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Warren Buffett: Bitcoin Is Pure FOMO

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Re: Warren Buffett: Bitcoin Is Pure FOMO

#161
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The political/economic climate around the time bitcoin caught on was also the Ron Paul/Austrian economics fad. They were calling the end of the USD and fiat currencies because central banks were risking hyperinflation. Lots of people were calling for a return to gold. BTC seemed even better. I think it's safe to say they were completely wrong about everything and orthodoxy won the day.

Weird, is Austrian economics a fad? I always thought it was a legitimate, alternative model of economics that was just as valid (if not more) as Keynesian.

The Austrian school most certainly does not align with modern mainstream economics.

Re: Warren Buffett: Bitcoin Is Pure FOMO

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When will this false narrative finally die? Bitcoin is practically useless for remittance; I know this from first-hand experience. Bitcoin has to be converted into useable money by the recipient and that process is very inconvenient, slow, expensive and possibly dangerous if you follow the advice of bitcoin enthusiasts and meet up with random sellers in the street. All of this also presumes the recipient is technical…

This! When a company comes along that can pull off a 1/1 mapping of an electronic token to a given currency and build out the trust less blockchain like infrastructure that allows for transactions at little to no cost that company will have value. I'm really intrigued by things like Ripple but to me the value there isn't XRP but is Ripple Labs. But AFAIK I can't buy stock in Ripple Labs.

Why the US government is not the "company" that has done this already is a real shame and a bit baffling (except for the standard, "It's the government. What do you expect." argument). Fee free online transactions would be great for US competitiveness and give the dollar a leg up in staying the world currency. If not the US, some other country with a convertible currency should do this. They could have the defacto online currency very quickly, I think. How about it Iceland?

Re: Warren Buffett: Bitcoin Is Pure FOMO

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a person from (West) Africa, I can tell you they've not only heard of Bitcoin but they're mining it, even in villages.

You 6 days ago: >I lived in Downtown Hartford until last month, I don't recall many, if any bikes on roads. Then again, I do recall traffic being generally unsafe, I definitely would avoid riding a bike there.

Look back further in my history and I mention being Ghanaian multiple times...

If you need my life story I’m 23, was born in Ghana and spent about 10 years of my life US so a sizable portion, but spent 3 years in Ghana somewhat recently, and most of my family is still in the country.

What a time we live in when people will dig into your history half-heartedly to try and claim you’re lying about where you’re from instead of believing us stupid monkeys have learned what a computer is or how to look up incredibly popular terms.

My father recently forwarded me a blockhain convention (misremembered the link) in Ghana.

Re: Warren Buffett: Bitcoin Is Pure FOMO

#164
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a person from (West) Africa, I can tell you they've not only heard of Bitcoin but they're mining it, even in villages.

What country are you in?

I’m in the US, but I’m from Ghana, see above comment for details...

Re: Warren Buffett: Bitcoin Is Pure FOMO

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a person from (West) Africa, I can tell you they've not only heard of Bitcoin but they're mining it, even in villages.

You 6 days ago: >I lived in Downtown Hartford until last month, I don't recall many, if any bikes on roads. Then again, I do recall traffic being generally unsafe, I definitely would avoid riding a bike there.

And please, do explain yourself, I’m seething right now so I’d love to understand where you get off trying to imply something like that.

I’m glad you didn’t have the balls to come out and just say what you were accusing me of so I’m sure the response will be “I wasn’t doing that! I just quoted you! You see!”

Yeah fucking right.

Re: Warren Buffett: Bitcoin Is Pure FOMO

#166
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The political/economic climate around the time bitcoin caught on was also the Ron Paul/Austrian economics fad. They were calling the end of the USD and fiat currencies because central banks were risking hyperinflation. Lots of people were calling for a return to gold. BTC seemed even better. I think it's safe to say they were completely wrong about everything and orthodoxy won the day.

Weird, is Austrian economics a fad? I always thought it was a legitimate, alternative model of economics that was just as valid (if not more) as Keynesian.

No. Austrian economics has virtually zero support in mainstream academia or industry. You won't more than a handful of people who manage money for a living who think Austrian school is sensible. Keynesianism as Keynes wrote it is full of holes, but is the biggest contributor to modern economic thought. Good writeup on reddit a few years ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/ip2nb/know_your_...

Re: Warren Buffett: Bitcoin Is Pure FOMO

#167
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird, is Austrian economics a fad? I always thought it was a legitimate, alternative model of economics that was just as valid (if not more) as Keynesian.

No. Austrian economics has virtually zero support in mainstream academia or industry. You won't more than a handful of people who manage money for a living who think Austrian school is sensible. Keynesianism as Keynes wrote it is full of holes, but is the biggest contributor to modern economic thought. Good writeup on reddit a few years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/ip2nb/know_your_...

This is a pretty shortsighted view of things. The various economic theories all have their insights and shortfalls… and there's no one theory to rule them all.

Recommended: Marginal Revolution's "Game of Theories" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYNVB5iqydk&list=PL-uRhZ_p-B...

To call Austrian economics as something with zero support in mainstream academia or industry is really just revealing your own biases more than anything.

Re: Warren Buffett: Bitcoin Is Pure FOMO

#168

"Rather, dollars are a temporary store of value, a means of transmitting that value from one person to another. As Buffett says, valuing bitcoin is like trying to value a paper check drawn on a bank. Pointless." I agree with the premise of the article, but isn't this quote a jump from that? Whats preventing bitcoin from being a temporary store of value to transmit from one person to another; Isn't there a second argu…

> its a bad _currency_ The problems that I see are: 1. There is a finite number of bitcoins, which means you can never have inflation, or in other words the bitcoin price is only going up tomorrow. So it doesn't make sense for people to spend it. 2. Mining. It costs a lot to mine a bitcoin. Imagine if the US government had to spend 1 billion worth of energy to print 1 billion dollars. I think Bitcoin was designed to…

> or in other words the bitcoin price is only going up tomorrow. So it doesn't make sense for people to spend it.

Yes. That's why I've never bought a computer - next year there will be a faster and cheaper one on the market. And that's why people regularly starved before fiat currencies were introduced. They were just hoping they can buy more food tomorrow for the same money.

People don't need encouragement to spend. They need encouragement to save. Whoever thinks otherwise, should talk a bit about it with an average American.

Noone is going to stop spending because their currency will have 2% more purchasing power in a year. And the economy would run much better if we weren't wasting so many resources on shit that we don't need and never-ending boom and bust cycles.

Re: Warren Buffett: Bitcoin Is Pure FOMO

#169
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> its a bad _currency_ The problems that I see are: 1. There is a finite number of bitcoins, which means you can never have inflation, or in other words the bitcoin price is only going up tomorrow. So it doesn't make sense for people to spend it. 2. Mining. It costs a lot to mine a bitcoin. Imagine if the US government had to spend 1 billion worth of energy to print 1 billion dollars. I think Bitcoin was designed to…

> or in other words the bitcoin price is only going up tomorrow. So it doesn't make sense for people to spend it. Yes. That's why I've never bought a computer - next year there will be a faster and cheaper one on the market. And that's why people regularly starved before fiat currencies were introduced. They were just hoping they can buy more food tomorrow for the same money. People don't need encouragement to spend.…

> Yes. That's why I've never bought a computer - next year there will be a faster and cheaper one on the market. And that's why people regularly starved before fiat currencies were introduced. They were just hoping they can buy more food tomorrow for the same money.

> People don't need encouragement to spend. They need encouragement to save. Whoever thinks otherwise, should talk a bit about it with an average American.

> Noone is going to stop spending because their currency will have 2% more purchasing power in a year. And the economy would run much better if we weren't wasting so many resources on shit that we don't need and never-ending boom and bust cycles.

This of it like this: You have a currency that is giving a return of 3% per year. Why would someone risk their money investing in existing or new businesses/ventures?

Re: Warren Buffett: Bitcoin Is Pure FOMO

#170
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or in other words the bitcoin price is only going up tomorrow. So it doesn't make sense for people to spend it. Yes. That's why I've never bought a computer - next year there will be a faster and cheaper one on the market. And that's why people regularly starved before fiat currencies were introduced. They were just hoping they can buy more food tomorrow for the same money. People don't need encouragement to spend.…

> Yes. That's why I've never bought a computer - next year there will be a faster and cheaper one on the market. And that's why people regularly starved before fiat currencies were introduced. They were just hoping they can buy more food tomorrow for the same money. > People don't need encouragement to spend. They need encouragement to save. Whoever thinks otherwise, should talk a bit about it with an average America…

Because, after factoring-in the business risk, the expected return is 5%, and 5 is bigger than 3.

Or 10%, or 20%. Eventually, some business opportunities are better than sitting on a pile of cash.

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