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by cuteboy19 1611 days ago
70% of Bitcoin holders bought in last year. A continuous stream of greater fools is necessary for its price to even remain at the current level

Also, every ponzi scheme gives amazing returns, before it inevitably collapses. For example Madoff was able to give decent returns to his investors for 17 years! 'Number go up' is not a refutation of a ponzi scheme.
2 comments
tim333 1611 days ago
Yeah but with a Madoff/Ponzi scheme the thing collapses, Madoff goes to jail, it ends. Bitcoin seems more like other assets that don't make things, stuff like fiat money, gold, fine art and so on.
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immibis 1611 days ago
Yeah, it's the world's first decentralized Ponzi scheme. There's nobody to put in jail - its value just drops to 0.
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DarylZero 1611 days ago
It literally is just fiat currency. Bitcoin is a way to make fiat currency independent of government.
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hypertele-Xii 1611 days ago
...but dependent on the price of electricity and computers.

Guess which governments have the most of both.

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it_does_follow 1611 days ago
> stuff like fiat money, gold, fine art and so on.

This comment is a great example of how little bitcoin enthusiasts tend to understand about investing. One of this things is very much not like the others.

"Fiat currency" is virtually never used as an investment asset. Even in the FOREX market you purchases pairs of currency rather than just a big pile of dollars. In your 401k when you want to go all "cash" you very often end up choosing investment vehicles that track cash.

The entire function of a currency is as a medium of exchange, it only has value in the process of exchanging. It makes no sense, at the individual investor level, to 'hold' dollars.

If you don't understand how a fiat currency differs from gold and fine art then you absolutely should not be "investing" in bitcoin.

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fallat 1611 days ago
> A continuous stream of greater fools is necessary for its price to even remain at the current level.

I think HN is going to need a good explanation for this. The value is intrinsic, and can go up without any activity happening... I think there are other fools scouring about here in the comments.

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dpark 1611 days ago
> I think HN is going to need a good explanation for this. The value is intrinsic, and can go up without any activity happening...

I think you need to explain this. In what way does bitcoin have any intrinsic value?

And how can this value go up without activity? A currency with no activity is literally worthless.

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