Stop Treating Bitcoin Like A Stock
Content adapted from this Zerohedge.com article : Source
Authored by Jordan Stephens via Hackernoon.com,
It's not.
I don't know about you, but I've never felt so compelled to drink in my life than the past week watching Bitcoin. It's like watching a paper airplane bounce in the wind that could either nosedive any moment or catch another swift gust upward.
I get it. It looks like a really volatile stock ripe for quick profit or financial demise at the roll of some dice, and if we keep treating it this way, that's exactly how it will remain.
Investing in stock drives the production of better goods and services, but currency isn't a commodity which will depreciate due to the nature of its own decay. It's not a service which could lose its public appeal in a few years. Intellectual property is a closer metaphor, but a dollar will still never hold intrinsic value, ironically, unless it is one day viewed as an antique.
The true beauty of currency is that it doesn't exist corporeally nor have any intrinsic value at all.
Cryptocurrency, by its very nature, cannot accurately represent value if it is perceived as being valuable itself, and as soon as we stop treating it as a means to redistribute wealth in another currency, it can get back to doing its real job?—?facilitating fair and reliably accountable exchange. If that's not your endgame for participating in it, then you should get out of it entirely because you're defeating the purpose.
What we're witnessing in arguably the grandest display in recent history is dissatisfaction with the status quo, and each dollar exchanged is an act of rebellion, a protest, and middle finger to every bank who is "too big to fail." As the price of bitcoin grows, so does a collective wager that the people can manage our own transactions more reliably than isolated centralized systems with national borders. Its volatile gesticulation is a global negotiation and argument how best to handle our transactions.
Putting money into any cryptocurrency isn't an investment. It's a vote.
Will Bitcoin win?
Who knows? It's literally up to us. If any currency including the dollar crumbles, it's because consumers lost faith in it, not because it couldn't sustainably meet some demand. So if you take away one thing from me, let it be this:
Calling Bitcoin a bubble is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Got a lot of money in it and want to see it grow? Then leave it. If we could all agree on this notion, Bitcoin could be the new global reserve tomorrow, and you'd be doing your shopping not with all the money you've made from Bitcoin, but with Bitcoin. Instead of questioning how much of our dollars to exchange, we'd be scrambling to get the rest of it in there. This is the one question you should ask yourself when exchanging fiat value for cryptocurrency: Is this how I'd rather spend my money? If Bitcoin is not your answer to that, don't buy it.
Bitcoin isn't the first of its kind, and it's demonstrably not the last; it's just the most successful right now, and since popularity is really at the heart of any mass system of exchange, success, in the long run, will be what matters. So since this thing is just getting started, should we trade around? Sure, go for it. Something will inevitably come out on top or else we'll all be stuck in some purgatorial economic limbo for a long time. This will probably occur when the public is satisfied with the fiat efficiency of managing transactions and the current distribution of wealth, but until then, put your money where your faith is. That way, we wind up with a system we actually want.
If you're satisfied with dollars, keep your dollars. After all, you already have the advantage of participating in the fiat system. And if you're looking to make more of them, buy stock generated by dollars, not cryptocurrency because if fiat profit is what you're after, the mainstream financial analysts are right ?—?it's a terrible and risky investment to take your desired currency out of its participatory system.
The only issue with this viewpoint is that much of what is being bought with dollars is bubbling. It is fair to say the stock market, after an 8 or 9 year bull run is way ahead of things. There hasnt been a real pullback in the market since 2015. That isnt healthy.
Ironic they call bitcoin a bubble since it has a pullback every couple weeks. Shedding 20% in a day or two is nothing for bitcoin. Yet people ignore the stock market while putting the bubble label on bitcon.
As for the reason to hold bitcoin, the bottom line is that as long as people receive fiat in their paychecks, that is what everything will ultimately be converted to...at least in the short term. Down the road, some blockchains, like steem, will have actual commerce on them where people are buying goods (and perhaps services) with STEEM. But that is a couple years away.
In as much as i totally support your views on crypto being a kind of 'No vote' to the current centralized financial system, we all know that you can't give a yes vote by staying hungry and poor... if we can buy up the currencies and invest more in crypto, that's another way of saying I'm voting Yes! So the higher price means mopping up of more dollars and other banking currencies into the crypto market..
PS: I enjoyed the article
If the the dollar, for example collapses do you think that crypto will not suffer greatly ?
Look at Zimbabwe and the premium they pay for Bitcoin,,,, when the Fiat fails people RUN to Bitcoin to save what little they have left.
It will surely suffer but i believe it's recovery will be speedy... the dependence on the dollar economy is one thing i believe crypto aim to reduce greatly. .. So Yes! It will suffer by recover faster before other currencies even think of recovering from the shock
Thank you for an informative article, being new to Steem it is good to read blogs and comments from people who are more knowledgable than myself and who give both sides of the coin so I can form my own opinion.
BTC is something unique and something that we have never seen. BTC is like the bull market from 2009, you have never seen a bull market like this. Printing money like crazy and keeping interests at <1%. Everyone is expecting something that aint coming.
Cryptocurrency, by its very nature, cannot accurately represent value if it is perceived as being valuable itself, and as soon as we stop treating it as a means to redistribute wealth in another currency, it can get back to doing its real job?—?facilitating fair and reliably accountable exchange. If that's not your endgame for participating in it, then you should get out of it entirely because you're defeating the purpose.
This is a great article... people will do better to simply hold btc. I know too many people who thought they were smart by getting out at the high, only to watch it continue higher and then having to chase it to restablish the position. Just hold, its going higher!
I couldn't agree more !!!! very well thought out and argued.
Resteemed and Reposted on FB!
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Great post!
Good post. Thank you.
Thanks for your news @zer0hedge