pull down to refresh

As you said, this is a battle. Today's zeitgeist makes Bitcoin out to be an investment strategy, maybe in a large part due to Saylor. Most folks think it's a stock/company like Amazon or Apple. Bitcoin as a SoV asset is scrondary, even symptomatic of, the the p2p electronic cash principal.
I've been playing out scenarios in my Mind since @k00b mentioned the Saylorication centralizing SoV argument. My feeling is the MoE use will continue to grow in marginal communities, unabated by the investment portfolio piece, increasing the value of the network. Grass roots.
But HODLers need to not sell their Bitcoin, because the Saylors and the Mircosofts of the world will gobble it up, keep it on their balance sheets and probably never spend it. They won't need to if there isn't a market demand for it as "cash." As long as the majority of Bitcoin stays distributed and whales only hold a fraction of all total Bitcoin, then I think MoE Bitcoin as money proposition has a chance to play out. Alternatively, if large corporations are able to hold most the UTXO's in the long run, then it doesn't give much chance for layer 2s like lightning to thrive because they probably won't initiate these moves. They have their "Almighty USD".
Your skepticism is warranted. It should be an exciting cycle.
Articles like this show that as bitcoin nears fiat $100k long term holders are selling, and ETFs are scooping up the bitcoin. It's not anyone's business what you do with your own bitcoin, but it's a disturbing trend.
reply
The trend can reverse in a bear market
reply
Ehn.. this article is kinda click baity.
LTHs are wallets hodling a given amount of BTC for at least 155 days, and correspond to the less speculative end of the Bitcoin investor spectrum.
If long term is less than half a year than that includes a large group who bought in this cycle.
reply
True. I don't follow this stuff much, but I think I saw headlines that old wallets were making moves. Regardless, any transfer of bitcoin from actual holders to ETFs is a negative IMO.
reply
Agreed. Self custody is the only way. Lyn Alden recently went on Stephan Livera's podcast and explained how people who have self costody have disproportionately more power in consensus matters like forks than the ETF fund managers. There's nuance, but my takeaway was that the legal implications of holding on behalf of their investors complicates and slows their decision making, which is disadvantagous in fork scenarios. Haven't lived through this myself, so not 100% on how it works when theres a protocol change. Recommended listening -- a definite eye opener on 'governance' in the Bitcoin network.
reply
Yes, I have seen clips of this episode and I want to watch the whole thing. As a practical matter, running your own node will definitely give you an advantage, as was demonstrated during the blocksize war. I was just getting started then so I am not fully versed either, but the book is excellent, in case you haven't read it yet:
reply
Thank for the recommendation. I'll definitely check it out.
Pretty good review over in BooksAndArticles where I see it got Darth's seal of approval. Impressive.
reply