Bitcoin and the Power of Anamorphosis
On the wall in my office is a canvas print of my favorite painting, The Fighting Temeraire (1). I couldn’t tell you why it’s my favorite, only that it is, but the explanation is probably found somewhere between our overly-simplified, conscious mental models of the world and the thing that causes baby seagulls to go crazy over a yellow stick with three red lines on it (2). The original painting is housed at The National Gallery in London, and while the office print doesn’t do the Temeraire any justice, it does serve as a sort of metaphysical “gateway” to the Gallery, where I stood in gratitude some 15 years ago.
I recall standing in front of another painting at the Gallery, The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger, and doing what amateurs do best; critiquing. Nevermind that the work is 8 feet tall and well-enough crafted to deserve a place in a national museum 500 years later. I saw a time capsule; a series of items layered into the painting to “describe the times.” And why not? Why else would you paint a collection of seemingly random artifacts onto shelves between two men? The assessment makes sense through that lens.
And I don’t think this first assessment was wrong, per se, but it was a surface assessment and one guided by our innate ability to categorize and label; an evolutionary advantage not unlike that used by the baby seagulls I referenced earlier. That said, we rely so much on this ability, in the context of our individual worldly experiences, that we fail to take note of the pieces of the puzzle that don’t align with our simplified mental model. We see a picture of a person, a depiction of a thing, a single statement or act, then we apply our labels and move on. We ignore the details that don’t align with the assessment, and we don’t make the time to try. Similarly, the baby seagulls go crazy for the yellow stick with the red lines, but fail to recognize the most important distinction: It will never bring them food. This ability that their lives have evolved to depend on has failed them, and it fails us as well.
In the case of the Ambassadors, I made my assessment and could have easily moved along, comfortable with having used a lens that has served me my entire life. I’m clearly susceptible to it. Except… at the bottom of the painting there is an unsightly, two-foot-wide white blob (3; look now for greatest effect, if you aren’t familiar with the painting).
This blob didn’t make any sense in the context of my prior assessment. It didn’t have a place in the time capsule and frankly, it was ugly. Even then, I could have written it off, because it feels better to exclude pieces of reality if it means we get to believe that our worldview is still accurate, than to be forced into the humility of not knowing. Humility is the artwork here.
Anamorphosis is an artistic tool whereby a picture or projection is distorted, but can be seen accurately when viewed from a certain angle or with the right lens. In the Ambassadors, if one were to stand to the right of the painting (or view from the right) and angle their perspective down the long axis of the blob, one would see that which, at least to me, was previously unseen. No spoilers… Go look for yourself (3).
What I love most about anamorphosis is that once you’ve seen what lies behind the distortion, you can never “unsee” the puzzle solved. It could have been another day. I could have been too busy to care. But I wanted to learn, and Holbein took the opening some 475 years after putting paint to panel to show me that I was the work in progress. So while I still throw my worldview about and make rash judgments alongside my fellow humans, I reserve a place for the puzzle solved, as I believe we all should.
Where does Bitcoin come into play? Fast forward to 2011. Bitcoin is $0.85. I’m relieved at the news (since I owned none) and we’d just come off all-time highs at ~$1.08. My worldview? Based on the context of my life and my education? “It’s perfect, but it doesn’t stand a chance.” And why not? Who wouldn’t make that assessment in a world where money was (and is) power, and what I’d come to know of the powers that be made clear they would stop at nothing to retain it. The assessment made sense through that lens. It still does. Sound familiar?
What I’ve since realized, however, is that it doesn’t matter what lens I use to project the future of Bitcoin onto the world. It doesn’t matter if I’ve found the angle by which Bitcoin makes sense or succeeds, even if only temporarily. It doesn’t matter if I’ve seen the puzzle solved and that I can’t unsee the puzzle solved.
What matters is that the anamorphic unveiling of the idea of money outside of central control, distorted for so many by our individual experiences of money as we’ve come to know it, has already happened to us, whether I was participating or not. The solved puzzle is waiting for all of us, and just like Holbein… It’ll be there when we’re ready.
