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> people want to sit on their couch and enrich their net worth without doing any work That doesn't scale. It's not possible for society to offer this to a ma

> people want to sit on their couch and enrich their net worth without doing any work That doesn't scale. It's not possible for society to offer this to a majority of people in any short term scenario, because if 'enrich their net worth' means anything beyond a number going up, there needs to be increased production of goods and services that they consume. That means that you can only get this if you win the risk lottery. Longer term, if we get massive levels of automated production, the number of opportunities for this kind of life can increase, but deflation is much more likely to diminish the production capacity of a society than increase it. In an economy in deflation the pressure is for wages to go down - either by reducing the number of jobs, or by reducing what they pay. It's hard to imagine a society accepting such a situation happily.

ObserverNeutral 6y ago
Nobody is thinking about what you just said before buying bitcoin. And you know it. And actually they might not be as ignorant as you might think. You have no control over Macroeconomics so you might as well play the game in order to have "your number going up" and let the Macroeconomic chips fall where they may. Regardless of where the macroeconomics chips fall...you'd be better off with a higher number than a lower number.
- kybernetikos 6y ago
  > you'd be better off with a higher number than a lower number. A small proportion of a big pie can be much more filling than a large proportion of a small pie. But yes, whether running a whole economy on a deflationary currency is a good idea is an entirely separate question to whether some use of bitcoin makes sense. Having said that, and speaking for at least myself, the (in my opinion) misguided narrative around deflation and 'store of value' that is common in bitcoin core world makes me much more interested in bitcoin cash and ethereum commmunities where niche economic philosophies I don't agree with are not as common as in bitcoin core. There are so many interesting things we can do with smart contracts and a widespread settlement system that doesn't have gatekeepers. Creating value is much more interesting than storing it.
  - ObserverNeutral 6y ago
    > A small proportion of a big pie can be much more filling than a large proportion of a small pie. This is for sure. But with regards to pure "increasing one's net worth while sitting on the couch" then deflationary is always better than inflationary. Of course there are other considerations. For sure there is a currency more deflationary than USD, but such currency doesn't give you access to the US equity and bond markets. So what you lose on the inflation side you recoup with the use side. > Having said that, and speaking for at least myself, the (in my opinion) misguided narrative around deflation and 'store of value' that is common in bitcoin core world makes me much more interested in bitcoin cash and ethereum commmunities where niche economic philosophies I don't agree with are not as common as in bitcoin core. I think if we are talking price prediction, then the only people who invest in crypto are the ones who embrace a "misguided narrative around deflation" Those who have an academic view around deflation won't ever invest. Those who don't care and stick to predicting price such as myself will invest in moderation to trade on the true believers we just mentioned.
  - medvezhenok 6y ago
    > A small proportion of a big pie can be much more filling than a large proportion of a small pie. That works for pies, but not necessarily for human psychology. Rationally, yes, you'd prefer to have more in absolute value, but humans are not rational - they work on relative comparisons. Having more of a small pie gives you an advantage in mate selection, influence (political/social) and options. So the richest man in a village that has $X is probably happier than the wall-street banker that has $10X but is surrounded by people who have $100X. That's just how our psychology works.
    - ObserverNeutral 6y ago
      > So the richest man in a village that has $X is probably happier than the wall-street banker that has $10X but is surrounded by people who have $100X The internet and widespread access to statistics and lifestyle content has sort of ruined that. The guy in the village is happy as long as he doesn't turn the TV on, or goes on forbes.com to take a look at the billionaires index

ObserverNeutral 6y ago

Nobody is thinking about what you just said before buying bitcoin. And you know it. And actually they might not be as ignorant as you might think. You have no control over Macroeconomics so you might as well play the game in order to have "your number going up" and let the Macroeconomic chips fall where they may. Regardless of where the macroeconomics chips fall...you'd be better off with a higher number than a lower number.

kybernetikos 6y ago
> you'd be better off with a higher number than a lower number. A small proportion of a big pie can be much more filling than a large proportion of a small pie. But yes, whether running a whole economy on a deflationary currency is a good idea is an entirely separate question to whether some use of bitcoin makes sense. Having said that, and speaking for at least myself, the (in my opinion) misguided narrative around deflation and 'store of value' that is common in bitcoin core world makes me much more interested in bitcoin cash and ethereum commmunities where niche economic philosophies I don't agree with are not as common as in bitcoin core. There are so many interesting things we can do with smart contracts and a widespread settlement system that doesn't have gatekeepers. Creating value is much more interesting than storing it.
- ObserverNeutral 6y ago
  > A small proportion of a big pie can be much more filling than a large proportion of a small pie. This is for sure. But with regards to pure "increasing one's net worth while sitting on the couch" then deflationary is always better than inflationary. Of course there are other considerations. For sure there is a currency more deflationary than USD, but such currency doesn't give you access to the US equity and bond markets. So what you lose on the inflation side you recoup with the use side. > Having said that, and speaking for at least myself, the (in my opinion) misguided narrative around deflation and 'store of value' that is common in bitcoin core world makes me much more interested in bitcoin cash and ethereum commmunities where niche economic philosophies I don't agree with are not as common as in bitcoin core. I think if we are talking price prediction, then the only people who invest in crypto are the ones who embrace a "misguided narrative around deflation" Those who have an academic view around deflation won't ever invest. Those who don't care and stick to predicting price such as myself will invest in moderation to trade on the true believers we just mentioned.
- medvezhenok 6y ago
  > A small proportion of a big pie can be much more filling than a large proportion of a small pie. That works for pies, but not necessarily for human psychology. Rationally, yes, you'd prefer to have more in absolute value, but humans are not rational - they work on relative comparisons. Having more of a small pie gives you an advantage in mate selection, influence (political/social) and options. So the richest man in a village that has $X is probably happier than the wall-street banker that has $10X but is surrounded by people who have $100X. That's just how our psychology works.
  - ObserverNeutral 6y ago
    > So the richest man in a village that has $X is probably happier than the wall-street banker that has $10X but is surrounded by people who have $100X The internet and widespread access to statistics and lifestyle content has sort of ruined that. The guy in the village is happy as long as he doesn't turn the TV on, or goes on forbes.com to take a look at the billionaires index