The reason you don't understand Bitcoin is that you still think money truly exists.

Seeing this sentence deeply resonated with me; Bitcoin is just an illusion—it's merely a string of numbers, supported by everyone's belief.
That's right, this statement is correct. But the problem is, the same goes for the US dollar. The dollars (U) we use every day are mostly not paper money, but just numbers in computer systems. With an official statement, it exists. From 1959 to now, the quantity of dollars has increased nearly fifty times, but its purchasing power is only a little more than one-tenth of what it was back then.
The emergence of Bitcoin is actually a counterattack against this illusory trust. It does not rely on banks or authorities, but on thousands of computers around the world keeping accounts together. This ledger cannot be tampered with by anyone, and anyone can verify it. Moreover, the total supply of Bitcoin will always be only 21 million coins—there will never be more. Its essence lies not in how much it is worth, but in how trust is established.
Bitcoin also has its problems. Early exchanges were hacked, development teams had disputes, and there was a lot of speculative trading, but those are human issues, not system issues. Just like when banks have problems, it doesn't mean that the dollar is a scam.
Ultimately, money is fundamentally a collective belief. The value of the US dollar, gold, and Bitcoin is the same — it comes from our shared recognition. Satoshi Nakamoto's greatest contribution is showing that trust does not necessarily have to come from official sources; it can also come from code and consensus.
From that moment on, money was no longer just paper, but became a trust determined by people themselves.