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It's neither of these things.
by d0lph 9y ago
It's neither of these things.
- lotyrin 9y agoMost of its value is speculative and if you buy you have to hope there's a bigger sucker somewhere in the future in order to get your payout, that's not exactly Ponzi-shaped, but I can definitely see why people might consider it a decentralized form of the pattern.
- d0lph 9y agoAccording to your interpretation, wouldn't gold also qualify as a decentralized ponzi scheme? You're just hoping some bigger sucker buys your over inflated metal right?
- jack9 9y agoPeople actually use gold, as it's optimal (or solely suited) for a number of electric and chemical tasks. Also, it's pretty and used as a status symbol. It has utility, which has been overblown in the market for a long time (like diamonds).
- d0lph 9y agoThe utility of bitcoin is as a secure currency, it's not possible to forfeit or dilute, and limited in nature.
- lotyrin 9y agoIt's not my interpretation (I like to be more precise with terminology), just one that I could explain. I suppose that people who feel that way about bitcoin probably feel that way about any commodities that are held at speculative value above any value based on their utility, but I don't think they would describe those as being "ponzi schemes" -- not sure how they would make the distinction.
- sp527 9y agoIf you think 90%+ of its current value isn't driven by behaviorial psychology rather than fundamentals, you either haven't been paying attention or don't understand markets.
- d0lph 9y agoI would agree that its current value is probably inflated, regardless, bitcoin provides real value, it is not a scam.
- sp527 9y agoA lot of things ‘provide real value’. What matters is the magnitude of said value. And before you can get there, you need a way to quantify it. I would posit that Bitcoin creates a lot less real (and particularly marginal real) value than perceived value.
- d0lph 9y agoIt doesn't matter, it provides value. This is enough to make it not a scam, it's not like a bunch of people got together and asked how to make themselves rich. Bitcoin was created to be the trusted currency of the internet, without the banks interfering.