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It is supremely ironic that we’re supposed to believe that the best way to escape money printing is to buy a cryptocurrency that was invented out of thin air, w

It is supremely ironic that we’re supposed to believe that the best way to escape money printing is to buy a cryptocurrency that was invented out of thin air, which is continuously mined (during most of our lifetimes) out of thin air by doing useless calculations. Or even worse, a basket of multiple crypto currencies, where the number of available crypto currencies and crypto assets grows larger every day.

dasudasu 6y ago
It’s not really surprising when anyone pushing crypto to you also happen to hold a lot of crypto. It’s self-serving advice 100% of the time. It’s pretty much a staple also to call every other crypto you don’t hold a fraud trying to steal the spotlight.
- vidarh 6y ago
  While it may well be self-serving, this is also a near tautological statement, as you'd expect someone who pushes crypto to also hold a lot of crypto if they genuinely believe in it - whether for sound reasons or not. As such the fact they're holding crypto tells us nothing about whether they're pushing it because they're holding it or pushing it because they believe in it.
silexia 6y ago
I saw a great comment earlier, "Buying bitcoin to hedge against inflation is like buying lotto tickets to hedge against Apple stock declines."
- heliodor 6y ago
  That makes no sense. Lotto tickets have an expiration date. No value fluctuation over time. At expiry, they're worth X or zero. How is that like Bitcoin?
  - mumblemumble 6y ago
    You're maybe stretching the analogy way beyond what was intended. The intended analogy, I'm guessing, is that both lottery tickets and BTC seem to be uncorrelated with USD. A good hedge is something that is inversely correlated with the thing you're trying to hedge against.
nemo44x 6y ago
BTC has been the #1 asset over the last 10 years. In many individual years it has out performed every other asset. It has this year by a large amount. At some point the dissenters will have to admit they were wrong. The reality is, BTC is here to stay and is a valuable hedge that is independent of any corporation, government, or central bank.
- UncleMeat 6y ago
  What does it mean to be wrong? Should I have mined 1000 coins in my CPU a decade ago? Duh. Does that mean that BTC is a useful financial hedge against inflation? Why would it? BTC went up by a factor of a gazillion during a decade when USD inflation was not out of the ordinary. Clearly something other than "inflation hedge" is driving the price.
  - nemo44x 6y ago
    What it means is pundits have spared no opportunity to ridicule anyone who has invested their money in BTC, pontificated that BTC has no value, that it is a fad, that it is a bubble, etc. For 10 years. At some point don't they have to capitulate from that provenly wrong position and at least admit there's something there? What is driving the price is price discovery. More people are becoming comfortable with it as an asset as the FUD described above has continued to be debunked. As more people become comfortable that drives demand which increases the value. As a hedge against inflation it works for a number of reasons. People generally price it in dollars, like stocks or real estate. As the dollar inflates one would assume the value of BTC would increase as investors have more dollars to invest into it, driving demand. But the "something other" is more and more people agreeing it has value and therefore creating more demand for it and therefore creating higher prices. This is how any asset works.
    - andresp 6y ago
      I think people don't really agree it has that much value. People want to get rich quickly. They always have done that and continue to do so. Casinos and lotteries are older than bitcoin. The idea that BTC goes above 50k USD because millions of people believe its intrinsic value is worth that much is a story that BTC investors tell themselves before going to sleep. Reality is much greedier than that, and they know it, but the narrative won't change while the fairy tale continues to be profitable.

dasudasu 6y ago

It’s not really surprising when anyone pushing crypto to you also happen to hold a lot of crypto. It’s self-serving advice 100% of the time. It’s pretty much a staple also to call every other crypto you don’t hold a fraud trying to steal the spotlight.

vidarh 6y ago
While it may well be self-serving, this is also a near tautological statement, as you'd expect someone who pushes crypto to also hold a lot of crypto if they genuinely believe in it - whether for sound reasons or not. As such the fact they're holding crypto tells us nothing about whether they're pushing it because they're holding it or pushing it because they believe in it.

silexia 6y ago

I saw a great comment earlier, "Buying bitcoin to hedge against inflation is like buying lotto tickets to hedge against Apple stock declines."

heliodor 6y ago
That makes no sense. Lotto tickets have an expiration date. No value fluctuation over time. At expiry, they're worth X or zero. How is that like Bitcoin?
- mumblemumble 6y ago
  You're maybe stretching the analogy way beyond what was intended. The intended analogy, I'm guessing, is that both lottery tickets and BTC seem to be uncorrelated with USD. A good hedge is something that is inversely correlated with the thing you're trying to hedge against.

nemo44x 6y ago

BTC has been the #1 asset over the last 10 years. In many individual years it has out performed every other asset. It has this year by a large amount. At some point the dissenters will have to admit they were wrong. The reality is, BTC is here to stay and is a valuable hedge that is independent of any corporation, government, or central bank.

UncleMeat 6y ago
What does it mean to be wrong? Should I have mined 1000 coins in my CPU a decade ago? Duh. Does that mean that BTC is a useful financial hedge against inflation? Why would it? BTC went up by a factor of a gazillion during a decade when USD inflation was not out of the ordinary. Clearly something other than "inflation hedge" is driving the price.
- nemo44x 6y ago
  What it means is pundits have spared no opportunity to ridicule anyone who has invested their money in BTC, pontificated that BTC has no value, that it is a fad, that it is a bubble, etc. For 10 years. At some point don't they have to capitulate from that provenly wrong position and at least admit there's something there? What is driving the price is price discovery. More people are becoming comfortable with it as an asset as the FUD described above has continued to be debunked. As more people become comfortable that drives demand which increases the value. As a hedge against inflation it works for a number of reasons. People generally price it in dollars, like stocks or real estate. As the dollar inflates one would assume the value of BTC would increase as investors have more dollars to invest into it, driving demand. But the "something other" is more and more people agreeing it has value and therefore creating more demand for it and therefore creating higher prices. This is how any asset works.
  - andresp 6y ago
    I think people don't really agree it has that much value. People want to get rich quickly. They always have done that and continue to do so. Casinos and lotteries are older than bitcoin. The idea that BTC goes above 50k USD because millions of people believe its intrinsic value is worth that much is a story that BTC investors tell themselves before going to sleep. Reality is much greedier than that, and they know it, but the narrative won't change while the fairy tale continues to be profitable.