Bitcoins/Litecoins/Virtual Currencies

Seananigans

Honorary Shit-PhD
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I have no venom. Disagreeing with you doesn't mean I have "venom". Its called disagreeing with you. I have stated many times (and I guess you dont read it), I have bought and sold BTC and I am currently short Puts on IBIT contracts. Maybe @Blazin or @Jysin can explain to you what writing Puts on IBIT mean. Perhaps you don't follow options.

I am going to try this again, like I said this is a convo. I am not full of venom or some such. Shit ask @Chanur what I am like on Twitter.

We, meaning you and a couple of others so far on this thread, have a disagreement on what certain words mean. And I think that is the crux of it. in the financial world, instruments have a value. Many times that value is what something is worth to the buyer. How that value is determined is what varies between both market participants and the individual instrument. Stocks are "generally" valued based on a numerous amount of metrics that are commonly referred to as fundamentals. But not always. <Cough> PLTR <Cough>. Even worse would be the meme stonks. But I digress. Crypto has a value. Be it Doge, BTC or even the Hawktuah coin (praise be her name). This is because someone is willing to buy them.

What crypto does not have, and this is where we are hitting a speedbump, is an intrinsic fundamental value as defined by the financial world. An instrument can have more than one type of value. Options have both time value and intrinsic value. Stocks have book value, stock price value etc. The stock price of a profitable company is generally priced as a multiple of its earnings. Crypto, all crypto, doesn't have this. No matter how much you believe it does, it doesn't. It has value, but its the value someone is willing to pay for it. That's it. The blockchain isn't BTC. You don't buy and sell the blockchain. You buy and sell BTC. If I own BTC, I don't own the blockchain or even the smallest portion of it. A bored Ape NFT sold for $3.4m. The buyer valued it as such. It did not and does not have an intrinsic value of $3.4m, it has that value strictly because someone was willing to pay that for it.

That's all I am saying. I recognize that BTC only has the market value of the current buyer. You may or may not. This is entirely different than how most stocks are valued. Macy's the department store chain has a floor value. Its stock cannot go to zero. Why? Because it owns real estate valued in billions if not tens of billions. If its stock price falls below its book value at some point it gets bought and can be sold off piece by piece for a profit. This is the difference in the terms value and fundamentals I was trying to explain. BTC isn't Macy's. BTC price can go to $1m and Macy's can't (realistically). BTC price can go to zero, and Macy's can't. The reasons lie in intrinsic value.

It seems pretty clear to me that the reason you and others are not seeing eye to eye is because you are fully bought in to our system as it is, and you (I'm assuming here) see nothing wrong with "the financial world." You also seem to drop back to "crypto" rather than discuss BTC by itself. I don't think any person who believes BTC is the superior store of value (and potential money) also believes the rest of the crypto world is anything but "financial world" speculative trading garbage nonsense.

When people start learning about money and how it *SHOULD* work, they tend to simultaneously realize how bullshitty "the financial world" is. For instance, I'm of the belief that "financial instruments" shouldn't even exist. The stock market as it operates today shouldn't exist. It's all degenerate and simply a manifestation of the corruption that a debt-based fiat monetary system creates.

BTC does exist outside of our current, corrupted, degenerate, system. It's the best money humanity has ever devised to date, one step below the theoretical best money which would be an omniscient telepathic ledger (think Pluribus). As more and more people fully grasp this it will continue its long-term inexorable trajectory. Because of its properties, it is the superior store of wealth available today and that means it has a known future target. Until that target is reached, early adopters have the privilege of capturing extra value relative to whatever shitty fiat currency they currently exist within. I guarantee that in 10-20 years, every single individual will look back and say, "damn I wish I had more BTC." It will absolutely outperform everything else long term.
 
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Flobee

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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It seems pretty clear to me that the reason you and others are not seeing eye to eye is because you are fully bought in to our system as it is, and you (I'm assuming here) see nothing wrong with "the financial world." You also seem to drop back to "crypto" rather than discuss BTC by itself. I don't think any person who believes BTC is the superior store of value (and potential money) also believes the rest of the crypto world is anything but "financial world" speculative trading garbage nonsense.

When people start learning about money and how it *SHOULD* work, they tend to simultaneously realize how bullshitty "the financial world" is. For instance, I'm of the belief that "financial instruments" shouldn't even exist. The stock market as it operates today shouldn't exist. It's all degenerate and simply a manifestation of the corruption that a debt-based fiat monetary system creates.

BTC does exist outside of our current, corrupted, degenerate, system. It's the best money humanity has ever devised to date, one step below the theoretical best money which would be an omniscient telepathic ledger (think Pluribus). As more and more people fully grasp this it will continue its long-term inexorable trajectory. Because of its properties, it is the superior store of wealth available today and that means it has a known future target. Until that target is reached, early adopters have the privilege of capturing extra value relative to whatever shitty fiat currency they currently exist within. I guarantee that in 10-20 years, every single individual will look back and say, "damn I wish I had more BTC." It will absolutely outperform everything else long term.
I agree with this in principle. However I will say that there is no avoiding financial instruments being built on top of Bitcoin. Some of them will even be useful. The big shift is changing the collateral under girding the entire system to a standard that nobody can print. That is the radical transformation.

This will result in significantly less financialization but it certainly won't go away. A lot of people will be blown up trying to play tradfi games with Bitcoin because they don't fully grok the difference that an unprintable asset will make.

Our current system is both immoral and unsustainable. The struggle communicating this is that nobody alive has lived under anything different so it's hard to understand the problem. You can't measure a system from within the system. It will get easier as we move through the adoption S-curve simply because consensus will push you toward accepting it even if you don't understand it. I know that seems very wishy washy to some of you, but it's how tech adoption works and I believe it will apply here.

Can't predict the future, plenty of ways for Bitcoin to fail to live up to its potential, but for me it's an obvious bet to make and putting my financial "energy" so to speak toward what I think helps create a better future is a no brainer.

Question for doubters; what about the world makes you optimistic about the future?

For me personally Bitcoin and the seeming resurgence of Christianity in the West are two of the main reasons I'm not a doomer. Do any of you have anything at all that makes you hope for a brighter future?

Not to say that's an argument in favor a Bitcoin, it's not, just a genuine question. Most people seem hopeless and I'm curious if those of you arguing in this thread are also hopeless? I tend to think there is a correlation here
 
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Sanrith Descartes

I was forced to self-deport from the /pol thread
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So... no? You have to first convert them to something else?

Hmm, interesting.
So.. yes.

Options are contracts. I was paid upfront when they were written. I did not buy Put contracts, I sold them. If you are going to try to own me, maybe learn a little bit about the subject matter first. Just an idea.
 
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Sanrith Descartes

I was forced to self-deport from the /pol thread
<Gold Donor>
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I wouldn't bother. He's the ZombieWizardHawk of the BTC thread.
I was leaning toward Eraser but ZWH works too. You just cant have honest conversations on the intarwebs unless you are in total agreement of the subject matter. Another victim of "technology".
 

Kirun

Buzzfeed Editor
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I tell you that you don't understand because you continuously demonstrate that you don't. It's not cultish to tell someone they're wrong in their understanding of something. You're objectively incorrect is not dogmatic lol.

You're pretty impressive in your ability to say a bunch of stuff I agree with, come to the wrong conclusion, and then tell me how the stuff you said proves I'm wrong. Your legitimately exhausting to communicate with. You're clearly intelligent so please don't think I'm trying to talk down to you, just can't seem to comprehend what I'm trying to say. Maybe im just communicating poorly
The problem is that you keep insisting I "don't understand" Bitcoin, but what's really happening is you're confusing disagreement with ignorance. You're convinced that your lens is the only valid one, and anything outside that frame gets labeled as "you don't get it." That's not objective correctness, it's ideology pretending to be certainty, especially with how rigid you're being.

Your argument also keeps slipping between entirely different categories. One moment Bitcoin is a monetary system that will replace the global paradigm, the next it's a synthetic payments ledger whose value is purely confidence-based, the next it's a hedge that's not actually dependent on its USD price. But the problem is all of those require totally different assumptions about how it functions in the real world. And pointing that out isn't a strawman, it's recognizing that the goalposts move every time someone presses on a weak spot. It reminds me of debating my pastors back in private school, where they'd just keep moving the goalposts to different books of the Bible until dropping the, "you can't possibly know God" rhetoric.

And yes, Bitcoin has interesting properties - settlement speed, portability, supply constraints, all of that is real. But pretending those properties automatically elevate it into "global pristine collateral" while ignoring political, regulatory, and infrastructural constraints is exactly the kind of magical thinking that does sound cultish. You talk as if confidence is all that matters, but confidence itself depends on institutions, legal frameworks, the ability to transact at scale, and a functioning economy. All the things Bitcoin explicitly depends on but BTC maximalists pretend it's immune to.

The irony amongst most of the BTC maxis is they keep telling me "I'm ignoring history" while reducing 6,000 years of monetary development to "metal good, fiat bad". All because they read "The Creature from Jekyll Island" due to some podcast recommendation and think it's the Bible now. Ancient economies used gold because they had no alternative coordination mechanism, not because gold had some metaphysical property that generated trust. As soon as systems advanced beyond that, money became a ledger enforced by institutions. And that's not Keynesian dogma, that's just how every large-scale society has ever worked.

But what's exhausting isn't your communication, it's that every time the conversation gets close to the actual structural limitations of Bitcoin, you retreat to "you don't get it" instead of addressing the substance. That's the kind of rhetorical shield people use when they're defending a belief, not analyzing a system. Bitcoin can be valuable, interesting, clever, even revolutionary in certain contexts. But the more you insist it's inevitably destined to replace every existing monetary layer, all while dismissing disagreement as ignorance, the more it starts to look like faith, not analysis.

If pointing that out makes people "objectively incorrect," then yeah, we're not having an economic discussion anymore. We're having a doctrinal one.
 
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Sanrith Descartes

I was forced to self-deport from the /pol thread
<Gold Donor>
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The problem is that you keep insisting I "don't understand" Bitcoin, but what's really happening is you're confusing disagreement with ignorance. You're convinced that your lens is the only valid one, and anything outside that frame gets labeled as "you don't get it." That's not objective correctness, it's ideology pretending to be certainty, especially with how rigid you're being.

Your argument also keeps slipping between entirely different categories. One moment Bitcoin is a monetary system that will replace the global paradigm, the next it's a synthetic payments ledger whose value is purely confidence-based, the next it's a hedge that's not actually dependent on its USD price. But the problem is all of those require totally different assumptions about how it functions in the real world. And pointing that out isn't a strawman, it's recognizing that the goalposts move every time someone presses on a weak spot. It reminds me of debating my pastors back in private school, where they'd just keep moving the goalposts to different books of the Bible until dropping the, "you can't possibly know God" rhetoric.

And yes, Bitcoin has interesting properties - settlement speed, portability, supply constraints, all of that is real. But pretending those properties automatically elevate it into "global pristine collateral" while ignoring political, regulatory, and infrastructural constraints is exactly the kind of magical thinking that does sound cultish. You talk as if confidence is all that matters, but confidence itself depends on institutions, legal frameworks, the ability to transact at scale, and a functioning economy. All the things Bitcoin explicitly depends on but BTC maximalists pretend it's immune to.

The irony amongst most of the BTC maxis is they keep telling me "I'm ignoring history" while reducing 6,000 years of monetary development to "metal good, fiat bad". All because they read "The Creature from Jekyll Island" due to some podcast recommendation and think it's the Bible now. Ancient economies used gold because they had no alternative coordination mechanism, not because gold had some metaphysical property that generated trust. As soon as systems advanced beyond that, money became a ledger enforced by institutions. And that's not Keynesian dogma, that's just how every large-scale society has ever worked.

But what's exhausting isn't your communication, it's that every time the conversation gets close to the actual structural limitations of Bitcoin, you retreat to "you don't get it" instead of addressing the substance. That's the kind of rhetorical shield people use when they're defending a belief, not analyzing a system. Bitcoin can be valuable, interesting, clever, even revolutionary in certain contexts. But the more you insist it's inevitably destined to replace every existing monetary layer, all while dismissing disagreement as ignorance, the more it starts to look like faith, not analysis.

If pointing that out makes people "objectively incorrect," then yeah, we're not having an economic discussion anymore. We're having a doctrinal one.
Lets ask Grok:

1763836905304.png


1763836971373.png


full response:

The phrase "you just don't understand" (or variations like "you wouldn't understand") is commonly used in discussions, arguments, or debates, and its generally accepted meanings tend to fall into a few overlapping categories based on context. These interpretations are drawn from psychological analyses, communication studies, and everyday observations in online forums and social media. Here's a breakdown:
1. Dismissive or Evasive Tactic
This is one of the most frequent interpretations: it's often a way to shut down the conversation without providing further explanation or evidence. Instead of engaging with the opposing viewpoint, the speaker implies the other person lacks the capacity or willingness to grasp the idea, effectively ending the debate.

For example, in heated arguments, it can translate to "I don't want to explain this anymore" or "you're not worth the effort," serving as a rhetorical dodge rather than a substantive point.

reddit.com +2

2. Condescending or Superiority Signal
It frequently carries an air of condescension, suggesting the speaker possesses deeper insight, intelligence, or experience that the listener simply can't match.

This can be a subtle power play, implying "I'm smarter/more informed than you," especially in ideological or normative disagreements where "understanding" is code for "agreeing with my values."

In relationships or personal disputes, it might stem from frustration when agreement isn't reached, equating disagreement with incomprehension.

@grayzoneintel

3. Indication of a Genuine Gap in Perspective or Experience
Less commonly, but still acknowledged, it can be a sincere expression when there's a real divide—such as differences in lived experience, cultural background, or expertise—that makes full empathy or comprehension difficult.

For instance, in gender communication studies, linguist Deborah Tannen's work highlights how men and women often have distinct conversational styles (e.g., men focusing on status and solutions, women on connection and rapport), leading to mutual "misunderstandings" that aren't about intelligence but about differing priorities.

washingtonpost.com +2

Here, the phrase points to a cross-cultural-like barrier rather than dismissal.

4. Frustration or Defensiveness
In many cases, it's born out of exasperation after repeated explanations fail, or when the speaker feels their point is being willfully ignored.

reddit.com +1

It can also mask insecurity, where the speaker avoids admitting their own argument is weak by shifting blame to the listener's supposed lack of insight.

Overall, while the phrase can occasionally be literal and benign, the predominant view in discussions is that it's not a strong or constructive argument—more of a fallacy or emotional shortcut that prioritizes winning over clarity.

Responses to it often involve asking for specific clarification (e.g., "What exactly don't I understand?") to force engagement.
 
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Flobee

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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The problem is that you keep insisting I "don't understand" Bitcoin, but what's really happening is you're confusing disagreement with ignorance. You're convinced that your lens is the only valid one, and anything outside that frame gets labeled as "you don't get it." That's not objective correctness, it's ideology pretending to be certainty, especially with how rigid you're being.

Your argument also keeps slipping between entirely different categories. One moment Bitcoin is a monetary system that will replace the global paradigm, the next it's a synthetic payments ledger whose value is purely confidence-based, the next it's a hedge that's not actually dependent on its USD price. But the problem is all of those require totally different assumptions about how it functions in the real world. And pointing that out isn't a strawman, it's recognizing that the goalposts move every time someone presses on a weak spot. It reminds me of debating my pastors back in private school, where they'd just keep moving the goalposts to different books of the Bible until dropping the, "you can't possibly know God" rhetoric.

And yes, Bitcoin has interesting properties - settlement speed, portability, supply constraints, all of that is real. But pretending those properties automatically elevate it into "global pristine collateral" while ignoring political, regulatory, and infrastructural constraints is exactly the kind of magical thinking that does sound cultish. You talk as if confidence is all that matters, but confidence itself depends on institutions, legal frameworks, the ability to transact at scale, and a functioning economy. All the things Bitcoin explicitly depends on but BTC maximalists pretend it's immune to.

The irony amongst most of the BTC maxis is they keep telling me "I'm ignoring history" while reducing 6,000 years of monetary development to "metal good, fiat bad". All because they read "The Creature from Jekyll Island" due to some podcast recommendation and think it's the Bible now. Ancient economies used gold because they had no alternative coordination mechanism, not because gold had some metaphysical property that generated trust. As soon as systems advanced beyond that, money became a ledger enforced by institutions. And that's not Keynesian dogma, that's just how every large-scale society has ever worked.

But what's exhausting isn't your communication, it's that every time the conversation gets close to the actual structural limitations of Bitcoin, you retreat to "you don't get it" instead of addressing the substance. That's the kind of rhetorical shield people use when they're defending a belief, not analyzing a system. Bitcoin can be valuable, interesting, clever, even revolutionary in certain contexts. But the more you insist it's inevitably destined to replace every existing monetary layer, all while dismissing disagreement as ignorance, the more it starts to look like faith, not analysis.

If pointing that out makes people "objectively incorrect," then yeah, we're not having an economic discussion anymore. We're having a doctrinal one.

Bitcoin is a monetary system that will replace the global paradigm, the next it's a synthetic payments ledger whose value is purely confidence-based, the next it's a hedge that's not actually dependent on its USD price
Yea, it's all three of these. When I say you don't understand this is what I'm talking about. You believe these three somehow contradict one another.

I'm not saying Bitcoin will be global pristine collateral just because of feels, it's literally happening right now. I'm not going to go dig up references for you, I don't have time right now, but I assure you there is plenty of reason to believe this is occuring outside of "mah feelz" or some sort of dogma. No it is NOT a forgone conclusion, it can still fail. I just don't think it will.

Monetary systems rely on trust. Gold was that layer of trust. It's not now, US debt is. No one currently trusts US treasuries (hence all issuance is front of the curve now). I believe Bitcoin will be a major part of international trade, specifically as collateral due to its properties. If you don't that's fine, but from the way you argue this point I suspect you don't understand how this works. That's also fine, I have an incomplete understanding myself, but I'm not being cultish when I point out you don't seem to understand something that.... You don't seem to understand. Your arguments sound very similar to someone like Paul Krugman.

To be clear, what I find exhausting is reading what you write while consistently not seeming to grasp what I'm saying. I don't know why I keep bothering to reply to you honestly.

I'm not saying Bitcoin is inevitable in the sense that I'm speaking an objective fact. It's my opinion that it's going to do the things I'm saying it will do. What I'm saying is objective is your misunderstanding of monetary systems, specifically around collateral for trade.

I'm not sure if it's intentional but you've mentioned faith and Christianity a number of times in this reply. If you're trying to insinuate that these things are bad, or because I have faith in Christ I must be only capable of, or suceptable to, placing faith in something like a BTC "cult" then we're probably much further from finding common ground than we're likely to cover on a forum. Hopefully I'm just reading more into that than is intended.
 
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