Agreed. Surprised there are so many Bitcoin lovers on HN and in the startup scene, which is supposed to consist of smarter-than-average people. Bitcoin is basically shitty gold, because unlike gold, it has no intrinsic value and can go to zero, it's all based on fragile sentiment.
I've been cashing out of my crypto weekly. Started in January, going to continue until i'm dry.
I can't predict when this garbage explodes, but i'll at least have the majority of the money out or all of it. If i'm wrong, i'm wrong, but all of this is fishy as fuck.
Defi loans, using your crypto as collateral to buy more crypto, tether printing off the charts. Most people don't care though, they see number go up and ignore the noise.
I think bitcoin can be a technological marvel that has utility to humanity, even if it's being pumped artificially and its value falls back to (or below) what it was before it was pumped.
I think you underestimate just how mighty 'fragile' sentiment can be.
The argument for gold is that it isn't 100% a speculative investment.
According to Wikipedia(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold) 50% of gold's use case is in making jewelry and 10% is used for industry.
On the other hand, Bitcoin isn't used for anything, except as for a speculative investment, not even as a currency or as a "decentralized PayPal".
> The argument for gold is that it isn't 100% a speculative investment. According to Wikipedia(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold) 50% of gold's use case is in making jewelry and 10% is used for industry. On the other hand, Bitcoin isn't used for anything, except as for a speculative investment, not even as a currency or as a "decentralized PayPal".
Also, Gold has literally thousands of years of cultural precedent as being a "valuable thing." Bitcoin, not so much.
For the vast majority of people Bitcoin in its current form provides a worse user experience than PayPal, VISA, etc.. because the fees are a lot higher and the transaction times are longer.
If you want to buy $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin the $5-$50 transaction fee doesn't matter. For the majority of people it matters though.
Right, where would people even get 700 B.C. technology to “use” gold!?
(Of course gold has intrinsic value! Just because you can’t use a thing, doesn’t make it worthless to me, I’ll still buy your gold despite you not knowing anything but how to pull it from your pocket)
I assume you've weighed this against the waste materials and environmental impact that results from mining gold, such the usage of mercury or cyanide to process the ore.
> Agreed. Surprised there are so many Bitcoin lovers on HN and in the startup scene, which is supposed to consist of smarter-than-average people. Bitcoin is basically shitty gold, because unlike gold, it has no intrinsic value and can go to zero, it's all based on fragile sentiment.
Being "smart" often doesn't translate into making good decisions or having good judgment. Sometimes intelligence only amounts to better capabilities at rationalizing whatever harebrained thing you already wanted to do, instead of giving up on it.
I think Bitcoin hits a bunch of special-interest buttons in some people that make it very difficult to put aside, for instance: truly innovative technology, startup thinking/wanting to be in on the "ground floor" of a big success, sci-fi made real, libertarianism, etc.
