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Re:Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto by Wowfunhappy on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @08:07PM (#26161272)
There are plenty of other stores of trust. You could buy index funds or government bonds or any number of other things, and the price will be less volatile than Bitcoin to boot. I know a lot of Bitcoin enthusiasts are skeptical of traditional institutions, but really, if all the world's governments go bankrupt you're going to have bigger problems. Heck, if you must use a cryptocurrency, at least pick one of the newer ones which aren't as inefficient as Bitcoin!
Re:Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto by judge2020 on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @09:42PM (#26162026)
> You could buy index funds or government bonds or any number of other things, and the price will be less volatile than Bitcoin to boot.

That's not trust, that's security in the value of your money. BTC can never be taken from you unless someone either breaks crypto or steals your wallet secret key. The U.S. dollar is backed by the federal reserve, so while I don't think the U.S. is going to have a revolution that destroys or inflates the dollar anytime soon, there's a possibility of such a thing happening. BTC has an actual limited amount that can be distributed (like gold) so it'll always have value.

Re:Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto by atweiden on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @11:10PM (#26162590)
> There are plenty of other stores of trust. You could buy index funds or government bonds or any number of other things, and the price will be less volatile than Bitcoin to boot

The point is Bitcoin created a store of trust sans institutions, one which is capable of being transacted across the internet without trusted third parties.

Re:Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto by Wowfunhappy on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @12:37AM (#26163096)
Yes, but is the practical use of that ability worth destroying the planet for?
Re:Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto by atweiden on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @01:34AM (#26163393)
Do you remember the pictures from the early Covid lockdowns — of the Himalayas becoming visible in parts of India for the first time in decades? City streets deathly quiet everywhere. This is what actually saves the environment: less human economic activity.

Bitcoin contains the built-in incentive to keep you put in place, without engaging in any economic activity. It does so on a massive scale, without sickening people, voluntarily and by design.

Everyone likes to focus on Bitcoin’s cost to the environment, without considering the upsides of Bitcoin adoption, chief of which is a pronounced decline in consumerism.

Consider what would happen if we saw continuously falling asset prices, and dramatically lowered capital investment globally. Consider what would happen if government scrip became worthless, disallowing governments to fund war machines and large public works projects. Bitcoin throttles humanity. This is a big benefit to the planet’s natural ecosystems. Meanwhile the environmental damage Bitcoin can do is capped by the maximum productive output of humanity, which puts a ceiling on the value of one bitcoin.

Re:Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto by nadahalli on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @08:44AM (#26166177)
This is deflation, and turns out everyone hates deflation. Just to be clear, I am with you here.
Re:Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto by behringer on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @10:43PM (#26162385)
If all the world's governments go bankrupt I don't see any other currency than bitcoins working!
Re:Bitcoin surpasses $50K as major companies jump into crypto by bitcoinmoney on Wednesday February 17, 2021 @12:13AM (#26162972)
We’d go to a barter system and BTC would be useless. Are you able to envision a scenario where all governments at banklkrupt but internet is still there to process BTC txns?