Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have fallen sharply over the last few days

forbes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 259 posts

Re: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have fallen sharply over the last few days

#211

Post by stickfigure »

ericd wrote: post #191
unhashable wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holding Bitcoin is not a semantic backflip. Do you hold the dollars in your bank account? Also: gold can easily be confiscated and it has been before - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102 . How much gold do you think you can travel with? Think the TSA would allow even $100k of gold to be carried on your person? Given golds limited supply, why has the price been relatively stable in dollars (which are…

Yes, you can fly with far more than $100k in gold, iirc coin dealers do so on the way to conventions. They typically ask for a private screening.

Would you dare try that with dark skin and/or a Latin American accent?

Re: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have fallen sharply over the last few days

#212

Post by spir »

ErikAugust wrote: post #11

One of the supposed benefits of holding cryptocurrency that has been peddled is that it is a strong hedge against a down turn in traditional securities. Here we have a new, real data point to the contrary.

Many of us in the cryptocurrency community always knew this wasn't true. Unfortunately it's a misconception that was long and frequently advertised as recently as last week.

Re: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have fallen sharply over the last few days

#213

Post by shadowprofile77 »

All of the crypto fans and hardcore fanatics kept saying it: "Bitcoin is digital gold don't you know? It's what's going to shoot to the moon as all that terrible icky fiat collapses in a major crisis! You just wait and see"..

Well here we are. certified 100% organic Unfolding Global Pandemic and the cute bonus of teetering on the brink of a global recession. And what does Bitcoin do with all the rest of its cousins?...... It simply shits the bed.

This was your shining moment crypto, and so far you've turned out even worse than the stock market.

Re: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have fallen sharply over the last few days

#214

Post by jariel »

unhashable wrote: post #10

It's a common misconception that Bitcoin is a safe haven. It's not. Not even Gold is a safe haven during a liquidity crisis. In sharp downturns, cash is king. Think of Bitcoin and Gold as call options on the entire global monetary system. If Govs become insolvent, Bitcoin and Gold is there. If the masses lose faith in central banks, Bitcoin and Gold is there. If central banks debase currencies too quickly, Bitcoin an…

No, 'Bitcoin is not there' as a long-term safe haven, it's a totally unproven and risky asset.

Yes, in a liquidity crisis, cash is king, but Gold will usually retain its value through hard times.

Bitcoin is a meme compared to Gold. There are very few people who would consider it a meaningful asset, it's really a 'good economy speculation'. In a few hundred years and several massive crises if BTC is still around, then maybe.

BTC is not Gold, they are not in the same category.

Re: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have fallen sharply over the last few days

#215

Post by jariel »

unhashable wrote: post #33
glofish wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bitcoin is not really "there" the same way as gold is. The whole point of gold is that it is a tangible asset. You can hold gold in your pocket or under your mattress and it costs nothing to store it. You can't prove you have bitcoin if you don't have internet access for example. You can't have bitcoin if miners don't run their nodes. Basically, you are depending on a resource in faraway lands to let you "own" what y…

This is another misconception. Gold can be held, yes. It also is expensive to verify, transport, and protect. This has proved problematic for holders of the past. A paper system had to be built on top of Gold, which severely diluted the value proposition as gold was confiscated and stockpiled centrally. Practically speaking, very few individuals hold gold and the utility of doing so is limited when you consider how l…

This is not the right way to compare BTC and Gold in terms of meaningful financial value.

The 'transportability' of the asset is really a secondary feature when talking of 'stores of wealth'.

Gold is obviously terribly difficult to move around, but that's fine, it's stored in large vaults and we make agreements as to 'who owns it'. Just as BTC implies a kind of 'contract' so does Gold ownership, they just take different forms.

The value of Gold and BTC will be a function of their perception as a credible long-term source of value. BTC will not achieve the status of Gold for a very long time, and it's unlikely it ever will. I wouldn't write it off entirely, but it's basically not a relevant instrument at this time.

As a currency BTC is probably dead for a variety of reasons, but it could come back in those terms, in which case, we'll view it differently.

But the world is not going to value BTC materially differently due to how it's 'transported'. We can trade Gold in mostly the same way.

"Bitcoin let’s you store $1T USD of dollars in your head, transport it anywhere in the world, and there’s not a single thing anyone else can do about it"

Yes, there is 'something' we can do about it, and that's to collectively not care a single bit about the magic number in said BTC holder's 'head'.

Re: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have fallen sharply over the last few days

#217

Post by dcolkitt »

defterGoose wrote: post #60
unhashable wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is another misconception. Gold can be held, yes. It also is expensive to verify, transport, and protect. This has proved problematic for holders of the past. A paper system had to be built on top of Gold, which severely diluted the value proposition as gold was confiscated and stockpiled centrally. Practically speaking, very few individuals hold gold and the utility of doing so is limited when you consider how l…

I'm truly struggling to understand how gold can be censored. Also, left out of this discussion is the fact that gold is actually tangible, divorced from some weird semantic backflips. You can build useful things with it.

> You can build useful things with it.

A vanishingly small percent of gold's value is attributable to its industrial use. Of all the gold ever mined in history, only something like 1% has been used in an industrial or construction context.

Maybe if you extend "useful things" to jewelry you might have a point. But almost assuredly jewelry is made out of gold because gold is expensive and valuable. Not the other way around.

If everyone on Earth tomorrow forgot about gold's historical role as a store of value, it might be worth $50 an ounce at most.

Re: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have fallen sharply over the last few days

#218

Post by pldr2244 »

unhashable wrote: post #10

It's a common misconception that Bitcoin is a safe haven. It's not. Not even Gold is a safe haven during a liquidity crisis. In sharp downturns, cash is king. Think of Bitcoin and Gold as call options on the entire global monetary system. If Govs become insolvent, Bitcoin and Gold is there. If the masses lose faith in central banks, Bitcoin and Gold is there. If central banks debase currencies too quickly, Bitcoin an…

Almost. Correction: Bitcoin is a speculative bet that “others in the future will purchase more Bitcoin”.

:)

Re: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have fallen sharply over the last few days

#219

Post by threatofrain »

unhashable wrote: post #33
glofish wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

bitcoin is not really "there" the same way as gold is. The whole point of gold is that it is a tangible asset. You can hold gold in your pocket or under your mattress and it costs nothing to store it. You can't prove you have bitcoin if you don't have internet access for example. You can't have bitcoin if miners don't run their nodes. Basically, you are depending on a resource in faraway lands to let you "own" what y…

This is another misconception. Gold can be held, yes. It also is expensive to verify, transport, and protect. This has proved problematic for holders of the past. A paper system had to be built on top of Gold, which severely diluted the value proposition as gold was confiscated and stockpiled centrally. Practically speaking, very few individuals hold gold and the utility of doing so is limited when you consider how l…

Gold is resistant to government intervention because there need not be any record of transaction or ownership.
Post reply on HN