Bitcoin As Real Estate

A Thought Experiment

by surferjim | July 21st, 2020 | vol.4

The Scarcity Of Land

Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.
— Mark Twain

The reality actually is, humans can make more land if they want, by building islands. Dubai is a perfect example. But the principle still holds. There is essentially a limited supply of land. This scarcity is why people value land as they do. Scarcity has quite a lot to do with the value of things, hence why certain 1 of a kind artworks are worth so much.

In this article, I equate the limited supply of Bitcoin, to the limited supply of land. Let’s look at the numbers to see how they compare.

Starting with earth surface (land only) the amount available equates to about 92.5 Million sqare miles.

Of that, much of it is uninhabitable because it’s barren. Forests, mountains, or farmland needed to support life. It is estimated that about only 71% of all land is habitable, and of that, 50% is used for agriculture.

So: 71% of 92.5 Million square miles = 65.65 milion square miles. Remove the half used for agriculture and you get about 32.84 million square miles of space, on which all humans must live.



Bitcoin Equated To Land

Now lets look at how the limited supply of Bitcoin equates to the limited supply of land. Using the hard cap of the Bitcoin protocol, there will never be more than 21 million Bitcoin. Currently, there are approximately 18.5 million Bitcoin that have been issued and about 2.5 million left to be mined over the next 100+ years.

Of the 18.5 million issued, it is believed that approximately 3-4 million may be lost forever. I will use the 3 million number for these calculations.

So let’s do some math (I’ll try to keep it simple). I will be using the available usable units of land, but will use the ultimate available supply of Bitcoin for these calculations (minus those lost).

Land: 32.84 Million square miles.  
Bitcoin: 18 million.   
1 square mile of land = 640 acres
32.84 x 640 acres = 21,017,600,000 total acres available.  
World population: Approx. 7.79 billion people.

So: if all usable land was divided equally amongst all humans, each of us would get approximately 2.69 acres. (21.0176 billion acres / 7.79 billion people)

Now let’s divide up all the Bitcoin and see how much each person would get.

18 mil / 7.79 billion people = .00231065 bitcoin per person.

If we think of the Bitcoin blockchain as real estate, (then compare that to actual earth real estate) and you own .00231065 worth of the total Bitcoin real estate ever available (and so did everyone else), you would own the equivalent of 2.69 acres of actual (useable) earth real estate if also equally divided.

To some, that's quite a lot, to others it’s a speck. Such is the case with Bitcoin, and actual real estate. A few have most, some have a little, most have none.

In this example, If you were able to acquire 1 BTC, it would be the equivalent of owning 1048 acres of actual earth real estate.

.00231065 bitcoin is 1/432.7th of a full bitcoin. (1/.00231065 = 432.7)

Multiplying your equal share of bitcoin (.00231065) X the amount needed to get 1 bitcoin = (432.7) then multiply that by your equal share of usable real estate (2.69 X 432.7), and you get 1164 acres = to 1 bitcoin. Imagine if you had the opportunity to purchase 1164 acres of land for approximately $9000 (the USD price for 1 bitcoin as of this writing). I suspect no one would pass up that opportunity. I could see people going into debt, just to take advantage of it (please understand, I am not advocating anyone go into debt for anything).


Bitcoin As The World Reserve Currency

Most people who understand and support the Bitcoin protocol, believe that someday, Bitcoin could be the world’s universal money. I believe this, but feel it may take a generation or two. Unfortunately, I won’t be around for that, but working to make that happen is what motivates me. I see it as paying it forward to future generations.

Each bitcoin is divisible by 100,000,000 smaller units, known as Satoshis(sats).

If evenly distributed (which we all know will never happen), each person gets .00231065 BTC, or 231,065 sats. If 1 sat had a purchasing power equal to $1, each human would have the equivalent of $231,065. 

If the world used Bitcoin as the only money, the purchasing power of 1 sat can be anything generally accepted.

In free markets, all items, including money, are valued by each individual, as they subjectively value those things in their lives that matter to them. Over time, a generally accepted (current) value becomes ubiquitous throughout societies so that people can facilitate trade.

Although all values change all the time, and are different for all people and in all places, price fluctuations tend to level out over time and space. As is the case today. People hold dollars, believing them to have the same purchasing power in the future as they do today. This is not true, yet most people still value dollars roughly the same for the same items in a given geographic location. So 1 sat could be worth 1 penny, or $100. It doesn't really matter, there are enough units to go around. Of course, if 1 sat = $1, then 1 bitcoin would = $100,000,000 USD.

To me, that's reason enough to own at least 1 bitcoin if you can. Imagine your great grandkids amazement at how smart you were to buy some when it was cheap. At today's USD value, 1 bitcoin = $9000.

That means to get your equal world share (.00231065) you would need to invest... wait for it... $20.79.

That's not a lot to have an equal share of the scarcest asset ever created. And, no one says you can't own more (than your fair share). What about $20.79 every week/month? Some waste that much each day - on cigarettes, coffee, beer, etc.

Let’s look at what it would take to get your fair share of the limited supply of Bitcoin at different USD exchange rates:

$10,000 = $23.10  
$20,000 = $46.20  
$50,000 =  $115.53  
$100,000 =  $231.06  
$500,000 =  $1155.33  
$1,000,000 = $2310.65

Even at a million dollars per bitcoin, an investment that would give you an equal portion of the entire world supply (if divided equally among all people) would only cost (in today’s dollars) $2310.65.

But don’t be concerned about its value going forward (at any purchase level). The value a single unit of Bitcoin can hold, will constantly increase over time, no matter how many people own some, how many are left to be issued, or what the exchange rate (or purchasing power) is at any given time.

I can confidently say this because if Bitcoin is the world’s money, all things will go down in value relative to Bitcoin as more goods and services are produced, minus those destroyed. The world has seen net growth in the value of all things over time, so there is no reason to believe humans will not continue to produce more goods and services over time, than those destroyed over time. And if the money supply doesn’t grow (which we know it won’t), then the value of each sat can only increase relative to those items it can be traded for.


Securing Generational Wealth With Beer Money

Back to today’s USD value. Investing the value of a 12 pack of beer every month into some real estate on the most secure, most scarce, most immutable, most censorship resistant value storage and transfer system ever created, can be what secures the prosperity of multiple future generations of your family.

If worldwide adoption spreads quickly, anyone alive today can potentially see a world where Bitcoin is the one recognized money. In that case, your beer money will likely provide a cushy retirement.

But what if Bitcoin fails? No one knows if it will continue to survive, just because it has so far.

What we do know is that investments are being made into Bitcoin from every angle. People all over the world are building, coordinating, helping, educating, learning, understanding, believing, adopting, purchasing and hodling.

This article is a perfect example. I get paid nothing for this. I hope that, at the very least, it will cause just one person to look more closely at Bitcoin. And in doing so, their life could be changed for the better. If it changes two people, and they then each change two other people, we’ll have the planet covered in no time.

There is a massive new asset class in the world, and Bitcoin sits on top as king. If you ignore it, I predict you will have regrets. You would not be alone though. There is a gigantic group of humans who discount Bitcoin's promise and abilities. That's a discussion for another time. But given what's transpired since January 2009, can you really justify not diverting some beer money, just in case?

Since its inception, Bitcoin has had a higher return on investment than anything else.

Its first USD exchange rate was approximately 1600 bitcoins for $1. That’s now worth about $14.4 million. The 1st purchase of any real world item for bitcoin is believed to be 10,000 bitcoins for two pizza’s – about $90,000,000 today. Laszlo Hanyecz, the guy who purchased those pizzas, says he probably spent over 100,000 bitcoin on pizza and other things. That’s $900,000,000 in today’s value.


Have I gotten your attention yet?

You may look really stupid one day if you didn't figure out sooner that you should have secured some bitcoin. You won't feel as stupid however, if you diverted a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, just in case, and it didn't work out. Chances are no one would even notice. But they, and you, will notice if you didn't, despite having the opportunity.

If you read this far, thanks. I appreciate your time reading my thoughts. All feedback is welcome. Have a nice day, and Buy Bitcoin. Help promote sovereign, hard money. I can't wait to see how it plays out. It's like a movie that takes years to watch.


surferjim views himself as a surfer first, an entrepreneur second, and an evangelist for freedom third. During his life, Jim always questioned “the system”, always bucked the trends, and became a libertarian way before he ever knew what that meant.

The existing system does a good job of keeping its cheating and brokenness obscured. After learning about what Bitcoin stands for, many of the puzzle pieces started to fall into place. The Bitcoin rabbit hole journey exposed many of the inherent flaws in the existing fiat system. A new path was discovered, and a new journey begun. Jim has found his life’s calling now that Bitcoin exists. He believes strongly that a hard money, used by all humans, can fundamentally change the lives of everyone for the better. He wishes nothing more than to help worldwide adoption of the hardest money known to man - Bitcoin.