If it was set up as a currency, it was set up entirely wrong. There is a capped amount of bitcoin, and over time bitcoin will dissapear. That means a smaller supply will represent equal value (well not really, since it isn’t backed by anything), meaning it’s deflationary.
Deflationary assets are by definitions bad currency and great investments.
While it is true that Bitcoin is bad at being a currency, it was definitely intended to be one from the beginning. The people who created it and early adopters had weird libertarian beliefs about currency and intrinsic value. Bitcoin was supposed to be like a digital version of the gold standard rather than a modern fiat currency. Of course, this has a lot of problems and there is a reason nobody uses the gold standard anymore, but these people did actually intend for it to be a currency. The whole thing is designed around the ideological belief that scarcity and work are what create value, and that value derived from these is intrinsic. It’s kind of hard to grasp if you’re not immersed in the weird online libertarian culture that created and adopted Bitcoin early on but these are things that people very sincerely believe, although these days most crypto people aren’t into that idea anymore and you see it among people who buy gold and silver
the early plan for btc was to break the spine of central banking cartels and to eventually threaten the reserve status of the greenback. 2008 was still fresh in our minds, and back then it was fashionable to blame fiat currency and the pratcise of fractional reserve lending. The original ‘zeitgeist’ movie was a big influence on the whole scene.
Eventually people began to figure out that btc was most likely a vehicle for oligarchs and elites to shelter their assets from the next financial crash which killed the libertarian enthusiasm for the project. Now btc is exclusively for tech-bros and other finance-adjacent types just trying to personally enrich themselves.
Infinitely divisible deflationary assets can be used as currency and savings, if enough large markets like grocers, Walmart, Amazon, etc accepted it as payment the price would stabilize against speculative investment like trading in foreign currency. Right now I think it’s overinflated from speculative investment, but the cryptography is secure and public ledger is an improvement I think.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
What? That’s completely wrong.
If it was set up as a currency, it was set up entirely wrong. There is a capped amount of bitcoin, and over time bitcoin will dissapear. That means a smaller supply will represent equal value (well not really, since it isn’t backed by anything), meaning it’s deflationary.
Deflationary assets are by definitions bad currency and great investments.
markovs_gun@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
While it is true that Bitcoin is bad at being a currency, it was definitely intended to be one from the beginning. The people who created it and early adopters had weird libertarian beliefs about currency and intrinsic value. Bitcoin was supposed to be like a digital version of the gold standard rather than a modern fiat currency. Of course, this has a lot of problems and there is a reason nobody uses the gold standard anymore, but these people did actually intend for it to be a currency. The whole thing is designed around the ideological belief that scarcity and work are what create value, and that value derived from these is intrinsic. It’s kind of hard to grasp if you’re not immersed in the weird online libertarian culture that created and adopted Bitcoin early on but these are things that people very sincerely believe, although these days most crypto people aren’t into that idea anymore and you see it among people who buy gold and silver
kossa@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
Well, I mean, how you tell it, there’s some logic in it. But it feels like the logic of my 5 year old.
“Currency is not backed by gold anymore, so we simulate finite supply and mining work, in order to establish such a currency again.”
Allright. But…did they ever think about why gold is not a currency anymore and an investment vehicle instead?
SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
This is libertarianism in a nutshell.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Because Tricky Dick said it was only temporary? We only adopted the Keynesian rationale after ending the gold standard.
flamingleg@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
the early plan for btc was to break the spine of central banking cartels and to eventually threaten the reserve status of the greenback. 2008 was still fresh in our minds, and back then it was fashionable to blame fiat currency and the pratcise of fractional reserve lending. The original ‘zeitgeist’ movie was a big influence on the whole scene.
Eventually people began to figure out that btc was most likely a vehicle for oligarchs and elites to shelter their assets from the next financial crash which killed the libertarian enthusiasm for the project. Now btc is exclusively for tech-bros and other finance-adjacent types just trying to personally enrich themselves.
whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
Infinitely divisible deflationary assets can be used as currency and savings, if enough large markets like grocers, Walmart, Amazon, etc accepted it as payment the price would stabilize against speculative investment like trading in foreign currency. Right now I think it’s overinflated from speculative investment, but the cryptography is secure and public ledger is an improvement I think.