Back in 2016, Andreas Antonopoulos highlighted a troubling trend: as physical cash gradually disappears, direct person-to-person payments are becoming rare. We’re increasingly forced to rely on intermediary corporations—banks, payment processors, and tech giants—that handle our transactions for us. These middlemen take a cut at every step and, in the process, subject us to growing levels of surveillance and control over our financial lives. Bitcoin fundamentally solves this problem. It enables true peer-to-peer transfers of value—no trusted third parties required, no fees siphoned off unnecessarily, and far less centralized oversight. The real question now is: when will more people recognize and prioritize this powerful feature of direct, permissionless value transfer? https://x.com/saylordocs/status/2029114876313125319