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331 sats \ 22 replies \ @k00b 9 Dec \ on: The Fallacy of Store of Value vs. Medium of Exchange bitcoin
I'd add to this that some of the VC funded companies in Bitcoin, even those championed by the vanguard and vanguard's influencers, have premised their businesses on Bitcoin not succeeding as a MoE.
I'd also recommend @roy's SoV and MoE post. It's the best I've read on this.
Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks @k00b. I mean, it isn't a MoE yet and who knows how long it will be until it is so as a VC it might be a good bet. VCs aren't thinking as long term as bitcoiners IMO.
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I think good VCs are going to bet all over the place, trusting the founders to be making the right calls. I don't mean to criticize them or the founders of those companies, only to call attention to incentives that run counter to bitcoin being a MoE producing such narratives.
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Yeah, totally.
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@roy's article is much better than mine. He probably spent more time on it and is smarter than me :).
I only have one beef. I don't think you can say bitcoin is a MoE yet. Not in the way I hear economists describe MoE. As I stated in my post.
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Nah, you're right. It is 100% semantics but some seem to not get that angle. Language is not math lol. Its why I am ways hated what they now call "language arts" in US schools.
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Dang, didn't realize how alike our titles are. I missed this post. No way I would have seen this and not zapped it. Thanks.
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Wait... which ones???
???
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All the Bitcoin-related companies I've used and purchased things from... took Bitcoin as payment. All of them on-chain but some of them Lightning too. That's MoE...
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See... this is where people get confused. All of the econ people I have read define MoE and a generally accepted medium for goods and services. Its all down to how you define the term. It sounds like the way you are using the term stocks could be a MoE since you can use services and covert stocks to dollars and dollars to stocks.
I think I defined MoE in a limited way on purpose to avoid this confusion. When you talk to normies about bitcoin they almost ask if they can buy stuff with it. Yeah, they can. But what are the chances that the store down the street accepts it? Small. They hear currency and think of other currencies they know about like the dollar.
When you try to tell them its a medium of exchange when it really isn't yet you lose them before you have them. That's my point. We often miss the bigger point.
The point is that adoption is the barrier. Not some flaw in bitcoin.
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Bitcoin will not be a widespread medium of exchange until people
- are more comfortable talking about it
- stop calling it a scam all the time (like most Western newspapers)
- and stop getting burned by 'crypto-scams' on tik-tok (like the spitting hawk thing)
All of this improves with education which will take time.
Beyond that Bitcoin needs to be more stable and have better total market penetration... and imo Bitcoin's total addressable market is huge. It is all digital businesses, resources, store-fronts, and capital. It's really big.
And once a large percentage of that has been capitalized... the volatility will decrease and be more practical to use as MoE. But that's not today it will take time, education being the precursor... leading to SoV leading to daily-use leading to market penetration leading to MoE.
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Here's the deal. When people start asking or talking about bitcoin you usually only have a few moments before you lose their attention. Easy to get bogged down in stuff that they don't care about or understand.
I don't think I have ever used the phrase "medium of exchange" when talking to a no-coiner. Most people have no clue what that even is...
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A few times when I've brought up Bitcoin to people... they've been receptive (which is cool!).
And then I see them the next day and they're like 'ya so I bought some dogecoin or Shiba Inu coin on Coinbase! "Elon is going to pump them! Have you heard the recent Tesla news?!" (I've had someone tell me exactly this... like this exact situation.)
And at which point I'm just like kinda speechless lol.
Just to be clear... people are 100% free to do what they want with their money and time... but if they're buying Shiba Inu, even Doge to leave on Coinbase i'm not sure they're ready yet.
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I've never had this experience but everyone I know that has at some point had bitcoin also bought shitcoins and they will say the stuff you outlined.
I usually hear bitcoin or crypto brought up and based on the context I usually clarify that I'm not into shitcoins (alt-coins) and a brief reason why. It feels like something I have to do for exactly your experience. There are so many scams. I've even had a rather well off businessman ask me if he should buy bitcoin. I told him he should understand it. Spend a few hours of research and offered to help him. He passed...
I mean, I get it. He's focused on his business and has a guy do his investment for him. Investment advisors are not recommending bitcoin in high numbers from what I've heard. Not the types that small business owners use at least. The big boys people might be though.
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I think Bitcoin really appeals to people who want to take the time to learn self-custody.
Why? Because if you are buying the etf... and don't know what a seed phrase is, you don't know what the 'mempool' is, you don't know how a transaction works or and you've never made one (EVER) and you've never even looked one up...
How the heck could you know what you're buying?
???
And if you've never heard of Lightning or used it (incredibly unlikely if you haven't done the other things) then how could you possibly appreciate Bitcoin's value and utility?
I think this is what results in the 'editorial' or 'cnbc' syndrome... where the 'critiquers' have never made a Bitcoin transaction and have never even heard of the 'mempool' so they are completely in the dark lol.
Value appreciation starts in Self-Custody... it doesn't start with the ETFs even if those are 'more available' through a brokerage they don't teach someone anything.
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Yes, this is a good point. I think Saylor often says things in different ways to different audiences. I'm not defending him, just an observation. He's a prime example of the effect of incentives on how companies talk about bitcoin.
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If M Saylor came out on CNBC... and started talking openly and directly about Bitcoin 'replacing the dollar' or 'competing directly with the dollar as a global safe haven'...
Right or wrong, good bad or indifferent he would get phone calls. Probably from a lot of people.
Even if he believes those things (and maybe he does maybe he doesn't) he absolutely cannot say them in public.
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He sounds like a statist. He says things I disagree with... but he's MUCH closer to my views than the CEO or face of any public company I'm aware of.
I'm not aware of a more based dude in that role.
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Exactly. I don't care what he really believes. He does have influence but I'm not worried about it. What can I do after all. Just be the positive influence in my circles.
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when you are a blind bitcoiner follower of influencers, just listen to Darth's voice leading to the light...
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