Is bitcoin just a giant game of “chicken”?

Reaper

The only type if crypto coin that makes any sense is StableCoin. Unlike Bitcoin it actually has the potential to become a world wide currency if people back it. But of course it is useless for speculation/gambling.

steampowered

Bitcoin is no different to gold. Very little or no inherent value.

HansOndabush

steampowered said:

Bitcoin is no different to gold. Very little or no inherent value.

Rubbish. Gold has plenty of uses as well as jewelry which is one of the main ones. It has been proper money and a store of value for thousands of years.

HansOndabush

Deleted_User said:

HansOndabush said:

Gold has plenty of uses as well as jewelry which is one of the main ones. It has been proper money and a store of value for thousands of years.

Good luck paying with gold in Sainsbury's

Gold does have uses (as jewelery or in industry), but not enough to support its price.

You need to do some homework; start here:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanlewis/2019/03/16/why-gold-is-still-the-best-basis-for-money/

ZeroSum

Glorified fairground tokens 

Infrastructure

Bitcoin is fundementally different from gold. Gold has a few thousand years of history of retaining its value, compared to a handful of years for Bitcoin, and gold has physical properties. Any comparison between the two is not useful, including the fact that neither Bitcoin or gold or accepted at Sainsbury's.

Bitcoin being compared to gold, shares, tulips or any other asset seems unhelpful due to the vastly different intrinsic properties of each asset. 

There was a comment on here earlier saying that a game of chicken isn't a zero sum game. Is there not a winner and loser in that scenario too? 

steampowered

HansOndabush said:

Rubbish. Gold has plenty of uses as well as jewelry which is one of the main ones. It has been proper money and a store of value for thousands of years.

The fact that gold has been used as a "store of value for thousands of years" does not give it inherent value. 

You could equally say that salt was used as a "store of value for thousands of years" - after all, many Roman soldier were paid in salt. It has a fraction of the worth today. 

You could equally say that bitcoin is being used as a "store of value" - which it is. Bitcoin has a pretty much identical investment case as gold - as a store of value which is not subject to the possibility of a rapid increase in supply, in the same way that fiat currency is.

The inherent value of gold is extremely limited - a bit of jewellery and that's it. You don't invest in gold for its industrial uses.

HansOndabush

Deleted_User said:

HansOndabush said:

You need to do some homework; start here:

You have no arguments, then?

I'm liking the comparison between gold and bitcoin more and more ... think of gold as bitcoin OFF the blockchain

Try giving your wife or girlfriend some jewelry made from bitcoin.

Malthusian

Infrastructure said:

There was a comment on here earlier saying that a game of chicken isn't a zero sum game. Is there not a winner and loser in that scenario too? 

Not if both the competitors swerve simultaneously, or both the competitors hold their nerve and kill each other. "Chicken" is not a zero sum game, just a game.

Bitcoin is actually a game of reverse chicken. In chicken, the person who blinks last wins. (If nobody blinks then both lose.) In a pump and dump game, the person who blinks last loses.

Thrugelmir

steampowered said:

HansOndabush said:

Rubbish. Gold has plenty of uses as well as jewelry which is one of the main ones. It has been proper money and a store of value for thousands of years.

The inherent value of gold is extremely limited - a bit of jewellery and that's it. You don't invest in gold for its industrial uses.

Gold has hundreds of uses in every space vehicle that NASA launches. Medically it is used to treat some forms of cancer. In desktops and laptops it is used as a conductor. Gold is also used as a reflective material in the manufacture of glass.  An expensive material to waste.