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Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

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Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#2

Post by kapitza »

"Escapist" might be a good name for the emerging nihilist-libertarian ideology behind Bitcoin.

Escapists aren't Republicans or Democrats. They don't have any strong opinions on whether the bus should turn right or left. They would just like it to stop so they can get off...

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#3

Post by rock57 »

Quoting from http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-january-4-2017-...

Bitcoin's gains have been buoyed by renewed interest from China, where money is rushing out of the country as its currency, the yuan, continues to weaken...

According to a recent Business Insider Intelligence briefing, citing data from Cryptocompare: "In the first 24 hours of the new year, over 5 million bitcoins were bought in Chinese yuan, equating to $3.8 billion. In contrast, just 53,000 bitcoins were bought in US dollars."

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#4

Post by elastic_church »

rock57 wrote: post #3

Quoting from http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-january-4-2017-... Bitcoin's gains have been buoyed by renewed interest from China, where money is rushing out of the country as its currency, the yuan, continues to weaken... According to a recent Business Insider Intelligence briefing, citing data from Cryptocompare: "In the first 24 hours of the new year, over 5 million bitcoins were bought in Chinese yuan,…

1/3rd of the entire bitcoin supply changed hands in China in a 24 hour time period?

Come on that doesn't even make sense. Perhaps a notional value of 5 million bitcoin by volume were traded, but some phrases make more sense than others.

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#6

Post by kobeya »

elastic_church wrote: post #4
rock57 wrote: post #3

Quoting from http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-january-4-2017-... Bitcoin's gains have been buoyed by renewed interest from China, where money is rushing out of the country as its currency, the yuan, continues to weaken... According to a recent Business Insider Intelligence briefing, citing data from Cryptocompare: "In the first 24 hours of the new year, over 5 million bitcoins were bought in Chinese yuan,…

1/3rd of the entire bitcoin supply changed hands in China in a 24 hour time period? Come on that doesn't even make sense. Perhaps a notional value of 5 million bitcoin by volume were traded, but some phrases make more sense than others.

Which isn't surprising at all, because many of the Chinese exchanges have no trading fees. So of course you have massive volumes.

Re: Bitcoin Is an Escapist Safe Haven

#9

Post by MarcusBrutus »

Bitcoin fails to satisfactorily answer von Mises' regression theorem. It also has no scarcity since it can face competition by an infinite number of similar conceivable algorithms / block-chains / virtual currencies that offer much the same features, regardless of how hard its own mining gets. Not to mention that once it is perceived as more than just a nuisance by some major government it will be shut down in a heartbeat. Future generations will laugh at our incredulity just like we make fun of the Tulip mania (which had more substance to boot). There is real, almost insatiable global demand for a currency with intrinsic value and scarcity that cannot be inflated by fiat. But given that such a currency will antagonize major governments it will likely not be a crypto-currency but rather a currency backed by some sufficiently powerful country. I am actually expecting the Russians or Chinese to launch a 100% gold-backed currency within the next 5 years. Failing that, when the EU breaks up the new Deutsche mark will be a good alternative. Any of these developments will pop Bitcoin's bubble.
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