
Bitcoin Now Worth More Than Twitter - nickfrost
https://mattermark.com/bitcoin-tests-new-aggregate-value-highs/
======
fnovd
Bitcoin is a currency. Twitter is a company. The comparison doesn't make a
whole lot of sense.

~~~
trendia
The US dollar is now worth more than Microsoft.

~~~
jamez1
US government debt is now worth more than the US dollar its worth is measured
in

~~~
adventured
Dramatically disagree with the premise.

I'd like to see someone put a value on owning the global reserve currency over
the next 30 years (in a nation that owns 43% of all global private wealth,
which is mostly accounted for in USD; with a global economy powered by
commodities almost exclusively priced in dollars).

US Government debt is worth maybe 1% to 2% of what the USD is really worth
today. I don't believe you can account for a currency's realistic worth while
ignoring all the assets primarily or solely denominated in that currency, to
say nothing of the immense leverage / power / economic benefits that the
global reserve status brings along (that alone is blatantly worth more than
all US Government debt).

~~~
jamez1
My comment was half tongue in cheek, but it's still accurate.

US government debt has to be paid in USD, it doesn't matter what other assets
they own, that can only be used to buy USD. Unless you barter with bondholders
and have them accept these other assets? But that misses the point, we all
know the situation is manageable, but it's an interesting idiosyncrasy
nonetheless.

------
cperciva
At about $14B, the market capitalization of bitcoin is still somewhat less
than the $30-40B market capitalization of IPv4 address space.

~~~
drvdevd
Not sure if you're just being sarcastic, but I actually find that to be an
interesting comparison.

~~~
cperciva
Not sarcastic, but both numbers are somewhat meaningless since the prices
depend on having only a small proportion of the stock being traded.

~~~
csomar
I'm not sure I understand your comment. Is most of the Gold in the world
traded? The same for currencies and stocks. Unless I'm missing something.

~~~
cperciva
No, most of the gold in the world is not traded; but I don't remember ever
hearing people talk about the "market capitalization of gold".

Most stocks have a rational basis for their price beyond mere scarcity: They
pay dividends, or are expected to pay dividends eventually. Newly IPOed
startups are something of an exception to this rule (lots of people chasing a
small number of "hot" shares) and it's not surprising that they often have
mythical market capitalizations.

~~~
beambot
Here, from Warren Buffett:

[http://fortune.com/2012/02/09/warren-buffett-why-stocks-
beat...](http://fortune.com/2012/02/09/warren-buffett-why-stocks-beat-gold-
and-bonds/)

> Today the world’s gold stock is about 170,000 metric tons. If all of this
> gold were melded together, it would form a cube of about 68 feet per side.
> (Picture it fitting comfortably within a baseball infield.) At $1,750 per
> ounce -- gold’s price as I write this -- its value would be about $9.6
> trillion.

He then goes on to say why he doesn't care for it: it's not a productive
asset.

------
kin
Twitter comparisons aside (what's the point?), anyone know what could be
causing the surge in pricing for Bitcoin? It was off my radar for a while and
all of a sudden it's at $800+.

~~~
modeless
Speculation is that it's a combination of Chinese investors looking to get out
of the yuan and lower supply caused by the recent halving of the
mining/inflation rate.

Another possible factor is the upcoming SEC decision about the COIN ETF, on
Jan. 10. A Bitcoin ETF could unlock pent-up demand and drive the price to new
highs, the same way it did for gold. However, a delay seems much more likely
than approval on Jan. 10.

~~~
imaginenore
Also Indian, Venezuelan, Argentinian citizens - their currency is not doing
well at all.

~~~
modeless
All true but the volume right now is too low for those to affect the price
this much.

~~~
ionwake
What do you reckon it is?

~~~
modeless
To me the fact that Chinese exchanges are consistently $20 higher indicates
that Chinese buying is probably driving the price. But you should always be
skeptical when someone tells you a reason for price movements, because the
truth is the only people who really know are the people buying and selling.

~~~
csomar
The Chinese premium means nothing since there is capital controls. Bitcoin has
a premium where there is capital controls. It's not related to the volume or
demand of BTC itself.

~~~
modeless
If the premium isn't related to demand or volume then why does it go up every
time there's an increase in price and volume, and disappear when volume and
volatility are low?

~~~
csomar
Your confusing the Delta-Premium with the Premium. The premium itself is not
synonymous to higher demand. A positive Delta, however, can be.

------
mastazi
Could someone sum up the needed technology stack to do bitcoin mining in 2016?

In particular, is it still in any way possible to build small scale, home-
brewed mining operations or the higher barrier of entry means that only the
big companies will survive?

~~~
sowbug
[https://twitter.com/sowbug/status/414098711505952768](https://twitter.com/sowbug/status/414098711505952768)

Less concise: don't bother. If you believe the price will rise, buy bitcoin
rather than mining equipment and electricity.

~~~
mastazi
Yes, it (buying vs mining) makes sense, thank you.

------
jgrant27
This is a startup that provides "valuations" of other startups after all. They
sell shovels to the miners who think they are all going to get rich.

------
rshm
Twitter's valuation is becoming a favorite recently. Much like how number of
books in Library of Congress, used to be standard for hard disk capacity.

------
potlee
Or rather twitter is now worth less than bitcoin

------
codingmyway
Not so sure about this line:

"bitcoin is closing the year on a high note, surviving its (expected) mining
changes with grace"

Adoption of technical improvements like segwit has become more of a political
game than ever with less technical people shouting louder, so much that it's
become a joke with parodies like Bitcoin Ultimate.

------
nikolay
Well, except, try selling 5% of Bitcoin and see what's gonna happen!

~~~
imaginenore
Try selling 5% of the dollar and see what happens.

It will go to near zero on every single exchange. That's how liquidity works.
Pretty much never large percentages of commodities/currencies are traded on
exchanges.

~~~
nikolay
If you sell 5% of Twitter, you won't see much of an action compared to
Bitcoin!

~~~
imaginenore
If you sell 5% of Twitter stock, it will go to near zero as well.

------
gnipgnip
Another of alt.right's religious gospels is about BTC being the new 'gold';
about how BTC and XAU will rise as the world is set to plunge. I can't speak
for the latter, but anyone with a two bit brain can see that BTC much like USD
is negatively corelated with gold. It is currencies like CHF and JPY that
ironically track XAU!

~~~
GordonS
Are the continous 'alt.right' snarks really necessary? They make your comments
seem very condescending.

------
acd
Legendary creatures with wings that fly high up in the sky are called Pegasus,
Unicorns on the contrary does not have wings. Thus when the interest rate go
up Unicorns may be separated from Pegasus.

Cryptographies stand to create a better future. A better future should be
worth more than Twitter.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus)

