121–130 of 189 posts
People make big dumb investments every day, and you don't see Buffett and Gates talking to the media about it.
What's their objective? And why together? And why now?
[0] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/07/bill-gates-i-would-short-bit...
He has always said he doesnt understand technology and has resisted investing in it. While the value is fluctuating heavily due to speculation, over time it will stabilize. Bitcoin will resist inflation and is somewhat out of control of governments or any central authority. People in countries where the govt has screwed up the currency can use it to get money out of the country or as a stable store even if dollars or…
But the value of bitcoin could very easily stabilize at 0 if it falls out of vogue...
>rat poison squared Very poor choice of words, heh.
I don’t get his metaphor. Rat poison is not necessarily a negative thing as it helps people keep vermin under control.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you think gold can’t be created, you need to revisit your chemistry and physics books. While not economically feasible yet, with the mastery of fusion energy technologies it one day will be...
It can't be created practically which is the same as can't be created for purposes of this discussion. Talking about creating something using a tool that we haven't even created is futurism.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Further, when you buy a part of a company, you are buying a piece of a functioning economic unit. When you loan money, you are finding economic activity. When you buy a Bitcoin, you are helping to convert electricity to heat.
Electricity into security
Add to this that the payout mechanics strongly incentivize pooled mining, even for people with powerful miners, and the "guarantees" get that much flimsier. A small handful of men ultimately control the Bitcoin network because they have authority over 50%+ of the hash power, and they've all been in the same room on multiple occasions. It's no different than the small handful of men who control the Fed / other major financial institutions in our fiat systems.
Bitcoin was an excellent thought experiment, but it's no wonder that Satoshi wants nothing to do with what it has become.
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If you ever studied economics, you'd know that scarcity is not intrinsically valluable. It might be a useful feature, but intrinsic value means having a minimum value. Gold can't be created, but it had real usefulness in manufacturing. Besides, you could make a new buttcoin tomorrow, but you can't make a new kind of Atom. Stop proving that Bitcoin enthusiasts don't understand economics.
Scarcity is absolutely an intrinsic value. Gold has value because it is relatively scarce given the difficulty to mine. In addition to being really shiny which was valued by our ancestors. There are lots of useful rare elements used in manufacturing. In terms of a currency though gold has nothing on bitcoin. Gold is hard to move, hard to validate as authentic, heavy, easy to steal, etc..
Scarcity relative to demand pushes up market prices (i.e. extrinsic value) but that's something entirely different...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you ever studied economics, you'd know that scarcity is not intrinsically valluable. It might be a useful feature, but intrinsic value means having a minimum value. Gold can't be created, but it had real usefulness in manufacturing. Besides, you could make a new buttcoin tomorrow, but you can't make a new kind of Atom. Stop proving that Bitcoin enthusiasts don't understand economics.
Scarcity is absolutely an intrinsic value. Gold has value because it is relatively scarce given the difficulty to mine. In addition to being really shiny which was valued by our ancestors. There are lots of useful rare elements used in manufacturing. In terms of a currency though gold has nothing on bitcoin. Gold is hard to move, hard to validate as authentic, heavy, easy to steal, etc..
Then what is the number? No, scarcity is an important attribute that contributes to perceived value, but it's not intrinsic. Otherwise any cryptocurrency that is scarce would have intrinsic value, as opposed to the many that are essentially 0.
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Bitcoin has tons of intrinsic value unique to crypto currencies that traditional currencies lack. Most importantly it can't be created/destroyed at will by a central government. Huge sums can be transferred globally at the speed of light with very low fees. Can't do that with gold or cash. With normal currency a wire transfer costs money and moving a lot of money from a bank account usually takes days. Also you can s…
The government has taken control of Bitcoins in the past, and will continue to do so in the future. All it takes is a warrant. Also, unlike cash, you're making your transaction history public. Any central government in the world can see this. You have to jump through a lot of hoops and use multiple blockchains to anonymize your Bitcoins. Transfers incur a network fee with Bitcoin as well. I doubt anyone making a smal…
He has always said he doesnt understand technology and has resisted investing in it. While the value is fluctuating heavily due to speculation, over time it will stabilize. Bitcoin will resist inflation and is somewhat out of control of governments or any central authority. People in countries where the govt has screwed up the currency can use it to get money out of the country or as a stable store even if dollars or…
> Bitcoin will resist inflation and is somewhat out of control of governments or any central authority Can you back this up? From what I can tell, governments can ban mining, shut down exchanges and co-erce developers. If the handful of devs that have commit access to Bitcoin were working for the CIA, would we know? What kind of damage could they do? Eg. Could they introduce consensus bugs without anyone noticing? >…
Cutting off exchanges from financial institutions will likely be the primary way the government attacks cryptocurrencies. Just look at what happened to online gambling 10 years ago. Online poker and sports gambling were booming. What the US did was prevent banking companies from doing business from gambling companies or intermediaries (e.g. Neteller). Basically overnight, online gambling became a shell of what it was previously. Sure there are still ways around it, but it's enough of a hassle that only the most die-hard players are going to find it worth it.
It doesn't take a huge stretch of the imagination to apply the same strategies to crypto. If financial institutions are prevented from doing business with Bitcoin, et al., it's basically game over, as long as its utility is dependent on buying with fiat currency.
Curious that both Buffett and Bill Gates [0] are publicly criticizing Bitcoin right now. People make big dumb investments every day, and you don't see Buffett and Gates talking to the media about it. What's their objective? And why together? And why now? [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/07/bill-gates-i-would-short-bit...