The moment we understand that the purpose of money is that of a lubricant - to facilitate exchange of assets - the impulse to hold value in money vanishes .. rather hold value in assets .. the best asset is simply the one without KYC , with least acquisition cost and lowest minimum needed to acquire .. #bitcoin ...
Discussion
Ok so when do you call something Money and when do you call it an Asset ?
Many languages don't have proper words to differentiate betweeh Money and Currency..
I'm dyslectisch so by default have the preference to describe key attributes/functions instead of using the designed words..
I noticed in the little understood disciplines like Money/Economics this helps enormously for most to grasp it way better.
The network is the asset . For example #gold wouldn't have any value , if there were no gold traders in every city .. Gold miners , buyers , refiners - all put together create value in #gold . That is what an asset is .. it is the network .
Same with real estate .. land planners , developers , equipment makers, builders , realtors , and buyers .. an entire universe of industry is what creates value of a home or an office space ..
On same lines - #Bitcoin network is the asset.. #sat is the token in this network ..just like a Troy Oz is a token in gold network ..
Bitcoin is the apex asset because the flow of value with in the network is most efficient , production difficulty is same for every participant and so is the acquisition price no matter where you are in the world ..
Money is what is controlled / defined by monetary policy of a nation state or a group of nations .. the purpose of money is to allow exchange of assets .. in that .. each unit is deemed as a carrier of value from one asset to another .. but unit doesn't have any value of its own ... Monetary policy also have additional goals - for example stability of bread basket prices , maximization of employment.. money can be printed as much as required to meet these goals or destroyed as needed .. goes without saying money can be efficient or inefficient.. just like there are bad assets and good assets ..
Before Nixon , money was unnecessarily pegged to gold .. which meant market couldn't have liquidity when needed .. Nixon administration separated the two .. thus unleashing more progress in last fifty years than the entire time of mankind on this planet .. bit exaggeration to make a point :-)
If you are a student of physics then I have a much simpler anology .. asset is the massful stars (or planets) - money is the light ( electromagnetic waves) that carry energy (photons) from one massful star to to say a planet .. light has no mass by itself .. but it still carries tiny packets of energy ..
sorry mixed up photons and electrons for a second, still doesn't make it easier for me 🤣
I know .. electromagnetic waves are hard to grasp .. you can put more energy in a gamma ray than a bullet yet it has no mass .. it is just high frequency photon ! So is an X ray that passes right through the body :-)
Going with anology .. Gamma rays are like 1000 dollar bill , X rays are like 100 and normal visible light like some and pennies :-) .. 😁
Thanks for your elaborate awnser.
Don't see my followup as critics I like to better understand and yes have a clear opinion 🫣.
I see the network as one factor creating value.
Take as sample the hard cap of 21m, if that wasn't in place there would be 'no' value (and indeed also no network).
The same for Gold scarcity but also the fact gold is not suffering from corrosion over time.
All factors combined make good or bad money and #bitcoin can be argued being the best.
So how do you conclude the network is the asset and not the whole set, that what is #Bitcoin, being the asset ?
I can see many things being an asset but only a few assets as being money.
That money is what is controlled / defined by monetary policy of a nation state, is a verry narrow view I think.
Many samples available to counter that argument like cigarettes in prison functioning as money ?
But indeed most money used does go by your definition and #Bitcoin is clearly breaking that, it works without, El Salvador excepted, government declaring it money !
Your view on Gold unnecessary pegged to the Dollar is also interesting.
The decoupling shows it was not a hard precondition, but that decoupling also made it possible to build up insane amounts of debt, that caused pulling in wealth from the future and affected they way we think and act world wide, and causing inflation, but a conclusion about any progress can only be made after the whole debt fiasco is being resolved.
Could well be that unwinding has extreme consequences.
Pitty that typing is way more time consuming and cumbersome than a conversation.
Money - from definition stand point - is what is controlled by monetary policy .. we can all make up our definitions:-) ..but that is what it really is ..
Ciggerates working as money in prison situation is a great example of bad money .. just the way gold was bad money prior to 1971 .. because if the unit of money has an inherent value , than it starts acting like assets .. which then rattles the entire system .. you sure don't want to run global economy on cigrettes :-) just joking
An asset, by definition, is something that attracts capital gains tax .. real estate , stocks , bitcoin .. each asset class may attract different tax slabs at different locations or different times .. that depends on national priorities ..
No one calls and asset MONEY ... I don't go around telling people that my home is money .. Money is currency - dollar bills ..
As regards to your point on bitcoin numbers cap - 21 million - all such features are the features of network .. other being no KYC .. digital signature.. proof of work . These features make this network as the supreme unbreakable digital network ..
For example 21 million number is emergent rule over existence of the network .. no one can implement such rules without the underlying network of nodes ..
Nice stuff, thanks.
I have a limited view on money.
I my mind Gold is money and now Bitcoin.
Gold has a natural monetary policy (scarcity and the energy needed to find/retrieve it) Bitcoins monetary policy is hard coded but the coinbase reducing slowly to zero every halving.
Fiat is debt and since not attached to something it is more imaginairing debt.., the monetary policy is changing all the time. So all in all the garbage all Bitcoiners recognize.
I have to think about the asset aspect, I still have a hard time to make a clear distinction if I should call #Bitcoin money or asset or why you have a hard time to say #Bitcoin can be both in a hybrid way ?
A part of me doesn't care how we name it, but in interaction with others it is nice to align on definitions to prevent unneeded friction.
I gonna need some more time chewing on this.
That is a very real dilemma .. and it is not new - we all have been struggling with this right from the day gold network was established.. around five thousands year back in India .
In India , selling gold is considered bad omen ! We don't sell Gold unless it is a family crisis . Gold is passed from one generation to next. No one ever thinks of using gold to buy coffee :-)
The monetary policy with in bitcoin - e.g. bitcoin toknomoics ( fixed at 2100 Trillion #Sats ) - is to allow external people acquire a tiny part of bitcoin network .. not to use it as a means to exchange for goods and services ..
For goods and services , we have currency ( fiat or money) .. and as you rightly said , fiat is considered garbage .. you want to get rid of fiat as soon as possible and turn it into hard assets .. cumulating money is considered a sin ..I mean literally :-) aka Greed ..
Never sell your bitcoin :-) and if that is true - it is NOT money ! It is an imperishable asset ..
Thanks, that thinking I can follow and makes sense.
I think you described the hardest money and the fact it is pushed out by lesser forms of money since those will be spend first.
This all aligns with what I concluded myself and as being 'a bit strange' makes me feel comfortable 😌
Just a pitty we can't have a coffee and some hours to discuss, I knew/hoped this was going to be interesting !
May be it is a cultural difference, but when people use the word "money" for #bitcoin , it feels to me they intend to use it for perty transactions .. unlike gold .. even though Satoshi said it is a p2p cash system , but turns out it is gold in digital form .. like Columbus set out the sails in search of India and landed in America :-)