4 ms·
This might be beating a dead horse, but what's the difference between Bitcoin and gold then? If gold loses its value, then it's just a heavy rock. They both ta
by luke3butler 9y ago
This might be beating a dead horse, but what's the difference between Bitcoin and gold then?
If gold loses its value, then it's just a heavy rock. They both take time, money, and resources to mine but neither of them have any intrinsic value.
- oscilloscope 9y agoGold's been around for a lot longer— it's mythologically significant. But as far as recent technology goes, Bitcoin's been around for a while. It's older then the iPad.
- matt_s 9y agoThat's sort of my point. If Bitcoin and gold lose all financial value, at least with gold you have a heavy rock and to most humans, visually appealing. You can do something with that - build a house with enough of it, make jewelry out of it, forge weapons (would they be any good?) You can't do anything with Bitcoin if is exchanging at $0 USD.
- luke3butler 9y agoA decentralized, distributed ledger has value as well. Ethereum is a better example, but on the flip-side so is steel.
- cglace 9y agoGold has a myriad of uses outside of it being a heavy rock. If it's price were to drop substantially it's use in industry would increase substantially and we know what happens to price when demand increases.
- soneil 9y agoI don’t think industry is the floor you think it is. They’ll happily pay as little as they can for it. I think the more honest measure is simply how many people have faith in it. Bitcoin and gold may be logically equivalent for this function, but a lot more people have a lot more faith in gold.
- cglace 9y agoAnyone will happily pay as little as possible for anything. I don't see your point.