The strange case of the Bitcoin virus
[This article was originally published on 9 November 2018]
On October 31, 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto for the first time released the Bitcoin virus into the world by publishing his whitepaper in the cryptography mailing list. It has since infected countless individuals and altered the lives of thousands.
The Bitcoin virus is highly contagious and can spread through sound, image, and touch. It does not matter if the medium is electronic or analog, or reproduced by machine or a human being.
The Bitcoin virus adopts to infect all in its path
The virus is constantly changing and evolving, and those infected are observed to regularly gather and ‘re-infect’ themselves, either through blogs, meetups, social media, or conferences.
The virus constantly mutates, and its genetic variation contributes to its resilience and strength, though in some cases a new strain can become incompatible with the rest of the species in what is popularly described as a ‘fork’ or ‘chainsplit.’
Those infected with this new incompatible strain can still spread the infection but reject the re-infection attempts of carriers of the dominant strain (in most cases).
How the Bitcoin Virus changes the behavior of its host
Similar to other viruses like rabies or the flu, the Bitcoin virus will change the behavior of its host to increase its odds of spreading. Symptoms may include writing books, switching jobs, opening a Twitter account and, most importantly, repeated and out-of-context mentions of Bitcoin — especially in potentially inappropriate settings with coworkers or family.
In many cases, the host may become immune or unaware to otherwise obvious attempts of the not-yet-infected to change the subject or leave the room.
Initial infection can occur anywhere and at any time and is not limited to positive comments or coverage, either. In fact, some of the Bitcoin Virus’ most prominent and early carriers, such as Paul Krugman, are known to be hard-core skeptics.
It is not fully understood what factors will turn an infected individual into a Bitcoin skeptic rather than a proponent, which far outnumber the former among those infected. It may have something to do with the background of the patient, but it is also conceivable that it is part of the strategy of the virus to spread to all parts of society equally.
Many different strains of Bitcoin virus
Plenty of carriers of the virus also tend to, rather than advocate Bitcoin specifically, promote unspecified application or generic ‘Blockchain’ technology.
Again, researchers have been unable to ascertain whether this is part of the overall strategy of the virus, or if it’s due to existing environmental constraints in the patient’s background. For instance, an infected bank employee might find it difficult to spread the Bitcoin virus directly without negative repercussions to her job, status, and economic welfare. All of which is without a doubt detrimental to her spreading the virus further.
Negative effects to hosts rather harmless, but there are extreme cases
Most people infected by the Bitcoin virus mainly feel its effects in their social environment. Beyond the risk of losing significant amounts of money and their reputation, the Bitcoin virus seems to spare its host extensive pain or fever, and there seem to be no reported cases of death. In some few specimen however the virus seems to cause the host to repeatedly humiliate themselves on social media, in front of international audiences or conferences.
Possible evidence of natural immunity in some people?
The Bitcoin virus cannot infect everyone. It’s hard to estimate, but a non-trivial percentage of the population remains immune to the virus and has carried on with their life since 2008 as if nothing happened. Those with an apparent immunity appear to go without making significant changes to their dietary schedule, subscribing to meetups, or spending countless hours on youtube without learning about the Fed, Austrian economics, and Italian supercars.
The vast majority, however, is highly susceptible and upon the smallest exposure will attempt to click on anything with the word Bitcoin in the headline — a trend that has pleased, confused, and exhausted financial journalists worldwide.
Stranger still, an infection seems to be altogether independent of Bitcoin usage. A host may spread the virus for months and even years without making a single Bitcoin transaction. Others, while users of Bitcoin (and potentially even significant investors) appear emotionally unmoved by the infection, or don’t carry the virus at all.
The future of the Bitcoin virus is uncertain
What will happen to the virus in the long term is still unknown. It’s clear that an infection can last several years, and in some cases already almost a decade.
Conversely, a few sufferers have recovered and have managed to reintegrate into society. Mike Hearn, involved in Bitcoin since 2009, successfully cured himself in January 2016 with the help of rehab organization R3 (which obviously stands for R3hab).
Other notorious rage quitters have not been so lucky, as they keep reappearing and continue to spread the word.
