> Getting 1 of the 21 million bitcoins is like decentralized proof of saying "I had 48k worth of value in Feb 2021!"
Bitcoin doesn't prove anything about your USD value. Bitcoin blockchain only proves how many Bitcoin you have. Nothing about how much they're worth.
No one cares how much your 1BTC was valued at an arbitrary date in the past. The only thing that matters is how much someone else is willing to pay for it right now.
If you buy 1BTC for $48K, you don't have $48K. You have $0 and 1BTC. Someone else has your $48K.
> It locks in the value that you created forever. Otherwise governments will just keep printing money, and your value gets diluted arbitrarily.
What is inflation? Inflation is when the price of something is pushed up. You don't need to buy Bitcoin to avoid inflation. You can also buy stocks, or real estate, or gold, or businesses, or any other number of investments. Basically, do anything other than put cash under your mattress and you'll avoid currency inflation. Bitcoin isn't even close to unique in this regard. People have been investing to avoid inflation for centuries before Bitcoin came along. This idea that Bitcoin is the only way to avoid USD inflation is a deliberately misleading narrative from the people who want you to buy Bitcoin instead of other assets. Fear-mongering.
Bitcoin, however, is inflating in US dollar terms. It is inflating due to demand-pull inflation, by the textbook definition of inflation. The fixed supply of Bitcoin isn't what drives the price up. The only thing that drives the price up is demand.
> Assuming the mechanisms of protection for the blockchain holds, it should work out exactly as that.
No, blockchain has no notion of price. USD prices of BTC are purely a function of exchanges. Exchanges don't even touch the blockchain until you withdraw from the exchange.
Blockchain only protects your 1BTC. It doesn't protect your $48K value. The $48K value comes from other people buying Bitcoin. Why are they buying Bitcoin? Because they expect the price to go up. Why do they expect the price to go up? Because other people are buying Bitcoin.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but if a government wants to prevent you from using a cryptocurrency it has many tools at its disposal. Firstly, they control the ground upon which you stand. If they don't like that you are using crypto, they will simply arrest you and charge you with a newly-formed crime like 'digital tax evasion'. Secondly, if they can't find who is using crypto, they have the power to shut down the Internet or simply censor requests. No ISP has the military force to prevent a government from walking through the door and cutting the cable.
Point is, as long as you are on their turf, you will follow their rules. Unless you want to make your own rules, in which case you will have to fight the government, become the government, and realize that having no control over a currency being used in your turf can be really bad for you and your citizens. You have no control over its value to at least try keep the economy stable, and they will have nowhere to turn in event of a financial crime or scam. No courts, no recourse, no trust.
You don't seem to get it, do you? Your government decides it can't regulate crypto, so it bans it. People use crypto anyway. Government raids telecom and puts filters on Internet. People use encryption. Government shuts down Internet. People use satellite internet. Government make penalty for using crypto a life sentence, because they can. Drives around with vans detecting sat signals. You can't fight them on their turf.
Your government can ban bitcoin, but every government would to ban it otherwise you are going to just piss off your populace. They'd also never be able to spin the internet back up without bitcoin spinning right back up with it. Also, Tesla is an s&p 500 company. If they made Tesla lose 1.5B for some philosophical argument about control they would crash the market.
Getting 1 of the 21 million bitcoins is like decentralized proof of saying "I had 48k worth of value in Feb 2021!"
It locks in the value that you created forever. Otherwise governments will just keep printing money, and your value gets diluted arbitrarily.
Assuming the mechanisms of protection for the blockchain holds, it should work out exactly as that.