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The valid reason is that Bitcoin is the best money that has ever emerged in human history. The denationalization of money is inevitable and long predicted. Chec

The valid reason is that Bitcoin is the best money that has ever emerged in human history. The denationalization of money is inevitable and long predicted. Check out Nobel prize winning economist Hayek's Denationalization of Money https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denationalization_of_Money https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Denationalization_of_Money

ben_w 6y ago
From your link: “Stability in value is presumed to be the decisive factor for acceptance. Hayek makes the assumption that competition will favor currencies with the greatest stability in value since a devalued currency hurts creditors, and an upward-revalued currency hurts debtors.” Stability is not the observed behaviour in BTC.
- coinward 6y ago
  if you use BTC as unit of account then Bitcoin is the only thing that IS stable!
  - Jtsummers 6y ago
    /s? That's a nonsensical statement. Use BTC to buy a car today, and then use it to buy the same value car in a year. BTC is, fundamentally, unstable at this point in time. Even when all BTC is mined and it is distributed across the globe to every human being and sentient AI and animal, it will likely continue to be highly unstable as a currency. Compare to the, relatively, stable USD as a currency. Prices for goods and services in USD fluctuate, but typically only changing once a year or so. Your milk price doesn't, in USD, shoot up by 500% in a week.
    - coinward 6y ago
      things should be getting cheaper with innovation and technology growth
      - Jtsummers 6y ago
        And many things are cheaper. Or they aren’t growing with inflation anymore. Most electronics, for instance, and many mechanical devices. Even food stuffs (some) have been more stable in price than inflation suggests they should be.
    - scarmig 6y ago
      It's all a matter of perspective. It's the entire rest of the world that's unstable and undergoing wild price fluctuations, while the value of one Bitcoin stands eternal and unchanging by virtue of it being worth one Bitcoin. /s
  - CyberDildonics 6y ago
    When people tell me they're cold, I remind them that 1 degree celsius = 1 degree celsius.
  - ben_w 6y ago
    May I introduce the concepts of the Consumer Price Index and of wanting to use money to buy things other than units of itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_basket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_basket
- RestlessMind 6y ago
  It is rather a promise of an "eventual stability". Thinking through that lens, I think USD (and other Fiat currencies) are the ones exhibiting instability.
  - coinward 6y ago
    fiat is volatile and loses purchasing power by design. gross!
  - PragmaticPulp 6y ago
    There is no objective measure by which Bitcoin is more stable than USD. The idea that USD is becoming worthless due to recent monetary policy, however ill-advised, is greatly exaggerated. The idea that Bitcoin is the only way to protect oneself against inflation is also greatly exaggerated. Investors have been buying assets and investments for a long time before Bitcoin was invented to avoid inflation. Bitcoin didn't magically change that.
    - coinward 6y ago
      unexpected inflation is just so unexpected. its not that Bitcoin is the only option, its just the best option which is why its emerging as money
  - sytelus 6y ago
    BTC cannot be stable, even eventually. There is no way to increase the BTC supply so when productivity increases, prices of goods (expressed in BTC) will always go up. Assume that BTC is the only currency and world productivity goes up 6% each year, or 0.5% each month. Then when you go in store to buy apple, you will see price gone up by 0.5% than previous month because there is no way to increase money supply. One of the advantage of fiat currency is that you can control the money supply and try to keep prices stable. For BTC, there is no way out either way. The worse case occurs when some economic disaster strikes like subprime mortgage. In that case there is no way to fix the issue and massive uncontrolled depression will trigger and can stay for decades whether you like it or not. In other words, the same things that makes BTC as good store of value, makes it a extremely weak to guarantee stable economy.
rustybelt 6y ago
Except you can't spend it very well and would be crazy to borrow it. Imagine the disaster if there had been a large market for bitcoin loans a few years ago.
- trident5000 6y ago
  You cant spend it well? Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Circle are all supporting it.
  - rustybelt 6y ago
    Mastercard announced that they will be supporting "crypto" not necessarily bitcoin. Bitcoin itself doesn't have the capacity to support widespread adoption as a medium of exchange.
    - trident5000 6y ago
      Mastercard is without a doubt supporting Bitcoin. I think I need to break down how this works. Bitcoin L1 chain is a settlement layer where transactions are pooled per tx (its not 10 tx per second or whatever people think it is). Regardless, its L2 that processes small frequent transactions. That would be providers like Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Circle, etc. They process the transactions and keep the account, only infrequently is it settled to the actual blockchain ledger. Then you get into the lighting network. Bitcoin can absolutely scale without issue. nacs: because common sense
      - nacs 6y ago
        > Mastercard is without a doubt supporting Bitcoin. Source? The only statement Mastercard has made is that they will support "crypto" on their network in the future. They have not mentioned which cryptocurrencies they will support at launch from what I've seen.
      - ac29 6y ago
        "Mastercard says that it's only going to support cryptocurrencies that meet a number of requirements—including stability, privacy, and compliance with money laundering laws". So, not Bitcoin. And maybe not any existent cryptocurrency. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/mastercard-will-support-cryptocurrencies-but-not-the-ones-you-think/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/mastercard-will-...

ben_w 6y ago

From your link: “Stability in value is presumed to be the decisive factor for acceptance. Hayek makes the assumption that competition will favor currencies with the greatest stability in value since a devalued currency hurts creditors, and an upward-revalued currency hurts debtors.” Stability is not the observed behaviour in BTC.

coinward 6y ago
if you use BTC as unit of account then Bitcoin is the only thing that IS stable!
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  /s? That's a nonsensical statement. Use BTC to buy a car today, and then use it to buy the same value car in a year. BTC is, fundamentally, unstable at this point in time. Even when all BTC is mined and it is distributed across the globe to every human being and sentient AI and animal, it will likely continue to be highly unstable as a currency. Compare to the, relatively, stable USD as a currency. Prices for goods and services in USD fluctuate, but typically only changing once a year or so. Your milk price doesn't, in USD, shoot up by 500% in a week.
  - coinward 6y ago
    things should be getting cheaper with innovation and technology growth
    - Jtsummers 6y ago
      And many things are cheaper. Or they aren’t growing with inflation anymore. Most electronics, for instance, and many mechanical devices. Even food stuffs (some) have been more stable in price than inflation suggests they should be.
  - scarmig 6y ago
    It's all a matter of perspective. It's the entire rest of the world that's unstable and undergoing wild price fluctuations, while the value of one Bitcoin stands eternal and unchanging by virtue of it being worth one Bitcoin. /s
- CyberDildonics 6y ago
  When people tell me they're cold, I remind them that 1 degree celsius = 1 degree celsius.
- ben_w 6y ago
  May I introduce the concepts of the Consumer Price Index and of wanting to use money to buy things other than units of itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_basket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_basket
RestlessMind 6y ago
It is rather a promise of an "eventual stability". Thinking through that lens, I think USD (and other Fiat currencies) are the ones exhibiting instability.
- coinward 6y ago
  fiat is volatile and loses purchasing power by design. gross!
- PragmaticPulp 6y ago
  There is no objective measure by which Bitcoin is more stable than USD. The idea that USD is becoming worthless due to recent monetary policy, however ill-advised, is greatly exaggerated. The idea that Bitcoin is the only way to protect oneself against inflation is also greatly exaggerated. Investors have been buying assets and investments for a long time before Bitcoin was invented to avoid inflation. Bitcoin didn't magically change that.
  - coinward 6y ago
    unexpected inflation is just so unexpected. its not that Bitcoin is the only option, its just the best option which is why its emerging as money
- sytelus 6y ago
  BTC cannot be stable, even eventually. There is no way to increase the BTC supply so when productivity increases, prices of goods (expressed in BTC) will always go up. Assume that BTC is the only currency and world productivity goes up 6% each year, or 0.5% each month. Then when you go in store to buy apple, you will see price gone up by 0.5% than previous month because there is no way to increase money supply. One of the advantage of fiat currency is that you can control the money supply and try to keep prices stable. For BTC, there is no way out either way. The worse case occurs when some economic disaster strikes like subprime mortgage. In that case there is no way to fix the issue and massive uncontrolled depression will trigger and can stay for decades whether you like it or not. In other words, the same things that makes BTC as good store of value, makes it a extremely weak to guarantee stable economy.

rustybelt 6y ago

Except you can't spend it very well and would be crazy to borrow it. Imagine the disaster if there had been a large market for bitcoin loans a few years ago.

trident5000 6y ago
You cant spend it well? Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Circle are all supporting it.
- rustybelt 6y ago
  Mastercard announced that they will be supporting "crypto" not necessarily bitcoin. Bitcoin itself doesn't have the capacity to support widespread adoption as a medium of exchange.
  - trident5000 6y ago
    Mastercard is without a doubt supporting Bitcoin. I think I need to break down how this works. Bitcoin L1 chain is a settlement layer where transactions are pooled per tx (its not 10 tx per second or whatever people think it is). Regardless, its L2 that processes small frequent transactions. That would be providers like Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Circle, etc. They process the transactions and keep the account, only infrequently is it settled to the actual blockchain ledger. Then you get into the lighting network. Bitcoin can absolutely scale without issue. nacs: because common sense
    - nacs 6y ago
      > Mastercard is without a doubt supporting Bitcoin. Source? The only statement Mastercard has made is that they will support "crypto" on their network in the future. They have not mentioned which cryptocurrencies they will support at launch from what I've seen.
    - ac29 6y ago
      "Mastercard says that it's only going to support cryptocurrencies that meet a number of requirements—including stability, privacy, and compliance with money laundering laws". So, not Bitcoin. And maybe not any existent cryptocurrency. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/mastercard-will-support-cryptocurrencies-but-not-the-ones-you-think/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/mastercard-will-...