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I don't see how Tether can influence the price of bitcoin when bitcoin's market cap is more than an order of magnitude greater than Tether. Even if every singl

I don't see how Tether can influence the price of bitcoin when bitcoin's market cap is more than an order of magnitude greater than Tether. Even if every single piece of tether out there was fraudulent, it would only have a tiny impact on bitcoin. People downplay bitcoin because it can't be used as cash. It's not supposed to be. It's a store of value. And, in a world where fiat currency is being printed endlessly like monopoly money, there's really only 2 asset classes left: Stocks and Bitcoin, and maybe gold. Do you really want to put ALL your money in equities? No, and neither does anyone else. People want diversification. And Bitcoin, is a great way to diversify your portfolio with a store of wealth. People call it a ponzi scheme. but, it's just metcalf's law. the usefulness of a network is based on the size and amount of participants. is facebook a ponzi scheme? is the US dollar a ponzi scheme? if no one believed in the dollar then it wouldn't be worth anything either -> Just ask all the countries with failed fiat currencies who underwent a period of hyper inflation. I'm not saying that's going to happen to the US dollar. but, i'm saying, fiat money requires people to have faith in the US dollar, just as people are now gaining faith in bitcoin. that's not a ponzi scheme, that's called Network effects. This is not 2017. 2017 was a period when people in their underwear were speculating on bitcoin. there's 2 types of bitcoin investors: the hodlers (which know what bitcoin is for and hold it for almost forever), then there's the speculators. It just happened that in 2017 very few people understood bitcoin's purpose and so 80% of it was speculators and 20% hodlers. This year in 2020, the perentage of buy and hold investors is much greater, which means the drop from the top will be much less than last time. there will always be some speculators, but as bitcoin ages, the percentage of hodlers to speculators increases and thus these large price spikes will also decrease.

DeRock 6y ago
> I don't see how Tether can influence the price of bitcoin when bitcoin's market cap is more than an order of magnitude greater than Tether Prices are set on the margin, and 80% of BTC trading volume is done using tether.
howlgarnish 6y ago
If you read Satoshi's original Bitcoin paper, it's very clear that it's supposed to be "cash" (a medium of exchange). All this "store of value" stuff came about afterwards, when people needed a justification for the valuation of something that has become eminently unsuited to actual usage.
- thorwasdfasdf 6y ago
  that may have been the original intent but that's not very valuable. we already have electronic forms of cash payment, we don't need bitcoin for that. The IMMENSE value of bitcoin is that it can't be devalued. This is huge. In a world where nearly every fiat currency is being devalued and debased at a rapid base, there are many who are desperate for a store of value that's stable. no other fiat currency can offer this guarantee.

DeRock 6y ago

> I don't see how Tether can influence the price of bitcoin when bitcoin's market cap is more than an order of magnitude greater than Tether Prices are set on the margin, and 80% of BTC trading volume is done using tether.

howlgarnish 6y ago

If you read Satoshi's original Bitcoin paper, it's very clear that it's supposed to be "cash" (a medium of exchange). All this "store of value" stuff came about afterwards, when people needed a justification for the valuation of something that has become eminently unsuited to actual usage.

thorwasdfasdf 6y ago
that may have been the original intent but that's not very valuable. we already have electronic forms of cash payment, we don't need bitcoin for that. The IMMENSE value of bitcoin is that it can't be devalued. This is huge. In a world where nearly every fiat currency is being devalued and debased at a rapid base, there are many who are desperate for a store of value that's stable. no other fiat currency can offer this guarantee.