Discussion - Bitcoin as Money

Like a printing press

Bitcoin is absolutely brilliant. It’s opened some of us up, opened our eyes. Started a discussion. That’s all that was needed to see where we stand today in a system full of manipulation, lies and deceit, broken promises and tyranny. The person or persons responsible for introducing Bitcoin to the world, silently and singlehandedly not only showed us an introduction to a better way or better system, but at the same time exposed all the evils and downfalls associated with our current system. Absolutely brilliant. I have to say I feel blessed. Blessed to be a part of this community blessed greatful and thankful I am receiving this education because I can say right here right now, I haven’t even got started yet and it’s already changing my life.

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I have now an understanding of what money is, nothing to discuss here, just a remark of what I’m learning

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I wish more people would learn about how the money system really works - they would have a lot more appreciation for cryptocurrency and Bitcoin

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all fiat has a lifespan and eventually goes to zero. Bitcoin is digital gold

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Bitcoin is monetary freedom and integrity.

This was a really worthwhile section of the course, and I’ve actually stopped referring to FIAT as money. I’m now making a conscious effort to call it currency instead! :slight_smile:

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You gotta love Bitcoin as Money.

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I love the article “Gradually Then Suddenly” by Parker Lewis. He described “going down the rabbit hole” and learning about money and then bitcoin almost perfectly as the path my journey took.
I think that the description (and linked reading) about price discovery/mechanism as the most accurate information distribution model to be highly accurate and I like to direct others to it whenever they bring up bitcoin’s price volatility as a negative thing.
I’ve been on my personal bitcoin journey for over 3 years now and the more I learn the more I realize how much better bitcoin is as money than fiat. The fact that bitcoin’s monetary policy is unchangeable due to game theory, encourages cooperation/truthfulness, and especially the fact that bitcoin went through a halving when the US has been expanding their money supply and doing QE only encourages me to put my fiat savings into bitcoin.

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Given all the present currencies are fiat, I am very glad that we finally have a real money. Hopefully the general public will accept it asap! It will create real freedom, a game changer.

Why is it that bitcoin will never really reach 21 million but 20,999,999.967 as mentioned in video lecture, did not quite get it.

Hey @victoriachua

Here you can find a table that shows the block reward for each Bitcoin halving:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply

I found on the internet a nice Python code explanation that shows why the total cap will not be 21m.

This is the Bitcoin code for calculating the halving

int64 static GetBlockValue(int nHeight, int64 nFees)
{
    int64 nSubsidy = 50 * COIN;

    // Subsidy is cut in half every 210000 blocks, which will occur approximately every 4 years
    nSubsidy >>= (nHeight / 210000);

    return nSubsidy + nFees;
}

This is a python code that you can run, it basically rewrote the function above so that it shows the total btc cap.

COIN = 100 * 1000 * 1000
nSubsidy = 50 * COIN
nHeight = 0
total = 0
while nSubsidy != 0:
    nSubsidy = 50 * COIN
    nSubsidy >>= nHeight / 210000
    nHeight += 1
    total += nSubsidy

print total / float(COIN)

That’s me running the code above

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Bitcoin could truly be the world money in a matter of months. It only depend of Central Banks rage to continue the printing press.

I agree, but general public in my region, South Europe, is very disconnected from crypto. Do not rely on government but do not want digital money. And it is hard to explain that fiat currency is almost digital too, nowadays. In your country it is happen otherwise?

Fungibility: “Is one BTC interchangeable with another? In the conventional sense, yes. The BTC is a permanent, immutable and transparent record of transactions, therefore not all BTC’s are at present exactly the same. They are attached to a distinct history. Though advancements in privacy preserving tools and proposed implementations may change this.”

I don’t understand this. Can someone help expound? Perhaps I am lacking some foundational understanding of BTC, which is why I’m having difficulty in understanding how one BTC is not like another? Does it somehow get changed with transactions because its broken into smaller than 1 piece at a time? Thanks!

In spite of its advantages, there are some disadvantages to be resolved with Bitcoin as stated below.
=Its independence and strong anonymity protections – actually make it more attractive to thieves and fraudsters.
=No standardized policy for charge backs or refunds. If someone’s purchases are not delivered. no refund from Bitcoin
=Still not totally regulated and very volatile, inconstant and unresolved tax issues can create can tax problems

Can be replaced by a superior cryptocurrency

Its independence and strong anonymity protections actually make it more alluring to fraudsters.

So far, what bothers is why bitcoin is only 21 millions ?

1 BTC another 1 BTC.

What does this mean?

Seeming that the value of your 1 BTC is made up of a one or more UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output). All these UTXOs have a unique history on how they were spent. This means that if part of your BTC were stolen by somebody and ended up in your hands via normal purchasing then you may not be able to use it. That can mean exchanges blacklisting the unique identification of the UTXO in which was stolen so that its value cannot be exchanged.

You can think of it as having multiple One Pound coins (UK currency) and you break them up into chunks of different sizes (each chunk represents a UTXO). You then take x amount of chunks from each coin and that is your wallet which has an overall balance of all those chunks. Maybe your wallet balance is of £1 and comes from three different £1 coins and one of them happened to circulate into your hands and without you knowing, this could mean you may be restricted from spending part of your £1.00 balance, let’s say the stolen chunk you have is valued 0.30 pence (30% of your overall balance). So you may not be able to exchange it.

If part of my explanation is wrong with the example I have provided then someone can correct me but this is what I think it means.

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Bitcoin As Money:

  • It is a store of value like gold but with a fixed supply

  • Buying power increases as adoption grows overtime and scarce

  • Durable, you can’t physically break it and the total value you hold cannot rust away overtime

  • Flexible in the sense you can use it to transact in very small to very large values based on the maximum value of Bitcoin at your disposal

  • Fully decentralised from government control and it is beyond the control of any company/individual

  • Computers take care of everything by following a set of deterministic rules and they only operate within these boundaries

  • No discrimination to contribute to trade, anyone is allowed to purchase Bitcoin, have a digital wallet with ownership of their keys without relying on some centralised entity

  • The blockchain itself is safe and secure

  • Your funds are safe and secure as long as you store it offline and have ownership of your keys which you do not lose access to

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Quantitative easing is a fancy way of saying that :bank: central banks can create money to lend out of thin air with the government’s blessing. Then, on top of that, the government has approved fractional lending which expands the money supply, thereby creating inflation. This means investments in low interest bonds or savings accounts lose value faster than they earn interest yet investors still have to pay tax on the gains.

In countries where there is runaway inflation people with savings found it necessary to convert their local fiat currency to something more stable even if it meant moving the money out of the country. This has historically been :moneybag: gold, :gem: jewels, :art:art, and :dollar: US dollars. Now with the dollar in danger of hyper-inflation and huge deposits of gold recently discovered in Russia, savvy investors are turning to Bitcoin and, to a lesser extent, other decentralized crypto currencies.

In times of FUD :fearful: (fear, uncertainty, and doubt), fiat money will always flow toward the safest, most stable investments. So even though there is a lot of volatility in Bitcoin, :chart_with_upwards_trend: it still trends upward over time.

I watched all the Mike Maloney videos in the list. In the last one (dated Dec 18, 2017) he was very bullish on Hedera Hashgraph. It sounded promising so I researched it and found that it fizzled out because it wasn’t widely adopted. It may be a better protocol but the market has chosen. It’s like the race between VHS and BetaMax. Beta was a better product but VHS won. Hashgraph may yet become the new standard or something even better may come along but for now the market cap on Bitcoin is more than 5X its nearest competitor.

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