Bitcoin operates in many ways like a ponzi scheme (the value of investment depending on future investors for value) and is mainly operating as money laundering tools.
Until this has some real world use, like walking to a store and given the choice of cash, credit or crypto I don't see it as much more than a gamble of an investment.
For that it would have to have zero intrinsic value, which in reality is lower bounded by the cost of mining (e.g. hardware, electricity, real estate, utilities, security etc.).
The costs of securing the network (e.g. mining) are what gives Bitcoin inherent value. The limited number of Bitcoins available then correlates the velocity of money (e.g. how much capital flows through the network) with the number of circulating Bitcoins and the mining costs.
Requiring a resource to produce does not give something intrinsic value. Intrinsic value is value that something has all by itself.
For example, if silver was used as a currency (as it was for almost all of human history) it has a value all by itself completely separate from its value as a currency. Silver (the element Ag) has thermal and electrical conductive properties that are unmatched. It is one of our most important tools in modern technology. It has also been used for adornment throughout all of history because it is pretty all by itself.
Bitcoin requires energy to create, but after creation it can't be used for anything, not even in the digital space. It is useless outside of its convenience as an intermediary for barter (currency).
Even that is fraught with problems, one of which is, it is completely trackable through all of its purchase history. It is an AMAZING tracking tool (its frightening how amazing it is). It puts Facebook to shame in its potential to track human activity.
the only reason why gold and silver have been regarded as a money is because you can't replicate it. You can only find it. So its scarce. Then they got used as industrial metals in the last 100 years.
You have to understand, the only reason why ANYTHING has value, is because humans say it has value. for 700 years, the British used wood for money and it worked great until they were tricked into switching to paper for currency. It was called the tally stick. The way it worked was simple. They would take a stick and carve notches into it. Each notch represented a certain amount of silver or gold. Then the bank would split the tally stick in two pieces. One for the bank, one for the customer. and the grains on the inside were unique like a finger print. So it couldnt be duplicated.
Then as the customer broke off notches to pay for debts. the person who received the notch would take it to the bank. The bank would match it with there copy. And a ledger would be entered into. And that was how banks operated for 700 years in england.
Its all about the TRUST in the trading pair. Bitcoin has this same feature, where you can not duplicate Bitcoin and put them in with the rest of the bitcoins. Just like you can't grow a tree and carve a branch and expect the bank to accept it. It just doesnt match up. Same with Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a break through technology. It sovled the Byzantine General's Problem. It allows us to basically email money to each other without creating duplicates. When you send the money, I can be 100% certain that you no longer have that money and there is no third party needed to run the system. No govt. No corporation. No Organization. Just Bitcoin miners to process the transactions. And they get paid in 2 ways. Bitcoin mining rewards and Transaction fees.
the only reason why gold and silver have been regarded as a money is because you can't replicate it.
They were used as currency because of their scarcity and their intrinsic beauty (lustre). They were used as adornment before they were used as currency. That is an intrinsic value.
You have to understand, the only reason why ANYTHING has value, is because humans say it has value.
True, but that is not my argument. My argument is there are other values that we humans give to gold and silver besides their use as an intermediate for barter. Long before they were currencies they were sought after for their beauty. Bitcoin, like the paper dollar or the wooden dollar has no equivalent human given value external to its value as an intermediate to barter.
To put it another way, if Bitcoin did not have the valued property of being an intermediary for barter they would be utterly useless and no one would spend a single resource to create them. Gold and silver however would still be mined (resource expenditure).
I am not saying the idea of Bitcoin is bad. I am saying the implementation, without it being backed (secured) by something with ANOTHER human given value (like silver or gold have), as well as its intrinsic human tracking flaws, not to mention it being primarily owned by the CCP, all make it a very poor choice as a barter intermediate.
Bitcoin operates in many ways like a ponzi scheme (the value of investment depending on future investors for value) and is mainly operating as money laundering tools.
Until this has some real world use, like walking to a store and given the choice of cash, credit or crypto I don't see it as much more than a gamble of an investment.
No, Bitcoin does not operate like a ponzi scheme.
For that it would have to have zero intrinsic value, which in reality is lower bounded by the cost of mining (e.g. hardware, electricity, real estate, utilities, security etc.).
The costs of securing the network (e.g. mining) are what gives Bitcoin inherent value. The limited number of Bitcoins available then correlates the velocity of money (e.g. how much capital flows through the network) with the number of circulating Bitcoins and the mining costs.
Requiring a resource to produce does not give something intrinsic value. Intrinsic value is value that something has all by itself.
For example, if silver was used as a currency (as it was for almost all of human history) it has a value all by itself completely separate from its value as a currency. Silver (the element Ag) has thermal and electrical conductive properties that are unmatched. It is one of our most important tools in modern technology. It has also been used for adornment throughout all of history because it is pretty all by itself.
Bitcoin requires energy to create, but after creation it can't be used for anything, not even in the digital space. It is useless outside of its convenience as an intermediary for barter (currency).
Even that is fraught with problems, one of which is, it is completely trackable through all of its purchase history. It is an AMAZING tracking tool (its frightening how amazing it is). It puts Facebook to shame in its potential to track human activity.
the only reason why gold and silver have been regarded as a money is because you can't replicate it. You can only find it. So its scarce. Then they got used as industrial metals in the last 100 years.
You have to understand, the only reason why ANYTHING has value, is because humans say it has value. for 700 years, the British used wood for money and it worked great until they were tricked into switching to paper for currency. It was called the tally stick. The way it worked was simple. They would take a stick and carve notches into it. Each notch represented a certain amount of silver or gold. Then the bank would split the tally stick in two pieces. One for the bank, one for the customer. and the grains on the inside were unique like a finger print. So it couldnt be duplicated.
Then as the customer broke off notches to pay for debts. the person who received the notch would take it to the bank. The bank would match it with there copy. And a ledger would be entered into. And that was how banks operated for 700 years in england.
Its all about the TRUST in the trading pair. Bitcoin has this same feature, where you can not duplicate Bitcoin and put them in with the rest of the bitcoins. Just like you can't grow a tree and carve a branch and expect the bank to accept it. It just doesnt match up. Same with Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a break through technology. It sovled the Byzantine General's Problem. It allows us to basically email money to each other without creating duplicates. When you send the money, I can be 100% certain that you no longer have that money and there is no third party needed to run the system. No govt. No corporation. No Organization. Just Bitcoin miners to process the transactions. And they get paid in 2 ways. Bitcoin mining rewards and Transaction fees.
Bitcoin is a beatiful money system.
They were used as currency because of their scarcity and their intrinsic beauty (lustre). They were used as adornment before they were used as currency. That is an intrinsic value.
True, but that is not my argument. My argument is there are other values that we humans give to gold and silver besides their use as an intermediate for barter. Long before they were currencies they were sought after for their beauty. Bitcoin, like the paper dollar or the wooden dollar has no equivalent human given value external to its value as an intermediate to barter.
To put it another way, if Bitcoin did not have the valued property of being an intermediary for barter they would be utterly useless and no one would spend a single resource to create them. Gold and silver however would still be mined (resource expenditure).
I am not saying the idea of Bitcoin is bad. I am saying the implementation, without it being backed (secured) by something with ANOTHER human given value (like silver or gold have), as well as its intrinsic human tracking flaws, not to mention it being primarily owned by the CCP, all make it a very poor choice as a barter intermediate.