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Here's the short version: Gold's market cap is about $10 trillion. Bitcoin is like digital gold—scarce, hard money not tied to a government. It's better than

Here's the short version: Gold's market cap is about $10 trillion. Bitcoin is like digital gold—scarce, hard money not tied to a government. It's better than gold in that it's easily divisible (1 satoshi is 1/100,000,000 of a bitcoin), easy to transport, etc. Bitcoin is becoming a global store of value; its market cap is about $350 billion. All fiat currencies except the dollar and the pound sterling has gone to zero at one time or another. The more fiat is inflated in an unstable world, the more it replaces gold as a safe haven, store of value. Last I heard bitcoin was not technically able to be used as a payment processor subsitutes. It can be used for paying for things but it makes more sense to use fiat for daily expenses and save bitcoin. Why would I spend something that will be worth a lot more 5 years from now, while the fiat currency in my pocket loses value every week? Bitcoin is already becoming the standard for large, irreversible transactions, where it excels [1]. [1] A link showing a $165,000,000 bitcoin transaction that cost about a $1.20—https://twitter.com/coinbeastmedia/status/1336122995652218880?s=20 https://twitter.com/coinbeastmedia/status/133612299565221888...

beervirus 6y ago
> Bitcoin is already becoming the standard for large, irreversible transactions, where it excels A single transaction is not evidence of bitcoin "becoming the standard."
- alwillis 6y ago
  A single transaction is not evidence of bitcoin "becoming the standard." There were 9,064,548 Bitcoin transactions in the last 30 days [1]. There are many relatively large transactions that take place everyday. [1] https://bitcoin.clarkmoody.com/dashboard/ https://bitcoin.clarkmoody.com/dashboard/
  - beervirus 6y ago
    Yes, people buy and sell Bitcoin. That has nothing to do with the idea that people are using Bitcoin to transact business, let alone that it’s becoming the standard way to do so. Bitcoin transaction are so far only becoming the standard for people who want to gamble.
x87678r 6y ago
> Why would I spend something that will be worth a lot more 5 years from now, while the fiat currency in my pocket loses value every week? Everything is predicated on it going up in value. If it always goes up why would anyone ever sell? And if everyone is just HODL, what use is bitcoin? It seems enough to strangle itself.
- chucknthem 6y ago
  Eventually it won't go up anymore either due to market penetration or a better store of value came along. The current long term holders believe that 1. It's far from market penetration (just look at the skeptical comments here) and 2. It has sufficient network effects and momentum to over come competing stores of value.
  - gxon 6y ago
    It's perfectly scarce and rapidly trending toward 0 inflation. This is one of the key arguments for why it's ultimately a better store of value than gold, which is abundant in the context of the solar system. I'm curious about what you mean by a possible better store of value. To me, that sounds like saying we can go colder than 0 kelvin.
    - quickthrower2 6y ago
      Solar system? You are thinking ahead. But then you need to think quantum computing too! The only saviour is highly valued quantum proof forks of BTC, preserving the original txns
      - gxon 6y ago
        Even still on Earth, we're mining ~2% more gold annually. More gold in absolute terms is being mined than any other time in human history. You just answered the quantum question yourself. We can upgrade the bitcoin protocol with quantum resistant cryptography. I very much doubt it would be a contentious fork. No need to bootstrap an entirely new value network.

beervirus 6y ago

> Bitcoin is already becoming the standard for large, irreversible transactions, where it excels A single transaction is not evidence of bitcoin "becoming the standard."

alwillis 6y ago
A single transaction is not evidence of bitcoin "becoming the standard." There were 9,064,548 Bitcoin transactions in the last 30 days [1]. There are many relatively large transactions that take place everyday. [1] https://bitcoin.clarkmoody.com/dashboard/ https://bitcoin.clarkmoody.com/dashboard/
- beervirus 6y ago
  Yes, people buy and sell Bitcoin. That has nothing to do with the idea that people are using Bitcoin to transact business, let alone that it’s becoming the standard way to do so. Bitcoin transaction are so far only becoming the standard for people who want to gamble.

x87678r 6y ago

> Why would I spend something that will be worth a lot more 5 years from now, while the fiat currency in my pocket loses value every week? Everything is predicated on it going up in value. If it always goes up why would anyone ever sell? And if everyone is just HODL, what use is bitcoin? It seems enough to strangle itself.

chucknthem 6y ago
Eventually it won't go up anymore either due to market penetration or a better store of value came along. The current long term holders believe that 1. It's far from market penetration (just look at the skeptical comments here) and 2. It has sufficient network effects and momentum to over come competing stores of value.
- gxon 6y ago
  It's perfectly scarce and rapidly trending toward 0 inflation. This is one of the key arguments for why it's ultimately a better store of value than gold, which is abundant in the context of the solar system. I'm curious about what you mean by a possible better store of value. To me, that sounds like saying we can go colder than 0 kelvin.
  - quickthrower2 6y ago
    Solar system? You are thinking ahead. But then you need to think quantum computing too! The only saviour is highly valued quantum proof forks of BTC, preserving the original txns
    - gxon 6y ago
      Even still on Earth, we're mining ~2% more gold annually. More gold in absolute terms is being mined than any other time in human history. You just answered the quantum question yourself. We can upgrade the bitcoin protocol with quantum resistant cryptography. I very much doubt it would be a contentious fork. No need to bootstrap an entirely new value network.