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For the sake of this discussion, let’s just focus on bitcoin as an investment vehicle. Rarity does not confer value. My toenail clippings are limited in quanti

For the sake of this discussion, let’s just focus on bitcoin as an investment vehicle. Rarity does not confer value. My toenail clippings are limited in quantity, but valueless. There has to be some sort of underlying demand before rarity gets to play a factor in the pricing equation. So for bitcoin, what has been the underlying value proposition to justify purchasing? A large part of it was that bitcoin is the future of money, and that once “mass adoption” began, the price would go up. Of course, bitcoin is a miserable failure of a currency. It doesn’t have properties that most consumers and vendors want. So this leaves us with “bitcoin has no inflation”, which is as I’ve mentioned above, not a good reason for anything to be valuable.

ohaideredevs 7y ago
"My toenail clippings are limited in quantity, but valueless." Indistinguishable from other toe-nail clippings, for which supply is not limited. Not easy to transport internationally quickly.
- empath75 7y ago
  Bitcoin is indistinguishable from any of its various forks. Cryptocurrency tokens as a class are not rare.
  - ohaideredevs 7y ago
    It's distinguishable by being the first and most heavily invested in, as well as having the most infrastructure around it, especially institutional. Keep downvoting literally because you don't like facts.
  - Udik 7y ago
    True, I've been saying the same for a long time. However, forks are extremely susceptible to 50% attacks, the more so the more computing power concentrates on bitcoin. Anyway, the prices of all main cryptocurrencies go up and down together with very similar trends, so I guess the crypto inflation is already factored in the current price.
    - village-idiot 7y ago
      So bitcoin is more valuable than its hard forks because there’s more hashing power. Ok, that makes sense. So why is there more hashing power on bitcoin than the hard forks? Oh, because bitcoin is more valuable and so the mining reward is higher once converted to fiat? Well, that seems like a problem.
      - jraedisch 7y ago
        Why?
        village-idiot 7y ago
        Circular dependencies are never considered a good thing.
  - oconnor663 7y ago
    Real diamonds are indistinguishable from artificial diamonds, but nonetheless the market treats them as a different product, even with the risk that some criminal might try to substitute them. Bitcoin is in a better position, with no risk of accepting a forked coin unless you want to. It might be all human irrationality all the way down, but if so it's the kind of irrationality that's been around forever.
  - jraedisch 7y ago
    Yes, it is. It is the first, arguably the most decentralized and safe, and absolutely the most valuable (by market cap) and thus most trusted store of value.
- village-idiot 7y ago
  I can come up with myriad examples of verifiably limited items that are valueless, I don’t think there’s any point in litigating that issue. And bitcoin is easy to move internationally, but that’s just begging the question. Why would anyone want to move bitcoin? Presumably because it’s valuable, but now we have a circular dependency; bitcoin is valuable because you can move it internationally, and people want to move it internationally because it’s valuable and can be converted into currencies in which people can actually buy goods and services.

ohaideredevs 7y ago

"My toenail clippings are limited in quantity, but valueless." Indistinguishable from other toe-nail clippings, for which supply is not limited. Not easy to transport internationally quickly.

empath75 7y ago
Bitcoin is indistinguishable from any of its various forks. Cryptocurrency tokens as a class are not rare.
- ohaideredevs 7y ago
  It's distinguishable by being the first and most heavily invested in, as well as having the most infrastructure around it, especially institutional. Keep downvoting literally because you don't like facts.
- Udik 7y ago
  True, I've been saying the same for a long time. However, forks are extremely susceptible to 50% attacks, the more so the more computing power concentrates on bitcoin. Anyway, the prices of all main cryptocurrencies go up and down together with very similar trends, so I guess the crypto inflation is already factored in the current price.
  - village-idiot 7y ago
    So bitcoin is more valuable than its hard forks because there’s more hashing power. Ok, that makes sense. So why is there more hashing power on bitcoin than the hard forks? Oh, because bitcoin is more valuable and so the mining reward is higher once converted to fiat? Well, that seems like a problem.
    - jraedisch 7y ago
      Why?
      - village-idiot 7y ago
        Circular dependencies are never considered a good thing.
- oconnor663 7y ago
  Real diamonds are indistinguishable from artificial diamonds, but nonetheless the market treats them as a different product, even with the risk that some criminal might try to substitute them. Bitcoin is in a better position, with no risk of accepting a forked coin unless you want to. It might be all human irrationality all the way down, but if so it's the kind of irrationality that's been around forever.
- jraedisch 7y ago
  Yes, it is. It is the first, arguably the most decentralized and safe, and absolutely the most valuable (by market cap) and thus most trusted store of value.
village-idiot 7y ago
I can come up with myriad examples of verifiably limited items that are valueless, I don’t think there’s any point in litigating that issue. And bitcoin is easy to move internationally, but that’s just begging the question. Why would anyone want to move bitcoin? Presumably because it’s valuable, but now we have a circular dependency; bitcoin is valuable because you can move it internationally, and people want to move it internationally because it’s valuable and can be converted into currencies in which people can actually buy goods and services.