Bitcoin's Rally Masks Uncomfortable Fact: Almost Nobody Uses It
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Re: Bitcoin's Rally Masks Uncomfortable Fact: Almost Nobody Uses It
#2I’m not sure why anyone in their right minds thought bitcoin was going to be used by random civilians for their everyday transactions. Customers want the protections that banks and credit cards provide, and vendors don’t want to expose themselves to exchange rate risk when selling goods and services.
Oh, and 4 transactions a second is far too low a limit for any currency.
Re: Bitcoin's Rally Masks Uncomfortable Fact: Almost Nobody Uses It
#3There is a lot of work done in analyzing holding patterns. Would probably be interesting to see comparison to usage and price of gold as a store of value.
For me, buying and holding seems to be legitimate usage. I guess that would count as "speculating". What else should you do with a store of value that you expect to appreciate in price because it has inflation going to 0?
Re: Bitcoin's Rally Masks Uncomfortable Fact: Almost Nobody Uses It
#4There is a lot of work done in analyzing holding patterns. Would probably be interesting to see comparison to usage and price of gold as a store of value. For me, buying and holding seems to be legitimate usage. I guess that would count as "speculating". What else should you do with a store of value that you expect to appreciate in price because it has inflation going to 0?
> What else should you do with a store of value that you expect to appreciate in price because it has inflation going to 0?
Do you expect to increase in price solely because there are a limited amount? There are many things which have that property, but are not good stores of value. Your ability to sell it later for more money is based on continuing demand. Unless there's some other use case, where is that demand going to come from? Isn't some of the value it is allegedly storing based on future expectations of utility?
Re: Bitcoin's Rally Masks Uncomfortable Fact: Almost Nobody Uses It
#5There is a lot of work done in analyzing holding patterns. Would probably be interesting to see comparison to usage and price of gold as a store of value. For me, buying and holding seems to be legitimate usage. I guess that would count as "speculating". What else should you do with a store of value that you expect to appreciate in price because it has inflation going to 0?
> What else should you do with a store of value that you expect to appreciate in price because it has inflation going to 0?
It depends on the price. If the price if above what it's "real" value will be (after factoring in later deflation), then you'd sell it.
Re: Bitcoin's Rally Masks Uncomfortable Fact: Almost Nobody Uses It
#6There is a lot of work done in analyzing holding patterns. Would probably be interesting to see comparison to usage and price of gold as a store of value. For me, buying and holding seems to be legitimate usage. I guess that would count as "speculating". What else should you do with a store of value that you expect to appreciate in price because it has inflation going to 0?
For the sake of this discussion, let’s just focus on bitcoin as an investment vehicle.
Rarity does not confer value. My toenail clippings are limited in quantity, but valueless. There has to be some sort of underlying demand before rarity gets to play a factor in the pricing equation.
So for bitcoin, what has been the underlying value proposition to justify purchasing? A large part of it was that bitcoin is the future of money, and that once “mass adoption” began, the price would go up.
Of course, bitcoin is a miserable failure of a currency. It doesn’t have properties that most consumers and vendors want. So this leaves us with “bitcoin has no inflation”, which is as I’ve mentioned above, not a good reason for anything to be valuable.
Re: Bitcoin's Rally Masks Uncomfortable Fact: Almost Nobody Uses It
#7There is a lot of work done in analyzing holding patterns. Would probably be interesting to see comparison to usage and price of gold as a store of value. For me, buying and holding seems to be legitimate usage. I guess that would count as "speculating". What else should you do with a store of value that you expect to appreciate in price because it has inflation going to 0?
> What else should you do with a store of value that you expect to appreciate in price because it has inflation going to 0? Do you expect to increase in price solely because there are a limited amount? There are many things which have that property, but are not good stores of value. Your ability to sell it later for more money is based on continuing demand. Unless there's some other use case, where is that demand goi…
This is beating a dead horse and the typical argument, but the same can be said for gold. Its "intrinsic value" in terms of practical application is far lower than the market cost given the plentiful substitutes for high current / low heat transmission applications.
I really do wonder why Bloomberg hates Bitcoing. If you read through a history of their articles, they REALLY hate it.
Re: Bitcoin's Rally Masks Uncomfortable Fact: Almost Nobody Uses It
#8There is a lot of work done in analyzing holding patterns. Would probably be interesting to see comparison to usage and price of gold as a store of value. For me, buying and holding seems to be legitimate usage. I guess that would count as "speculating". What else should you do with a store of value that you expect to appreciate in price because it has inflation going to 0?
For the sake of this discussion, let’s just focus on bitcoin as an investment vehicle. Rarity does not confer value. My toenail clippings are limited in quantity, but valueless. There has to be some sort of underlying demand before rarity gets to play a factor in the pricing equation. So for bitcoin, what has been the underlying value proposition to justify purchasing? A large part of it was that bitcoin is the futur…
"My toenail clippings are limited in quantity, but valueless."
Indistinguishable from other toe-nail clippings, for which supply is not limited. Not easy to transport internationally quickly.
Re: Bitcoin's Rally Masks Uncomfortable Fact: Almost Nobody Uses It
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What else should you do with a store of value that you expect to appreciate in price because it has inflation going to 0? Do you expect to increase in price solely because there are a limited amount? There are many things which have that property, but are not good stores of value. Your ability to sell it later for more money is based on continuing demand. Unless there's some other use case, where is that demand goi…
This is beating a dead horse and the typical argument, but the same can be said for gold. Its "intrinsic value" in terms of practical application is far lower than the market cost given the plentiful substitutes for high current / low heat transmission applications. I really do wonder why Bloomberg hates Bitcoing. If you read through a history of their articles, they REALLY hate it.
I haven't mentioned intrinsic value once in my post, I agree it's not especially useful to talk about.
I'm asking why BTC value should keep going up without some sort of demand beyond people buying because they expect it to go up? Or do you think that's enough?
Re: Bitcoin's Rally Masks Uncomfortable Fact: Almost Nobody Uses It
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the sake of this discussion, let’s just focus on bitcoin as an investment vehicle. Rarity does not confer value. My toenail clippings are limited in quantity, but valueless. There has to be some sort of underlying demand before rarity gets to play a factor in the pricing equation. So for bitcoin, what has been the underlying value proposition to justify purchasing? A large part of it was that bitcoin is the futur…
"My toenail clippings are limited in quantity, but valueless." Indistinguishable from other toe-nail clippings, for which supply is not limited. Not easy to transport internationally quickly.
Bitcoin is indistinguishable from any of its various forks. Cryptocurrency tokens as a class are not rare.