Foto: Khiem Nguyen/Crypto Insiders
It’s early on a Friday morning. A room of over two hundred people is filled. I’m on stage at Bitcoin Amsterdam—the largest Bitcoin event in the Netherlands, and perhaps even in Europe—and when I ask the audience a question, something painful strikes me.
With the exception of a few hands, the entire room consists of millennials, Gen X, or older. A room full of enthusiasm about the future of money, about perhaps the most important technology of our time, but without the presence of the generations that need what Bitcoin has to offer the most.
That’s why I’m here. To speak about, for, and from a generation that is perhaps hit hardest by the failure of the traditional financial system. This was the impetus for my keynote: “Bitcoin – The Last Lifeline for Gen Z and Beyond.”
Because a lifeline is precisely what is needed.
The Three Pillars #
I spoke about how the system that provided prosperity for decades worked for previous generations, but no longer for mine.
The first pillar was saving. You opened a savings account, received monthly interest, and patiently waited for your wealth to grow. Simple and safe.
But that time is over.
For decades, inflation has been structurally higher than savings interest rates. Every year you leave your money in a savings account, you lose purchasing power.
The balance in your savings account is merely an illusion. It shows nominal growth while in real terms, you are falling behind.
The second pillar was housing. You bought a house to live in and to build wealth. Since the beginning of this century, house prices have risen by 224 percent, while the wages of young people have increased by only 68%.
The dream of owning a home is moving further and further out of sight.
There is now talk of fifty-year mortgages. Lifelong debt threatens to become the norm. That is not stability; that is desperation in policy-making.
The third pillar was the pension. A certain foundation. You participated in a collective system, and after your working life, you received a fixed benefit.
That system, which functioned so well for so long, is now being dismantled and reformed. The responsibility is shifting more and more to the individual.
You are expected to actively manage your own pension, with the hope that you don’t want to retire at the wrong moment—during a market crash or a deep crisis.
Action. #
The truth is: the old system is not going to save you. Not because it was designed with malice, but because it was never designed for you. It was made for previous generations.
And now that it no longer works, you will have to take action yourself. The only question is: why with Bitcoin?
Bitcoin, the Rebuild. #
Bitcoin does not solve every problem. To claim that would be naive. But what Bitcoin does do is lay a new foundation to replace the three pillars that have collapsed for our generation.
For saving, Bitcoin can serve as a modern store of value: with a fixed maximum supply of 21 million and a DCA strategy, you spread out your purchases, dampen the impact of volatility, and increase the likelihood that your purchasing power will be preserved in the long term.
For housing, Bitcoin, precisely because of its historical value growth, can be a realistic stepping stone toward homeownership. Where saving in the traditional way fails you, a consistently built Bitcoin position can grow into the bridge to a future down payment.
For your pension, Bitcoin offers more flexibility, direct ownership, and real control over your financial future. Instead of being at the mercy of a fickle system, you rely more on your own choices and strategy.
These are not guarantees, but when the beaten paths lead you astray time and again, it’s time to consciously choose your own route.
The Alternative #
The past eight years with Bitcoin have brought me a lot. It gave me direction. It gave me insight into where money comes from, where it flows, and what role you can play in that yourself.
It gave me much more than just wealth: it gave me an anchor at a time when everything felt particularly powerless.
And that is exactly what Gen Z needs: not a promise of getting rich quick, but a lifeline. An alternative. A way to move forward when the traditional routes seem to be closed.
Bitcoin is not the answer to everything. But it is an answer to something fundamental: what do you do when the game that has always worked suddenly doesn’t work anymore?
Then you play a different game. Not out of rebellion, but out of pure necessity.
Link to the talk on the Bitcoin Conference YouTube channel.