Comments by FTS (page 7)

@ilbbaicnl, being an open technology doesn’t imply that Bitcoin isn’t a digital algorithm. The two are not mutually exclusive. “You do not, as an owner of bitcoins, receive any royalties from any Blockchain user.” You still don’t get it. Bitcoin is hard money, like gold. Do gold holders receive a royalty? What does a royalty have to do with anything? I can hold my Bitcoins and pass it on to my children. I can borrow against it at 0.000%. Can you do that? I can store my savings in a usb thumb drive, or in a password in my head, move to a different country, and never have to worry about my wealth being confiscated or repatriated. Citizens of emerging companies can completely bypass the detrimental effects of high inflation in the local currency be saving their earnings in Bitcoin and only converting that BTC into the local currency at the point-of-sale. Also, technically speaking, Bitcoin holders can earn interest on the Bitcoin (in like kind, I.e. BTC interest on BTC interest-savings account). So actually, you’re wrong in two ways. Who is the numbnuts now? Sadly, it’s still you.

Alright, desertscrub, put your money where your mouth is. How much do you want to bet that it’s not gone in 5 years? How about a gentleman’s wager—if it’s all NOT completely gone in 5 years, then you admit that you’re wrong about everything related to Bitcoin. If it IS gone in 5 years then I will admit that I was wrong about Bitcoin and everything related to Bitcoin.

Oh, and— @PussyLicker2 doesn’t understand that PayPal is just another company that uses the traditional financial rails of fiat banks, and credit card companies, all of which operate by inefficient methods and techniques, whereas Strike is a company that harnesses the efficiency of Bitcoin / Lightning Network and completely bypasses all of the traditional financial rails.

So, to sum up— @desertscrub is a scrub who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He conflates altcoins with Bitcoin. He refuses to acknowledge that the IRS and the SEC and other government agencies have categorized Bitcoin as a digital commodity, and all other altcoins as securities. He doesn’t recognize that the innovation of Satoshi Nakamoto is akin to other major discoveries, and the alternatives are just copycat scams. He’s in denial. @ilbbaicnl also doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He doesn’t understand the mechanics of Bitcoin mining and transaction signing/broadcasting. He thinks Bitcoin is a “non-productive asset,” which is only true if you exclude efficiencies gained through the creation and use of digital algorithms. And, he think’s it’s a mere speculation that the the price of Bitcoin will appreciate against the dollar, despite the fact that the number of Bitcoins that could possibly exist is capped at 21 million while the number of fiat dollars, euros, etc. that could possibly exist is INFINITY (and that’s where it’s headed). @SanchoRG doesn’t realize that the proper way to graph an exponential function is to use a logarithmic scale. To answer your question, SanchoRG—YES, they can squeeze more blood out of that stone for as long as they want because the truth is there is no stone, and no blood, to squeeze. It’s just a number in a computer database, and they can make as many trillions as they want. You all can keep working to accumulate, and measuring value in terms of (see Wikipedia “numeraire”), a number that is fundamentally unlimited and trivially easy to create more units. I will work to accumulate, and measure value in terms of, a number that is of a fixed, finite quantity, a number that actually costs energy to produce more units.

I don’t expect you to be convinced because of some big name investors. That would be illogical. Frankly, I don’t have any expectations. I’m just offering the good news. I’m spreading the news for free. You can do with it what you want. The people who try to figure it out, fundamentally, at a philosophical, economic, and technological level… those people eventually see the light, and they recognize the value of Bitcoin. If it was an Excel spreadsheet, then why would over 100 million people, from all around the globe, use it? Go make a shared spreadsheet and see how far you get in making it a reliable and robust currency for over 100 million people. I dare you. I’m offering the good news because it’s good. But, of course, some people never learned how to help themselves, so some people would rather bury their heads in the sand than recognize the truth.

@BitcoinHodler, what you’re describing is called the Realized Market Cap. You’re probably not even aware that there is a burgeoning industry in on-chain analytics that comes up with metrics like this, and many that are much more sophisticated. The realized market cap of Bitcoin is about a half trillion. No, Tetradon, I’m not mad. Why would I be? I own a large portion of the hardest currency in human history. I can use it to get 0% APR loans! It’s totally transformed my life, and I thank God for Bitcoin every day. I am ashamed for all of you who don’t have a clue. “Spreadsheet.” If it’s a spreadsheet then go write it a transaction that gives yourself 10 bitcoins and then sell it for half a million dollars. Oh wait, you can’t!

“Glorified spreadsheet” Only an idiot could believe that a spreadsheet, or even a glorified spreadsheet, could be worth more than $1 trillion dollars. Grow up.

“ Web3, non-fungible tokens, even the blockchain—is just a Ponzi scheme to cheat people like me out of our money,” Web3 is not Bitcoin. NFTs are not Bitcoin. “The blockchain” is not Bitcoin (Bitcoin’s blockchain is the first, decentralized and distributed ledger having the blockchain data architecture. It is the most secure computer database. Other cryptocurrencies also utilize the blockchain architecture, but they do not share the same data that is stored by Bitcoin. There is no “The Blockchain,” except in the case where one excludes all crypto blockchains other than Bitcoin, in which case Bitcoin is “The Blockchain”).

“ Hope you're not the one left holding the bag.” I guess you just skipped over the part where I wrote that there are over 100 million Bitcoin users. There are over 25,000 attendees just at the Bitcoin conference in Miami. Yea, I’ll be the last one holding a bag of Bitcoin. Haha.

@desertscrub doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Just a scrub after all. “The only reason”. “The only reason” Yea… it had nothing to do with the growth of the user base to over 100 million people. It had nothing to do with Tesla buying $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin. It had nothing to do with the exponential growth of bitcoin purchases on CashApp, and the large growth of BTC holdings in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. It had nothing to do with MicroStrategy buying 100s of millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin to completely replace its USD treasury to be levered up on Bitcoin. It has nothing to do with the many senators and legislators and government agencies passing fair and balanced Bitcoin laws and regulations. It has nothing to do with Jerome Powell stating, explicitly, that there are no plans within the Federal Reserve or the government to ban digital assets. It has NOTHING to do with with the 40%+ of Americans who own or are exposed to cryptocurrencies, or the 10s of millions of Americans who signed up on Coinbase. No, no, no. It’s all because of the small, <1% of Americans who are extreme criminals and pedophiles. It’s all because the government just printed a bunch of money and it magically flowed into Bitcoin. Yea… Bitcoin reached a $1 trillion market cap because of the dark web pedophiles. The amount of knowledge on this topic, displayed by the members of TUSCL, is EMBARRASSING! Why is Jordan Peterson speaking, RIGHT NOW, in Miami at the Bitcoin Conference, about the benefits of Bitcoin to society? Oh, right, cuz Jordan Peterson is just a alt-right white supremacist. It has nothing to do with his intellectual capacity, his career success as a clinical psychologist, and his commitment to promoting that which is GOOD and RIGHT. No, no, no. Bitcoin is just for pedophiles. It’s not a global, open, decentralized, scarce, digital monetary network, the first of its kind. The anti-bitcoin comments on the forum are shameful.

Bitcoin isn’t all that private anymore… at least, not on-chain transactions. Most dark web activity now utilizes Monero.

FYI, owning a car doesn’t protect one from inflation; cars depreciate rapidly in nominal US dollars, which means it loses its real value very quickly. Fun fact: only about 56% of Americans own stocks. Another fun fact: a full 5% of Americans don’t even have a bank account. And that’s in the “most superior nation” in the world. Does the average person in South America own stocks? How about in Africa, or India? Yea… you guys just keep on looking out for #1. Enjoy your financial privilege while excluding the rest of the world! Boomers are so selfish. SMH.

Not a Ponzi scheme. Tim Cook owns Bitcoin, does Tim Cook fall for Ponzi schemes? Does Gary Gensler, chair of the SEC, fall for Ponzi schemes, and call a so-called Ponzi scheme a great innovation, and teach classes at MIT about a Ponzi scheme? Does the President of the United States issue an executive order on the responsible development of a Ponzi scheme? Answers: No, because Bitcoin is not a Ponzi scheme. You guys are embarrassing. Do you also believe in chem-trails and alien abductions?

@skibum, not a get rich quick scheme, it’s a don’t-get-poor-slowly-from-inflation-scheme.

Actually, most people invest in Bitcoin as they learn more about it. Their conviction grows with their education; their gains only serve as a validation that they were not alone in recognizing the value that Bitcoin offers. My journey began in 2017. I looked at the chart and did some quick math and decided to dip my toe in. The price soared well above my expectations, and that only motivated me to learn more about it. I studied for hours, listened to podcasts, learned more about finance and economics and learned more about the technology. I did more calculations. I can’t tell you how many Excel spreadsheets I have in my Bitcoin folder on my computer, how many articles I read, how many research papers I studied, how much on-chain analytics I learned about. I used everything from Google Trends data, to the CashApp quarterly earnings reports, to the Greyscale holdings announcements. At the end of the day, it all comes down to supply and demand, and human behavior. There are good reasons why humans never tried to store the value of their labor in sand, or grass, or dirt. Instead, they used things that were precious, and scarce… sea shells, Rai stones, glass beads, diamonds, silver, gold, etc. Money has to be fungible. HARD money has to be scarce. Money of an absolutely fixed supply is likely to be hoarded and hardly ever spent, as it is easier to build more penthouses in NYC than it is to increase the supply of Bitcoin beyond its preset schedule. How much do NYC penthouses go for these days? Bitcoins are scarcer than penthouses (using stock-to-flow as a measure of scarcity).

“10 years ago years ago, 1 bitcoin was worth $2! 7 years ago 1 bitcoin was worth $200! 2 years ago 1 bitcoin was worth $5000! And now 1 bitcoin is worth $43,000! I can’t risk my money buying something like that!!!” :-)

The Bitcoin network has NEVER been hacked. Exchange platforms have been hacked, individuals have been phished of their passwords, but… properly secured, Bitcoins are protected by the most powerful computing network in the world, and it would take a galaxy full of supercomputers to brute-force hack a ECDS private/public key pair. Also… BuT bItCoIn Is So VoLaTiLe!!! Waaaaaa!!!!! Meanwhile: https://bitcoin.zorinaq.com/price/

@Tetradon, actually when it comes to a digital monetary network, a guaranteed finite supply is VERY valuable! I don’t want my savings to be devalued because some government decides they need to increase the total supply by 40%. I want my savings to be store in something that is SCARCE, and RARE! I’m not your father. If you want to stuff paper cash in your mattress, or in your 0.01% interest yielding savings account, be my guest! I’ll be on TUSCL for many more years to come, I’ll be sure to check in on y’all over the next decade to see how your savings are holding up. Again, I’d watch the video, and do some research, before making criticisms.

Perhaps y’all should actually watch the video before commenting…

@Tetradon, Does any government trust BITCOIN as a store of value? Answer: yes This ISN’T complicated! Can the US dollar be created, ad infinitum? Yes. 10s of trillions printed, soon 100s of trillions, then, when your grandkids are adults, quadrillions. Can more Bitcoins be created than 21 million? No. But what if we try really, really hard to make more Bitcoins? Still, no. Oh, but, let me guess, it’s not a store of value. What number do you want in your account? A number that is essentially meaningless? Or a number that actually represents an irreducible fraction of a globally distributed ledger? How is this NOT a no-brainer???

@Sirachabob, yea, FDIC “insures” up to $250k in a situation in which that money is lost for some reason that was out of the customer’s control. But… how hard is it to “insure” money when it’s just a number in a computer database? How hard is it to type some numbers in an Excel spreadsheet? What is money? Is it just a number with a “$” symbol in front? Okay, I’ll write $100000000 on a piece of paper and I’ll live in Hong Kong strip club. That’s how it works, right? I’m allowed to print money from nothing, right? Wait…. I can’t? But the guys in government can??? Is money a number? Is it a piece of paper with a dead-man’s face on it? What is it? Time to wake up.

@Tetradon, Oh… so Russia WASN’T just sanctioned from the SWIFT network? Their US treasuries WEREN’T withheld? If the US can just say to any foreign nation, “no, you can’t have your money,”… then can that money really be considered “reserves”? @LLC, Or, perhaps, you can have $100 today, and $1000 in a few months. In fact, history suggests that $100 into $1000 is far more likely if held for more than a few years. This is very simple and obvious: they are both just numbers in computer databases. One currency can be debased at an exponential rate (just search FRED M2SL in google), and the other currency is of a fixed supply. No government, no business, no organization can produce more units. You guys can do what you want, but I’m not gonna let governments rob my savings. No, sir.

@Tedradon, what truly underlies the US dollar? What year is it, 1969? Can I still exchange $35 for an ounce of gold? The US dollars in your wallet are just cotton, linen, and ink. The same amount of cotton, linen, and ink is present in a $100 note as is in a $1 note. And, since COVID hit, banks now have a fractional reserve obligation of 0.0%, which means the dollars in your bank account are nothing more than an entry in an SQL database, or some similar database. I’ll make one concession—The US dollar can be burned to supply a small amount of heat. I can’t burn Bitcoins, so the US dollar has that one advantage. When the banks upgrade their databases to some kind of open, permissionless, decentralized digital ledger, let me know.

@Tetradon, I never wrote about crypto, I wrote about Bitcoin. Bitcoin is “based” on the assurance that it’s ultra-secure, and of a fixed quantity. And, no offense, but you’re very, very behind the times if you still think Bitcoin is a good technology for criminals. Quite the opposite. I suggest you do a little more research!

@Tetradon and fiat currency is based on the premise that citizens will continue to blindly trust governments to protect their rights while those same governments violate their citizens’ rights by issuing new units of currency at an exponential rate of growth… and then also demanding greater and greater income taxes. You earned money? Give me some or you go to jail. Oh, by the way, I’m just gonna print some money for myself. No thank you!