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Re:Why you can’t cash out part 1: Bitcoin’s “price” is large... by davidgerard on Monday December 18, 2017 @03:35AM (#15950296)
> It approximates the total amount of wealth currently held in the form of a particular crypto,

I don't see how it does anything of the sort.

* It's not the amount that was put in to it

* It's not the amount you could get out of it

It's a number that's easy to calculate and gets headlines, but I can't see what else it's good for in practical terms.

Perhaps with a tiny altcoin it would be worth 51%ing it. But for anything larger, or for an ICO token? What does this number actually do?

Say there's a crypto asset that isn't getting headlines. Its market cap is $100 million. Just knowing that, what do you know about the crypto?

Re:Why you can’t cash out part 1: Bitcoin’s “price” is large... by scott00 on Monday December 18, 2017 @09:49AM (#15951945)
Your criticisms about it not being the amount that came in or that can come out also apply to stocks.

If all I know about a crypto asset is that it has a market cap of $100 million, I know it's a very niche asset in comparison to bitcoin or ethereum. It's small enough it's reasonably likely to be a scam. For me personally, it's small enough that I'm not interested in learning any more, which has practical use because my time is finite.