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Of course bitcoin is a bubble. Bitcoin is irrationally overvalued. Just like the US Dollar. In the English language, that which is irrationally overvalued and s

by crassus 13y ago

Of course bitcoin is a bubble. Bitcoin is irrationally overvalued. Just like the US Dollar. In the English language, that which is irrationally overvalued and stays that way is what we call money. This is Mencius Moldbug's Bubble Theory of Money[1], one of his many fascinating contributions to the world [1] http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2013/04/bitcoin-is-money-bitcoin-is-bubble.html http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2013/04/bitcoin...

bayesianhorse 13y ago
So is there anything beyond basic nutrition and shelter that is not a bubble?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- skylan_q 13y ago
  Since people only want to live and food and shelter are a means to this, then they too are in a bubble. Bubble everything!
skylan_q 13y ago
Us feeble-brained humans are uncomfortable with path-dependent outcomes. We don't want Bitcoin, or anything, to have an arbitrary price determined merely by marginal bid and ask, let alone a multiple equilibrium - we want it to have an underlying value. Which is a physical property, like weight or orangeness. It's very sadly ironic that the author who mentions Menger forgets that value is intangible and subjective. Value isn't physical. People value things for different reasons be they physical characteristics or not. (e.g. sentimental value) The BTM asserts that money and a bubble are the same thing. Both are anomalously overvalued assets. Both obtain their anomalous value from the fact that many people have bought the asset, without any intention to use it, but only to exchange it for some other asset at a later date. It's not anomalous. People value it because they can use it as a medium of exchange. That's how they value it. The notion that value is a physical characteristic of something is what causes one to believe that valuing money is irrational. There is no such thing as "underlying" economic or material value. There is only subjective value. Prices arise by the auction mechanism; people bidding on things, which causes commodities to converge somewhere between the bit-ask spread. This is the price, (objective) which is not to be confused with value. (subjective)

by crassus 13y ago

bayesianhorse 13y ago

So is there anything beyond basic nutrition and shelter that is not a bubble?

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
skylan_q 13y ago
Since people only want to live and food and shelter are a means to this, then they too are in a bubble. Bubble everything!

skylan_q 13y ago

Us feeble-brained humans are uncomfortable with path-dependent outcomes. We don't want Bitcoin, or anything, to have an arbitrary price determined merely by marginal bid and ask, let alone a multiple equilibrium - we want it to have an underlying value. Which is a physical property, like weight or orangeness. It's very sadly ironic that the author who mentions Menger forgets that value is intangible and subjective. Value isn't physical. People value things for different reasons be they physical characteristics or not. (e.g. sentimental value) The BTM asserts that money and a bubble are the same thing. Both are anomalously overvalued assets. Both obtain their anomalous value from the fact that many people have bought the asset, without any intention to use it, but only to exchange it for some other asset at a later date. It's not anomalous. People value it because they can use it as a medium of exchange. That's how they value it. The notion that value is a physical characteristic of something is what causes one to believe that valuing money is irrational. There is no such thing as "underlying" economic or material value. There is only subjective value. Prices arise by the auction mechanism; people bidding on things, which causes commodities to converge somewhere between the bit-ask spread. This is the price, (objective) which is not to be confused with value. (subjective)