0 sats \ 5 replies \ @immutable OP 22 May 2023 \ parent \ on: ∞/21M > $ × ∞ bitcoin
The world's wealth, as you've defined as homes, cars, stocks, bonds, etc, intrinsically has no value until they change hands.
My home is worth a certain dollar value, but until I choose to sell it, that value is known as "unrealised profit".
Unrealised. Not yet real.
If nobody is willing to buy it, it is not worth anything. Something is worth only what someone willingly paid for it.
The dollars I accept for it come from somewhere, the other side of the equation.
Home = $x or Home = ₿x
Tesla stock is currently US $180.14. If you had some and wanted to sell, that is the amount in dollars you would get.
The stock itself has no value until it is sold.
Then the buyer takes on the unrealised potential of this asset (unrealised profit/loss).
It is good to buy low and sell high, to generate a profit, but that profit has to come from somewhere.
Right now it comes from a supply/demand fiat monetary system, where supply is added now and essential borrowed from one's future, plus interest.
This is an addition to the amount of currency in a closed finite system. Plus the addition of interest.
Every dollar is birthed into existence with the burden of interest. To pay back that interest more dollars must be created. Inflation toward infinity. Hence, price go up.
Supply and demand causes prices of everything to fluctuate, increasing dollars in circulation which are backed by nothing drives prices higher and higher over time.
₿itcoin fixes this system by fixing the supply side of the supply/demand equation.
intrinsically has no value until they change hands
that’s not how valuations work.
if i start a company, and raise $1 million at a $10 million valuation, the company is valued at $10 million… even though I only received $1 million from investors.
reply
That remaining $9 million is unrealised potential until you sell that company for $10 million.
I just got my house valued at $70k more than what I bought it 3 years ago. Do I possess that $70k plus original value now?
That $10 million company's valuation will likely drop if another company comes out which solves the problem better. Investors will lose money, if they sell their unrealised potential loss.
reply
the valuation is still $10 million… that is exactly how all assets are valued.
exhibit a, you just said your house was “valued” $70k higher.
nobody operates under the assumption that all their assets are worth zero until they magically become valuable when they are sold.
reply
You cannot simultaneously have a $10 million company AND the $10 million in liquid capital.
If I only have a dollar and purchase an apple at a market value of $1, I no longer have a dollar, I just have one apple.
My apple is valued at $1.
BUT... seasonal rains produce high yield, apple harvest reaches record high. There's an influx of apples on the market and due to this supply shock my apple is now valued at $0.25.
I have not yet lost 75% of what I paid for my apple. I still have an apple.
I can hold my apple, cold storage, and wait until the market price recovers and sell my apple, which is not a dollar, it is still an apple, for a dollar.
If that isn't straight forward enough I guess we just agree to disagree.
Appreciate the debate.✌️
reply
i never said i would have $10 million in liquid capital, i said the valuation is $10 million.
i just hope nobody on SN is under the illusion that one bitcoin will one day be equal to 1/21,000,000th of the world’s wealth.
that kind of math is off by 1-2 orders of magnitude.
reply