Bitcoin is not "digital gold." Gold has real value. It is used for technology (all computers have some gold in them e.g.) and jewelry, along with a thousand other real uses. It has been used for Jewelry for tens of thousands of years, because it is Real, and pretty, and has unique physical properties (thermal, electrical, lustre, color, resistance to degradation, etc.).
Bitcoin is used for exactly nothing except as an intermediary of exchange for barter, exactly the same as the Federal Reserve note. It has never been used for anything else, and it can't ever be used for anything else. It has zero value. Not one iota of value.
Gold has value regardless of if it is used as a currency. Bitcoin has exactly and precisely zero value outside of that usage. It can't survive in any world where any currency with actual value exists.
This is not me promoting gold as a good medium of exchange for barter. On the contrary, I think that is not the best path. This is me calling bullshit to "bitcoin is digital gold" propaganda that has nothing to do with reality and purposefully ignores all of the evidence and arguments against it for the sake of protecting the mind with how much people have invested in something completely without any actual value.
I wholeheartedly agree with your comment except for one tiny little point.
Bitcoin has exactly and precisely zero value outside of that usage. It can't survive in any world where any currency with actual value exists.
I can think of exactly 1 good, mayhaps excellent use for Bitcoin or some other similar project, that being international trade and settlement, in place of something like SWIFT. Given that the nature of settling in gold requires that all parties involved in transporting have to be some degree of trustworthy, the nature of BTC's technology requiring very little trust to operate for both parties might be very attractive.
The technology behind digital currency, or NFTs, etc. can be used for all sorts of cool stuff, but that doesn't give it value because it takes nothing to make it do that work. Besides, other similar techs are better suited than bitcoin for all those projects, and again, they take very nearly zero resources to make it happen.
My point is would be that some BTC-like currency might be a good middleman for settle things in. You would only be using it as a stop between 2 differing currencies, and likely wouldn't have much exposure beyond the time it would take to swap back out.
Think like how companies might end up swapping from CAD to USD, and then from USD to Euros to pay their European supplier from their Canandian business' profits. It matters less that the USD has real value, and more that everyone involved is ok with USD, it's quick to liquidate once done, and is relatively quick to settle.
Bitcoin might not be the best for the job, but it certainly checks off a lot of the boxes.
Scarcity = value, and in any world where things are so bad we've fallen back to a materials physical properties to exclusively assign value, we'll have problems way worse than BTC losing worth. As long as civilization and the internet stands, BTC will always be considered to have value as only a limited supply exists, and people want in on that, regardless of any reductionist points that illustrate it's vulnerabilities.
None of the gold bars sitting in vaults are getting melted down to make electronics and jewelry. It's a method of storing value based on a multitude of human nature factors, as is BTC. Both have limited supply and attrition - industrial usage for gold, and permanent loss of wallets for BTC. It's a lot more complex than 'haha imaginary numbers, how stupid'.
The concept of 'actual value' being zero is correct, but to get to that point so many things need to utterly collapse, it's a meaningless point to make in the context of a society that will realistically continue on for the moment. That may well change, but until then it's ridiculous to write it off.
Oil is fundamentally worthless beyond a certain point of collapse if we forget how to make combustion engines and plastics. Uranium is worthless if we lose nuclear technology.
Gold just happens to be one of the lowest levels of collapse proof, because as you rightly pointed out it's shiny and pretty to look at. All the other uses came much, much later. Status symbol was first.
BTC is exclusive and pretty to look at on a screen, so as long as screens are here, that desire will remain and there's nothing you can do about it. To deny this fact is to deny human nature, and the foundational attraction to gold.
In order to understand why people who are "experts" do what they do, or why they might act contrary to the truth for the purposes of social manipulation, you need to understand that controlled opposition is everywhere.
I don’t have any problem with gold. I love gold. I’m just pointing out one reason why BTC is amazing. It’s also easier to secure your Bitcoin keys than a stack of physical gold. However it’s easier to loose your keys or seed phrase than physical gold. Both have pros and cons.
You obviously don’t have a strong grasp of how the BTC network and protocol operates. You don’t need third party crypto exchanges. You can establish your own node and send / receive party to party.
Not if you can't secure it anywhere. Atomic Wallet had a giant hack over the weekend. It's barely even talked about right now. 35 million stolen and probably ongoing. Thats a wallet with a 12 word passphrase and password.
Lmao, you’re just further demonstrating your lack of understanding.
The fact that you think I’m unaware of the issues, or that there isn’t a ton of nuance to these specific issues, AND you believe google is a reliable source of unfiltered / unbiased search results is further evidence.
Would you like me to break each of these issues down for you? I think you’d really benefit from learning more.
Lastly, you need to realize that BTC is not the same as the vast majority of cryptos. I’m not proselytizing crypto. I’m saying that BTC is digital gold and has some tremendous advantages over physical gold.
Type in the phrase "how much crypto was stolen in 2023".
Don't be a retard and get scammed and/or have poor security practices
Next type the phrase "how much crypto was lost due to forgotten keys".
Don't be a retard and forgot your keys
Next type the phrase "how much lost due to crypto crash".
Don't be a retard and expect your money to be safe in a volatile, new, and unsettled market.
Next type the phrase "how much crypto lost due to rogue exchange".
Not your keys, not your crypto. i.e. don't be a retard and give the keys to the kingdom to some company that doesn't give two shits about you. This is one big benefit with crypto. Keeping your own keys in your control is infinitely easier than storing dozens of tons of Gold. Most people can't do that and would need to trust someone else. With crypto, you just have to trust yourself to not be a retard.
Why is everyone proselytizing crypto completely oblivious to the risks?
The ignorance of the anti-crypto crowd is astounding. All these supposed issues are in reality complete non-issues. The problem isn't the people "proselytizing" (lol) crypto, it's you and your understanding of it.
This was a discussion over ideals, with the implication that the cabal is dead and gone.
Convenient how you instantly turn it into a here and now discussion when it suits your narrative. People love doing that, I notice. Left, right, everyone. Any time anyone attempts to discuss an ideal, someone has to barge in with their doomer dogshit about how "REEEE THATS BAD BECAUSE GOOBERMINT EVIL!!!". That then becomes their response to just about everything that is said going forward. No actual solutions or arguments, just outright dismissal based on the way things are now, rather than how they will or should be if we're truly moving forward and improving.
Also, no one ever said anything about the goobermint taking their gold, nor is that even the original guy that you just responded to in your fervent rage over "crypto bad".
Take the loss and move on, fren, you've lost this one 10 times over.
Bitcoin is digital gold.
Try travelling internationally with $100k worth of gold, or gold backed USD. Bitcoin will always have its place.
Bitcoin is not "digital gold." Gold has real value. It is used for technology (all computers have some gold in them e.g.) and jewelry, along with a thousand other real uses. It has been used for Jewelry for tens of thousands of years, because it is Real, and pretty, and has unique physical properties (thermal, electrical, lustre, color, resistance to degradation, etc.).
Bitcoin is used for exactly nothing except as an intermediary of exchange for barter, exactly the same as the Federal Reserve note. It has never been used for anything else, and it can't ever be used for anything else. It has zero value. Not one iota of value.
Gold has value regardless of if it is used as a currency. Bitcoin has exactly and precisely zero value outside of that usage. It can't survive in any world where any currency with actual value exists.
This is not me promoting gold as a good medium of exchange for barter. On the contrary, I think that is not the best path. This is me calling bullshit to "bitcoin is digital gold" propaganda that has nothing to do with reality and purposefully ignores all of the evidence and arguments against it for the sake of protecting the mind with how much people have invested in something completely without any actual value.
I wholeheartedly agree with your comment except for one tiny little point.
I can think of exactly 1 good, mayhaps excellent use for Bitcoin or some other similar project, that being international trade and settlement, in place of something like SWIFT. Given that the nature of settling in gold requires that all parties involved in transporting have to be some degree of trustworthy, the nature of BTC's technology requiring very little trust to operate for both parties might be very attractive.
The technology behind digital currency, or NFTs, etc. can be used for all sorts of cool stuff, but that doesn't give it value because it takes nothing to make it do that work. Besides, other similar techs are better suited than bitcoin for all those projects, and again, they take very nearly zero resources to make it happen.
My point is would be that some BTC-like currency might be a good middleman for settle things in. You would only be using it as a stop between 2 differing currencies, and likely wouldn't have much exposure beyond the time it would take to swap back out.
Think like how companies might end up swapping from CAD to USD, and then from USD to Euros to pay their European supplier from their Canandian business' profits. It matters less that the USD has real value, and more that everyone involved is ok with USD, it's quick to liquidate once done, and is relatively quick to settle.
Bitcoin might not be the best for the job, but it certainly checks off a lot of the boxes.
Scarcity = value, and in any world where things are so bad we've fallen back to a materials physical properties to exclusively assign value, we'll have problems way worse than BTC losing worth. As long as civilization and the internet stands, BTC will always be considered to have value as only a limited supply exists, and people want in on that, regardless of any reductionist points that illustrate it's vulnerabilities.
None of the gold bars sitting in vaults are getting melted down to make electronics and jewelry. It's a method of storing value based on a multitude of human nature factors, as is BTC. Both have limited supply and attrition - industrial usage for gold, and permanent loss of wallets for BTC. It's a lot more complex than 'haha imaginary numbers, how stupid'.
The concept of 'actual value' being zero is correct, but to get to that point so many things need to utterly collapse, it's a meaningless point to make in the context of a society that will realistically continue on for the moment. That may well change, but until then it's ridiculous to write it off.
Oil is fundamentally worthless beyond a certain point of collapse if we forget how to make combustion engines and plastics. Uranium is worthless if we lose nuclear technology.
Gold just happens to be one of the lowest levels of collapse proof, because as you rightly pointed out it's shiny and pretty to look at. All the other uses came much, much later. Status symbol was first. BTC is exclusive and pretty to look at on a screen, so as long as screens are here, that desire will remain and there's nothing you can do about it. To deny this fact is to deny human nature, and the foundational attraction to gold.
In order to understand why people who are "experts" do what they do, or why they might act contrary to the truth for the purposes of social manipulation, you need to understand that controlled opposition is everywhere.
A place to begin for that exposure is my report on the singular corporation that exists, and the single body of people who run it.
I don’t have any problem with gold. I love gold. I’m just pointing out one reason why BTC is amazing. It’s also easier to secure your Bitcoin keys than a stack of physical gold. However it’s easier to loose your keys or seed phrase than physical gold. Both have pros and cons.
You obviously don’t have a strong grasp of how the BTC network and protocol operates. You don’t need third party crypto exchanges. You can establish your own node and send / receive party to party.
Not if you can't secure it anywhere. Atomic Wallet had a giant hack over the weekend. It's barely even talked about right now. 35 million stolen and probably ongoing. Thats a wallet with a 12 word passphrase and password.
You know you can create your own node and secure your keys without a third party, right?
Lmao, you’re just further demonstrating your lack of understanding.
The fact that you think I’m unaware of the issues, or that there isn’t a ton of nuance to these specific issues, AND you believe google is a reliable source of unfiltered / unbiased search results is further evidence.
Would you like me to break each of these issues down for you? I think you’d really benefit from learning more.
Lastly, you need to realize that BTC is not the same as the vast majority of cryptos. I’m not proselytizing crypto. I’m saying that BTC is digital gold and has some tremendous advantages over physical gold.
Don't be a retard and get scammed and/or have poor security practices
Don't be a retard and forgot your keys
Don't be a retard and expect your money to be safe in a volatile, new, and unsettled market.
Not your keys, not your crypto. i.e. don't be a retard and give the keys to the kingdom to some company that doesn't give two shits about you. This is one big benefit with crypto. Keeping your own keys in your control is infinitely easier than storing dozens of tons of Gold. Most people can't do that and would need to trust someone else. With crypto, you just have to trust yourself to not be a retard.
The ignorance of the anti-crypto crowd is astounding. All these supposed issues are in reality complete non-issues. The problem isn't the people "proselytizing" (lol) crypto, it's you and your understanding of it.
"As if the same government can't crack down on crypto exchanges."
Self custody, bro.
This was a discussion over ideals, with the implication that the cabal is dead and gone.
Convenient how you instantly turn it into a here and now discussion when it suits your narrative. People love doing that, I notice. Left, right, everyone. Any time anyone attempts to discuss an ideal, someone has to barge in with their doomer dogshit about how "REEEE THATS BAD BECAUSE GOOBERMINT EVIL!!!". That then becomes their response to just about everything that is said going forward. No actual solutions or arguments, just outright dismissal based on the way things are now, rather than how they will or should be if we're truly moving forward and improving.
Also, no one ever said anything about the goobermint taking their gold, nor is that even the original guy that you just responded to in your fervent rage over "crypto bad".
Take the loss and move on, fren, you've lost this one 10 times over.