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quanticle: If Bitcoin survives the present crisis in Iran, surely it will gain credibility in the minds of Iranians as a medium of exchange and store of value t
by cs702 14y ago
quanticle: If Bitcoin survives the present crisis in Iran, surely it will gain credibility in the minds of Iranians as a medium of exchange and store of value that can survive crises. That's undeniable.
Next time there's a crisis, or even risk of crisis, more Iranians will turn to Bitcoin, just as they will turn to gold, silver, and the US dollar. Their thinking will be, "well, if it survived the last crisis, it will probably survive this new crisis too."
As a decentralized virtual asset, Bitcoin not only can survive financial crises, collapsed economies, toppled governments, and military conflicts; it's also SUPERIOR to the alternatives - easier to subdivide, recombine, store, secure, and transport than precious metals and hard currencies. One cannot encrypt an ounce of gold or upload silver to a remote server, let alone hide a dollar inside a jpeg file!
Over the coming years and decades, if Bitcoin successfully survives crisis after crisis, nothing prevents it from eventually gaining as much credibility in the public's mind as, say, gold.
- quanticle 14y ago>Over the coming years and decades, if Bitcoin successfully survives crisis >after crisis, nothing prevents it from eventually gaining as much credibility >in the public's mind as, say, gold. You unintentionally prove my point. How much bullion do you have under your figurative mattress right now?
- cs702 14y agoquanticle: before I answer your question, I'm glad you're willing to compare gold to Bitcoin, because the world's total supply of gold, ~171,000 tons, is currently worth ~US$9.4 trillion,[1] whereas the total supply of Bitcoin is currently worth only ~US$130 million.[2] If Bitcoin ever gains anywhere near as much credibility as gold, the potential for appreciation is mind-boggling. As it turns out, I do own a bit of physical gold (as well as some bitcoins), but that's irrelevant, because I'm one of the lucky people in this planet who currently lives in an advanced economy, so I'm not constantly worrying about impending financial, economic, governmental, or societal collapse. I have the luxury of taking it for granted that things will continue to function normally every day. However, I have lived and/or worked in several so-called 'developing' economies, and have personally experienced hyper-inflation, and can tell you with certainty that when people lose faith in their government-issued currency, they turn to any alternative that can survive the crisis while retaining its value. -- [1] http://www.gold.org/about_gold/story_of_gold/numbers_and_facts http://www.gold.org/about_gold/story_of_gold/numbers_and_fac... [2] http://www.bitcoincharts.com/bitcoin/ http://www.bitcoincharts.com/bitcoin/