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I like to compare Bitcoin to Land. When people migrated over to america, land was basically worthless: there was too much of it and too few people. As the more

I like to compare Bitcoin to Land. When people migrated over to america, land was basically worthless: there was too much of it and too few people. As the more fertile and better located land was taken, prices started to rise. As land supply is inelastic, the price can only tend to go up as long as the demographics expand. Bitcoin has a limited amount and even more has a diminishing supply (as coins get lost, stolen, broken). Its use case is less valuable than land but its supply way more limited. The only thing bitcoin needs to increase price is inelastic demand. IF there is just a single use case that uses bitcoin everyday, its price will tend to infinity.

seanhunter 9y ago
The problem with this argument is that while supply of bitcoin itself is inelastic, anyone who wants to do so can create an altcoin, meaning the supply of altcoins in general is infinite, and since they are functionally extremely similar to each other if people can't buy bitcoin at an attractive price, they can simply buy something else that works the same way.
- conanbatt 9y ago
  You need inelastic demand as well.
human 9y ago
I’m sorry but your point of view could not be further from the truth. First and foremost, land has intrinsic value. You can grow food, build shelter and have access to water. If you’re very lucky there might even be oil below it. On the other hand, Bitcoin won’t help you survive very long. Second, Bitcoins can be divided infinitely. Today I pay 1 BTC for a car. Tomorrow I pay 0.5 BTC. It really does not matter how many BTCs is the maximum. Land, on the contrary, loses value proportionnaly as you divide it. 50% of the land means 50% of food, water, shelter, etc. Finally, Bitcoin price will never reach infinity because there is a physical limit to the real value Earth and humans can produce.
- conanbatt 9y ago
  > First and foremost, land has intrinsic value. You can grow food, build shelter and have access to water. If you’re very lucky there might even be oil below it. On the other hand, Bitcoin won’t help you survive very long. Thats the inelastic demand I'm talking about: if bitcion finds a use case where it shines above all else, even if it is something like sending money overseas, the demand will be inelastic and with diminishing supply its price will tend to be infinite. > Second, Bitcoins can be divided infinitely. Today I pay 1 BTC for a car. Tomorrow I pay 0.5 BTC. It really does not matter how many BTCs is the maximum. So can money and so can land...this is a Zeno's paradox reasoning. > Land, on the contrary, loses value proportionnaly as you divide it. 50% of the land means 50% of food, water, shelter, etc. That's not true for land because the value of land is determined by the difference in fertility between lands which is something bitcoin doesnt have as each is the same as any other. But lets assume that is true for the purpose of argument: BTC does not have immediate transactional capacity, that is the limit of use. So if you want to have your operation happen you need to pay for it to happen. And moving more btc is cheaper than moving less btc. So yes, smaller amounts of btc are less useful than bigger BTC. > Finally, Bitcoin price will never reach infinity because there is a physical limit to the real value Earth and humans can produce. Its a theoretical concept, much like saying that if there wer eonly 1 cup of water its value would be infinite.
  - freeone3000 9y ago
    Sending money overseas with bitcoin doesn't exhaust the supply of bitcoin. The bitcoin isn't consumed - it's converted from useful money to bitcoin at one end, and bitcoin to useful money at the other. While a limited supply of bitcoin would limit the throughput, the ledger calculation already does that, and at a much lower rate. So it's not as if any utility immediately lends bitcoin value.
    - conanbatt 9y ago
      It does because transfering that money takes blocks of operations to happen, which means you cant transfer infinite amounts of bitcoin in a finite amount of time. You have a limit of how much btc you can move between addresses.

seanhunter 9y ago

The problem with this argument is that while supply of bitcoin itself is inelastic, anyone who wants to do so can create an altcoin, meaning the supply of altcoins in general is infinite, and since they are functionally extremely similar to each other if people can't buy bitcoin at an attractive price, they can simply buy something else that works the same way.

conanbatt 9y ago
You need inelastic demand as well.

human 9y ago

I’m sorry but your point of view could not be further from the truth. First and foremost, land has intrinsic value. You can grow food, build shelter and have access to water. If you’re very lucky there might even be oil below it. On the other hand, Bitcoin won’t help you survive very long. Second, Bitcoins can be divided infinitely. Today I pay 1 BTC for a car. Tomorrow I pay 0.5 BTC. It really does not matter how many BTCs is the maximum. Land, on the contrary, loses value proportionnaly as you divide it. 50% of the land means 50% of food, water, shelter, etc. Finally, Bitcoin price will never reach infinity because there is a physical limit to the real value Earth and humans can produce.

conanbatt 9y ago
> First and foremost, land has intrinsic value. You can grow food, build shelter and have access to water. If you’re very lucky there might even be oil below it. On the other hand, Bitcoin won’t help you survive very long. Thats the inelastic demand I'm talking about: if bitcion finds a use case where it shines above all else, even if it is something like sending money overseas, the demand will be inelastic and with diminishing supply its price will tend to be infinite. > Second, Bitcoins can be divided infinitely. Today I pay 1 BTC for a car. Tomorrow I pay 0.5 BTC. It really does not matter how many BTCs is the maximum. So can money and so can land...this is a Zeno's paradox reasoning. > Land, on the contrary, loses value proportionnaly as you divide it. 50% of the land means 50% of food, water, shelter, etc. That's not true for land because the value of land is determined by the difference in fertility between lands which is something bitcoin doesnt have as each is the same as any other. But lets assume that is true for the purpose of argument: BTC does not have immediate transactional capacity, that is the limit of use. So if you want to have your operation happen you need to pay for it to happen. And moving more btc is cheaper than moving less btc. So yes, smaller amounts of btc are less useful than bigger BTC. > Finally, Bitcoin price will never reach infinity because there is a physical limit to the real value Earth and humans can produce. Its a theoretical concept, much like saying that if there wer eonly 1 cup of water its value would be infinite.
- freeone3000 9y ago
  Sending money overseas with bitcoin doesn't exhaust the supply of bitcoin. The bitcoin isn't consumed - it's converted from useful money to bitcoin at one end, and bitcoin to useful money at the other. While a limited supply of bitcoin would limit the throughput, the ledger calculation already does that, and at a much lower rate. So it's not as if any utility immediately lends bitcoin value.
  - conanbatt 9y ago
    It does because transfering that money takes blocks of operations to happen, which means you cant transfer infinite amounts of bitcoin in a finite amount of time. You have a limit of how much btc you can move between addresses.