Bitcoin was created as a response to the financial crises of 2008. The idea was to create a decentralized electronic cash system that had a limited supply. The current fiat currencies used worldwide are both centrally controlled and have no limit on how much the issuer can create. The US dollar, as an example, has lost 98% of it's purchasing power since 1913 when the Federal Reserve was granted the power to print US dollars.
The Bitcoin solution was to create a currency that had a limited supply and transactions that were peer-to-peer so that no financial institutions would have financial power over the individual.
Fast forward 16 years and almost all Bitcoin transactions are run through third parties. To buy Bitcoin most people use exchanges which you must KYC on. To store Bitcoin most people use wallets that require the use of 3rd party nodes for transactions. This includes Hardware wallets. Most people use Bitcoin like an investment not an electronic cash system. Banks are buying up large quantities of Bitcoin to hold for customers buying their ETFs. Arguably developers are adding things like ordinals to the code which have slowed transactions and increased fees above what would be reasonable for small financial transactions.
I see the potential for Bitcoin and am working on projects to help with the original mission - financial freedom for individuals world wide.
I am not going to give up on the dream! Are you?
There are definitely some people who managed to achieve financial freedom through bitcoins, but I would expect that the majority of bitcoin investors are still using the FIAT monetary system heavily and didn't achieve their financial freedom yet. It's nice to see another rise in bitcoin prices and hopefully we are going to see a new ATH this year. Unfortunately, the higher the bitcoin price will be the harder it will be for new investors to acquire bitcoins. The lucky ones are the investors that bought bitcoins 16 years ago, but the majority only learned about it much later. We can't turn back time so we are stuck with the current bitcoin price. It's a good currency for people that live far from each other and in different countries, because they can send money quickly online and don't have to worry about the high fees’ banks would charge for cross border transactions. In case bitcoin is only meant to reach financial freedom, then I am not sure how anybody could achieve this today. Buying bitcoins around 60,000 USD means that there is only a very limited upside potential for now. To make a 100% return on your investment the price would have to reach 120,000 USD and I am not sure how quickly that could happen. Bitcoins are definitely a great investment that should be part of any portfolio, I am just not sure if the majority of the world can achieve financial freedom through it.