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You would think that these people would understand that bitcoin, from a financial perspective, behaves like disembodied gold. A store of value outside of legal
by sunstone 9y ago
You would think that these people would understand that bitcoin, from a financial perspective, behaves like disembodied gold. A store of value outside of legal control.
So much so that, very likely that's exactly what its creators hoped to achieve. You mine it after all.
- moxious 9y agoPlease avoid getting too wrapped up in the metaphor. You don't mine it, there's no TNT involved, that's just a word. And it may behave "like" gold in some respects but in many other crucial ones it does not. BTC is not a useful raw material in any industrial process. It requires a P2P network and extensive global infrastructure, so it won't still be sitting there inert in 1,000 years, when the Power is out, in a crisis. BTC can't be alloyed with other cryptocurrencies to produce other value added products. You can't put BTC leaf on your fancy pastries. There are no other downstream businesses that specialize in assaying the purity of your bitcoin.
- xenophon 9y agoSome of the key characteristics of a store of value are durability, limited supply, uniqueness, and portability. Unlike gold, BTC is neither unique nor truly in limited supply, thanks to forks that create "inflation" and altcoins that can substitute for BTC in all pertinent ways. The vast majority of participants in this market aren't parking their money in BTC to preserve it, and neither to use it as a medium of exchange. They're doing it with the expectation of a return. If those returns fail to materialize, the money will move elsewhere.
- mattmanser 9y agoThere are a load of comparatively worthless metals, compared to Gold.