
The Tulip Fever Was Exaggerated - sharjeelsayed
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/there-never-was-real-tulip-fever-180964915/?no-ist
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dang
This article had a big discussion when it came out a few months ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15308824](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15308824).

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michaelchisari
For the record, there was a speculative bubble around tulips that crashed
suddenly and sharply. From the article:

 _merchants really did engage in a frantic tulip trade, and they paid
incredibly high prices for some bulbs. And when a number of buyers announced
they couldn’t pay the high price previously agreed upon, the market did fall
apart and cause a small crisis_

The article is more about how many of the anecdotal and narrative myths around
it that weren't true.

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nerflad
Then I hope the mods change the title to something like "Much of what you hear
about Tulip Fever is exaggerated".

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dang
Sure, done.

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tardo99
I _think_ the point of posting this article is to argue that bitcoin isn't a
bubble? Not sure. I say that bc in every bubble/bitcoin thread people jump in
and make this point.

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qubex
I believe you are probably correct, and it is a tendency I really do not
understand. People seem to be so profoundly invested _emotionally_ in the
specific success of bitcoin (as opposed to the broader technology of
blockchain cryptocurrency) that they're out on the prowl to shout down anybody
who threatens to pop their perceptive bubble. It's as if they're making a
concerted effort to exclude any dissident opinion in the implicit belief that
removing the dissenters will somehow ensure the success of the whole
enterprise. I myself am hoping (as a macroeconomist and as somebody that
preserves his objectivity by having no long or short position whatsoever in
any cryptocurrency) that bitcoin will soon fail not because I have anything
against those who designed it or who adopted it early but because as a fixed-
quantity asset it is inherently noxious as a currency (which is why the world
moved off the gold standard and bimetallism and representative currency
progressively to begin with) and that it will be revealed to be what it is: an
effective implementation of a new idea (blockchain) that solves a major
computer science problem (the Byzantine Generals Problem) but was
macroeconomically naive. Successors will be more pliant for the criteria of
modern money.

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tCfD
It 'solves' the computer science BGP only by reframing it as a decision
science problem and iteravely testing a particular hypothesis about the
supremacy of personal enrichment over all other incentives in a giant,
uncontrolled public gambling experiment.

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qubex
All points granted.

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caser
Somewhat related: a friend and I created a service that sends your friends
pictures of tulips when the crypto markets crash.

It started off as a joke over dinner, but now it's a fully functional product.
More info here: sendcryotopeopletulips.com

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21
I will create a service which sends you pictures of dollars each time Bitcoin
hits a new high.

