I spent 16 months on this Bitcoin explainer. by Art of the Problem | Hacker News Reader

I spent 16 months on this Bitcoin explainer. by Art of the Problem

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28 pointsbritcruise9 comments

"Bitcoin isn't just a boring grey [precious] metal, it's a virtual coin taking the form of a number"

Precious metals are inherently valuable because they are extremely useful in a wide variety of applications in the physical world. An arbitrary number has 0 inherent value. It is a fiat commodity whose only backing is faith that a sufficiently high number of people are duped into giving its controllers real money in exchange for it.

Yea this is what I still don’t understand. What’s to stop someone from creating a new coin and entirely new supply of currency? And what keeps the original currency (btc, for example) still valuable? Is it solely because in the short term bitcoin has the markets attention/hype, and if the hype was not there, there is no reason to anyone to buy and hold bitcoin in comparison to a different crypto?

Is there EVER a non-privacy, government, or tax avoidance type reason to hold bitcoin? I’m thinking like gold / precious metals are used in electronics and industry, jewelry, etc. A coin can’t be held and used for something. I suppose a company can use a blockchain internally for verifying things / ledger / whatever magic use they dream up, but that wouldn’t really be using it as a currency.

I actually am bullish on crypto, overall, because I think people are not rational and will buy for many years into the hype. On a 20-30 year timeline, I think it is harder to predict and know what to expect. Lots of things change when you look more than a few years out.

Someone please convince me, in a concise fashion!

> What’s to stop someone from creating a new coin and entirely new supply of currency?

Nothing. Just like nothing stops anyone from printing out their own paper money. However, nobody will accept it, since the trust in your new paper money is next to nil, as no shop or services will accept it as a form of payment (perhaps except yourself).

Replacing paper money with a new cryptocoin of your own makes no changes to the above argument.

However, if you are able to produce goods or services which is needed by somebody, then you can price your goods/services in your own paper money, and setup an exchange rate yourself. If other people sees the exchange rate, and deem it worthy, they will exchange their existing currency with yours, in order to purchase your goods/services. This process is the one that gives any currency any real value.

It's because of trust - Bitcoin is a community not a thing.

With BTC there is utility in being able to move value around with no banks and no transfer of physical assets.

BTC does not have a monopoly on this utility. Time will tell if it can maintain its leadership position in market size but I seriously doubt it.

You can only move value around if it has value in the first place. Its only real value is in the hype around it that has been used to milk gullible people. Once the hype dies and the supply of money from gullible people has been exhausted, which is clearly already happening, it will lose all value and utility.

Avoiding bank fees is value.

Removing banking hours is value.

Providing a store of value outside of a conventional financial system has value.

Let the free market decide how much value.

The first 30 seconds start a little boring. You just repeat what many people already know about bitcoin... But then it gets really interesting.

I wish you had started the video a little bit stronger.

Anyway, I just subscribed to your channel! Nicely done!

Thanks for the feedback! I actually had a different intro I chopped off - it's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXB_j-_jPmU&t=1s

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