Hey James thanks for the AMA!
I wanna get your views on ETFs, especially, how they can impact the future of Bitcoin in a negative way by any chance?
this territory is moderated
Well, I believe the ETFs are a great path to rapid adoption for institutions and as a whole will be a big positive for the space. The said, as we have seen, the markets can be disjointed at times with the ETFs only trading market hours and the spot trading 24/7. Also, there is always a non-zero probability that the custodian of one of these ETFs somehow mis-steps or fails. Probably a much lower probability than an individual losing keys, etc., but the scale would be much larger and possibly catastrophic to many individuals. I don't count this as a significant probability, but it cannot be ignored entirely.
reply
So you dont see ETFs as undermining the original purpose of Bitcoin which was to create a decentralised P2P MoE payments?
reply
Gotta start somewhere if the whole world is to be eventually onboarded.
reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSv0J4bfBCc If you can still hold that viewpoint after watching the above video from Andreas Antonopoulos please explain your informed reasoning because Antonopoulos argues in it that ETFs fundamentally endanger the integrity of the protocol...and I've not heard any convincing argument put forward to refute this point.
reply
my thoughts. i love anton's videos and am a huge fan. i have watched many of them and he is always really really insightful.
however... i think saying etfs are 'bad' is kinda misleading. etfs are the gateway drug for wallstreet to bitcoin imo.
for better or for worse... the world may not be ready 'yet' for bitcoin to replace the dollar, or seriously compete with the dollar/euro/yen as a literal money or currency. Could it one day? yes i think it's entirely possible. but im not sure the world is ready for that yet.
governments would face a serious, meaningful competition to their own 'cash' or fiat as a store of value and potentially medium of exchange... and who would want to hold bonds if they could just hold bitcoin instead?
in other words, treating bitcoin as a commodity is an easy way for governments to 'face' the prospect of bitcoin and 'keep it in a box' so it doesn't threaten their power and control too much. so it doesn't scare them. i don't think their plan will work however - but i do think treating bitcoin as an etf commodity is a way for government to 'soften' the impact of bitcoin at least for now... however it's a trojan horse. eventually the etfs will pump the price... and more people will learn what keys are and want to hold their own. after all the nodes control the protocol not the miners and certainly not the etfs holding a few massive addresses.
reply
You clearly did not watch Andreas' video as you completely ignore all the facts and issues he raises.
reply
i had not watched this but ill check it out. thank you
reply