I'm trying to understand #bitcoin more and I have a question-
With the max number of bitcoins that will ever exist, how is there enough supply to support widespread adoption? With a current max worth of about 630 billion (and less if you subtract the bitcoins assumed lost forever and the possibility we could easily lose more) that's less than the 4 riches people in America combined.
#asknostr
The assumption is the price of bitcoin will continue to increase to represent a considerable chunk of world values and a single sat can buy something. This assumption might become true when the need of bitcoins increases.
From what I gather, a "bitcoin" was an arbitrary decision to fix the decimal at 8 digits. 21 million Bitcoin * 100 million sats per = 2.1 quadrillion. Right now if distributed equally, that is about 240,000 sats per living human.
As Bitcoin gains value, sats will eventually become the denomination. Already today ~3300 sats is equal to a dollar. Another 10x, and a sat is on the same order of magnitude as a penny. We are close already, I find converting Bitcoin and fiat prices easier in my head with sats, vs with a full Bitcoin
You are thinking in a FIAT mindset. It will be different. If BTC succeeds, Dollar values will not be the measurement anymore.
That is just basic supply and demand. If supply is stable and more people want to use bitcoin (therefore driving up demand), guess what will happen with the price.
Is your question about whether there are enough monetary units in Bitcoin to support the global economy, or whether the value of the monetary units could ever grow enough?
If the former, there are more than enough sats to support 8 billion people, even with all the lost Bitcoin out there. Moreover, layer 2 solutions like Lightning allow for even individual sats to be further divided. I am currently playing on a Minecraft server with Lightning integration and we have millisat support.
If the latter, then there is no upper bound to the value of a Bitcoin, and therefore no limitation on the size of an economy it could support. The current market cap, expressed in USD or any other fiat currency is merely a representation of CURRENT demand, given that there is no supply elasticity. If and when demand rises, the perceived value of Bitcoin will rise with it until it eventually is seen as the only monetary asset of any real value. I imagine that before then we will have already ceased measuring its value in terms of other currency units.
