Everyone Is Still A Scammer presented by Michael Goldstein at Bit Block Boom.
Blog post by Cousin Edgar Stumblefield.
President of Satoshi Nakamoto Institute
Sound Money
- I am a monetary maximalist
Monetary competition
- Monetary maximalism is fundamentally descriptive, not prescriptive
- The claim is this: in a free market of competing currencies, one tends to dominate the rest.
- The more people use a particular medium of exchange, the better, because it means having bitcoins give you access to more economic opportunities
- Bitcoin will be the dominant medium
Hyperbitcoinization
- If Bitcoin goes to the moon, each coin will be worth a lot (bears tend to think maybe $10 million per coin in today's purchasing power)
- Hodling is a test of time preference and personal values
- There is no correct answer, but there are endless wrong ones
Merchants Are Scammers
- “Spend your bitcoins!” they say. “It will help the network grow!”
- Reality: spending may have been good for initial bootstrappping and market exposure (think Silk Road), but it does not create liquidity
- Hodling is what increases the price and value of bitcoins
- If a merchant wants your bitcoins, the important thing here is that someone is demanding bitcoins, not that you spent it ( and that's assuming they even hodl themselves)
Medium of Exchange
- Medium of exchange is a good purchased for the purposes of indirect exchange
- Method of payment is the means by which to transfer this good in trade
- Medium of exchange does not equal method of payment
- “Store of value” is trading present value of a good for the future value of the good, colloquially over a long time period
- Store of value is not so distinct from medium of exchange
Altcoins are bad, even when they are “good”
- Any investment must outperform Bitcoin
- Track record is terrible
- In 2014, I didn't even know if Ethereum woud actually launch, I was wrong
- However, while it has been a great short term investment, a Bitcoin maximalist should think to himself:
- Can this beat Bitcoin as a money?
- If yes, carefully consider
- If no, pay no attention
Multicoining as Distraction Maximalism
- There are approximately 52,182,734,926 cryptocurrencies out there. I counted
- One will tend to dominate the whole market (and one does)
- You cannot possibly keep up with all of them
- Cryptocurrency, even whe masquerading as appcoins or ICOs, are currencies and compete as such
- If they can't win on those grounds, they are useless
- Any time spent looking into plagiarized whitepapers is time not spent cultivating a winning network (or even just living a life), whether through development, education, evangelism, or some other productive venture
The Limits of Hodling
- Portfolio maximalism – a true Bitcoin maximalist puts as much of his portfolio into Bitcoin as possible
- Reality: everyone has different values and time preferences
- If all someone wanted was a lambo, and now they can afford it, then they succeeded, even if they could have had 20 in the future
- Be an investor, not a gambler
- If you lose sleep, you invested too much
- The important thing is to determine what you truly want in life, and lose all distractions. Lower your time preference by zeroing in on your long term goals
- If you don't, someone is out there to scam you out of your potential
Conclusion
- Bitcoin offers a once-in-history opportunity. Do not take it lightly
- Focus on what you truly value, and work towards those goals
- Don't scam yourself
Twitter: @bitstein
Satoshi Nakamoto Institute: https://nakamotoinstitute.org
Noded Bitcoin Podcast: https://noded.org
Michael Goldstein – (a.k.a Bitstein) founder and president of the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute. Michael co-host's the Noded Bitcoin Podcast. Also curates resources related to all-meat, carnivorous diets at justmeat.co.
