I’m abusing the clickbait title to drive in a point here: You shouldn’t believe anyone just because he shouts something loud enough.
This article is basically ignorant. https://newrepublic.com/article/160773/bitcoin-price-boom-michael-saylor-microstrategy
It’s full of misinformation about Bitcoin, saying it’s pegged to nothing, it’s speculative, it’s worthless.
The truth is that Bitcoin, unlike gold, is worthless.* It doesn’t do anything; it has no inherent value and can’t be converted to some other purpose. It’s not backed by a government, making it most useful to transnational crime networks, intelligence agencies, and anyone else looking to keep some assets off the books. The electricity cost of creating, or “mining,” a Bitcoin—which requires accessing the Bitcoin network and making a complicated mathematical calculation that requires tremendous computer power—makes it indefensible. (The more Bitcoin that are mined, the more complicated the calculations become.) Bitcoin works, if at all, because a band of rich speculators has decided it should.
Jacob Silverman/January 1, 2021
That’s like saying that Picassos are worthless and they work because a band of rich speculators have decided they should.
Oh, wait, that’s exactly how it works!
Picassos are literally piles of shit lathered on a canvas, yet they’re worth millions. Picasso was a genius, marketing himself constantly and shifting his style as soon as the art collectors began buying them. But I digress. Picasso was brilliant, his art is utter crap. It’s a speculative thing, people want them just because they’ve been hyped up.
I’ve always said that you can make money out of anything, even bottle caps. Yes, just like in the Fallout videogame. The currency is old Nuka Cola bottle caps, and you know what? It might even work like that after a post apocalyptic future. Who knows what random thing people might use for money? People have used seashells, glass beads, copper rounds, handfuls of metal sticks (Greek Drachma which means to grasp), pretty much anything in the history of currency.
Yes, that’s exactly how it works.
If people accept it as currency, then it’s currency. Think of cigarettes inside a prison. You have demand, scarcity, you can’t fabricate more inside the confines of the prison, and the corrupt warden regulates the influx of more cigarettes. Inside the microcosm of a prison, cigarettes are a deflationary currency.
As for Michael Saylor himself, yeah. I’m torn about his evangelization of Bitcoin. I don’t really care that he defrauded the SEC or something like that. Rich people get away with those things practically every day and if you think someone became a billionaire by playing fair then you’re hopelessly naive. I don’t mind if he got a fine, seriously, who cares? In America I believe you could get a fine just for crossing state lines with a pig or something, their laws are insane. SEC fining someone for overpromising something? So fucking what?
This article is more solid. https://coingeek.com/pump-the-brakes-on-microstrategy/
It compares Microstrategy’s move of pumping BTC to what Bernie Madoff did by pumping shares and investing hard before they crashed, it was an $18 billion Ponzi scheme.
This part is hilarious, I’m not sure if they’re joking or not:
This by itself should cause anyone to view MicroStrategy’s actions—and Saylor’s words—here with suspicion, but it becomes especially fishy when Saylor has already dismissed the value of BTC in a not-so-long-ago tweet:
“Bitcoin days are numbered. It seems like just a matter of time before it suffers the same fate as online gambling.” Michael Saylor @michael_saylor Dec 19, 2013
This is hilarious. 2013 might not have been so long ago, but Bitcoin has changed rapidly since then. The adoption is off the charts, people’s awareness of it has changed, even I myself thought back then that it was clunky and crappy to use. I’m sure I can look up the market cap increase from 2013 but I don’t wanna ruin my day, so I’ll just allude to that.
People’s opinions can change over 8 years. 8 years in tech is like 40 years at least.
Anyway, enough with the out-of-context tweet.
My Thoughts:
I’ve watched a few interviews, Michael Saylor with Real Vision, with Seifedean Ammous, etc. They’re pretty much the same thing. Michael Saylor pumping bitcoin up, oh, you gotta get in on this, I’m betting my billions, you can do the same. Sure. Sounds good.
But you have to take a step back. I agree that Bitcoin is the future of currency. But what does Michael Saylor have to gain by pumping it up so hard? Well, his stock price goes up because of Microstrategy’s BTC reserves. It’s a simple way to invest in Bitcoin, since he claims he’ll never sell. Okay, good. Can’t blame a man for marketing his own company.
But the problem is that these billionaires have cushions to fall on if and when the market crashes. If you try and act like Michael Saylor and put in 90% of your money in bitcoin and you get a crypto loan to pay off your expenses and then the price drops 80% (I don’t think we’ll be getting those wild fluctuations with the increased money being poured in but we’ll never know until it happens,) then what?
Let’s see. Michael Saylor goes broke, you go broke. He’s the CEO of a multi-million dollar company, he’s left out to sleep in his yacht.
You get left out to sleep on the street.
I know we like to listen to these charismatic and daring billionaires talking big game, but the truth is, they were insanely lucky. Michael Saylor says that himself, he says he was lucky. He took massive risks and some of them paid off. Can you take the same risks? Do you have family, kids, mortgages, dependents? Then I’m assuming the answer is no. I can take that risk. And you can risk a small percentage of your money in Bitcoin.
Just don’t bet it all on orange.
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