'Bitcoin will go to zero': Davos talks up the future of blockchain | Hacker News Reader

'Bitcoin will go to zero': Davos talks up the future of blockchain

cnbc.com

29 pointsprostoalex24 comments

> "I do believe it will go to zero. I think it's a great technology but I don't believe it's a currency. It's not based on anything," Jeff Schumacher, founder of BCG Digital Ventures, said during a CNBC-hosted panel in Davos, Switzerland.

I can't believe we are still arguing these incredibly rudimentary points. Let alone that these quotes still get press coverage. Really, you're talking about cryptocurrency on a panel at Davos and you still haven't taken the time to reflect upon the nature of money?

What does "It's not based on anything" even mean? What is a dollar "based on"?

What is a dollar based on?

The need for the citizens of the most powerful nation on earth to pay their taxes in it; a legal and regulatory framework to support it; and the military and diplomatic might of the US to support it.

So it's based on a concept, a loosely defined one at that. Cryptocurrency is based on a strictly defined mathematical concept. It isn't a huge leap between the two.

All that math is not going to help you when your government puts you in jail for not paying your taxes.

Who isn't paying their taxes? Bitcoin can be sold for fiat and taxes can be paid.

Exactly. If I have to pay taxes in dollars, why should I accept anything but dollars in the first place?

>What is a dollar "based on"?

It's a coupon tradable against a portion of the future production of the entire US economy. As long as the country makes anything, and as long as the government is around, a dollar one owns is tradable for items produced there. For it to fail would take tremendous failure of likely the entire world economy, at which point all promises of future trade will be suspect. As such, it's quite stable for the foreseeable future.

What is a bitcoin based on? It's currently also tradable for goods to those offering to take BTC for goods directly (a tiny and shaky market), or more tradable to those willing to give dollars for BTC, which is bigger, but still tiny and shaky compared to a dollar itself.

BTC marketcap $62B USD, ~$5B daily trading volume. USD trades ~5T a dat, and likey does a few T more in business transactions/day.

You're probably right. But if I were to try and defend his statement, perhaps he means it's not based on factors such as convenience as a medium of exchange, or public confidence that it will have relatively stable value (so that it can serve as a medium of storing value).

> What is a dollar "based on"?

Faith in the US government

>What is a dollar "based on"?

This is a poor argument. Many real-life currencies had effectively "went to zero" via hyperinflation. I assume you meant US dollar, but whatever Zimbabwean dollar was based on was clearly not enough to support it.

How can anyone give this venture firm any money when its founder is so clueless on how currency works.

'Guy with investment firm that profits from buying low and selling high wants asset to go to zero' - In other news, water wet.

This. When evaluating someone's claims, always take into consideration their background, career to evaluate for bias. This is the reason if, for eg, Spain plays against France in soccer finals, they won't put a world-class Spanish judge, however good he/she may be.

I'm surprised no one has tried "Bitcoin will go to LESS than 0", just to get the headline and try to encourage selling.

And technically if you were a BC miner who spent money to mine Bitcoin and it did go to 0, you could say the investment was worth less nothing.

> This sign is a pretty good indication that no one has any idea about what they’re talking about in Davos.

> "Using Blockchain to build the next generation grid for electric vehicles. Business 4.0."

https://twitter.com/RMac18/status/1087679473535860737

Did a quick online 'Company Values' training recently and sustainability and environmental impact where I work will be solved by:

1. Blockchain

2. Using approved partners for travel

No mention of considering taking the train or bus instead of the approved airlines.

So, a meeting of all of the most fiat-currency dependent people in the world produces a message saying that a potential alternative is going to zero. Maybe it will, but BTC is v0.1 crypto-currency and it's death will make way for whatever crypto v1.0 looks like. Unfortunately for the establishment, thoroughly represented at Davos, crypto-currency is here to stay.

"On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero."

Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

Has anyone studied the rate at which bitcoin is lost forever? I imagine daily there's a wallet lost, HD destroyed, someone with private keys dying and btc permanently lost. Point is there is a much smaller supply of usable btc than what's actually reported in circulation. I wonder how that plays into the longevity of the project over time...

A bitcoin is divisible to 8 decimal places so what you are talking is not an issue whatsoever.

Bitcoin has become quasi-irrelevant before, and it didn't go to zero even then.

And as long as there are zealots around, it won't.

Every currency will go to zero unless it has some sort of instrinsic value. It's just a question of how quickly.

"I am much less interested in investing around bitcoin as a currency unit or a currency equivalent, or even the blockchain as an accounting ledger. I am thinking much more about the protocols. In other words, what is the underlying protocol going to do as a consequence of which, which tokens are valuable or not," Hutchins said.

What nonsense.

Methinks all this negative talk makes it look like a buying opportunity....

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