Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/16/bitcoin-at-all-time-high-of-21300-as-institutional-investors-move-in.html
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I’m always surprised at how the comments section here tends to proliferate with Bitcoin naysayers (not that “Dunning Krugerrands” isn’t a great pun). I couldn’t really care less either way, but if enough people think it’s worth something, it is.
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If the price doesn’t plummet soon, it might prompt bitcoin foes to change their tact from “bitcoin is worthless and will soon die” to “bitcoin is evil and must be stopped.”
That’s a bit of a strawman depiction of “Bitcoin foes” (really critics). Bitcoin, like fiat currency, is worth what its holders think it’s worth. And when people talk about it dying, it’s mainly in reference to the old claim that it’s useful as a convenient and universally accepted medium of exchange (it’s neither, and contributes to global warming in the bargain). It won’t die, it’ll just hit a deflationary wall and then function like any other finite commodity people assign value to.
Bitcoin is fine as a hedge, but as such it remains what it’s been for most of its existence: a speculative vehicle like gold or Beanie Babies or limited-edition Magic: the Gathering cards. Currency arbitrage and hedging aren’t evil activities within the context of capitalism, but they also aren’t the sure-thing get-rich-quick schemes peddled by “cryptocurrency guru” con artists like James Altucher. Any type of forex trading is extremely risky.
For those distressed by the “rampant money printing” by the Fed mentioned in the Bloomberg article, this is good reading for the deficit hawks who’ve suddenly emerged from their hibernation of the last four years:
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100% strawmen, which is what most pundits poke at.
The MMT podcast is excellent, BTW. I have only listened to the first 8 or 9 episodes, but that was a good introduction.
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How could I possibly pass up an opportunity to buy at the top of the curve?
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“What curve? This appreciation in value will go on forever!”
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I have no idea whats driving you with all these praise-the-glory-of-BT-posts of yours, mark, but I dont like it at all.
If you’ve ever tried to use bitcoin to buy things, it’s kind of comical how hard it is. Let’s try a quick poll, because why not?
I last used bitcoin to buy something…
- today
- this week
- this month
- last 6 months
- last 12 months
- more than 12 months ago
- never
0 voters
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You may have missed my other posts about bitcoin, where I make it clear that the environmental impact of mining is terrible. I’m interested in bitcoin because there’s never been anything like it, and it might have a big impact on the economy.
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The Bitcoin guy I know holds most of it. When I asked if he ever uses it to buy stuff, he admitted the only time he does is to buy server space to – you guessed it – mine more Bitcoin.
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Every once in awhile I add Bitcoin to my list of things I thought about and didn’t buy when it would have been a (retrospectively) smart thing to do. Shrug.
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as institutional investors are adding it to their portfolios as a hedge against fiat currency devaluation
or perhaps, instituational investors foresee a further speculative bubble and don’t want to be left out.
I mean, to hedge against fiat currency devaluation you just short those currencies.
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Dutch Tulips, South Sea bubble corporate schemes, Ponzi “investments”, the late 1920’s stock market run-up, Nasdaq in the late 1990’s.
How many example of enough people paying and thinking there’s value when there isn’t do you need?
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Bitcoin’s scarcity combined with “rampant money printing” by the Federal Reserve mean the digital token should eventually climb to about $400,000, Minerd, the firm’s chief investment officer, said in an interview.
Oh boy there’s a red flag. For the last decade every person hand-wringing about the Fed “printing money” has been dead wrong about everything. This quote might end up looking like that Dow 100,000 book from 1999.
Guggenheim’s Scott Minerd Says Bitcoin Should Be Worth $400,000
and why are we listening to a museum curator talk about cryptocurrency anyway
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its not only the environmental impact, its also consuming ridiculous amounts of energy and computing-power, which could be of far more better use than to run this gigantic ponzi-scheme that has no practical purpose than to fill the pockets of the few.
I’m interested in bitcoin because there’s never been anything like it, and it might have a big impact on the economy.
might? depends what you mean by “big”; I think it already has…and not in a good way.
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I’m well aware of all of those, and as I said, I don’t care (and don’t hold any Bitcoin, but do find it a fairly interesting phenomenon). Though I do think those comparisons could be seen as straw man arguments themselves, given that nothing in that list was specifically created to be an alternate form of currency. I’m just kind of fascinated at how much the comments section on here gets fired up on the subject (this thread again reinforcing the point). In the context of global capitalism, ha. Ha. Ha.
And I do think that cryptocurrency is here to stay, in one form or another.
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People have opinions. And you’re a person.
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Bitcoin’s market cap is $350 billion. That’s nothing in the grand scheme of things. Gold is $9 trillion.
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if this is “nothing”, than things are much, much worse than I have anticipated…
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$350 billion. So it’s about the third of the market cap of Apple, Amazon and Microsoft?
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