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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @DiedOnTitan 25 Oct \ on: Being a HODLER sucks. it's not what people think it is bitcoin
Very relatable. One of the tactics that I bring up when talking to people about Bitcoin or money more generally, include the "properties of money". Money is frequently described as the most saleable good. The history of money, as I have learned reading several books on the subject, experimented with many different goods: Salt, Yap stones, cowry shells, tobacco, grain, cattle, glass beads, silver, gold, gold backed IOUs, fiat, Bitcoin, and so on. Each of these mediums of exchange and stores of value have properties that can be weighed.
If someone dismisses Bitcoin as a collector's item like baseball cards or Beanie Babies (yes, I have heard these comparisons), I try to engage that person by testing these collectibles for their properties, and of course these collector's items do not look good in comparison to other forms of money.
One counter argument that I have frequently heard against Bitcoin is that it is not "backed by anything". Whereas fiat (USD) is backed by the U.S. Government. This weighs the sovereignty property above all else. We know that Bitcoin is secured by one of the world's largest networks, so it is "backed" by energy and unbreakable cryptography. Additionally, government sovereignty of money does not apply to gold which is still used today as a settlement layer among the largest global financial institutions.
One of the major challenges is that we have all been so deeply indoctrinated on the fiat standard that considering other standards challenges and disrupts our world view. Bitcoin, and the study of hard money, exposes the fraud we have all been economically and mentally bound by. I, for one, would rather exist with uncomfortable truth than be enslaved by comfortable lies.
It's interesting you mentioned government and government-issued currency...
I am not an anarchist and think there is obviously a role for government in the world. Clean water, functional roads and bridges, a national army, police etc...
However what's really clear (and also unfortunate) is the debt and deficits countries are running, especially in the US. Although people don't want to talk about it the debt-load and subsequent interest payments will continue to increase over the next 10 years... and the same is true all over Western Europe. All the large 'modern' governments are running huge deficits and that would be ok... if it weren't for the accompanying interest payments. It's like paying off one credit card with another.
I just don't know how this plays out in the next 10 years. My point being that if the government is so indebted and borrowing to make interest payments at nearly full employment... what good is the money they issue? It's a paper promise and an IOU is only good as the creditworthiness of the issuer. Major politicians don't want to even talk about it... and when someone can hold Bitcoin why even hold paper money at all?
As far as gold goes there will always be a place for it it has been around for so long. But you're right the transactability isn't good and digital mediums almost always outperform analogue ones.
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Money has been transacted with for far longer than Gov't issued money. In almost all cases, it was initially used as a store of value. Exchanged in ceremonial events like weddings, births, battle victories, or deaths. The money would change to something else when technology came along and disrupted it. E.g., Glass beads in Africa were massively debased when Europeans brought them in by the crate and loaded up their cargo boats with ivory, gold, and slaves which they were able to trade for the beads. It took decades before the locals understood what had happened. In this pessimistic regard, not much has changed.
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That's a really good point... I had never thought about it that way
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