A Bitcoin Standard Isn’t Fully Realised—Yet
People often talk as though a Bitcoin standard is either here or inevitable. But in strict terms—especially from a systems or game-theoretic view—it hasn’t truly arrived.
Bitcoin’s supply schedule is asymptotic. New coins are still being issued through block rewards, and that supply gradually halves every four years. This doesn’t stop—it simply approaches zero, with the final satoshis expected around 2140. Until then, the monetary base is still expanding, albeit predictably and at an ever-decreasing rate.
This matters. So long as new BTC is entering circulation, the system isn’t fully closed. There are still supply-side adjustments occurring, miner incentives being subsidised, and capital needing to absorb those emissions. In game-theory terms, we are still in transition—approaching an equilibrium, but not yet at one.
The “true” Bitcoin standard—one that aligns with Satoshi’s terminal design and John Nash’s concept of a self-enforcing, non-coercive equilibrium—only emerges once the tail of issuance is effectively dead. Only then is every unit accounted for, and the rules locked in with no external distortions. Until that point, what we have is not a fixed state, but an asymptotic convergence toward one.
Bitcoin doesn’t force this outcome. It lets everyone opt into a monetary game that plays itself out—quietly, rationally, and over time.
