Sanctioned.

It's everywhere in the headlines.

"World superpowers sanction the global [blank] initiative."

"[Blank]'s economy overheats, two years post-Western sanctions."

Sharp-eyed folks will perhaps notice that the word sanctioned is a contronym – or a word that has two contradictory definitions.

You see…

Sanction can mean “to give official permission or approval.” But it can also mean “to revoke official permission or approval.”

Other contronyms include:

Bolt: to both secure and to flee.

Cleave: to both cling and sever.

Overlook: to both oversee and miss.

“Janus words,” as they are also called, are relatively rare.

Less rare are statements with double meanings -- or amphibological statements.

"David secured dollars from the market with high volatility."

Wait.

Did David obtain dollars from a market that's known for its high volatility? Or did he secure something from the market using volatile dollars?

Hard to tell.

Now, using some word magic…

What if we artfully mix an amphibological statement with a contronym? Then we might be lucky enough to get a contrasynth -- a statement where a contronym's contradictory meanings happen to be complementary.

For example:

“Sanctioned money always falters.”

This statement has two meanings.

Money that relies on the approval of higher authorities and is employed as a means of restriction tends to lose its value and functionality.

Historically? True.

Throughout history, sanctioned money -- in both contradictory definitions of the contronym -- wanes and loses power, to be replaced by a new one.

Those forced to use that money are just along for the rollercoaster ride.

Now…

All of this is a long-winded (and long-word-winded) way to say: sanctioned money's longevity is not a given.

This raises an interesting question:

Could unsanctioned money prove a viable alternative to protect oneself from the wild whims of sanctioned money?

Perhaps.

But the world has never seen widely-accessible unsanctioned money.

Until, that is, 15 years ago today, when an idea was thrust into the world…

An idea that built on and synthesized decades of research and development in cryptography.

An idea that challenges the conventional understanding of money and value transfer, where its decentralized nature can potentially lead to radically new economic models and structures.

Happy 15th birthday to the Bitcoin white paper…

The first unsanctioned money system for the network age.