4 ms·

Mathematically, that's a pretty strong argument, since Bitcoin might be worth something like. $0.000001 USD which is still not nothing.

automatic6131 4y ago
I think a single bitcoin is worth about as much as someone interested in owning a piece of financial history, libertarian art and/or a token of mass psychosis would be willing to pay for one of 21 million of them. I think people would pay ~10 USD give or take an order of magnitude, for such a curiosity.
- rglullis 4y ago
  There is no point is talking about a "single" bitcoin. It's about the network. To have people paying 10USD for a coin would imply that there are people keeping at least 210M USD worth of mining equipment running 24/7.
  - strken 4y ago
    How do you get 210M USD from 10 USD? Not a rhetorical question, I'm interested in how the maths works. Are you using the dollar amount to guess how many miners would be active, and where exactly do all the numbers to do that come from?
    - throwaway744678 4y ago
      Probably the cost of operating the computing resources for a functioning network ?
    - TacticalCoder 4y ago
      GP obviously did "21 millions bitcoins ever mined at most times 10 USD a piece", which gives 210 M. No idea if that's correct or not from a game-theory standpoint. All I know is no matter your mining power and no matter if you own 50%+1 of the network or 100% of the network or 0% of the network: this doesn't give you the right to sign transactions moving coins you don't own the private keys to.
      - rglullis 4y ago
        You are right that I just multiplied one number by the other, but you got me thinking about what would happen if the BTC network collapsed and we had all the people saying "I would pay X dollars to have one as a collectors item". One could think to that without the BTC network, and just run an exchange of the private keys. But if you just "sell" a the private key, couldn't you just keep a copy? Wouldn't you be able to do a double spend, and sell the keys to different people? So, the only way to prove that you own the coins is by moving them a wallet that only you control. That implies that the network still needs to be alive and secure. In short, if the BTC network collapses, the price will go to zero. There is no way around it. There is no "I'm willing to pay X for one".
Ekaros 4y ago
On other hand bitcoin will always have non-zero cost to operate. Even if it goes back to CPU mining someone has to keep computer with the blockchain stored running somewhere for it to exist...

automatic6131 4y ago

I think a single bitcoin is worth about as much as someone interested in owning a piece of financial history, libertarian art and/or a token of mass psychosis would be willing to pay for one of 21 million of them. I think people would pay ~10 USD give or take an order of magnitude, for such a curiosity.

rglullis 4y ago
There is no point is talking about a "single" bitcoin. It's about the network. To have people paying 10USD for a coin would imply that there are people keeping at least 210M USD worth of mining equipment running 24/7.
- strken 4y ago
  How do you get 210M USD from 10 USD? Not a rhetorical question, I'm interested in how the maths works. Are you using the dollar amount to guess how many miners would be active, and where exactly do all the numbers to do that come from?
  - throwaway744678 4y ago
    Probably the cost of operating the computing resources for a functioning network ?
  - TacticalCoder 4y ago
    GP obviously did "21 millions bitcoins ever mined at most times 10 USD a piece", which gives 210 M. No idea if that's correct or not from a game-theory standpoint. All I know is no matter your mining power and no matter if you own 50%+1 of the network or 100% of the network or 0% of the network: this doesn't give you the right to sign transactions moving coins you don't own the private keys to.
    - rglullis 4y ago
      You are right that I just multiplied one number by the other, but you got me thinking about what would happen if the BTC network collapsed and we had all the people saying "I would pay X dollars to have one as a collectors item". One could think to that without the BTC network, and just run an exchange of the private keys. But if you just "sell" a the private key, couldn't you just keep a copy? Wouldn't you be able to do a double spend, and sell the keys to different people? So, the only way to prove that you own the coins is by moving them a wallet that only you control. That implies that the network still needs to be alive and secure. In short, if the BTC network collapses, the price will go to zero. There is no way around it. There is no "I'm willing to pay X for one".

Ekaros 4y ago

On other hand bitcoin will always have non-zero cost to operate. Even if it goes back to CPU mining someone has to keep computer with the blockchain stored running somewhere for it to exist...