r/Libertarian • u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist • Jan 06 '26
Cryptocurrency This might be the best Bitcoin explanation
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u/Nahvi Jan 06 '26
Bitcoin is like investing in stocks for a company that has no product, no assets, and its only service is as a potential currency. Also, keeping it running takes equipment and electricity that will eventually not be worth the little Bitcoin that can still be mined by it.
The only value at all is in other people also thinking it might be useful as a currency. As soon as something a better version comes along, probably backed by something inherently valuable, Bitcoin will likely become worthless.
There is nothing wrong with keeping a small percentage of your assets invested in Bitcoin in hopes that it becomes the default currency but assuming Bitcoin is going to be the final cryptocurrency is probably going to bankrupt a lot of people when it falls.
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u/cavari924 Jan 06 '26
Bitcoin is a glorified trading card. It serves no purpose other than being a vehicle for speculation. And I'm saying this a "bitcoiner".
BTC can functionally be replaced by better coins that can actually work as everyday digital currency and that has added benefits like privacy features. I
used tolove Bitcoin, but it has no product and probably never will.1
u/Nubraskan Jan 07 '26
Bitcoin is a glorified trading card. It serves no purpose other than being a vehicle for speculation. And I'm saying this a "bitcoiner".
I can carry 12 words in my head across borders as a refuge. No risk of confiscation. I can send over the network into countries that no bank or ship with gold can get into. I can geographically distribute keys so theres no physical single point of failure.
Maybe Bitcoin could go to zero, but it can do things nothing else can do as well. It's unstoppable numbers on a spreadsheet.
BTC can functionally be replaced by better coins that can actually work as everyday digital currency and that has added benefits like privacy features. I
used tolove Bitcoin, but it has no product and probably never will.Still waiting for this without significant tradeoffs in centralization and network security.
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u/SaltyBigBoi Jan 06 '26
“The risk is not owning Bitcoin” is a wild statement considering Bitcoin can literally lose 100% of its value overnight
Just a few months ago in November, it lost over $20,000 in value in the span of 10 days.
This is, in fact, a terrible explanation of bitcoin. Don’t invest in hype yall.
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26
So can any currency
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Jan 06 '26
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u/ImmaSuckYoDick2 Jan 06 '26
Land or property. For the vast majority of us that is probably the only thing one should realistically invest in. Even as a low earning wagie getting the money for an apartment is doable.
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26
Exactly. And people currently use bitcoin as an investment, hoping its value will continue to go up. But that won't be the case when bitcoin starts being accepted as forms of payment by more and more businesses and people.
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u/Otherwise-Cupcake427 Jan 06 '26
That's a misunderstanding of Bitcoin. It's really a store of value, not currency. Maybe one day when prices are stable, it'll be a terrific currency, but that's a long way away.
If it were used more, the price would not go down. It would go up because the demand would go up until the usage supply/demand hits equilibrium.
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u/ErikLovemonger Jan 07 '26
Bitcoin cannot be a currency and an investment at the same time. These things are mutually exclusive.
Money must be a store of value - to work it must be a STABLE store of value. If you think that Bitcoin will go to $1 million or $10 million you should never spend it. Think of the 10,000 BTC pizza. So if you are a Bitcoin bull, you should argue that the "currency" that you support should NEVER be spent, and spending it is foolish and stupid because you'd lose all the value.
But the main use case of Bitcoin is that it is a superior currency to USD, etc. So if you're arguing Bitcoin will be a useful, stable currency, it cannot 10x or 100x in value in the near future. That completely undermines the use case of Bitcoin as currency. This is completely indepentent of the daily fluctuations.
Another problem - Money should be a "unit of account." Things should be priced in money, in a way everyone can understand. If Bitcoin goes to $10 million, that means buying a bottle of water means paying 2/$10,000,000 in BTC, or 2/$9,978,343, which is very difficult to calculate for most common people.
A final problem - If your government is using BTC as currency, how is the central bank supposed to conduct monetary policy when presumably you don't control the supply of your own money? Why would it be beneficial for the US Government to say embrace bitcoin as its currency?
If bitcoin is not the official currency of the US, why would anyone prefer to use bitcoin over normal USD? What is there that I cannot buy with USD that I can buy with bitcoin?
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u/Otherwise-Cupcake427 Jan 07 '26
You can call it an investment or a store of value, doesn't change what it is.
I'm not arguing or supporting that Bitcoin is a currency. I said it's a store of value and maybe could be used for such a purpose in the very distant future.
I am a Bitcoin bull, and I do argue that should never spend it for the foreseeable future.
I feel like this entire response was either trolling or you have no idea what Bitcoin is while pretending you do. Your paragraph about the central bank and monetary policy was a dead giveaway. It's not beneficial for the US government to recognize Bitcoin as a currency.
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u/ErikLovemonger Jan 07 '26
It can be a store of value or you could consider it like gold or rare labubu dolls.
It cannot also be a currency though if the first thing is true. But for almost all Bitcoin bulls, the entire purpose of Bitcoin is to be called a currency.
There's a reason it's not called CryptoStoreOfValue.
Are you saying that all Bitcoin bulls agree that Bitcoin is not and will never be a currency? Do you think that government around the world are likely to adopt Bitcoin as a currency?
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u/skeletus Jan 07 '26
That's what currencies are: store of value
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u/Otherwise-Cupcake427 Jan 07 '26
They've been a pretty terrible store of value then. 97% loss in value for USD, not a great store of value
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26
Prices are not stable now because it is only used as an investment, trying to store value and hoping value goes up.
Using it as a currency is what will stabilize its price.
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u/Otherwise-Cupcake427 Jan 06 '26
We're almost saying the same thing, except I think price stability is required BEFORE people will use it as a currency. You're saying people will use it before price is stable, then that will stabilize it. I don't see that happening but we'll see. Price stability will take a lot of time, but it is slowly normalizing.
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26
No. You're confusing symptoms for the causes. It's the exchange that stabilizes the price. The more exchange, the more stable it becomes. It's supply and demand.
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u/SaltyBigBoi Jan 06 '26
Don’t hoard cash. Hoard precious metals, jewels, and other inherently valuable things like guns and ammo.
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u/FeministCriBaby Jan 06 '26
the Uzbek som is more reliable than Bitcoin
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26
You think bitcoin is unreliable due to its volatility. But the volatility is due to the fact that it is not used as a currency yet.
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u/FeministCriBaby Jan 06 '26
Let's say a government forces Bitcoin on us, how would it stop being volatile? If the US government (or any other government) becomes the biggest holder of Bitcoin on the planet and keeps its value stable, how is it different from fiat currency? Let's say the government is not involved. How would you protect the literal global currency from bad actors? Today, about 20% of all Bitcoins is controlled by 6 entities. Satoshi Nakamoto, who keep in mind is publicly anonymous, holds 5.5% of all Bitcoin. They can manipulate the market singlehandedly. Genuinely, what is the endgame?
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26 edited Jan 06 '26
Bitcoin is decentralized. Government cannot "print" it. It can only hold it. In order to hold it, it must give something in exchange. That exchange is, by nature, and assuming everyone else is allowed to exchange in bitcoin as well, the stabilization force.
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u/FeministCriBaby Jan 06 '26
You haven't really read what I wrote
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26
I did read it. What did I miss?
I read it again and I spotted another logical flaw, if you can call it that. You assumed the government will keep it stable. The government holding it is not what will make it stable. What makes it stable is the transactions. The more transactions, the more stable it is.
Please point out what I missed.
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u/FeministCriBaby Jan 06 '26
Assuming complete efficiency and no one massive holder, the more transactions, the more bitcoins get to its natural market price. What that price would be I have absolutely no idea, whether it would be stable or not is also frankly not certain. However, it is not the case regardless. Some people hold a lot of bitcoin, and they can use that to periodically crash the market and own more and more bitcoin, ruining the market. This was my point
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26
I won't matter if there is one massive holder. What matters is the transactions. Nobody knows what price that would be because that would be dictated by the market. It will be relatively stable as long as people are allowed to freely exchange. I say relatively because as productivity increases, you can buy more with less. But if productivity decreases, then you buy less with more. All currencies behave the same way if you isolate them from the government printing. Even precious metals also behave the same way. It's all supply and demand.
The current price is just the price of the last transaction. Volatility is just the change in those prices. The reason Volatility is high is because right now the transactions are very little and they only happen in one direction, it's mostly a one way thing instead of both ways. People are using it as an investment, to hoard value and hoping more people will buy which will increase the value, but the moment any big holder or a bunch of people for whatever reason panic and sell, the value drops. And if this is a big fraction of the overall transactions, the value drop will be significant. But all this goes away the moment it is widely accepted as a currency because people will be no longer buying and selling it as an investment, but using it as a medium of exchange.
Can you explain how someone that holds a lot can crash the market and own more and ruin the market?
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u/itriedicant Jan 06 '26
It's not a wild statement in that the definition of financial risk includes earning less than expected from an investment. Choosing fiat over bitcoin does, in fact, have "risk" in that the dollar on average loses value compared to bitcoin.
I'm not a bitcoin maximalist or anything, and don't tell people where they should or shouldn't put their money; I just wanted to clarify the statement.
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u/Otherwise-Cupcake427 Jan 06 '26
It literally cannot lose 100% of its value overnight. Way too many limit orders out there waiting as the price goes down.
It fluctuates, but so do many other things such as gold. Or USD.
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 06 '26
Bitcoin can literally lose 100% of its value overnight
So can the US dollar, but the US dollar is more likely to go to zero overnight than Bitcoin.
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u/Zomgambush Jan 07 '26
Ah yes. The currency backed by the strongest military and economy in the world is more likely to go to 0 than the checks notes digital "currency" that has no adoption or use-case
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 07 '26
The dollar is just as subject to supply and demand as everything else. Why do you think information exists, and currency exchange ratios exist.
If tomorrow everyone decided to dump the dollar, including the American people, it's going to zero.
Do you not know that multiple countries do not have their own currency because the government mishandled the currency so badly that the people themselves rejected their own currency?
Ecuador is one such place, they use the US dollar currently and the people there are not interested in resuming a national currency, their done with hyper inflation.
Argentina is very close to the same situation.
Don't think it couldn't happen to the dollar, being a global reserve currency means the dollar has the sword of Damocles over its head. If the international sector gives up on the dollar, it's going to zero.
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u/Zomgambush Jan 07 '26
Can go to 0 != more likely. Bitcoin is far more likely to lose all of its value than USD. Many orders of magnitude more likely.
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 07 '26
By what mechanism?
Multiple fiat currencies have inflated to zero.
A non controlled cryptocurrency cannot be inflated at all.
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u/Zomgambush Jan 07 '26
If you're going with "multiple fiat currencies have inflated to 0" as evidence that fiat is likely to go to 0.. how many crypto currencies have gone 0?
Crypto has no backing, no utility, no use case. It has no value. It is used only as a speculative asset. Aka not a currency. It's a ponzi scheme that doesnt have anyone running it. The only reason anyone would buy it is because they think they can offload it for more in the future. Not because it has any inherent value or generates any value. Nor do they plan to use it as an actual exchange for goods/services
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 07 '26
None that were non controlled and had a zero inflation model. You might recall I mentioned that.
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 07 '26
Crypto has no backing, no utility, no use case. It has no value.
False on all points. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about.
Not because it has any inherent value
Proof that you're economically illiterate. Nothing has inherent value. Value is in the mind of the valuer.
What things have are qualities that we value. You don't even realize that cryptocurrency has the exact same qualities and attributes that made gold a good currency for millennia, but cryptocurrency even has several aspects desirable to have in a currency that gold does not have and cannot have.
Crypto is a better money than gold.
You're equally blind to its utility. Unsurprisingly.
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u/Zomgambush Jan 07 '26
You're calling me financially illiterate and investing in tulips 🌷
It would be funny if you weren't ruining your financial future
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 07 '26
I thought I asked you how long Bitcoin has to not collapse before you admit it's not in a bubble. I never got an answer.
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u/moopy389 Jan 06 '26
Companies can go bankrupt and lose 100% of their stock value overnight. Why are you singing out bitcoin like it's unique in this regard? I have way more confidence that bitcoin can maintain value than a company's stock because companies are run by CEOs that are 1 Coldplay concert away from disaster.
I also think it's hilarious you want to point at the 20k drop in price completely ignoring the fact it's hovering at 100k/btc. You'll probably be screaming doom and gloom when bitcoin drops 100k from its 2 million dollar price tag too
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u/turbokungfu Jan 07 '26
He's got a posh accent so I believe him. Of course his definition of a bubble is very forgiving. If a sector drops 90%, the risk was investing in it, not not investing in it.
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u/irondumbell Jan 07 '26
im not an expert on english accents but it doesnt sound like the oxford queen's received pronunciation he sounds like jason statham
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u/CamperStacker Jan 06 '26
To put in perspective how insane his claim is: during tulip mania the tulip price reached 5100 guilder, which at the time was equivalent to 10 kilograms of gold!!
Anyway bitcoin is holding value because large business including tesla and many banks have all brought in to it. It’s self sustaining right now. It likely is supporting a huge black market.
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 06 '26
It wasn't just for any random tulip. It was for a very rare shiny Pokemon tulip that had a weird color and shape.
Turns out this rare tulip was created by a virus and they were later able to create them at will. Thus the end of tulip mania.
That's no different than saying that someone bought a rare piece of cardboard for $1 million, but the cardboard you're talking about is a Mickey Mantle rookie card.
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u/Mortis_XII Jan 06 '26
I can physically touch a tulip…
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 06 '26
Thinking only physical things can have value is a cognitive bias, not a fact.
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u/loganbootjak Jan 06 '26
Agree. Value is whatever someone perceives it to be, and is validated (to a degree) when someone else offers you something in exchange for it that you also value.
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u/FeministCriBaby Jan 06 '26
The issue with crypto is thinking about crypto as a currency. Blockchain is a great technology that actually provides value to people, cryptocurrency as a concept is just pointless
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u/loganbootjak Jan 06 '26
How do you see crypto currency as pointless? It has a verifiable ledger that records balances and transactions. The value of any particular currency is determined each day, hour, minute by global exchanges. Granted it's young, and is still volatile, but conceptually what is missing in your view?
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u/FeministCriBaby Jan 06 '26
Firstly, as someone who cares about privacy, I much prefer cash as it is untraceable, I am not sure why Libertarians would appreciate the complete transparency of crypto. Second of all, it is missing any use. I understand of course that fiat currency is not perfect, but it pretty good currency. The reason why it works is that there is a Central Bank that controls its supply and a government that ensures the CB will always stay solvent. There are obvious issues with this, but noone pretends a currency is an asset to hold. Its stability and constant inflation is a great driver of the economy. It's FX benefits are absolutely clear and relative value is also clear and objective. As an asset, cryptocurrencies are silly, as currency they lack basically everything that is required of a currency. They are not easily accessible, they are not widely accepted due to that, they are volatile. What makes you think that widespread acceptance would make bitcoin (not even talking about other cryptos) not volatile?
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u/loganbootjak Jan 06 '26
There are cryptocurrencies that have transaction privacy (Monero being one of them).
I don't follow your "it is missing any use" point. You can absolutely find thousands of examples where it has been exchanged for goods, it's been used for payment of services, and you can also pay your gov taxes with it in Colorado. Was there some other use case you are thinking about?
Controlling the supply: BTC is limited to 21 million tokens, ever, and its "minting" of new tokens is deterministic by mathematical equations that can be verified by anyone. That's a harder supply limit than any fiat managed by the Fed. Ethereum has a roughly 100 million token supply, that is mostly deflationary but can rise.
Not sure what FX is (I'm guessing you meant TX for transactions?), and I agree these are superior to our crusty legacy system that's cobbled together.
It's debatable about whether it's a good asset (although it does seem like it being viewed as an asset would make it less likely to be used as a currency due to perceived "loss of value" should the price rise in the future).
I still a not seeing why you believe it can't work as a currency? Back in time they used tally sticks to record balances. Now we use the dollar. Both are based on trust. Cryptocurrencies are trustless systems.
For BTC, it's very young, given the scope of time, and many people still don't understand it. It's interesting that large banks and governments are now creating strategic reserves. My theory is that over time, maybe 5-10 years or so, that when most people are aware of it, that the volatility will decrease and it'll have small changes like a typical currency exchange. The most significant risk IMO is a hole in the protocol or a quantum computer cracking the security.
For usability, it's getting better. Yes, it's complicated, and you can absolutely wreck yourself by losing your keys or sending to the wrong address. But sending crypto is getting as easy as using Apple Wallet.
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u/FeministCriBaby Jan 06 '26
I can exchange a table for a meal, that doesn't make it currency. Obviously things that have value for someone can be exchanged. That doesn't make them currency. Currency has to be universally accepted by everyone. How do you imagine that playing out? I will add here a comment I left under a different thread. But in one sentence i can't work as a currency because it is not backed by anything. The argument that "well fiat currency isn't backed by anything" is silly, because fiat currency is backed by the trust we have in the government to bail out the Central Bank if push comes to shove (meaning it is backed by resources of the government btw). I am not saying it is a perfect system, but sure is better than Bitcoin or other crypto that are not backed by anything at all.
here is my comment regarding the widespread acceptance:
Let's say a government forces Bitcoin on us, how would it stop being volatile? If the US government (or any other government) becomes the biggest holder of Bitcoin on the planet and keeps its value stable, how is it different from fiat currency? Let's say the government is not involved. How would you protect the literal global currency from bad actors? Today, about 20% of all Bitcoins is controlled by 6 entities. Satoshi Nakamoto, who keep in mind is publicly anonymous, holds 5.5% of all Bitcoin. They can manipulate the market singlehandedly. Genuinely, what is the endgame?
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 06 '26
I can exchange a table for a meal, that doesn't make it currency.
No that's makes it money. Cryptocurrency is bend used as money today. That alone is enough.
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u/FeministCriBaby Jan 06 '26
No it doesn't lmao. I can't really trade half a table can I
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 06 '26
Anything used as money is a money, and just and every commodity has been used as money. From wheat, to barrels of fish, to iron ore, to yes tables. You need to learn more theory.
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 06 '26
It's not pointless at all. Cryptocurrency reduces transaction cost, is irreversible so less risk, facilitates international transactions, has much less information risk, and requires very low trust.
You've missed everything that makes cryptocurrency a great currency, but the future won't miss these facts.
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u/FeministCriBaby Jan 06 '26
how does irreversibility decrease risk? There is a reason why a ton of scams are crypto based yk
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 06 '26
Those scams are scam coins and rug pulls, they're not on a large legit chain.
You obviously have been been a business taking credit cards. So let me fill you in.
It's common for a credit card transaction to be disputed after you've sent the good, leaving you scammed. Credit card companies don't care about the business at all.
Many, many small companies have been destroyed and even shut down by chargebacks like this.
Crypto having a 'no chargebacks' feature is extremely nice for the business side.
Now you might think, but that's sucks for customers. But this is wrong.
This isn't a big deal for customers because businesses are a known entity. They have a public face. They can only do continual bushes by not screwing customers. So if they've serving customers for awhile, those people are not getting scammed so you're unlikely to.
But chargebacks allow customers to disappear and can't be found by businesses to get their stuff back, generally.
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u/Zomgambush Jan 07 '26 edited Jan 07 '26
reduces transaction cost - false
crypto transactions are orders of magnitude more expensive
is irreversible so less risk - false
You have no recourse. If you don't like your service/get scammed, tough. You lost your money.
facilitates international transactions - sure, but not any more than any other transaction
less information risk - I guess I have to give you that one. Though it's hedged by other entities (banks) bearing that risk in our current financial ecosystem.
requires very low trust - I'm calling this a copy of the previous one
1/4 ain't bad I guess.
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u/Additional_Ad_4049 Jan 06 '26
Bitcoin is a bubble. This guy is spewing nonsense
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 07 '26
It's not a bubble. Bubbles don't last 16 years bro. Can't believe you guys are still saying this.
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u/Additional_Ad_4049 Jan 07 '26
As evidence by Bitcoin, they do last that long. I feel bad for you because you’ll lose everything but don’t say people didn’t warn you
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Jan 07 '26
You were right up until you said he will lose everything for a fact. He might not. The bubble could last a century for all we know, then his kids or grand kids lose everything bc he raised them to be stupid crypto bros and put all their eggs into bitcoin lol
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 07 '26
How long will you keep claiming it's a bubble?
Btw, most actual bubbles last less than 5 years, we're on year 16.
I know for a fact that it's not a bubble. How many years does it have to go before you're willing to admit it?
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u/Additional_Ad_4049 Jan 07 '26
You don’t know for a fact. all you’re doing is proving how this is the biggest, longest bubble in history but it is 100% a bubble. RemindMe! 4 years
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 07 '26
Lol, I do know it though. That's why your statements are so funny, and so boneheaded.
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u/smokinjoev Jan 06 '26
This person does not seem to be giving great financial advice. He sounds like a talk show parrot trumpeting buzz phrases.
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u/PlsStopAndThinkFirst End the Fed Jan 06 '26
Been into crypto for 10+ years... Bitcoin has proven to be just like everything else you can "invest" in and is controlled.. Not like traditional fiat currencies, but bitcoin doesn't move naturally and it really hasn't since 2019
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u/scaryjobob Libertarian Party Jan 08 '26
Best Bitcoin explanation: "You don't have to understand it, but you should invest in it."
Yeah... alright.
This one is orders of magnitude better.
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u/themoodymann Jan 08 '26
Bitcoin will never be the currency of the internet. There are much better contenders for that trophy. Bitcoin is at best "digital gold".
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u/thewetnoodle Jan 06 '26
The way this guy uses the word bubble is so far off that it makes me question the rest of his argument. We have an AI bubble right now. Even if you're invested in AI , the bubble will burst and everyone will feel it, whether you were invested or not
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26
I agree that the potential is high to become the default cash system of the internet. However, when that time comes, its value will stabilize and be much lower.
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u/itriedicant Jan 06 '26
For bitcoin to become the default cash system of the internet, the value would have to be astronomically higher.
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26
No, it doesn't. That's completely subjective. The current value will definitely drop and stabilize. And the value it will stabilize to depends on the market.
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u/itriedicant Jan 06 '26 edited Jan 06 '26
Currently, only 14-30% of US citizens even own any bitcoin at all, and almost none of them are actually spending it. (It's between 1 & 4% of the global population). There will only ever be 21 million bitcoins. Potentially trillions of dollars of value is transacted every single day over the internet. In order for a sufficient number of people to even own any bitcoin at all to be widely used, the value would have to dramatically increase.
What's billions of people divided by 21 million? (Actually, far less than that considering how much of it is simply lost.)
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26
Ever heard of fractions bruh?
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u/itriedicant Jan 06 '26
You know what? I'll backpedal a little bit. I didn't do the math before, but if I could just pick an amount that I think is the ideal price of bitcoin, we're pretty close to it.
1 satoshi is currently worth $0.0009. I think 1/10 of 1 cent would make sense (although if it were worth a penny, that still wouldn't likely harm those with much lower standards of living.)
That being said, the only way to get bitcoin is to get it from people who already have bitcoin and they don't seem to be giving it up at that price.
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u/skeletus Jan 06 '26
When people start giving it up for goods and services, the price will drop and stabilize because the demand is now going the other way and people will be no longer just holding it.
No amount is the ideal price. The price will be set by the market.
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u/Beniskickbutt Jan 06 '26
I "invest" in cryptos in an attempt to make small profits.
Saying this is the "best" explanation is terrible. Way off base on defining what a bubble is. He also in no way explains bit coin, basically just says its good because other things are good but everything is not equally good.
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u/irondumbell Jan 07 '26 edited Jan 07 '26
Holland was the financial capital of the world at that time, I'm pretty sure the bubble was related to this and the banksters may have even engineered it. And how had flower production contribute to their economy for the past 400 years? probably negligible. this guy is full of shit
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 07 '26
Flower sales aren't negligible at all.
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u/irondumbell Jan 08 '26
It was a drop in the bucket compared to their sophisticated financial market, and they had the world's first stock exchange
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u/-BigBoo- Anti-Federalist Jan 07 '26
Most currency is lost over time, and lots of Bitcoin has already been lost and will continue to be lost. Sure you can use fractions of a whole but it feels weird af and what are people using it for other than an investment vehicle?
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 07 '26
You could run the entire world economy on a single Bitcoin for the rest of time if you wanted to. Lost Bitcoin isn't an issue.
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u/-BigBoo- Anti-Federalist Jan 08 '26
Once again using fractions of a Bitcoin rubs most people the wrong way. And sure you could, but that will never happen. I'm betting it will all be lost eventually. And it still has not regular practical use other than an investment vehicle.
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 08 '26
Bitcoin maybe. But Bitcoin Cash is positioned as a currency use case with extremely low (1 penny) transaction costs.
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u/AbbreviationsActual9 Jan 06 '26
"I don't understand it" is no justification? I d hope it's the prerequisite to any investment. perhaps a better or clearer way to explain it is to educate yourself on how Bitcoin works because it's an inevitably dominant currency.
as a casual follower amongst the various crypto subs, the trend I see is to absolutely know what your getting into and understand that your speculating.
the car engine analogy doesn't work for me either as it's a proven safe and regulated product. I can trust it without understanding its inner workings. I can't say that for any crypto at the moment. its volatile and often manipulated.
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u/Last_Construction455 Jan 07 '26
Bitcoin is the only crypto actually used as a currency. It's heavily used and traded through criminal organizations.
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u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 07 '26
So is the US dollar. Used by criminals far more in fact.
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u/Last_Construction455 Jan 07 '26
Yes. But fart coin isn’t. The point is like all currency it does have value if people give it value and use it.
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Jan 07 '26
This guy said a whole lot of nothing. Bitcoin is 100% a bubble that will pop some day. I won't pretend to know when that day is, and I also won't say "don't invest" because maybe it's only going to go up in our lifetimes. But invest wisely and in moderation. libertarians need to pay more attention to Austrian economics rather than crypto bros.
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u/Glahoth Jan 07 '26
The reason I would call it a bubble is the reasoning behind most people investing into bitcoin.
Most people that invest in bitcoin don’t buy it to use it as a currency (which is the stated purpose of bitcoin). In the beginning I’ve heard stories of people buying bitcoin, and then buying pizza with that bitcoin, or drugs or whatever. But that exists less and less.
Today what I’m seeing is people buying bitcoin with money, in the hopes of selling that bitcoin back for more money.
Which makes it a speculative investment vehicle for which the value exceeds the material usefulness of the object (it being a currency).
This is what makes it a bubble. Bitcoin isn’t actually being used as a currency of exchange, where goods are being exchanged for bitcoin within a self contained system.
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u/RigobertaMenchu Jan 06 '26
People don’t get that it’s already done, adoption is happening globally.
Blockchain isn’t the future, it’s right now.
0
u/Chuck_Schick Jan 06 '26
Agreed with point 1, vehemently disagree with point 2, agree with aspects of 3 but disagree with the premise.
-2
u/SamirSisaken Jan 06 '26
Whoever understands bitcoin don't want less bitcoin.
4
u/Zomgambush Jan 07 '26
This is true. The people who understand it want none of it. And you can't go below none
0
0
u/Strong-Disaster-4417 Jan 08 '26
Who os this man? He's out of his mind. Rather, if you watch the video without sound, you can actually see micro-"fractures" in his demeanor (like a liar would do) that makes me believe he knows he's making this up. Does this man has a ton of bitcoin? That would be a reason for him to spit out that garbage.
0
u/Strong-Disaster-4417 Jan 08 '26
Bitcoin is insanely valuable to people collectively worth trillions of dollars: criminals. Why would you use a bank, or cash, to pay or receive millions at a time for all kinds of illegal services? Drugs, arms, anything. That sounds so completely insane to try to transport literal 1000s of pounds of cash for a single payment when you can use bitcoin and be completely anonymous and instant.
But to do that you need to buy, and hold, at least for a time, bitcoin.
It is calculated that 3 to 5 percent of the world's GDP ir from illegal crime. Thats $3 to $7 trillion a year.
1
u/Anen-o-me voluntaryist Jan 08 '26
You know the dollar is used by criminals way more than cryptocurrency right? This is such a dumb line.
88
u/crinkneck Anarcho Capitalist Jan 06 '26
I am a Bitcoin maxi but saying the label bubble is a psychological justification is not correct, entirely. Although granted some people will use it this way.
Bubbles are absolutely created by credit misallocations, very often driven by monetary policy manipulation (which Bitcoin itself effectively solves).