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Bitcoin

paulfromcamden said:
What value does it have to society? What is it for?

I mean you could ask the question of quite a lot of financial products but it's still a good question.
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A store of value that cannot be manipulated by any government ?
Nobody is going to 'print' billions more of them to devalue them.
 
I was shocked to realise just how complex crypto has become in such a short period of time. It was kind of simple when Bitcoin was first invented/created (whatever the correct term is), but now.... well just take a look at this:

explodingtopics.com

How Many Cryptocurrencies are There In 2024?

A deep-dive into the current crypto space with a focus on how many coins currently exist.
explodingtopics.com explodingtopics.com
 
paulfromcamden said:
What value does it have to society? What is it for?

I mean you could ask the question of quite a lot of financial products but it's still a good question.
Click to expand...
Same could be said of Gold really. I mean ultimately it's just a metal but the entire global economy is really just about trading Gold when it comes down to brass tacks.

So logically there's no reason the entire global economy couldn't be based on a crypto currency. I mean intrinsically what's the difference? Gold's only valuable because we've decided it is, it could very easily have been considered "just another metal" by humanity.
 
paulfromcamden said:
🤔
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Ok correction. For a very long time the world's economy was based on the Gold standard and the worlds currencies were literally pegged to the value of Gold. So in principle, there's no reason it couldn't happen again with a crypto currency instead.
 
wacko said:
A store of value that cannot be manipulated by any government ?
Nobody is going to 'print' billions more of them to devalue them.
Click to expand...
There has to be more to it than protection against inflation surely? Otherwise we could just go with shiny metal or mint carded last 17 Star Wars figures.
 
paulfromcamden said:
There has to be more to it than protection against inflation surely? Otherwise we could just go with shiny metal or mint carded last 17 Star Wars figures.
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But that's the entire point. There's no intrinsic value to any of it. Currency is only worth what someone is prepared to trade it for and ultimately it comes down to what goods and services etc it can purchase and what value we as human beings put on that. It's all just an arbitary human construct, that we've just happened to have created rules about. None of it has any intrinsic meaning or value. Depopulate the earth of all humans today and tomorrow what will the FTSE and the NASDAQ look like?
 
gez said:
Ok correction. For a very long time the world's economy was based on the Gold standard and the worlds currencies were literally pegged to the value of Gold. So in principle, there's no reason it couldn't happen again with a crypto currency instead.
Click to expand...
Gold is a "proper" product and most importantly has an intrinsic value, hence it is a useful commodity and will always have a value.

Bitcoin has no intrinsic value and the traded value is purely dependant on what the next buyer is prepared to pay.
 
Mick P said:
Gold is a "proper" product and most importantly has an intrinsic value, hence it is a useful commodity and will always have a value.

Bitcoin has no intrinsic value and the traded value is purely dependant on what the next buyer is prepared to pay.
Click to expand...
You and I clearly have different defintions of intrinsic.

In and of itself Gold is worthless, it only has value because humans attribute value to it. That's not intrinsic value by definition.
 
Intrinsic value of gold is because it is used in jewellery and that will support a value for the foreseeable future.
And some industrial processes. Like plated hifi connectors :)
 
paulfromcamden said:
Graphic from random first webpage Google gave me. But you get the idea.

GxtdaQl.png


digiconomist.net

Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index - Digiconomist

The Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index provides the latest estimate of the total energy consumption of the Bitcoin network.
digiconomist.net digiconomist.net
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Gobsmacking. I had no idea about the energy consumption side of the crypto market. It's even sicker and more pointless than I thought.
 
wacko said:
Intrinsic value of gold is because it is used in jewellery and that will support a value for the foreseeable future.
And some industrial processes. Like plated hifi connectors :)
Click to expand...
Gold does have actual real life tangible uses as you say, but I imagine most of its value is dictated by confidence, like everything else.
 
Darth Vader said:
Its gambling not investing. Some people have won the lottery with the first ticket that they bought.

DV
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It's not really though is it ? Because everyone who has ever bought has made money, unless they sold at the wrong time.
Is it a Ponzi scheme ? Or a significant and fundamental change ? The biggest investment opportunity of our lifetime ?
 
wacko said:
Intrinsic value of gold is because it is used in jewellery and that will support a value for the foreseeable future.
And some industrial processes. Like plated hifi connectors :)
Click to expand...
Sure, but jewellery is just humans saying "ooh look shiny thing". That's not intrinsic value, it's arbitary and subjective.

Being a good conductor of electricity and heat and being chemically inert are intrinsic properties (values) of Gold. They don't require humans to ascribe a value to the metal, they "just are". Similarly Uranium 238 is intrinsically radioactive. No humans required.
 
Gold was once a currency. It then became a commodity and a store of value.

Bitcoin was intended on being a currency, but has become a commodity and a store of value.

The key difference, which many people can’t wrap their heads around, and why Bitcoin is a “better” gold, is that it is digital.

With digital gold as a base layer, it enables a better money and a new currency to be built on top. Owning a part of the base layer money will provide its owner with extremely valuable collateral.

It is this point, that many are now starting to realise. It will be like owning a digital hotel, which can provide a yield and can be moved around the world at the speed of light

Plus you have the blockchain technology, something that all major organisations and markets will move onto over the coming year’s

I have a small amount of Bitcoin, Etherium, ADA, Solana and XRP, planning on investing a bit more in Bitcoin before the halving next month
 
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