Many people often ask me a question: where exactly is the driving force behind the next bull market cycle? My answer has always been the same—upgrading infrastructure.

Today, let's set aside technical details, avoid discussing candlestick charts or promoting coin prices, and instead talk about the journey blockchain has taken over the past decade as a new financial infrastructure.

**Starting Point: Satoshi Nakamoto Was Not Just About Issuing a Coin**

In 2009, the white paper "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" focused on two words—"peer-to-peer." Don't be fooled by the term "electronic cash"; Satoshi's true goal was much grander. He aimed to build a completely new payment and settlement system—a transaction clearing network that doesn't require intermediaries.

Imagine cash transactions: take out money, hand it over, and the deal is done. Payment and settlement happen simultaneously, with no delay and no third party. The downside? It's obvious—transfers require face-to-face interaction, and large amounts are inconvenient.

The brilliance of Bitcoin lies here—it retains the core feature of "instant settlement" like cash, while thoroughly solving the issues of long-distance and large-value transactions. This isn't a minor improvement; it's a revolution in thinking.

**Why Are Existing Systems So Inefficient?**

Look at how our current banking system handles a transfer: swipe a card or initiate a payment → bank confirms deduction → money finally reaches the recipient. On the surface, it's three steps, but in reality, dozens of systems are working behind the scenes.

Why must it be so complicated? Because to ensure the accuracy and irreversibility of remote payments, a central authority must oversee the process—central registration, central custody, central settlement. The more steps involved, the longer the process takes, and the higher the cost. The price of efficiency is complexity.

**Lessons from History: Wall Street Nearly Paralyzed by Paper in the 1970s**

This sounds like a joke, but it actually happened. In the 1970s, the US stock market faced issues as trading volume soared. Why? Because stock settlement still relied on physically transporting paper certificates. Wall Street's fleet of couriers traveled back and forth daily, piled high with stock certificates. The system couldn't handle the volume, and it nearly led to a market shutdown.

This lesson still shines brightly today— infrastructure determines the transaction capacity of a financial system. What blockchain aims to do, in essence, is to use cryptography and distributed technology to thoroughly solve this bottleneck.