Using Bitcoin Without Spending It.
I've grown quite weary trying to talk to random people about the massive benefits of blockchain. If one more person asks me when they'll be able to buy a coffee with Bitcoin I'm going to flip my shit.
That isn't the point!
Sometimes I wonder if the general population deserves to be enslaved. If they're just gonna sit in their little bubble without actually trying to figure out the world around them, then what's the point?
In my heart, I know this is false.
Obviously no one deserves to be a slave,
but the system in place today is there for a reason.
All roads lead to Rome.
People are ants; we are a hive, and there are a lot of worker drones. The mechanics of our own genetic code have led us to this point. I can't expect everyone to think like I do. If I'm being honest that number is closer to 1%. Global critical-thinking is a rarity.
As it should be.
If everyone was running around on a macro-scale who would be left to fill in the middle of the puzzle? The vast majority of things in our lives happen on a small scale.
We've got what we've got.
Our social constructs created a few leaders and a lot of followers. The good leaders couldn't really stop the bad leaders from taking advantage of the masses.
If you can't beat um, join um.
It's gotten so bad that even exponential gains in technology can't outpace our greed.
More accurately humanity's greed has no limit.
The ultimate problem is trust.
Lo and behold, the exact problem cryptocurrency is trying to solve when it comes to reforging the very foundation of the world economy. So when people are asking me about buying coffee with with Bitcoin, I'm all like:
THE FUCKING WORLD IS ON FIRE AND ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS YOUR SAD LITTLE ADDICTION THAT HELPS GET SOMEONE ELSE RICH?
AND THEY'RE ALL LIKE:
Whoa! Chill out bro!
No, I will not chill out... braj.
Could you at least spend that $8 to buy a full package of coffee at the store instead of one serving at Starbucks?
I like Starbucks, it's convenient!
Crux
And that really is the crux of the issue: convenience.
Wanna be a billionaire?
Just make crypto convenient in some way.
Good luck!
It's not easy.
Rage-blackout ended.
And now, to the actual point. I don't hold Bitcoin so I can spend it later. Just because someone decided to use the word 'currency' in cryptocurrency doesn't mean I have to view it that way.
HODLing as a political statement.
And that's really exactly what it is. I don't hold crypto as an investment, I hold it as a statement; a statement that I have zero faith in the legacy economy and I expect it all to burn to the ground over the next few decades. Bitcoin is the catalyst for this acceleration.
The nice thing about this emerging open-source economy is that most networks have inherited the properties of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is a store of value.
Ethereum is a store of value.
Bitcoin can't be printed out of thin air.
Steem can't be printed out of thin air.
Bitcoin is censorship resistant...
We get it.
Bitcoin exists in direct opposition to the central-banking cartel.
Ethereum exists in direct competition to centralized finance.
Litecoin is a robust redundant technology that helps Bitcoin scale.
Steem is trying to tokenize those worthless corporate point systems.
Monero >> Privacy.
Dogecoin proves community is more important than functionality.
Nano diversified from blockchain to DAG and scales very well.
All of these communities are valid, and they all bring something to the table.
Despite what venture capitalists project from previous experience, 90% of all projects will not die. 90% of centralized projects die. These are communities. Do 90% of communities die? Obviously not.
Venture capitalists are looking for that sleek efficient system that's going to gobble up all the small fish just like the legacy economy does. Not gonna happen.
This space is not efficient.
And it's never going to be.
Decentralization/trust is inefficient by design.
Conclusion
Crytpocurrency isn't currency just
because someone said 'currency'.
- Crypto is community.
- Crypto is trust.
- Crypto is political.
The best way to use crypto is to hold it,
not spend it.
Of course, if you couldn't spend it,
there would be no point in holding it.
Hmm, going to have to disagree on this one.
Using crypto is a revolutionary act as it takes away power from the fiat monetary regimes. Holding/store of value is only one part of that.
Improving the monetary qualities (being able to buy a cup of coffee) of crypto will accelerate the power being taken back by the people.
I wrote this article about 18 months ago: https://steempeak.com/cryptocurrency/@nealmcspadden/is-cryptocurrency-money with this chart:
I will say the store of value function has improved a bit for crypto since then, but fiat is still the relative winner on that score.
I'm not quite sure what you are disagreeing with :D
I'm gonna guess it's something like, "the main function of crypto is currency".
Yeah, I mean sure... value transfer... gotta have it.
More alarmingly I have a lot of problems with that spreadsheet.
Portability is arguable because crypto is permissionless and borderless,
making it superior to fiat in that way.
Divisibility doesn't matter. Even when you could buy stuff with pennies a hundred years ago that amount of divisibility was just fine. In fact, due to the nature of fiat always being devalued and crypto increasing in value it's easy to project that fiat has superior divisibility.... not really because you can just modify the code but whatever.
Unit of account and store of value are completely swapped. You can't measure units in crypto because of the volatility, and Bitcoin has been doubling every year (or more) since it's inception.
Thoughts?
Yeah, my main point of disagreement is the idea that holding crypto is the best thing to do with it.
The other stuff...
The way I define portability in the article has to do with its usability in different situations. Yes, you can transfer your crypto to other wallets around the world, but can you then use it as money in that new place? Crypto is gaining some ground on this front, but it still has a ways to go. If you are defining it as only the ability to move money across borders, then crypto is the clear winner.
I agree divisibility is the least important metric here. You can add n-th precision to crypto, so it's the technical winner.
Store of value is poor for crypto because of that volatility, whether it be increasing or not. If I put 8 apples of purchasing power value into crypto and come back a year later, will I have 8 apples of purchasing power still? 99.9999% chance it will be drastically different. With fiat, you'll probably have 7.5 apples of purchasing power left, which isn't great, but it's way more predictable than crypto.
Unit of account pairs with divisibility and isn't all that important as both function fine. Crypto has the same technical advantage with precision though.
As always, great points here. Time for a Starbucks 😉
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If you can't spend it! What the point to accumulate it.
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When the US IRS came out and said crypto is an assets not a currency and you are required to track the cost of your crypto, when you buy it and when you spend it.
Then you have to pay taxes on any gains.
This killed the growing market for using crypto to buy things like coffee.
So for us citizens this will not happen for a long time. Now members of other countries this is not an issue.
XD same :D
But I'm still using crypto to pay. Cuz I have no Bank Account and I want my friends to also have btc. How can I achieve that? Only pay them with crypto, not fiat-
Using crypto boosts adoption and makes crypto less volatile. :)
It's like any disruptive innovation, the ones on top of the system being threatened will do whatever they can to protect the status quo while the sheeple will only listen to those they see as "successful" in the old system as the authority.
Being a forward thinker and early adopter is never easy! The other day I went to read some youtube comments from normies on a video about BTC and wow the level of ignorance and misunderstandings by the average person (who has heard of crypto) is staggering.
There's no point in trying to bring people in they will come eventually as the natural attraction of early adopters keeps providing momentum and space continues to grow. There will always be "smart" people who will be kicking themselves for not seeing crypto the way we see it now
don't flip out,but when can I use Bitcoin to buy a Tea ?