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I think it's irresponsible and unnecessary to suggest that the USD/BTC conversion is anything but highly variable. This market is highly fickle, prone to hype,

by gtop3 4y ago

I think it's irresponsible and unnecessary to suggest that the USD/BTC conversion is anything but highly variable. This market is highly fickle, prone to hype, fud, and fomo. There is also still a large international regulatory risk associated with BTC when considered as an asset. I doubly find discussions viewing BTC primarily as an asset class to miss the point of BTC. Maybe the point of BTC has changed in the last 10 years, and I'm behind the curve on this one.

saghm 4y ago
> I doubly find discussions viewing BTC primarily as an asset class to miss the point of BTC. Maybe the point of BTC has changed in the last 10 years, and I'm behind the curve on this one. If the price of bitcoin goes up, it's good, because it's a value store and/or a good investment! If you think it's for anonymous payments, you're missing the point. If the price of bitcoin goes down, it's not a problem, because it's a method of anonymous payments. If you think it's an investment or value store, you're missing the point.
- thephyber 4y ago
  > because it's a method of anonymous payments Clarification: Bitcoin is not anonymous. It would be better to call it pseudonomous. The blockchain remembers transactions and transactions on the main chain are public. Once an investigator gets access to a BTC wallet, they can understand where all of the inflows and outflows went. Even without access to the wallet, some of that can be pieced together from public blockchain data (assuming a single wallet is used). My understanding is that other cryptocurrencies like Monero are far closer to anonymous. Also worth mentioning that cash is anonymous (to the extent that your counterparties don’t track every bill’s serial number). BTC’s value prop over cash is that it can be sent across distance/borders faster than cash can travel and ownership can be maintained with as little as knowledge of a few words.

by gtop3 4y ago

saghm 4y ago

> I doubly find discussions viewing BTC primarily as an asset class to miss the point of BTC. Maybe the point of BTC has changed in the last 10 years, and I'm behind the curve on this one. If the price of bitcoin goes up, it's good, because it's a value store and/or a good investment! If you think it's for anonymous payments, you're missing the point. If the price of bitcoin goes down, it's not a problem, because it's a method of anonymous payments. If you think it's an investment or value store, you're missing the point.

thephyber 4y ago
> because it's a method of anonymous payments Clarification: Bitcoin is not anonymous. It would be better to call it pseudonomous. The blockchain remembers transactions and transactions on the main chain are public. Once an investigator gets access to a BTC wallet, they can understand where all of the inflows and outflows went. Even without access to the wallet, some of that can be pieced together from public blockchain data (assuming a single wallet is used). My understanding is that other cryptocurrencies like Monero are far closer to anonymous. Also worth mentioning that cash is anonymous (to the extent that your counterparties don’t track every bill’s serial number). BTC’s value prop over cash is that it can be sent across distance/borders faster than cash can travel and ownership can be maintained with as little as knowledge of a few words.