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232 sats \ 4 replies \ @south_korea_ln 10h \ on: Stacker Saloon
I sometimes wonder if the way I viscerally dislike the Bitcoin treasury company shenanigans and am convinced they are scams is in anyway related to how no-coiners feel about bitcoin due to a lack of understanding...
This would be fun to explore in writing because I have the same confused feelings.
Unlike ICOs, or even other bitcoin-denominated, bitcoin-adjacent scams (like fake L2s), no one is being lied to about utility. Folks are buying in to speculate on the company's ability to attract more speculators while acquiring more bitcoin (which they are speculating will rise in price). It's not much different that the 'scam' of any other stock. In some ways it's better than other stocks because I can't easily verify if Apple is innovating relative to whether Microstrategy bought more bitcoin for example.
The scammiest part imo is that none of these companies actually hold the bitcoin. So the stock's claim on the underlying asset is actually just a claim on a claim. It's layers of legal promises all the way down to the custody of the bitcoin.
It's obviously in a company's interest to own bitcoin, and should make the company more durable, so it make sense to prefer owning stock in such companies all else being equal. But, does it make sense to invest in a company whose sole purpose is acquiring more bitcoin? If you yourself have access to debt at reasonable interest rates, and have so much excess capital you're speculating on treasury companies, I'd think acquiring more bitcoin for yourself via debt is better - because the risk profile is pretty straightforward and there's no premium.
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No keys, no coins! What is so hard to understand about that? If you don’’t have the keys you have no coins no matter what the other side of the deal says.
It is beginning to look like the deal the banks have with deposits! They are the bank’s possession, you are only an unsecured creditor. Not a good situation.
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It could be, but it could also be that buying MSTR has a different ethos than Bitcoin.
MSTR is essentially a leveraged bet on the price Bitcoin. If bitcoin goes up, the price of MSTR goes up more. But if bitcoin goes down, the price of MSTR would go down even more.
So, buying MSTR means you're betting on bitcoin to rise in price... which is fine if you're in it for the fiat gains, but for a lot of bitcoiners we don't really see ourselves as in this for the gainz
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Probably, but it doesn't mean there's a relationship between your correctness and theirs.
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