10 sats \ 2 replies \ @cozy 27 Mar 2022 \ on: Where is the tipping point in inflation? bitcoin
There's no tipping point, inflation is just a tool to change the path of an economy. (Why would a 2% inflation rate ever be a good target in the first place for a stablecoin/fiat? eg. Why not zero? Or a negative number?)[https://www.stlouisfed.org/open-vault/2019/january/fed-inflation-target-2-percent]
The point of Bitcoin isn't to avoid inflation entirely, it's to put monetary policy choices (like inflation) in the hands of the individuals instead of an involuntary collective.
The 21 million cap is related to protocol design, it's not worth fetishizing to the point of thinking that individual suffering is justified because some didn't adopt Bitcoin before hyperbitcoinization, or whatever.
There arguably is. In the German hyperinflation there was a point where it was suddenly over. From one day to next it was over. Because people just accepted that it was over and used every day goods to barter.
Why isn't this point reached in Russia or Turkey right now?
Also: I'm not fetishizing being early. You're projecting.
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Fetishizing of "21" is everywhere in Bitcoin communities. There is a fine line between fetishization and kitsch, though, to be fair.
Regarding 'projection'. I'm not attacking 'you' I'm critical of ideas. 'Projection' is a rhetorical tool used by those (myself included until recently) who try to turn everything into identity politics. But, identity is subservient to the individual. (Side note, this is why I find something like "Decentralized Identity" to be something of an oxymoron). The individual uses group signifiers in order to affect causal action. Prediction is subservient to causality. Which is to say, when someone is 'projecting' they are making unfair predictions about another's ideas in relation to their own identity--but this obfuscates the fact that both participants of a discussion have causal power in reality, we are using words to change the world around us. So, I don't criticize people, just ideas, and even so projection wouldn't be a bad thing if i'm improving a part of myself, then, right? Say, if at the end of the conversation, the meaning of 'being a Bitcoiner' changed for either or both of us. The key is tolerance and openness in conversation, though.
All observations have some theory, some imperfect model, at their core. So, in a way, it's 'projection' all the way down. We use those projections, our best theories and understandings of reality, to do great things.
Making claims that history will repeat itself, like predicting another Weimar collapse for any or all of Western economies, is a form of Historicism, the name of a set of rhetorical tools used by philosophers as far back as Plato, through to Marx, and even McLuhan in the 70s. The best thing about predictions is that they can be broken--we can prevent the thing being predicted. There is no problem that is not soluble given the right knowledge.
So, my argument is that inflation is a tool the individuals should have access to. Volatility "for the greater good" of Bitcoin or humans are whatever, is dangerous. Buy Bitcoin, use Bitcoin to escape ones currency collapsing, and we'll never have a Weimar again, market forces can push authoritarian pressures out of individuals lives. Most people in Western countries ALREADY have or had access to this. Before I had Bitcoin I had access to low-volatility FX markets through my bank in Japan: Shinsei Bank. I could choose between a variety of macroeconomic ideas and central bank monetary policies. Anyone with a phone and access to Wise can do that, now, too. Bitcoin brings it to the rest of the world (given that the people want to take on the responsibility of owning Bitcoin and knowing how it works).
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