90 sats \ 4 replies \ @frostdragon 30 Aug 2023 \ on: Does Bitcoin have any negative tradeoffs or is it just all positive? bitcoin
I think most of the "cons" of bitcoin stem from people not understanding it, and not taking the initiative to understand it.
- People who develop and buy shitcoins see bitcoin as a cool new innovation to build on top of.
- People who see bitcoin as a threat rather than an opportunity will try to fight against it.
- People who see bitcoin as a trend (the tulip argument) will overlook it completely.
- People who see bitcoin as an investment hold their bitcoin in exchanges, waiting for the right time to sell.
- People who self-custody bitcoin without learning how properly secure their funds will lose access to their wallets, or be scammed out of their bitcoin.
There will be a lot of fallout from all of the above.
Additionally, schools of economics are just theories about how the world works, and how to live accordingly. Eventually the current theory will be proven right or wrong, and bitcoin is an accelerant to this experiment. There will a lot of fallout when the current prevalent economic systems are proven incorrect.
And lastly, we don't know what the process of separating money and state will be like, and it's likely it will be painful. We don't know what global unregulated money looks like in our world. We focus on the freedom aspect of it, but we don't think about how much we depend on government money for daily "comforts", (which some would argue are necessities). Historically, those comforts come at the cost of eventual hyper inflation, but it'll be interesting to see what pros and cons the world has to offer when we go to bitcoin instead of another fiat system.
TL;DR - I think the main "trade off" for bitcoin is, you have to responsibly manage and self-custody your bitcoin or the natural consequences will be more severe than they are now. Not just for the individual, but for businesses and governments. And... There aren't a lot of responsible people out there.
And lastly, we don't know what the process of separating money and state will be like, and it's likely it will be painful.
Exactly painful... for many clueless NPCs not prepared
reply
This!
There aren't a lot of responsible people out there.
The flip side of this is that when people aren't responsible they pay a cost for it. Usually freedom, knowledge, and options. You can see how different people that live in places with harsh conditions vs. people that live in cities. Or people that live in developed countries vs. poor countries. The transition will be painful. They almost always are painful. I believe we'd have a better world if people HAD to be more responsible for their own actions. But yeah, the transition is gonna suck for many. Best get prepared.
In the past few years it occurred to me how many "freedom" loving people are really just fakes. Its more of a fetish with the idea of freedom vs actual freedom. I see this in bitcoin circles as well. I don't think people realize how the world really works.
reply
yuuup ^
reply
I should add that I realized that I wasn't living what I believed. I saw myself as being dishonest with myself. Sure I made plenty of excuses but the truth hit me in the face.
reply