Within the field of media theory and communication, Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) was a remarkable and controversial scientist. His methods and statements were straightforward, and not all academics praised his work.

McLuhan coined the well-known phrase ‘Global village’ already in 1962.

He had the vision of a connected world, and basically predicted the internet about thirty years before it actually arrived. McLuhan never experienced how his statements ultimately became true, but with the dawn of the internet and especially Web 2.0, interest in his work was renewed. He is now considered a visionary by many.

Besides the global village, McLuhan is also known for the phrase ‘The medium is the message’, coined in 1964.

He suggested it wasn’t really interesting to research the direct effects of e.g. violent movies on adolescents (a typical research subject within the field of mass communication), but it was more interesting to research the macro-effects of the actual medium, the technology - in this case the television.

He stated the social consequences of the invention of a new technology, like the television, have deep impact. And in his view, it’s more important to research the context of the impact of the technological medium itself - not just the available content for a medium.

McLuhan viewed a ‘medium’ as a medium of communication in the broadest sense. Money is also a medium, he stated in 1964. Since the invention of money, we don’t have to negotiate and communicate about a certain transaction. With money we can skip the proces of communication and instead just transfer the money for the product or service.

From a McLuhanian perspective we can state ‘Bitcoin is the message’, since Bitcoin is both a medium - a technology - and money.

In this view, Bitcoin itself is what shapes various associations. What we ‘do’ with Bitcoin doesn’t really matter from this perspective - whether we e.g. use it as digital cash, use it as a store-of-value, use it to trade altcoins.

From a McLuhanian point of view it’s really about Bitcoin itself, as a medium, a technology. Bitcoin itself is the message.

And the most important macro-effect of Bitcoin is, in my humble opinion, that it makes us think about the role of the governments and banks in our global village. It reminds us that these governments and banks control the various money flows. These governments and banks control the printing of fiat money. And it makes us think of how they literally decide that money inflates every single day.

With Bitcoin, instead of fiat money, there is no centralized organisation, no government. It’s decentralized programmed mathematics. It’s scarce - there’s 21 million Bitcoin. Nobody can print more. Bitcoin makes sure we can pay for a product or service, truly peer-to-peer - without the interference of a third party like a bank. Bitcoin will protect us from guaranteed inflation of governmental fiat money.

It’s unstoppable and inevitable.

That’s Bitcoin as a medium.

That’s the message.

Bitcoin is the currency of our global village.