
Bitcoin price tops gold for first time ever - zMiller
http://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-tops-gold-price-2017-3
======
Casseres
Bitcoin is only valuable because it has the first-mover advantage. If people
start to value privacy and fungibility in crypto currencies, then Bitcoin
won't stay valueable.

I remember seeing the white paper for Bitcoin here on HN years ago. While I'm
not that adventurous (otherwise I'd be a "Bitcoin millionaire"), for anyone
who is, or is looking for a project to contribute to, consider Monero:

[https://github.com/monero-project/monero](https://github.com/monero-
project/monero)

Monero is a private (no one can see how much your wallet contains without a
view key) and fungible crypto currency (other's can't see where your "coins"
came from).

Disclaimer: I own some Monero, but not enough to make me a millionaire if it
becomes popular like Bitcoin.

~~~
sayurichick
I used to fear the same. However better technology/protocol is not enough to
replace bitcoin. There are way better Protocols for messaging than SMTP, so
why haven't we moved from e-mail?

Also, with services like [https://shapeshift.io/](https://shapeshift.io/) I
can forever hold only bitcoin, and can pretty much instantly convert it to
whatever other alt-coin I want. Lets say there is indeed a future encrypted-
coin which provides perfect anonymity and perfect security and blah blah blah.
Cool, I want to use $1,000 worth of encrypted-coin to buy some stuff, so I'll
just convert my 0.01 BTC (or whatever equivalent) and do that.

I believe shapeshift has an API too, so it will eventually be even more
seamless to "convert" among alt-coins. Might even be transparent (send XX
bitcoin and it'll automatically be received as whatever coin).

So, When everyone knows bitcoin, and bitcoin has the largest market, and is
the original cryptocurrency, and has the most infrastructure, and the most
developers, and can already easily be converted into any alt-coin; Tell me,
what is your best argument for how something like Monero will surpass bitcoin?

~~~
Casseres
> $1,000 worth ... 0.01 BTC

It could very well reach 100,000 USD, but being snarky doesn't help your
argument.

Shapeshift is a very good service that will keep Bitcoin relevant, and I'm
sure there will be more services in the future that will keep Bitcoin
valuable.

Right now, Bitcoin is supported primarily by technically-inclined
companies/people. Those that want to figure out how to use it to buy illegal
items, pay ransoms, or skirt other monetary restrictions will turn to those
technically-inclined people (and their websites) to learn.

It's easier now for people to share information and for better ideas to
replace older ones. Not so much when e-mail was in its infancy. Now e-mail is
ubiquitous, Bitcoin not so much.

Like another person wrote, it's not a zero-sum game. I'm not saying Bitcoin
will be worthless. I am saying that it might not "go to the moon" like you
think it might with your hypothetical valuation, and another crypto currency
might.

> Tell me, what is your best argument for how something like Monero will
> surpass bitcoin?

Privacy, and as a result: fungibility. It's true, most people don't value
privacy today. I only imagine most people here do for the many reasons that
have been hashed out over the years, but I guess you're not one of them. The
HN community is a very good cross section of the movers and shakers of the
digital world. If most people here decided to switch, it would happen.

------
barnabee
An extremely arbitrary milestone… it would be a bit more notable if bitcoin's
market cap was higher than the total value of all gold in circulation. We're a
long way off that [0].

[0]
[https://twitter.com/ChrisLundkvist/status/835087450829701122](https://twitter.com/ChrisLundkvist/status/835087450829701122)

------
omarforgotpwd
This is a pretty meaningless comparison because bitcoin is infinitely
divisible. An ounce of gold is now the same price as somewhat meaningless
quantity of bitcoin.

~~~
SamReidHughes
What? 1 bitcoin is way less divisible than an ounce of gold!

~~~
jobigoud
Yep.

\- 1 ounce of gold = 9.51×10^22 atoms.

\- 1 Bitcoin = 1×10^8 Satoshis.

Now I'm not sure what the smallest _tradable_ amount of gold is.

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+many+atoms+in+an+ou...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+many+atoms+in+an+ounce+of+gold)

[https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/114/what-is-a-
sa...](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/114/what-is-a-satoshi)

------
MilnerRoute
There was a time when something else was even more valuable: tulips.

    
    
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

------
myowncrapulence
Love the bitter comments in _hacker forum_ avoiding self-reconciliation of
ignoring the fundamental advantages of a scarce global currency.

Side note: Bitcoin's market cap is still vastly under gold's.

------
md_
Which weighs more, a pound of Bitcoin or a pound of gold?

------
boznz
.. And in other news anyone interested in my new math for factorising thousand
bit numbers

------
Ftuuky
Everyday I feel like an idiot for selling my bitcoin when it was worth almost
nothing...

------
nthcolumn
Its a ponzi scheme they said, you need a rack of nvidia to get 1000 bitcoin
they said...

------
nikolay
The Chinese thieves who want to move money out of the country are giving
Bitcoin a ride. Otherwise, it died long ago. The blockchain is still vital,
but given that even Ethereum didn't get the expected traction, it just a
matter of time for Bitcoin to crash back to $0!

~~~
zMiller
I'm curious to your analysis .. Do you have any numbers or facts to
corroborate your opinions ?

