Bitcoin Is Manhattan Land in the Digital Age: Ten BTC Is Enough to Be a “Lord”
Bitcoin Is Manhattan Land in the Digital Age: Ten BTC Is Enough to Be a “Lord”
Original title: “Ten Coins to Be a Lord”
Original author: Yishi, founder of OneKey
Author’s note: This piece was first published on November 4, 2023, when BTC traded at $34,522. The text’s core viewpoint remains unchanged. I’m reposting it because a friend suggested bringing it back to the public. I have not enabled any creator monetization programs, and I won’t earn anything from its reads. I don’t run a community and I don’t provide investment advice. I hold no stance or prediction on what BTC will do next. If you can take something useful from these words, that is enough.
1) A mental model: Bitcoin as “Manhattan land”
Why compare Bitcoin to Manhattan land?
Because the most important feature of Manhattan is not its skyline, culture, or prestige. It is scarcity enforced by physics: the island is only so big. You can renovate buildings, rebuild blocks, and reprice neighborhoods—but you cannot mint more coastline.
Bitcoin’s core value proposition is similar, except its scarcity is enforced by math and consensus rather than geology.
- Fixed supply: Bitcoin is designed with a terminal cap of 21 million coins.
- Neutral issuance: new supply is released on a schedule, and that schedule is not subject to elections, board meetings, or emergency decrees.
- Property rights by cryptography: ownership is defined by control of private keys, not by permission from an intermediary.
If Manhattan land is “prime real estate” inside the world’s most famous city, Bitcoin is “prime digital real estate” inside the world’s most resilient monetary network. Not because it is perfect, but because it is the first large-scale, permissionless system to make digital scarcity credible.
If you want the canonical origin story, read the Bitcoin whitepaper: “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”.
This is why the analogy matters: scarce assets become measuring sticks. They change how people store value, settle trades, and think about time.
2) Why the phrase “ten coins” became a meme—and why it stuck
“Ten coins to be a lord” is not a price call. It’s a framing device.
Bitcoin is divisible (down to 1 satoshi), so the number “10 BTC” is not sacred in a technical sense. But socially, round numbers become symbols, and symbols compress complex beliefs into a sentence you can remember.
The deeper idea is this:
In a world where money is endlessly expandable, the truly scarce asset becomes the quiet center of gravity.
When people feel uncertainty—about inflation, about debt cycles, about geopolitics, about technology-driven disruption—they reach for a store of value. Historically that meant land, gold, or productive equity. In the digital era, Bitcoin becomes part of that conversation because it is:
- global,
- liquid,
- bearer-based (self-custody),
- and supply-constrained.
If Manhattan land is a “finite slice” of a global city, Bitcoin is a “finite slice” of a global digital economy.
3) Scarcity is not enough—credibility is everything
Many tokens claim scarcity. Few achieve credibility.
Bitcoin’s scarcity is credible because it is backed by:
- decentralized verification (anyone can run a node),
- adversarial robustness (survived multiple boom-bust cycles and geopolitical pressures),
- and a culture that treats supply integrity as sacred.
The monetary policy is not just a line in a brochure—it is implemented in widely scrutinized code and enforced by a network of participants who can refuse changes.
That is why, even after countless narratives came and went, the “digital gold” thesis didn’t disappear.
And it’s also why Bitcoin’s periodic supply cuts (the halving) remain a key macro event for the entire crypto market. For an accessible overview of the 2024 halving mechanics and context, see: Investopedia’s halving explainer.
4) What changed since November 2023: the “institutional on-ramp” became real
When this was written in 2023, institutional adoption was already a theme—but still felt like a promise.
By 2024–2025, the market structure changed in a way that matters for long-term holders: spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs/ETFs) in the United States became a mainstream access path. Regardless of one’s opinion on financialization, this development reduced friction for traditional allocators and retirement-style portfolios.
For the primary-source tone from regulators, you can read the U.S. SEC Chair’s statement here: SEC statement on the approval of spot Bitcoin ETPs.
At the same time, regulation outside the U.S. continued to mature. In Europe, MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) introduced a unified framework that directly impacts exchanges, custodians, stablecoins, and service providers. You can track the official timeline and implementation context via the European Commission: EU digital finance update on MiCA application dates and ESMA’s overview page: MiCA at ESMA.
None of this guarantees higher prices. But it does change the social reality around Bitcoin:
- it becomes harder to ignore,
- easier to access,
- and increasingly discussed as a macro asset rather than a niche tech bet.
That is exactly what happens to “Manhattan land” over decades: it gets absorbed into the balance sheets of institutions, families, and long-duration thinkers.
5) Bitcoin is not just “number go up”: it is an evolving settlement layer
Another major shift since 2023 is that Bitcoin’s block space has become more visibly contested—not only for payments, but also for new on-chain behaviors.
The rise of Ordinals / inscriptions is one example. Whether you love it or hate it, it demonstrated a simple truth: Bitcoin block space is a scarce commodity, and people will compete for it in unexpected ways. If you want the primary technical artifact behind that ecosystem, start with the open-source ord project: Ordinals ord repository.
At the same time, Bitcoin’s “boring” work continued: incremental upgrades, better tooling, more robust custody practices, and a broader appreciation for long-term security assumptions.
This matters for the Manhattan analogy: the value of land is not just scarcity—it’s also infrastructure, rule of law, and the ability to settle disputes. Bitcoin’s equivalent is:
- durable consensus,
- predictable rules,
- and high-cost enforcement through proof-of-work.
6) The deed matters more than the land: self-custody is the point
If Bitcoin is Manhattan land, then private keys are the deed.
Owning land through someone else’s promise can work—until it doesn’t. The same is true in crypto. The industry has repeatedly relearned a harsh lesson:
Counterparty risk is not a theoretical risk. It is the default risk.
That’s why “self-custody” remains one of the most important SEO keywords in crypto—and one of the least practiced disciplines during bull markets.
Self-custody is not about paranoia. It is about aligning with Bitcoin’s design:
- no gatekeepers,
- no withdrawal freezes,
- no “terms changed” emails,
- no account-based confiscation.
For many people, the most practical path is cold storage: keeping signing keys offline and using a hardware wallet as a dedicated signing device. The goal is to reduce the attack surface of everyday computers and phones.
If you’re serious about treating BTC like generational property, you should treat custody like property law:
- use redundancy,
- document inheritance,
- and assume accidents happen.
A useful general reference on why and how to secure Bitcoin can be found at bitcoin.org’s documentation.
7) A practical custody checklist (no hype, just operations)
If you take only one thing from this article, take this: operational security beats opinions.
Here is a simple, non-exhaustive checklist:
-
Write down your recovery seed carefully
- Store it offline.
- Never type it into random websites or share it in screenshots.
-
Use a passphrase if you understand it
- A passphrase can add a meaningful layer of protection.
- But it also adds a new failure mode: forgetting it.
-
Consider multisig for meaningful amounts
- Multisig can reduce single-point-of-failure risk.
- It also increases complexity—test your recovery plan.
-
Perform recovery drills
- A backup you never tested is not a backup.
-
Separate convenience funds from long-term reserves
- Keep spending money hot.
- Keep “Manhattan land” money cold.
This is not investment advice. It is simply the reality that Bitcoin’s promise only holds if you can reliably control your keys.
8) So… is “ten BTC” really enough?
It depends on your time horizon and what you mean by “enough.”
“Enough” is not a number. It is a relationship between:
- your obligations,
- your risk tolerance,
- your local cost structure,
- and your ability to hold through volatility.
The phrase “ten coins” persists because it points at a deeper asymmetry:
- The supply is finite.
- Adoption is uneven.
- Most people arrive later than they think.
- And the asset is natively global.
In that world, even a relatively small slice can feel symbolically large—like a modest Manhattan apartment that quietly outlives decades of monetary regimes.
But you should also hold two truths at once:
- Bitcoin can be the hardest asset many of us have ever seen.
- Bitcoin can still be extremely volatile, politically contested, and emotionally difficult to hold.
Being “a lord” is not about bragging rights. It is about behaving like a long-duration owner:
- humble about uncertainty,
- disciplined about custody,
- and patient about narratives.
9) Where OneKey fits (only if you choose self-custody)
If the Manhattan analogy resonates, the logical next question is: how do you secure the deed?
OneKey was built for people who want to practice self-custody without turning security into a full-time job. As an open-source-first wallet ecosystem, it emphasizes verifiability and transparent engineering—so long-term holders can align tools with the mindset of “don’t trust, verify.”
If you’re considering moving BTC from an exchange into cold storage, a hardware wallet can help you:
- keep private keys offline,
- sign transactions on a dedicated device,
- and reduce exposure to everyday malware risks.
No tool is magic. But good tools can make good habits easier.
Closing
This article is not a forecast. It’s a lens.
Bitcoin as “Manhattan land” is a way to think clearly about scarcity, credibility, and ownership in a digital economy. If you decide to hold any meaningful amount of crypto, the most important question is not “what will the price do next,” but:
Can you still prove ownership ten years from now—under stress, under change, and without asking anyone for permission?
