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El Salvador abandons Bitcoin as legal tender

(ticotimes.net)
927 points smallerfish | 15 comments | 04 Feb 25 00:00 UTC | HN request time: 0.216s | source | bottom
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ks2048 ◴[04 Feb 25 00:26 UTC] No.42925530[source]▶
Do pro-bitcoin people still talk about goals of bitcoin being a currency that people use daily?

I don't follow it closely, but that idea seems to have faded and now it's just an asset to buy and hold while it magically goes up forever.

replies(12): >>42925658 #>>42925661 #>>42925711 #>>42925713 #>>42925980 #>>42926026 #>>42926151 #>>42926197 #>>42927159 #>>42928125 #>>42928576 #>>42928678 #
block_dagger ◴[04 Feb 25 00:37 UTC] No.42925661[source]▶
Those who continue to invest in and use the Lightning (layer 2) network think it will be used as currency but most see it as a long term storage of value, at least until infrastructure supporting layers 2 and 3 mature.

As for “magically,” there’s nothing magic about its increase in value as it replaces legacy technology, chiefly gold as a store of value.

replies(1): >>42925941 #
1. derriz ◴[04 Feb 25 01:02 UTC] No.42925941[source]▶
Except it has none of the properties of gold as an asset. The value of bitcoin is highly correlated with equities and anti-correlated with gold. It’s the opposite of what you want to be holding as a hedge against a stock market crash.
replies(2): >>42926173 #>>42927422 #
2. LAMike ◴[04 Feb 25 01:23 UTC] No.42926173[source]▶
It is more rare than gold and getting more rare every 4 years.

What is the current supply of gold and what will it be in 2050?

replies(3): >>42926360 #>>42927582 #>>42928117 #
3. nadermx ◴[04 Feb 25 01:40 UTC] No.42926360[source]▶
Gold has a utility, used in a large swath of electronics. Can always be sold to make something. Bitcoin can only be sold if there is a fiat currency trading in it
replies(3): >>42926428 #>>42926869 #>>42927982 #
4. desumeku ◴[04 Feb 25 01:47 UTC] No.42926428{3}[source]▶
Electronics didn't exist for the thousands of years that gold was used as currency. The fact is, it only has most of the value that it does because it was rare, malleable, particularly shiny, and because metallism was simply the easiest way (or at least one of the easiest ways) to invent the concept of currency and a monetary system.
replies(1): >>42937569 #
5. throwawaymaths ◴[04 Feb 25 02:24 UTC] No.42926869{3}[source]▶
you don't want your currency to be useful though. the value inherent in a currency is its ability to be verified without trusting the counterparty.
6. markasoftware ◴[04 Feb 25 03:22 UTC] No.42927422[source]▶
When I think of the "properties" of gold I don't think of how the price behaves, but rather that the total supply of it is limited (though Bitcoin actually does a much better job at limiting supply, since gold'll keep being mined for a long time and the supply is hard to predict) and that, other than theft, there's no way for someone else to take it from you (compare to eg money at a bank that can collapse or in a stock of a company that can go bankrupt)
7. 2030ai ◴[04 Feb 25 03:40 UTC] No.42927582[source]▶
It is getting less less rare every 4 years.
replies(1): >>43028735 #
8. heurist ◴[04 Feb 25 04:31 UTC] No.42927982{3}[source]▶
Bitcoin's utility is that you can both hold it in your hands and send it across the world in 10 minutes with no intermediaries. Can't do that with gold.
9. elevaet ◴[04 Feb 25 04:50 UTC] No.42928117[source]▶
There is an infinite supply of computer algorithms. Gold is an element.
replies(1): >>42928559 #
10. block_dagger ◴[04 Feb 25 05:53 UTC] No.42928559{3}[source]▶
Your comment indicates that you fundamentally misunderstand BTC. I recommend reading Broken Money by Lyn Alden.
replies(1): >>42936677 #
11. elevaet ◴[04 Feb 25 18:36 UTC] No.42936677{4}[source]▶
No, I get it, thank you very much. Early adopter of BTC here, I've read the whitepaper and all that, sodl when I realized what an energy pig it had become.

The only thing that separates BTC from all the derivative shitcoins is hype and stories we tell about it. Bitcoin is itself interchangeable with an infinite number of related algorithms/schemes.

Gold extraction definitely has its problems, but it's a fundamental element of the universe.

In 100 years, I know which one will definitely still hold value.

replies(1): >>43028772 #
12. nadermx ◴[04 Feb 25 19:45 UTC] No.42937569{4}[source]▶
Even then it had a utility as jewlery. Bitcoin fails on that.
replies(1): >>42938655 #
13. ◴[04 Feb 25 21:04 UTC] No.42938655{5}[source]▶
14. LAMike ◴[12 Feb 25 19:18 UTC] No.43028735{3}[source]▶
In what way? I assume you know how the minting of coins work with miners
15. LAMike ◴[12 Feb 25 19:20 UTC] No.43028772{5}[source]▶
Are you going to stop using AI because it consumes too much energy?