Why is Bitcoin different than gold though? Is gold also a Ponzi scheme?
Right now, on coinbase, rate of bitcoin purchases paid in dollars > rate of dollars purchased in bitcoin. Anyone who wants to exit bitcoin today is getting dollars from people buying into bitcoin.
When this changes (for whatever reason), coinbase and other exchanges have a limited capacity to buy back bitcoins for dollars, assuming they would even want to do that in the middle of a run on crypto exchanges.
If bitcoin was a viable currency, then people buying bitcoin today would never want to trade it back for dollars. But that’s not happening- everyone still buys groceries, coffee, gas, tools and computer software with dollars. A run on coinbase is a problem when bitcoin is an “investment” and not an actively used currency.
Finally, Monero has shown that there is still plenty of room for innovation beyond what bitcoin currently implements. If crypto currencies are the future, already Monero looks like a more viable option than btc (note that all the illegal stuff that used to happen with btc is now happening with xmr on the dark web). It’s very possible that even Monero isn’t the final incarnation of the ultimate crypto currency and something even better will replace it one day.
A new crypto doesn’t threaten people who want to transact with that currency. Everyone on the darkweb markets switched from btc to xmr and business continues as usual, and it will continue even when the next evolution arrives. But those who see it as a store of value are at the mercy of everyone else buying that currency more than how much everyone else is selling- a classic ponzi scheme.
Why don't these two numbers have to be equal?
An equivalent way to say the same thing is:
“number of bitcoins being purchased with USD per hour > number of USDs being purchased with bitcoin per hour”.
Except with gold, there's a history of greater or lesser fools buying it from you that goes back thousands of years; there are a great many non-scam businesses trading in it, and they ain't come out with many new precious metals in my lifetime.
Cryptocurrencies have a much shorter history, an exceptionally large number of scams, and nigh-limitless supply of new types of coin and token.
It reminds me of an anecdote from my grandfather from the end of WW2, people were giving away gold rings for loaves of bread. (Clearly, only when in desperate need, but it did happen.)
Even if the US government ceases to exist, the features of non reproducibility built into cash dollars (watermarks, intaglio printing) would still exist although they won't be as ultimately durable into the future as an element. At least you can also use them as fire starters.
And people with guns are going to quickly steal your gold anyway.
Bitcoin doesn't have an army of people willing to commit violence to support its value. At least not yet.
Back in the 60s the gold trade was highly regulated. That's why the plot of Goldfinger doesn't really make any sense from a moderns perspective. It seemed quaint even to me as a teenager in the 80s. Nowadays gold is just posh bitcoin.
But not real ones. It's like saying you can make infinite Mona Lisas with a colour photocopier.
Not everyone will accept such a change, so the original 21 million version of the network will still exist and will by many be considered the real bitcoin.
The herd coming into Bitcoin as we speak implies a weakening of its founding values.
Why is Gold coins more valuable than copper coins?
Why is the original Bitcoin more valuable than any of its forks?
What do you think markets are? They're a method for people to come to a vague consensus about the value of something.
There's absolutely no reason why humans can't create a store of value with superior qualities vs gold.
Humans are of nature. Everything we do is of nature accordingly. There is no separating humanity from nature, we are contained within it and we were created by it.
Nature = that which exists, all encompassing, no exceptions. It's not a technicality, it's the fact of what nature actually is (versus what some people like to pretend it is: fantasy pristineness, perfection, devoid of humans).
Gold's status as a physical element is basically irrelevant. Bitcoin is basically gold you can email.
…okay, then: Elon Musk.