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Re:Bitcoin Drops Below $8,000 as Cryptocurrency Pain Continues by luke3butler on Friday February 02, 2018 @08:06AM (#16290204)
This might be beating a dead horse, but what's the difference between Bitcoin and gold then?

If gold loses its value, then it's just a heavy rock. They both take time, money, and resources to mine but neither of them have any intrinsic value.

Re:Bitcoin Drops Below $8,000 as Cryptocurrency Pain Continues by cglace on Friday February 02, 2018 @09:56AM (#16290923)
Gold has a myriad of uses outside of it being a heavy rock. If it's price were to drop substantially it's use in industry would increase substantially and we know what happens to price when demand increases.
Re:Bitcoin Drops Below $8,000 as Cryptocurrency Pain Continues by soneil on Friday February 02, 2018 @10:10AM (#16291080)
I don’t think industry is the floor you think it is. They’ll happily pay as little as they can for it.

I think the more honest measure is simply how many people have faith in it. Bitcoin and gold may be logically equivalent for this function, but a lot more people have a lot more faith in gold.

Re:Bitcoin Drops Below $8,000 as Cryptocurrency Pain Continues by cglace on Friday February 02, 2018 @12:10PM (#16292168)
Anyone will happily pay as little as possible for anything. I don't see your point.
Re:Bitcoin Drops Below $8,000 as Cryptocurrency Pain Continues by oscilloscope on Friday February 02, 2018 @08:26AM (#16290318)
Gold's been around for a lot longer— it's mythologically significant.

But as far as recent technology goes, Bitcoin's been around for a while. It's older then the iPad.

Re:Bitcoin Drops Below $8,000 as Cryptocurrency Pain Continues by matt_s on Friday February 02, 2018 @09:10AM (#16290573)
That's sort of my point. If Bitcoin and gold lose all financial value, at least with gold you have a heavy rock and to most humans, visually appealing. You can do something with that - build a house with enough of it, make jewelry out of it, forge weapons (would they be any good?)

You can't do anything with Bitcoin if is exchanging at $0 USD.

Re:Bitcoin Drops Below $8,000 as Cryptocurrency Pain Continues by luke3butler on Friday February 02, 2018 @12:09PM (#16292152)
A decentralized, distributed ledger has value as well.

Ethereum is a better example, but on the flip-side so is steel.