: no central body can technically block a valid Bitcoin payment or freeze self-custodied bitcoin. States can still ban such payments.
2. 02This only holds with self-custody. If you leave your bitcoin on an exchange, you are trusting a third party again.
3. 03Documented cases: Russia’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and activists in Nigeria kept raising donations in bitcoin after their bank accounts were frozen or closed.
4. 04In crisis-hit countries, many people use dollar stablecoins rather than Bitcoin, and states intervene at exchanges and payment services.
5. 05Where banks work, as in most of Europe, Bitcoin is more a matter of self-determination than of need. Tax rules apply to self-custodied bitcoin too.

In short · 4 points

1. 01The digital euro would be digital central bank money: issued by the ECB, always worth exactly as much as a euro banknote, and legal tender.
2. 02It doesn’t exist yet: the European Parliament and the Council are negotiating the law. A pilot is planned from the second half of 2027, a first issuance in 2029 at the earliest (as of September 2026).
3. 03Bitcoin is the opposite model: no issuer, a fixed cap, a highly volatile price, a network no one controls alone.
4. 04The ECB promises data protection and offline payments almost like cash. Critics fear that later laws could allow more control.

In short · 5 points

1. 01New bitcoin are only created according to a fixed schedule. In the end there will be at most just under 21 million BTC – and every full node checks this itself.
2. 02Between the 2024 and 2028 halvings, the bitcoin supply grows by around 0.8% a year. Gold mine production in 2025 equalled around 1.6% of the existing stock.
3. 03Bitcoin is ahead on divisibility, portability and verifiability, gold on history, acceptance and stability.
4. 04As a store of value, Bitcoin is controversial: it fluctuates far more than gold and fell by around 53% from October 2025 to June 2026.
5. 05The stock-to-flow model only measures supply. It is no use as a price forecast.

In short · 5 points

1. 01‘Crypto’ is an umbrella term for very different things: Bitcoin, platform tokens, company tokens, stablecoins and more.
2. 02Bitcoin launched in 2009 without a presale and without an allocation to a company. New units are only created through mining, under fixed rules.
3. 03Bitcoin has no issuer and a fixed cap. Thousands of independent nodes check the rules.
4. 04Other projects pursue other goals. We only explain Bitcoin because, as money, it is what we can explain most clearly and thoroughly.
5. 05Some exchanges we present offer many crypto assets. There we only explain buying Bitcoin.

In short · 4 points

1. 01Bitcoin uses electricity deliberately: proof of work makes manipulation expensive. Cambridge estimates around 153 TWh a year, with a range of 79 to 295 TWh (as of 28 September 2026) – almost 30% of Germany’s electricity consumption.
2. 02Consumption is not the same as climate damage. What matters is where the electricity comes from.
3. 03The studies contradict each other: miners report 52.4% sustainable electricity, while a study of large US mines found 85% fossil-fuel electricity.
4. 04Using flare gas and stabilising the grid are real but limited arguments.

In short · 5 points

1. 01Myths run in both directions: some make Bitcoin look worse than it is, others better.
2. 02‘Only for criminals’ and ‘anonymous’ don’t hold up: according to Chainalysis, the illicit share is below 1%, and every transaction is publicly visible.
3. 03Fan theses wobble too: in 2022, euro-area inflation rose to 10.6%, while the bitcoin price fell by around 64% that year (in US dollars).
4. 04If you leave your bitcoin on an exchange, you are not independent – only self-custody makes you so.
5. 05Rule of thumb: distrust any statement with ‘always’, ‘never’ or ‘guaranteed’ – whichever side it comes from.