calumnus said:
edwinbear said:
calumnus said:
edwinbear said:
metabear said:
BearoutEast67 said:
Do we get paid in Monopoly money?
Apparently.
Quote:
On behalf of the university, Learfield, the multimedia rightsholder of Cal Athletics, will accept payment in cryptocurrency.
Once you understand, you'll see how the monopoly money is the USD.
The USD has been appreciating against world currencies. Just spent two weeks in Japan and it was the cheapest I have ever seen it in 40 years after the exchange rate.
The dollar has lost like 98% of its purchasing power since its inception. Instead of comparing against the yen you should compare it to hard assets. How much house can the dollar buy now vs 40 years ago? I'm talking longer term trends whereas you're talking shorter term fluctuations.
Currency is a medium of exchange, not a "hard asset" or investment. Use currency to buy income generating assets. It only needs to maintain value long enough to complete transactions.
If currency "gains in value" over time that is called "deflation." That means wages and prices are declining. Why spend today if it will be cheaper tomorrow? Why buy a house if it will decrease in value?
The element AU was useful as a medium of exchange in the Middle Ages when its fixed supply fit with static, agrarian economies. When European economies started expanding during the Renaissance they had to go find more gold to increase the money supply to avoid deflation and keep the economies growing. It was THE major motivation for "exploration," colonization, genocide and deforestation. Crazy.
The tremendous growth in the American economy since we went off the gold standard would not have been possible if we had stayed on it unless we dug up and found 100 to 1000 times more of the shiny metal than we currently have, more than theoretically exists on the entire planet.
I am not a fan of crypto currencies. I don't agree with the logic people use to justify them so I would never invest in them. However, it sounds like you have been successful with them, so I can't argue with that. Congratulations. However, some people made big money in tulip bulb speculation, Beannie Babbies or Ponzi schemes, but many people lost a lot of money, so be careful.
I don't need to be lectured on what inflation/deflation/currencies are. I'm not some pizza-delivering crypto bro who "got lucky" yolo'ing into bitcoin a long time ago. My acquisition and subsequent holding of bitcoin is a result of many, many, MANY hours spent thinking through all these same ideas you currently believe about money and economics. And I get it, I once believed the same things. EVERYBODY who first hears of bitcoin either thinks it's a scam or dismisses it thinking "they know better." I did as well. All I can really say is that if you make an honest effort to peel back the onion layers and look deeper, I think you will be surprised. Let me attempt that first step by addressing some of what you said below.
I think you believe that currency *has* to be inflationary to be a good currency. I (and many people) do not (anymore). I understand that "2-3% inflation = good" and "deflation = bad" is what is commonly taught in economics courses at universities all over the country. I know, I've sat through them at Cal. And I don't agree. Most economics students go through university learning Keynesian economics ("inflationary money = good", "central bank control = good") never knowing that another branch called Austrian economics even exists, which is shameful if we are supposedly acquiring knowledge as opposed to being indoctrinated by the powers that be (but that's another conversation). A branch which essentially makes the case that "deflationary money = good."
Despite "currency" being in the name "cryptocurrency" (which is unfortunate), bitcoin isn't a currency. It's more appropriate to think of it as a digital commodity, or a digital hard asset. It's a hard asset, however, that can be easily exchanged in any amount and over any distance, similar to currencies. Unlike currencies, however, it requires no middleman or third party to facilitate that exchange (banks, credit card companies, etc.), and has a transparent incorruptible monetary policy, unlike the world's biggest currency today (Jay Powell, the Fed, etc.). That is a historical first and is why people believe it's just a better money (not to conflate currency with money). A truly apolitical, non-sovereign money that parties can exchange with one another without needing to rely on any third party or government. Censorship resistant in that regard. Think about how the US flipped a switch and the USD was dead to Russia. Or the Canadian truckers and their supporters whose bank accounts were frozen as a response to protest? We are Berkeley grads! Protesting and free speech is supposedly in our blood! Imagine you peacefully protesting something you believe unlawful only to have the government cut off your supply to your own wealth as a result. Those who control your money, control YOU.
If that alone doesn't blow your mind, I'd argue you don't care about human freedom.
But wait, there's MORE.
BECAUSE the USD loses purchasing power over time, we are FORCED to use it to purchase income producing securities, real estate, etc. to preserve its purchasing power. But, why is this a good thing? Why can't we just save in a money? Isn't that the point of saving money? That we can't just save in the money we earn with our time/labor means our money is broken. People who live paycheck to paycheck don't have the discretionary income to sock away into assets every month, so when the US decides to print $trillions and cause historically high inflation as a result, it hurts those less fortunate disproportionately more than those more fortunate, who presumably have those assets which will presumably increase in nominal value in response to that inflation. But now for those already living paycheck to paycheck, everything is just that much harder to afford.
If this doesn't make you mad, I'd argue that your financial privilege blinds you to many realities of the world.
Bitcoin's absolute scarcity/finite supply makes it the only commodity in existence with absolute scarcity. If gold demand increases, we dig more up and increase supply. Same with oil. If demand for real estate increases we build more houses. Intellectually we know that there is finite gold in the Earth or space to build homes, but we still have no clue how much gold is actually left. Could be 1000x more than all the gold we've dug up in history. With bitcoin, we know. That's the point. Everybody knows its supply, its monetary policy, its issuance schedule, etc. In economics terms, bitcoin is the only "thing" with a vertical supply curve, which makes it incredibly sensitive to changes in demand, which manifests (for now) in high volatility. But it's the first economic measuring stick that isn't warped by changing supply over time. Price assets in bitcoin and,
over time, watch them
trend towards zero.
You say America experienced tremendous growth going off the gold standard, I say going off the gold standard is the point in history when the USD fundamentally became broken, with consequences that we are seeing now and will become much more apparent in the near future. The US is never going to be able to pay off its debts, it's just math. We've dug ourselves into such a deep hole that any sustained increase in interest rates will mean trillions more in mere interest payments. Despite their current rhetoric, watch the Fed bring the interest rates back down just as fast as they rose them when they get he chance.
You can ignore bitcoin. The whole point is that it's entirely voluntary. You can stay in USD, buy your dividend stocks and real estate to preserve purchasing power, etc. But bitcoin represents an opt-out to that current system which never existed before to a kind of money that has also never existed before. A money with a supply that doesn't change at the whim of some grey-haired white guy sitting atop an ivory tower. Some people want to opt out. Especially those in countries with hyperinflating currencies (Turkey, Argentina, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, etc.) where if you look at a chart of bitcoin priced in those currencies you don't see those same dips like you do pricing it in USD. Or those fleeing countries (Afghanistan, Ukraine, etc.) who have no other way to take their wealth with them. Banks control their money, governments control the banks. Gold/paper currency is limited to how much you can carry and successfully hide over borders, etc. You can memorize a long password and carry bitcoin around in your head, or keep the keys to a billion dollars worth of bitcoin on a USB stick and hide it in your butt. Trying hiding a billion dollars worth of gold in your butt, let alone securing/transacting a billion dollars worth of gold.
Again, it goes back to, if you argue against bitcoin, I'd argue you don't care about human freedom.
I'm not a fan of cryptocurrencies either. Bitcoin is the only credible cryptocurrency. There's bitcoin, and then there's everything else, and everything else is dog***** So don't conflate the two. Bitcoin is the only honest, transparent, incorruptible money we have. I agree that every cryptocurrency NOT bitcoin are basically beanie babies, etc. because, unlike bitcoin, there is a group of people who can control it or some chokepoint somewhere to its "decentralization."
Though I'm not a fan, even SEC Chairman Gary Gensler agrees, having publicly stated many times that the only crypto he believes is actually a commodity is bitcoin and that just about everything else is an unregistered security. Watch 98% of cryptos fall over the next few years as the SEC enforces that assertion.
Anyways, I hate writing wall of texts because I feel like nobody ever reads them and will still just skip down to the reply button to call me an idiot for holding bitcoin, but whatever.
There's obviously more to bitcoin than what I wrote here. Much more, but I just feel like I'm hitting that football message board limit. Anyone who wants to learn more DM me and I'm happy to point you to many resources that were integral in shaping my own thinking in bitcoin.
