Re:The Gold Standard and the Great Depression (1997)
by louloulou on Tuesday October 26, 2021 @04:13PM
(#29005679)
So condescending. That's because Bitcoin is not widely used as money yet. Those things don't all happen at the same time, they happen sequentially.
- collectable -> It's cool, I want some.
- store of value -> it holds value better than any other money. (Bitcoin is here)
- medium of exchange -> People request it in exchange for goods and services because it holds its value over time.
- unit of account -> People denominate prices in it because it's a widely used medium of exchange.
Edit: My initial point was Bitcoin has properties that make it suitable for use as money: divisible, portable, easy to verify, doesn't degrade over time, etc.
- Medium of exchange: bad. Caps out at a few transactions per second, transaction cost go up massively when actually used.
- Unit of account: Terrible. Because of price volatility you denominate BTC in terms of USD - something priced in BTC has a different price depending on the minute you look at it
- Store of value: Hilariously terrible. Storing value has to do with *low price volatility* something which Bitcoin does not have. The average price might be up over time, but this is *speculation*, not storing value! If you store value you want as close to what you put in as possible, not more (or less).
People claiming Bitcoin is a "store of value" don't understand what the word "storing" means, nor the textbook definition.