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Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#31

Post by walden42 »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #29
cjensen wrote: post #18

Speaking as someone who knows a lot about economics, I think PT Barnum put it best...[1] Economics is very clear in predicting how this will end up. Bitcoins have no intrinsic value and therefore the long-term price will be precisely zero. Each generation has its tulips [2]; each generation claims that the persistence in tulip price means that there is permanent intrinsic value; each generation is disappointed [3]. T…

I don't think "intrinsic value" is a term in economics. It's a term in investing. Economics is far from clear about predicting how Bitcoin will end up. The professional economics world has yet to seriously weigh in about Bitcoin. I just searched the top 10 journals on this list: http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/whorrace/journals.htm and none of them appear to have anything published about Bitcoin. That said, Bitcoin do…

Exactly, people need to differentiate between the unit and the network. One has intrinsic value and the other does not, but they are also intrinsically connected.

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#32

Post by nvader »

cjensen wrote: post #18

Speaking as someone who knows a lot about economics, I think PT Barnum put it best...[1] Economics is very clear in predicting how this will end up. Bitcoins have no intrinsic value and therefore the long-term price will be precisely zero. Each generation has its tulips [2]; each generation claims that the persistence in tulip price means that there is permanent intrinsic value; each generation is disappointed [3]. T…

Once all the "free" bitcoins have been mined, the intrinsic value of bitcoin will be the computing power the network is willing to expend in exchange for that coin as a fee.

Quite apart from using it as a store of value, and international payments processing engine, this could in fact be valuable in and of itself for purposes such as document signing and verification, a kind of peer-to-peer twitter[0], and (I guess here Bitcoin bulls speculate) other hitherto unknown uses. The intrinsic value of a bitcoin is therefore proportional to the value of the blockchain itself.

[0] Actually, why _don't_ we have a twitter clone based on the blockchain? Doesn't seem to me that it would be too hard to implement. Of course, messages will take 10 minutes on average to send, be immutable and permanent, and throughput would be limited, but at the very least it would have a novelty factor.

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#34

Post by mrb »

Locke1689 wrote: post #28
sanderjd wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you referring to the relatively recent industrial uses of gold and diamonds, or are you counting ornamentation as intrinsic value? Don't see the argument for the intrinsic value of paper money at all, but would love to be enlightened.

> Don't see the argument for the intrinsic value of paper money at all, but would love to be enlightened. You can pay your taxes in it.

You could pay taxes using the German Papiermark or Zimbabwean dollar, and look at what happened to them...

Intrinsic value is not determined by the ability to pay taxes.

Fiat money has zero intrinsic value (well, beside the value of the paper and metal bills and coins are made of, but this value is negligible - spare the US penny coin).

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#35

Post by WoodenChair »

cjensen wrote: post #18

Speaking as someone who knows a lot about economics, I think PT Barnum put it best...[1] Economics is very clear in predicting how this will end up. Bitcoins have no intrinsic value and therefore the long-term price will be precisely zero. Each generation has its tulips [2]; each generation claims that the persistence in tulip price means that there is permanent intrinsic value; each generation is disappointed [3]. T…

You say you know "a lot about economics" and yet you don't know that currencies don't necessarily need to hold any intrinsic value. They are simply means of exchange. Paper money in the form of US Dollars has no intrinsic value (the value of the cotton paper... less than a cent per bill?). As long as people assign value to something and use it for exchange... it's a valid currency.

Will people all quit on Bitcoin some day and its value will fall to $0? Perhaps. But it won't be because it has no intrinsic value. It will be because they decided it's not a good currency.

Societies have used seashells and wampum in the past as currencies, which also have limited "intrinsic value". They're simply scarce resources that everyone agreed could be used for exchange - just like Bitcon.

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#36

Post by kaa2102 »

cjensen wrote: post #18

Speaking as someone who knows a lot about economics, I think PT Barnum put it best...[1] Economics is very clear in predicting how this will end up. Bitcoins have no intrinsic value and therefore the long-term price will be precisely zero. Each generation has its tulips [2]; each generation claims that the persistence in tulip price means that there is permanent intrinsic value; each generation is disappointed [3]. T…

I think you have a point here. Money is a medium of exchange (check) and a store of value (?). Fiat currencies are backed by the country of origin. Monetary policy for each respective currency is managed by their Reserve Bank. Who or what backs the full faith and credit of the Bitcoin? Which individual or governing body sets the supply of Bitcoins?

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#37

Post by modeless »

BlackDeath3 wrote: post #14
modeless wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have 20 Coinbase wallets? Unlike regular bitcoin wallets, there's no reason to have more than one Coinbase wallet. A Coinbase wallet can have an unlimited number of Bitcoin addresses and it is generally tied to a real name with a bank account and/or credit card for purchasing and selling bitcoins.

What is the point of having multiples of any wallet? Which wallet would be less effective on its own? Don't they all produce a sufficient (indefinite?) number of pseudorandom addresses?

You might want multiple wallets for security reasons. For example, you could have one wallet on your phone for everyday transactions, and a separate wallet on a computer that's normally disconnected from the internet (a "cold wallet"). You can also store bitcoin wallets on USB keys or even on paper and put them in safe deposit boxes. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Cold_storage

Since all Coinbase wallets are the same in terms of security properties, there's no reason for an individual to have more than one Coinbase wallet.

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#38

Post by conanbatt »

Locke1689 wrote: post #28
sanderjd wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you referring to the relatively recent industrial uses of gold and diamonds, or are you counting ornamentation as intrinsic value? Don't see the argument for the intrinsic value of paper money at all, but would love to be enlightened.

> Don't see the argument for the intrinsic value of paper money at all, but would love to be enlightened. You can pay your taxes in it.

This argument comes again and again in this discussion, and I still dont get it. Why would you value something because it can be taken away? By that logic, increasing taxes makes the currency more valuable. Lets go to 99.9% taxes on dollars and see our money shoot to the sky!

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#39

Post by lingben »

WoodenChair wrote: post #35
cjensen wrote: post #18

Speaking as someone who knows a lot about economics, I think PT Barnum put it best...[1] Economics is very clear in predicting how this will end up. Bitcoins have no intrinsic value and therefore the long-term price will be precisely zero. Each generation has its tulips [2]; each generation claims that the persistence in tulip price means that there is permanent intrinsic value; each generation is disappointed [3]. T…

You say you know "a lot about economics" and yet you don't know that currencies don't necessarily need to hold any intrinsic value. They are simply means of exchange. Paper money in the form of US Dollars has no intrinsic value (the value of the cotton paper... less than a cent per bill?). As long as people assign value to something and use it for exchange... it's a valid currency. Will people all quit on Bitcoin som…

if you know even basic economics you know that bitcoin is not currency

Re: Coinbase Crosses 650,000 Users

#40

Post by schrodinger »

driverdan wrote: post #26
cjensen wrote: post #18

Speaking as someone who knows a lot about economics, I think PT Barnum put it best...[1] Economics is very clear in predicting how this will end up. Bitcoins have no intrinsic value and therefore the long-term price will be precisely zero. Each generation has its tulips [2]; each generation claims that the persistence in tulip price means that there is permanent intrinsic value; each generation is disappointed [3]. T…

Just because the long-term price will reach zero doesn't mean you can't profit in the short-term. Defining "long-term" and "short-term" more precisely is key to finding profit though.

The dollar has a long term price of zero too, doesn't it? If long term is defined far enough out that US is gone...
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