Become your own central bank: The promise of Bitcoin

In a world where governments and financial institutions have long held a monopoly on the creation and control of money, the rise of Bitcoin has offered a radical alternative—the ability for individuals to become their own central banks.

This transformative vision, championed by early crypto pioneers like Yoni Assia, the co-founder and CEO of eToro, is at the heart of Bitcoin's enduring appeal and lets individuals take control of their financial destiny.

Personal central banks

Recently, major governments such as the US have announced plans to build up strategic reserves of Bitcoin within their central banks. This acknowledges the cryptocurrency as a store of wealth, hedge against inflation, and as an important asset class.

When we asked Assia if this trend takes away the decentralized nature of Bitcoin, he cited the opposite effect—Bitcoin can be a tool for personal financial sovereignty. "The unique part of Bitcoin is every person in the world can be their own central bank, right?" Assia explained. "You can own your own crypto reserve."

"Governments will buy Bitcoin for the reserve and then BlackRock ETF suddenly adds a lot of inflows from institutional demand. What does that do to the price of Bitcoin? It just crossed $100,000 right? So it's additive to the price of Bitcoin.”

This ability to own a personal crypto reserve has profound implications for financial inclusion and empowerment. In a world where traditional banking services are often inaccessible or prohibitively expensive for many, Bitcoin offers a democratized alternative, allowing anyone with an internet connection to participate in the global financial system.

Crypto maverick

Assia's journey in the crypto space began over a decade ago, when he was exploring the potential of tokenization and the Bitcoin protocol. "When we started looking at Bitcoin in 2010, we were excited about the opportunities of tokenization," Assia recalled. This led to the creation of the Colored Coins whitepaper, a project that aimed to use the Bitcoin blockchain to mint new assets, such as stocks or stablecoins.

It was during this time that Assia crossed paths with Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, who contributed to the Colored Coins project by writing the first web application for it. While the Colored Coins project ultimately did not gain the same level of traction as Ethereum, Assia's vision for empowering individuals to take control of their financial futures has remained a driving force behind eToro's evolution.

Assia's emphasis on education and accessibility has been a key part of eToro's mission, with the platform offering a wealth of resources through its eToro Academy to help users understand the intricacies of crypto assets and investing. "We have the eToro Academy in 20 different languages, where we have thousands of videos, podcasts, webinars, our market analysts from all around the world. So again, our view is that in order to become a successful investor, you have to educate yourselves about the markets."