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Understanding Bitcoin · Part 5

Strengths and open questions

Neither enthusiasm nor alarm: an honest assessment of verifiable properties and open questions.

21 Fruits Research Note · October 2026

Disclaimer

Not financial or investment advice. This article explains fundamentals. It makes no prediction about the price of Bitcoin and is not a recommendation to buy or sell.

Bitcoin tends to be either celebrated or warned against. Neither helps much if you want to form your own view. An honest assessment is more useful: which properties are established and verifiable – and which questions remain open?

01

Limited supply

Issuance follows public rules. The reward for new blocks halves every 210,000 blocks; the total supply approaches 21 million bitcoin.

02

Predictable issuance

No committee sets the supply or adjusts it at short notice. Every participant can check the rules and reject blocks that break them.

03

Verifiable by yourself

Anyone who runs their own node checks holdings and rules for themselves and need not rely on a third party’s account statement.

04

Permanent record

Each block builds on the one before it. Rewriting older entries would require more computing power than the entire rest of the network.

05

Independent of location

Control can be transferred across borders without transporting anything physical. All that is needed is network access and an appropriate fee.

06

Finely divisible

One bitcoin consists of 100 million satoshis. Very small and very large values use the same system.

07

Direct ownership

An owner with their own key can use their holdings without an intermediary’s permission – provided the key is kept safe.

08

Open to all

The network checks transfers against rules, not against who is sending them. This openness is a property of the system – not a guarantee for every provider.

Open questions

An honest assessment also includes the questions that do not yet have a definitive answer:

  • Sharp price swings. The price of Bitcoin has repeatedly fallen by more than half in the past. Anyone holding Bitcoin must be able to withstand such periods.
  • Security after the halvings. The reward for miners halves roughly every four years. In the long run, transaction fees will have to pay for the network’s security. Whether they will be sufficient is one of the most important open questions.
  • Regulation and tax. Governments regulate trading, custody and taxation differently and change their rules. The protocol is unaffected by this, but its use is not.
  • Scaling. The chain itself processes only a limited number of payments. Additional layers such as the Lightning Network are intended to address this; they bring trade-offs of their own.
  • Quantum computers. Very powerful quantum computers could threaten today’s signature schemes in future. When that becomes realistic is an open question; precautions are already being discussed in the developer community.
  • Concentration. Mining and trading are spread across comparatively few large providers. The rules protect against this only as long as many participants check them independently.
  • Human error and loss. The greatest risk for the individual often lies not in the protocol but in everyday life: lost keys, fraud, unprepared heirs.

Bitcoin’s strengths lie in verifiable rules. The risks lie in the market, in the future – and in your own custody. Only the last of these is in your own hands.

What this means for you

Bitcoin’s properties only count if the owner keeps their keys safe over many years and is able to pass them on. Anyone holding Bitcoin should therefore assess two things separately: first the properties of the network – then their own custody, verification and succession.

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Disclaimer

Not financial or investment advice. This article is purely explanatory. It contains no forecast and no recommendation to buy, hold or sell Bitcoin. 21 Fruits does not hold Bitcoin and receives no commissions. Please base any decisions on your own judgement.

Sources