Is BTC worthless?

Not a bad post. Two things:
1 - I think people over-stress the fact that bitcoins are capped in production. The anticipated end-date is 125 years away. Gold, oil, etc. are also capped (finite amount on earth, though I guess some, but not that much, is produced naturally) and may well run out prior. So I think the argument that there's a finite cap isn't enough to think of bitcoin as a finite set of things... we're well off from that point and likely will be as long as bitcoins are valuable.
2 - The underlying assumption in your last paragraph is that people will demand bitcoin at all... in the present, I don't see a great reason to do that, but in the future, there may be. I think that potential is where bitcoin's value lies.

 

Not really, unaccessible gold, oil, etc is not considered a resource as it cannot be used in production, even if the physical quantity of it is fixed. I know it sounds strange, but lets take the minerals on the Moon. They exist, but we do not consider them a resource because we cannot use them. In 50 years time however, when we are able to harvest them as a result of technological advancements they will then be considered a resource.

True, it could very well be that the demand of Bitcoin falls, I would bet that in the long term, demand for it will increase, unless a better cryptocurrency comes along.

 

Eh, granted. I still think the argument that bitcoin is fixed is overblown. My personal opinion is that the crypto-x that changes the world isn't going to be a currency but rather something else. Will update this post within the next decade once we see what's up .

 

Thanks for your opinions, I'm amazed at how BTC can fluctuate the way it does.

Though I see no long term future in the currency sadly.

Also I highly doubt technological advancements will lead to us mining on the moon, think about what people thought in the 90's they predicted we'd be flying cars and visiting other planets.

 

I would argue the point that, at this point in time, the issue of BitCoin being commodity versus currency is a very important issue to consider and thus very influential on the price. The big news is the discussion of possible regulation coming out of the US, which means some sort of mainstream acceptance. The problem with that being how are the regulations going to define it, because private currencies and commodities are regulated very differently and could wholly effect the methods of exchange or the availability. If the US upped and banned some aspect of the market and transfer (speaking hypothetically, but could be very real depending upon decisions of lawmakers) it could drastically alter the price of the coin.

 

Good point, the classification of Bitcoin would definitely affect its demand. I still think it ought to be classified as money, however with mainstream economics, I have no idea how they differentiate between the two.

 

Traditional econ says money = a unit of account, a store of value, and a medium of exchange. Bitcoin isn't really a unit of account so I'm hesitant to call it proper money by that definition.

 

Isn't Bitcoin just the units of account on the Bitcoin payment system? It's definitely a store of value, unstable as it is (technically anything is a store of value, per the subjective theory of value). It's also a media of exchange. What am I missing that's controversial?

 

Unless BTC somehow becomes a physical form of currency...

 

Oh hmmm... I think you're right and I'm confusing it with something else.

From some random site: "A unit of account is something that can be used to value goods and services, record debts, and make calculations. In other words, it's a measurement for value." So yeah, you're probably right. There's something somewhere that has to do with the validity of things and how that relates to other goods being denoted in that thing. So like, until you can find oil/bread/underwear denoted in bitcoin, it's not quite a full currency... But the more I think about it, I think I'm just conflating things lol. zzzz

What?

 

Well it does have a monetary value, so its not *exactly* useless.

 

It isn't worth anything to people who are only in the market to use it as a payment method and convert it straight to cash. The fact that it even had a bubble in the first place, let alone survive it, shows that BTC is sticking around for at least the near future.

 

People only realize Bitcoin was worth investing when every last coin gets mined and trading would be the only way to obtain them. They'd probably be at $1k+ by that time which is totally worth investing for now.

 

Yeah a 400% ROI in 125 years is pretty bad . But just because something is scarce doesn't mean it's valuable.

 

It will never. You can't have half a bitcoin or .6745 of a bitcoin irl

 

Same here. eBay would be perfect

 

It is possible to exchange bitcoins for ebay money as well as amazon etc

 

The currency is definitely unstable given the nature of the market. I find it interesting and fun to follow, though, and I see it rising again soon.

 

I'm not terribly familiar with crypto, but is it possible to use 1-time QR codes on a piece of paper for physical crypto exchange?

 

I think it'd work in theory, but it'd take some work. Have a QR code linked to a system to distribute payments from a wallet.