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The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto

stephendiehl.com

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Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto

#611

Post by worik »

thewarrior wrote: post #602
ineptech wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bitcoin has a non zero floor price. I think anyone would agree with this. I don't. I don't think it's literally zero - even if it drops to $.01 some people will still buy it on the theory that it might go up to $.02. But all of its value is speculative, I don't think it has any intrinsic value (which is equivalent to saying I don't think participating in the crypto economy, smart contracts and all that, has value).…

Why does gold have a non zero floor price and not Bitcoin ? Is it merely because Gold has industrial uses ? That floor would be far lower than Golds current price.

Gold has important uses in industry

Gold has important uses in jewellery

Gold has a natural scarcity, is easy to store, hard to steal. Crypto has no natural scarcity (other than a reluctance to waste energy), is very hard to store and relatedly is very easy to steal.

Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto

#612

Post by worik »

koonsolo wrote: post #508
mypalmike wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The losers in a Ponzi scheme buy high and sell low. What did the winners do?

So real-estate, stocks and gold are all ponzi schemes?

Go look up the definition and history of Ponzi schemes.

Very interesting, and real estate and stocks, whilst subject to bubbles, are not Ponzi schemes.

Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto

#613

Post by worik »

mlcrypto wrote: post #366
secondaryacct wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The endless printing is more necessary than the strict stock control fot a currency. You cannot avoid people starving unless you do it, and you cannot live in peace unless you avoid people starving and getting desperate. You do know there was no printing in the middle age. Good old days these all were.

I see the world transitioning to a USD central bank digital coin for currency and Bitcoin as the store of value in the future

Why? What problems would Bitcoin solve?

It can barely keep up with the very few transactions now. Its transaction costs are sky high

Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto

#614

Post by ineptech »

thewarrior wrote: post #602
ineptech wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bitcoin has a non zero floor price. I think anyone would agree with this. I don't. I don't think it's literally zero - even if it drops to $.01 some people will still buy it on the theory that it might go up to $.02. But all of its value is speculative, I don't think it has any intrinsic value (which is equivalent to saying I don't think participating in the crypto economy, smart contracts and all that, has value).…

Why does gold have a non zero floor price and not Bitcoin ? Is it merely because Gold has industrial uses ? That floor would be far lower than Golds current price.

Yes. Gold has both speculative value (you can sell it for more than you bought it for) and intrinsic value (you can use it for stuff). A bitcoin has speculative value only, as far as I can tell. Whether the same is true of crypto generally (including defi and daos and so forth) is open for discussion and one of the things being argued over in this thread.

Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto

#615

Post by worik »

pphysch wrote: post #590
mlcrypto wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all the good of gold with none of the bad

Bitcoins are both "expensive to create" and "difficult to transact with". It's all of the good with all of the bad, and then some.

Misses out on being able to simply store gold.

Being able to trade gold without technology.

The energy to mine gold is much less (strange, very strange)

Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto

#616

Post by worik »

I loved this article. I am almost in complete agreement.

Reading the comments here is very worrying. So little understanding of simple economic ideas, like what a Ponzi scheme is.

Truly amazed that people think that Bitcoin is comparable to gold. I am not a fan of gold as an investment, they have that in common. But nothing else.

It is a tragedy that so much energy is used, in times like these, for something so useless.

128 TWh in a year. https://www.sciencealert.com/bitcoin-could-soon-consume-0-6-...

Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto

#617

Post by worik »

moolcool wrote: post #517
worik wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the price of bitcoin is unrelated, it seems, to any real world thing. Pure speculation.

You could say that about the value of any currency though

No. In a currency with a lot of transactions there are plenty of real world hooks to hang their value on.

The volatility of Bitcoin, the fact it can hardly be used, the fact that almost no merchants accept it....

Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto

#618

Post by SuoDuanDao »

koonsolo wrote: post #567
SuoDuanDao wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually quite easy, you just have to stay out of the market. But contrary to the parent commentor, those people have no problem being vocal about their investment decisions!

Your value is always in some sort of market. Or do you think fiat is not in a market? Anyway, when you keep it in cash, you're one of the losers as the current high inflation is clearly indicating.

I'm saying the best way to be a loser in the crypto market is to stay out of crypto entirely. And pointing out that people who make that decision aren't typically quiet about it at all.

Re: The Handwavy Technobabble Nothingburger of Crypto

#620

Post by [deleted] »

Jensson wrote: post #541
koonsolo wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So real-estate, stocks and gold are all ponzi schemes?

All of those have value even if you wouldn't be allowed to sell them. Stocks pay dividends, people use gold as jewellery, and you can live in real estate. Speculating on assets with real world value is different from speculating on assets nobody would care about unless they could sell it. The whole point of these scams is to convince people to buy assets that nobody wants, but you convince them that some other guy re…

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