American Economics Thread

BlackWindMnt

Major
Registered Member
Thanks for the history lesson.

When Bitcoin came out, I remember there were no laws!

Never really followed it, so never knew what happened next. Other than it went up, and up, and up. Then it went down, then up again.
Those law are really recent, that is probably why they started doing the campaign that bitcoin is only used for drugs and weapon sales to scare off big finance. But now that its more regulated and accepted big finance will now start pouring in the big money.

I do feel like a idiot, I mined like 10 bitcoins when it was still possible to do so on a gaming laptop, then I sold it for like 200 euro to make a gaming pc. If I had just hodled and sold some this year could have pretty much retire in my late 20s and live off dividend income or I could have bought like 4 relative cheap houses and rent it to students. Hind sight 20/20
 

quantumlight

Junior Member
Registered Member
Those law are really recent, that is probably why they started doing the campaign that bitcoin is only used for drugs and weapon sales to scare off big finance. But now that its more regulated and accepted big finance will now start pouring in the big money.

I do feel like a idiot, I mined like 10 bitcoins when it was still possible to do so on a gaming laptop, then I sold it for like 200 euro to make a gaming pc. If I had just hodled and sold some this year could have pretty much retire in my late 20s and live off dividend income or I could have bought like 4 relative cheap houses and rent it to students. Hind sight 20/20
Just like the tulip mania in 1600s did make some people rich from the speculation if they timed it right, but the tulip wasnt worth a house and it never increased net wealth of society, just shuffled and redistributed money around from the late bag holders transferred to early adopters before the whole pyramid scheme imploded

Sure you could have individually benefitted if you played cards right, but only at the expense of another sucker that propped you up when you sold out...

In all pyramids the bottom rung is by far the largest.. the net effect is most people who hold bitcoin are going to be left holding the fake virtual bag as real resources are devied up by the elites who get to convert their dollars to real assets like silver, gold, land on the cheap whilsts joe six pack and the common sheeple is holding the scamcoins thinking they have become (paper) millionaires

Back in 2013 I knew a coworker who was kicking himself for selling 50 bitcoins at 50 usd each, by then it climbed to 1500 usd... he definetly would have sold it all at 1500 if he still had them, then he would kick himself again in 2017 when it peaked at 17000 and again today at 60000...

Its the mind playing tricks on you, you only see what you missed just like if you can only guess correctly two more numbers you would win power lottery etc but its still rigged against the average person

Bitcoin is a redistribution of existing wealth not a creation nor storage of additional wealth

By mathematical definition, the majority of people whom participate in a pyramid scheme will not be able to benefit from it
 
Last edited:

BlackWindMnt

Major
Registered Member
Just like the tulip mania in 1600s did make some people rich from the speculation if they timed it right, but the tulip wasnt worth a house and it never increased net wealth of society, just shuffled and redistributed money around from the late bag holders transferred to early adopters before the whole pyramid scheme imploded

Sure you could have individually benefitted if you played cards right, but only at the expense of another sucker that propped you up when you sold out...

In all pyramids the bottom rung is by far the largest.. the net effect is most people who hold bitcoin are going to be left holding the fake virtual bag as real resources are devied up by the elites who get to convert their dollars to real assets like silver, gold, land on the cheap whilsts joe six pack and the common sheeple is holding the scamcoins thinking they have become (paper) millionaires

Back in 2013 I knew a coworker who was kicking himself for selling 50 bitcoins at 50 usd each, by then it climbed to 1500 usd... he definetly would have sold it all at 1500 if he still had them, then he would kick himself again in 2017 when it peaked at 17000 and again today at 60000...

Its the mind playing tricks on you, you only see what you missed just like if you can only guess correctly two more numbers you would win power lottery etc but its still rigged against the average person

Bitcoin is a redistribution of existing wealth not a creation nor storage of additional wealth

By mathematical definition, the majority of people whom participate in a pyramid scheme will not be able to benefit from it
Those real assets you're talking about, are only real assets because people believe/believed they are real assets. Gold and silver are valuable because they are rare, they took a lot of effort/labor to mine, purify, smelt and mint. Same with bitcoin the flow of new bitcoin becomes more rare over time reaching a max at around 21 million bitcoins. To mine bitcoin takes a lot of effort/labor, you need to design faster/more efficient ASICS, design better data centers and decrease cooling costs etc. You need some top level engineers. So a bitcoin also represent a certain amount of effort/labor.

The thing with Gold and Silver is that it will go to zero once space mining becomes a thing, that might be late this century or somewhere in the early 2200s. Just look up Asteroid 16 psyche aka the gold asteroid. The thing about bitcoin is your really can't out tech the 21 million limit on bitcoin, even suggesting to removing the cap will unleash a new crypto civil war, like the block size wars from some years ago. Where groups within bitcoin community forked bitcoin and built their own currencies that kind of failed later on.

You now also have multiple generation that don't really give a sh!t about gold and silver locked up in some dusty old vault, that also grew up as digital citizens that see digital items the same as real physical items. I know because when I was a teen/early twenties I also spend multiple times 5~10 euros on stupid outfits in online games. This same generation is also told that renting things is cheaper and more convenient then buying.

For millennials and younger generation bitcoin has the same narrative as gold and silver had for previous generations, but the features are so much better then gold and silver. You don't need an expensive/heavy ass vault, don't have to pay to transfer physical gold from location A to location B. You don't have to be afraid as a country that the US or UK can confiscate your gold like they did with Venezuela. You don't have to push gold bars into your anus just to smuggle it out of a country(india).

Where I do agree with is that bitcoin will create a class of people that will benefit greatly from the cantillon effect, because they were early and are now way up there in the pyramid. For many it doesn't really matter if Satoshi Nakamoto is a real person, a group of persons or the CIA. Because gold and silver bars/coins are also just products made by governmental institutions but only 5000 years in the past.

An interesting view on money and debt is the book of the late writer David Graeber called "Debt: The first 5000 years" in the later chapters it describes how societies usually switch back and forth between hard currencies like gold, silver and bitcoin(today) and virtual currencies like fiat money. This switch is usually initiated by the elites or opinion makers(influencers) of a society and the normal people are usually late to the party.
 

quantumlight

Junior Member
Registered Member
Gold and silver are valuable because they are rare, they took a lot of effort/labor to mine, purify, smelt and mint. Same with bitcoin the flow of new bitcoin becomes more rare over time reaching a max at around 21 million bitcoins. To mine bitcoin takes a lot of effort/labor, you need to design faster/more efficient ASICS, design better data centers and decrease cooling costs etc. You need some top level engineers. So a bitcoin also represent a certain amount of effort/labor
Wrong entirely...

I defer you to my post here which points out your misconceptions


In short, bitcoin has zero intrinsic value, it is a glorified digital bookkeeping system nothing more (peer to peer distributed general ledger) and its a pure net energy sink in that unlike mining for coal or uranium, mining for bitcoin also uses up real energy but produces absolutely zero energy nor resources in return. It has a EROEI of zero

Gold was created in the heart of a dying star that went supernova.... its not created by man. bitcoin is made up, matter of fact blockchain is the protocol and there can be infinite unlimited number of alt coins of which bitcoin is just one single instance of countless possible many, none if which add any real value to the system but actually serve to dilute the purchashing power of all other existing monies and curriencies.
 

quantumlight

Junior Member
Registered Member
The thing with Gold and Silver is that it will go to zero once space mining becomes a thing, that might be late this century or somewhere in the early 2200s. Just look up Asteroid 16 psyche aka the gold asteroid. The thing about bitcoin is your really can't out tech the 21 million limit on bitcoin, even suggesting to removing the cap will unleash a new crypto civil war, like the block size wars from some years ago. Where groups within bitcoin community forked bitcoin and built their own currencies that kind of failed later on.
Again, you have misconception that just because it takes energy to mine bitcoin that somehow that equates to added value or wealth, it dont.

There can be infinite many virtual cryptocurriencies. Nothing stops you from making your own. Bitcoin is a speculation vehicle right now merely because of first mover advantage and the social network effect. In truth its more worthless than a tulip.

Need I remind you in terms of network effect before facebook there was livejournal, xanga, secondlife, friendster, and myspace... what are they worth now? can you still buy a house with a tulip?
 

gelgoog

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Gold is relatively rare in the universe. It takes a supernova i.e. a star blowing up to create it.

Right now launch costs are so high space mining makes no sense.
It might change if things like Starship are all they're cracked up to be but I doubt it.

Gold also has intrinsic value in itself as it can be used for all sorts of applications. Including industrial applications. It can be used as a cathalyst for several kinds of chemical reactions. The fact it is a noble metal which doesn't corrode also makes it useful.
 
Last edited:

quantumlight

Junior Member
Registered Member
Gold is relatively rare in the universe. It takes a supernova i.e. a star blowing up to create it.
Right now launch costs are so high space mining makes no sense. It might change if things like Starship are all they're cracked up to be but I doubt it.
By then bitcoin will have gone the way of myspace as Digital Yuan becomes new global reserve

I still remember when people were selling and buying virtual land in SecondLife because "they arent making more of it" and some even made a living renting out virtual land to virtual tenants
 
Top