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Here’s something I worry about with the dogma around #bitcoin as “digital gold” and the *perfect* money:

New gold supply has not gradually decreased through its history as a money or store of value- in fact many periods it has increased geometrically, coinciding with technological/industrial improvements (and increased economic activity, population, productivity, etc).

Bitcoin will not do this. It is hard coded not to. So… how are we so confident without past evidence through any other similar medium with similar properties (like gold) that it will behave *perfectly* as money or a store of value?

I still think it’s the best we’ve got by far. Completely revolutionary. I’m deeply orange pilled- but I’m also fairly certain that we will have to innovate and adapt around this new system in ways we don’t fully understand yet. The future is only theoretical at this point and what we’re attempting is an experiment (like the USA).

While I personally believe this future will be far better than WTF is going on now I’m not naive enough to think it will be rainbows and butterflies. So let’s keep building and discussing openly as we learn because there’s a long road ahead.

Taking off, PV 🫡

S!ayer 1y ago

oh man, people tend to conflate these things and intertwine them.

A store of value means that the value of the item never changes. Bitcoin fluctuates every minute. It's not a store of value. USDT is a store of value, any stable coin. Any currency, in local terms, is a store of value. If you put $10 under your cushion, in one month's time it's still $10. Store of value.

Gold is not a store of value, it's an inflationary hedge. Gold's value increases and is dependent on supply/demand. Actually any commodity is this.

money is a medium of exchange.

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Discussion

Eric FJ 🪬⚡️ 1y ago

I think whenever you’re having a discussion around “store of value” you should clarify the timeline you’re assuming. Fiat can be on a shorter timeline, sure. Gold certainly has been on a longer one.

S!ayer 1y ago

No, that's inflation hedging.

Store of value is any currency held in that locale.

I illustrated the usd example.

Purchasing power may rise and fall but as a store of value, that's it. PP relates to inflation rate.

It's why people sell out of bitcoin and hold usdt, because usdt is a store of value and bitcoin is not.

Usdt 100 is usdt 100 in 24 hours

Btc won't be the same price.

Gold won't be the same price.

Both above fluctuate on market conditions and supply/demand levers. Usdt does not, only requires usd 1:1 reserve. It can be printed or burned, but remains stable, a store of value.

I think this is finance 201 and Econ 101, buy could be mistaken.

Eric FJ 🪬⚡️ 1y ago

If your unit of measure is dollars i then sure whatever, but the word “value” is a lot broader- especially because I’m talking about timelines longer than the dollar has even existed. Before modern Finance 201 or Econ 101. Gold was once the base unit of measure as were other things. Bitcoin may one day be. USDT etc are literally promises to a unit on a ledger. That’s not a store of value in any sense of the word outside of these textbooks you’re referring to. You could also say they sold out of Tether into Bitcoin. Everything is relative to your base unit of choice.