Hoffman, an expert on social networks, had been captivated by Songhurst’s arguments about the power of the incentives built into Bitcoin—primarily through the mining process—that encouraged new users to join the decentralized network while also encouraging powerful miners to do what was best for the system so as not to see their holdings lose value. “That’s actually super important,” Hoffman would say later. “That makes it less of a pure technological marvel and more of a potential social movement.”
