1) I can send large payments effortlessly. I tried to move large sums using eTransfers last year and the friction is just unreal. I don't give a shit about my bank's arbitrary monthly limits
2) Fuck inflation. The fact that I can't park my money without it losing its value over time is asinine. I shouldn't have to be forced to play the market or spend if I don't want to. Just let people save their damn money.
> shouldn't have to be forced to play the market or spend if I don't want to. Just let people save their damn money.
You are always playing the market, and certainly are doing so when you park your wealth in whatever your cryptocurrency of choice is.
Having currency being optimized for use a liquid medium of exchange while other assets are better as a long term store of wealth is much better than having a currency that tries to compromise between competing purposes and ends up doing neither well.
> The fact that I can't park my money without it losing its value over time is asinine
Forcing people to invest or spend their money is the entire point of inflation. For good reason too, decreasing velocity of money is a major cause of recessions, and tightening of liquidity in the money market always leads to high unemployment.
Great comment, because it hits at something fundamental, and something I also think about a lot when considering the state of crypto today.
Point (2) is very axiomatic in its claims:
> The fact that I can't park my money without it losing its value over time is asinine.
Money will always have some relative value to what you can exchange it for. The reason bitcoin's value has kept up with inflation, is because today its price is determined mainly by speculative demand. Not because there's some cosmological guarantee that bitcoin is immune to inflation.
A few examples: one 1btc buys a small car today. Twenty years from now, when the novelty of crypto has worn off, what is providing the guarantee you'll be able to buy another car with 1btc? Or with 10btc you can buy a house today. Will 10btc buy you a house 20 years from now? If not, does it mean btc lost its value, or does it mean land got more valuable?
There's really no known way to park money and expect it to keep value, just because of its inherent properties. We've been trying for 5000 years.
> I shouldn't have to be forced to play the market or spend if I don't want to
Actually, yes, you do have to, at least if you like to preserve wealth, you preserve it by growing it. That's what investing (and it's degenerate cousin, "playing the market") really is.
Point (1) does hint at some intrinsic value of blockchain-technology. I think we'll know in 5-10 years or so, when we've gone through this correction, maybe some more war or something, whether the technologic properties of blockchain are enough to prop up current crypto prices. Consider as a counterpoint: noble metals are amazing technologies, which have provided value for millennia; from mediums of exchange, to stores of wealth, to their use in medical technologies, for mundane applications like for dishware, or spiritual applications in churches or art, for jewelry ... Really, it's absolutely completely mind boggling how long, how broadly, and how consistently gold and silver have provided value to humans. Yet, they've been poor hedges for inflation over the long term, both gold and silver being very speculative assets, worse than stocks or bonds. How is crypto-technology going to be even more fundamentally better? What is so amazing about blockchain that it's going to defy all other asset classes?
