"This Is Good For Bitcoin"

Submission 42,541

Part of a series on Bitcoin. [View Related Entries]

About

"This Is Good For Bitcoin" is a catchphrase used online to describe how issues with and risks in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin are a strength. As Bitcoin became more popular, the phrase has been used sarcastic, applying the expression to any negative event, whether or not it is related to bitcoin.

Origin

While it's likely that the phrase has been used in common speech since Bitcoin's release in 2009, the earliest known usage of the phrase online was posted by Redditor ^[1] Julian702 on March 30th, 2012 in the /r/bitcoin subreddit. They wrote:

"And there we have the REAL motivation for this rant. Puritans. Fuck'em.

this is good for Bitcoin because it extends the currency to other people besides nerds. It gives them a usable experience and builds trust in bitcoin's ability to be a store and transfer of value (to regular people)."

Spread

Over the next few years, the phrase continued to spread around the Internet. On February 25th, 2014, Twitter ^[3] @buttcoin posted a picture of a parody Magic the Gathering card (shown below) with the logo for the Magic the Gathering Online Exchange photoshopped on to the card. The user captioned the post "This is good for Bitcoin because."

This is good for Bitcoin because Magic The Gathering Online Exchange GoX Land c: Add 2 to your mana pool. Sacrifice Magic The Gathering Online Exchange: This is a good thing for bitcoin because "Mom! Where have my bitcoins gone?" - Japanese protester

Later that year, on July 8th, Redditor^[4] arminius_saw posted the question "Where does the phrase 'This is good for bitcoin' come from?" in the /r/OutOfTheLoop subreddit. Redditor cointiki responded to the post. They said:

"It's not necessarily making fun of bitcoin people, as much as it is bitcoiners laughing at themselves.

"It's just something that happened to get said a lot in /r/bitcoin whenever something was posted that may have been either positive or incidental to bitcoin's development and perception.

"Of course, like the birth of any meme it began to be overused until inevitably it was said so much that it became an inside joke, used whenever anything negative or indifferent to bitcoin was posted to /r/bitcoin."

Three years later, on January 17th, 2015, an anonymous Quora^[2] user answered the question "What is some shit that libertarians say?" with "This is good for Bitcoin."

On May 2nd, 2016, Redditor^[6] Enibas posted a rundown of some seemingly negative Bitcoin news from 2016 in the /r/SubredditDrama. The post was entitled "This is good for Bitcoin" and received more than 865 points (93% upvoted) and 250 comments.

In October 2017, an anonymous Imgflip ^[5] user posted a picture a 3-D rendering of the extinction of the dinosaurs by astroid. Within two months, the post (shown below) received more than 4,100 views.