Bitcoin operates in much the same way; it’s a focal point. As with the case of Grand Central Terminal, it’s not a completely arbitrary choice. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, and being first counts for a lot when you need a focal point. There are also some attributes that give it an aura of permanence; there are a fixed number of Bitcoin that will ever be created—21 million—and Bitcoin’s protocols are notoriously hard to change. Still, it benefits from the fact that some cryptocurrency, or at most a couple of them, has to be the gold
