People think in fiat terms because their incomes and their expenses are in fiat... But people do have a sense of how much 1 Bitcoin is worth in terms of real-wo

People think in fiat terms because their incomes and their expenses are in fiat... But people do have a sense of how much 1 Bitcoin is worth in terms of real-world economic value but they don't think about it in the same way as fiat. Although people are more familiar with the value of 1 USD at any given time, they instinctively (and correctly) feel that it's a depreciating instrument which loses value over time. On the other hand, when people think about 1 Bitcoin, they feel that it's an appreciating instrument which gains value over time. Not only do people instinctively (without having to do a mental conversion) understand that 1 Bitcoin represents a lot of real-world economic wealth, they understand that it represents an increasing share of the world's wealth. It's a bit like shares of a big corporation. How many laptop computers can I buy with 1 Google share? Essentially any Google shareholder will still need to do a conversion to USD (or their local currency) in their minds in order to give an answer. But this means nothing in terms of perceived value. The Google shareholder knows instinctively that GOOG is an appreciating instrument which gains value over time and this is what makes them want to hold it and not use it as a currency. The reason why Bitcoin is valuable is because Bitcoiners understand that the main mechanism of wealth accumulation in the modern fiat-based global economy has nothing to do with value creation. Wealth in the modern era is all about tribalism and social networking. Bitcoiners are confident that their tribe is best positioned to acquire the world's wealth in a flawed system founded on money printing. In a world of printed money wherein wealth is acquired primarily on the basis of value extraction (not value creation), wealth accumulation depends primarily on the size of one's tribe and the ability of its members to reach consensus and to conspire together. By the way, this conspiracy element is not unique to Bitcoin; it's also an intrinsic part of all big corporations... Bitcoin is just the most effective mechanism for taking advantage of it due its substantial network effects and low-friction barriers to entry. IMO in a world without money printing, the value of conspiring would be near 0 at scale because the focus (and incentive) would be value creation, not extraction.