Gold is a Physical, Energy Management/Distribution System. Bitcoin is Digital. \ stacker news ~bitcoin

I think that Bitcoin defined as "currency", is somewhat of a misplaced term. Bitcoin can be used as a 'currency', as 'cash' and it should be depending on need.

But I also believe it's 'capital' more than anything else.

In the broadest sense, capital can be a measurement of wealth and a resource for increasing wealth. Individuals hold capital and capital assets as part of their net worth. Companies have capital structures that define the mix of debt capital, equity capital, and working capital for daily expenditures that they use.

Capital is typically cash or liquid assets being held or obtained for expenditures. In a broader sense, the term may be expanded to include all of a company’s assets that have monetary value, such as its equipment, real estate, and inventory. But when it comes to budgeting, capital is cash flow.

(From https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/capital.asp)

Defined this way... Bitcoin can be bought and sold, transferred, spent, invested, gambled with, used as collateral, used as a 'source of trust' on the internet...

And since the 'Capital' that is "Bitcoin The Asset" moves across the Bitcoin network...

Bitcoin the Network is by definition a capital management and distribution network.

It manages and "distributes" capital, via transactions, digitally across the Internet.

That 'Capital' could be a building. It could be daily spending cash (like on Lightning or eCash), it could be a 'trust management system' like Stacker News (which is what "pay to post" is after all)...

It's a 'Store of Value' and also 'Store of Energy' that has numerous practical applications.

I'm of the belief that economics, at a fundamental level, is an Energy Management System, where goods and services are traded for other goods and services...

With the 'medium of exchange' being energy or the cumulative value of labor and skill by other people over time.

The more transparently and authentically our economies are tied to energy... the healthier they will be and eventually Bitcoin plays an enormous role in the World Economy.

In the prior centuries, gold was the store of value, medium of exchange, and unit of account of a civilization's energy. What is the labor required to 'produce' that much gold...

How hard is it to make? How hard is it to find? How scarce is it really?

And how much energy is required to extract it out of the ground?

If indeed that much energy is required to mine the gold and process it...

Isn't in fact gold a "store of energy" when traded for Labor and the Goods of Others?

I give you the gold for your labor/skill... for which you provide those things in return. And you then trade the gold with another for their labor and skill and so on and so forth.

In that way, Gold is a Physical or Analog energy distribution system before the Internet... Prior to the internet and modern electronics this was as 'good as it gets'. I hand you the Gold.

In the Digital Age however, try taking "Gold Flakes" and buying a cup of coffee?

It's completely impractical.

I propose that Bitcoin is a "city is cyberspace" whereas each block in the timechain is a Snapshot of economic activity sending and receiving Bitcoin.

Do the two images really look so different?

(From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insula_%28Roman_city%29#/media/File:Roman_Cologne,_reconstruction.JPG)

I also believe that the entire world will eventually need and want to settle energy across our civilization using the security, transparency, and immutability of the Bitcoin network. And that the "fees" for financial settlement per block will be relatively high.

It then logically follows that among the 200 million or so layer 1 transactions available each year... If only a small percentage of the world's:

200 million companies
8 Billion People in
70 countries on
7 continents

want to settle on Bitcoin... the demand for Blockspace will be extremely powerful, consistent, and very competitive with the idea of making 'trivial' or 'low-value' economic transactions on Layer 1 absurd.

It also goes to follow that (for better for worse) there will be 2 types of Bitcoin participants generally. UTXO owners (the 'property owners') and property renters or those renting liquidity temporarily to use Lightning (assuming they do not own a UTXO).

In summary, it's easy to summarize the differences between "Crypto" and Bitcoin... Bitcoin distributes and requires energy to function.

"Crypto" just like fiat requires thin air only: it manipulates, stores, and delivers no energy and in the Long Run is completely worthless.

Our Internet has the ability to store and convey information. But it never had the Ability to Store and Convey Energy, Exahash, or Sats across cyberspace until very recently.

With luck Bitcoin becomes the Energy Storage, Management, and Capital Distribution Network of our Species and that process (in my opinion) is just beginning.

Not because Bitcoin is perfect... but because it is the Best.

None of these Machines can function without Energy:

Why should we expect our Money, our Capital, and our Cyberspace to be any different?

150 sats \ 2 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 20h

Yes Bitcoin is the digital age equivalent of gold. It is honest as gold because its issuance requires energy equivalent to its value to be expended. Bitcoin and gold create economies where capital accumulation and consequence allocation are done by those who provide the goods and services people want and value. In contrast with fiat money where governments use their power and monopoly over the 'lawful' use of force to issue fiat money which is then franchised out to private bankers who issue most of the fiat in circulation via debt issuance. Fiat money gives governments and bankers an extraordinary privilege over and above citizens- With fiat the price of capital is set by bankers operating the monopoly imposed by governments. This distorts capital accumulation and allocation as it is only bankers and governments that command this power to create new money out of thin air and debt issuance. An economy operating on The Bitcoin Standard would be a free market in capital and would tend to enable market driven capital allocation rather than the arbitrary allocation bankers and governments tend to exercise. A Bitcoin Standard monetary system would not prevent governments from taxing and allocation tax revenue toward projects and purposes agreed upon but would prevent politicians and bankers from debasing privately held liquid capital/cash. Whether this can ever come to pass is arguable given the considerable power and wealth held by the fiat operators and their considerable success already in banning the use of Bitcoin as a MoE in 70% of the world and obstructing its use as a MoE in the other 30% of the world via the sly designation of Bitcoin as a speculative commodity and the consequent imposition of tax recording and payment obligations upon anyone who chooses to use Bitcoin as a MoE.

35 sats \ 1 reply \ @028559d218 OP 11h

considerable success already in banning the use of Bitcoin as a MoE in 70% of the world and obstructing its use as a MoE in the other 30% of the world

But WE are using it as an MoE are we not?

If we can do it why can't others? If we only had a few/single digit percentage of the populations using Bitcoin as an MoE it would have a huge impact... it would be so much more difficult to ban.

Everyone likes gold.

Therefore basically everyone should like Bitcoin.... And like receiving it for goods and services businesses included.

I don't believe it's entirely the cap gains / tax issues that are preventing MoE but more so the lack of education.

The Uber drivers and Cab drivers I've asked about a lightning wallet (to tip) don't decide "not to take it".

They're not "using something else" (stables or whatever). They have literally never heard of Lightning so how can they use it if they've never heard of it?

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 9h

Yes we use it but every zap is probably in most cases breaching someones tax laws. We do so because we understand how the fiat system grants a huge advantage to governments and bankers and disadvantages all other participants whereas Bitcoin treats all participants equally. The bankers and governments also understand this and naturally want to preserve their extraordinary privilege and so have responded on all available fronts to obstruct (or simply ban) Bitcoin MoE and prevent it getting a sufficient critical mass of usage to be a threat to their MoE monopoly. The tax issue is not the only factor for sure - controlling the narrative which bankers and governments are skilled at, has been a significant part of their strategy. Bringing nearly all circulating sats into KYC surveillance and enabling the accumulation of custody by corporates where the explicit purpose is use as a speculative commodity combines to work against MoE adoption. The overwhelming narrative even within Bitcoiners is now to use Bitcoin as a speculative commodity, not as a P2P payments protocol MoE. Most people do not understand Bitcoin, or even, really, fiat, and so education has to be a major part of increasing awareness and adoption. It is not impossible but it is taking on the most powerful and wealthy global cartel in existence. It might take a while!