
I spent 16 months on this Bitcoin explainer. by Art of the Problem - britcruise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKwqNgG-Sv4
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not_kurt_godel
"Bitcoin isn't just a boring grey [precious] metal, it's a virtual coin taking
the form of a number"

Precious metals are inherently valuable because they are extremely useful in a
wide variety of applications in the physical world. An arbitrary number has 0
inherent value. It is a fiat commodity whose only backing is faith that a
sufficiently high number of people are duped into giving its controllers real
money in exchange for it.

~~~
vonseel
Yea this is what I still don’t understand. What’s to stop someone from
creating a new coin and entirely new supply of currency? And what keeps the
original currency (btc, for example) still valuable? Is it solely because in
the short term bitcoin has the markets attention/hype, and if the hype was not
there, there is no reason to anyone to buy and hold bitcoin in comparison to a
different crypto?

Is there EVER a non-privacy, government, or tax avoidance type reason to hold
bitcoin? I’m thinking like gold / precious metals are used in electronics and
industry, jewelry, etc. A coin can’t be held and used for something. I suppose
a company can use a blockchain internally for verifying things / ledger /
whatever magic use they dream up, but that wouldn’t really be using it as a
currency.

I actually am bullish on crypto, overall, because I think people are not
rational and will buy for many years into the hype. On a 20-30 year timeline,
I think it is harder to predict and know what to expect. Lots of things change
when you look more than a few years out.

Someone please convince me, in a concise fashion!

~~~
chii
> What’s to stop someone from creating a new coin and entirely new supply of
> currency?

Nothing. Just like nothing stops anyone from printing out their own paper
money. However, nobody will accept it, since the trust in your new paper money
is next to nil, as no shop or services will accept it as a form of payment
(perhaps except yourself).

Replacing paper money with a new cryptocoin of your own makes no changes to
the above argument.

However, if you are able to produce goods or services which is needed by
somebody, then you can price your goods/services in your own paper money, and
setup an exchange rate yourself. If other people sees the exchange rate, and
deem it worthy, they will exchange their existing currency with yours, in
order to purchase your goods/services. This process is the one that gives any
currency any real value.

------
jannes
The first 30 seconds start a little boring. You just repeat what many people
already know about bitcoin... But then it gets really interesting.

I wish you had started the video a little bit stronger.

Anyway, I just subscribed to your channel! Nicely done!

~~~
britcruise
Thanks for the feedback! I actually had a different intro I chopped off - it's
here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXB_j-
_jPmU&t=1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXB_j-_jPmU&t=1s)

