Why Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is Sound Money
Sound Money is:
Why is Gold Considered “Money”?
We can’t all operate under a system barter or trade, because eventually we want something from someone who doesn’t want something from us.
So for society to advance, we all agree that there has to be something that can be used to store the wealth we accrue and also something to serve as a medium of exchange for trade with one another.
Why is Gold Considered “Money”?
Gold won the battle over time to be the global store of value. Why?
Gold has all the qualities that make up GOOD money:
This is why gold has been valuable for 5,000 years and it’s value has held up extremely well.
Scarcity
This means it’s rare. There is not an abundant amount of gold on the planet. It is HARD to get more of it (you have to mine deep into the earth to extract more). This means that someone can’t just flood the market with endless gold tomorrow.
We mine about 1.5% more gold annually. That is a very small inflation rate. Not to mention, lots of resources must be spent to acquire that gold (unlike printing money).
Gold also cannot be created in a lab, meaning people can’t do the equivalent of money printing with gold.
Durability
Gold is nearly indestructible. It does not tarnish or rust. It is the most corrosion-proof and oxidation-resistant metal. This means that unless your gold gets stolen from you, your gld can’t be destroyed.
Think about that next time you accidentally run a $20 through the wash and it become irreparably soggy and torn up.
Or imagine your house burning down and your “cash under the mattress” going with it. This sort of misfortune does not apply to gold, which makes it another convenient store of value.
Portability
Can it be transported easily? Well, you can carry around some gold coins in your pocket pretty easily.
As a farmer, that likely sounds like a much more practical option for moving your wealth, as opposed to hauling your cattle around with you.
Divisibility
Gold can be made into smaller coins, larger coins, bars, etc. This makes it somewhat easily divisible. Over time, with the value of gold increasing, it became more practical to use silver as a medium of exchange, because it is not as valuable as gold (not as rare, not as durable etc.). Today a 1 oz. gold coin is worth $1,800, and a 1 oz. of silver is $25. I am not going to chop up my gold into tiny slivers so I can buy Starbucks every day. Therefore gold transitioned to being exclusively a store of value, and not a medium of exchange anymore.
Divisibility (Cont.)
The paper dollar was then created to be more convenient medium of exchange. It is divisible ($1s, $5s, $10s, etc.). It is very portable, in your wallet or your pocket.
The dollar was always intended to be pegged to gold, and you could go to the government and exchange your dollars for that same amount in gold. It was just a more practical way of transacting in gold, essentially.
And as long as it remained pegged to gold, then it was “scare” as well. But as we know….the US left the Gold standard in 1971 (more on this later).
Uniformity
Once gold has had all the impurities refined out of itm it’s basically uniform, or all the same, and therefore just as valuable as the next chunk of refined gold.
If people traded sand dollars or cattle or most other things, the size and condition of the item can vary, which makes it difficult to determine just how valuable THAT cow it, compared to other ones.
This is also where the dollar bill shines. A $20 bill is always going to be worth $20. An ounce of refined gold is the same as another ounce of refined gold.
What Went Wrong?
The government was incentivized to leave the gold standard, because it gave them the freedom to never have to actually balance a budget again. They could spend beyond their means, well beyond what their tax revenue was, because now the US Dollar was a beast of its own, and the government controlled the printing presses.
Printing money out of thin air dilutes the value of EVERYONE’S money. Money is no longer scarce, then, which is the hallmark of a monetary system. Every printed dollar means that each dollar is worth less than before.
What Went Wrong? (Cont.)
But it gets worse than that. The government is even MORE incentivized to inflate the currency. Because then all of the debt the country has becomes much easier to pay off. How are we going to get out of $28 trillion in debt? It becomes a lot easier when, due to inflation, $28 trillion now is really only what $14 trillion was yesterday.
So we can expect the government to only cheer for inflation.
What Makes Bitcoin So Special?
Bitcoin has all of the great monetary qualities of gold, and then even more.
Scarcity - Bitcoin is capped at 21 Million. No more can be created based on the code protocol. That means we never have to worry about bitcoin losing value to inflation (whereas even gold does lose some value over time because of newly mined gold).
Durability - a Bitcoin cannot be destroyed because it persists in the code. It is not physical, therefore it’s impossible for it to decay or corrode.
What Makes Bitcoin So Special? (Cont.)
Portability - Again, being electronic here is a great advantage, as it can be sent over the internet and is not costly to transact. Gold is heavy, and therefore, larger purchases would require expenditures around shopping, security to make sure the gold wasn’t stolen in transit, etc.
Divisibility - One Bitcoin can be electronically divided into 100 Million pieces. That is pretty divisible!
Uniformity - All Bitcoin are worth exactly the same.
Bitcoin Is Decentralized
No one person or group of people have control over the monetary system that is Bitcoin’s code base or “protocol”.
The US Government can utterly change the rules of the game at ANY moment, and we are left to deal with the consequences as to how they negatively affects our dollars (like when they left the gold standard or like when they print endless sums of money).
Bitcoin runs on this protocol and we all have a stake in making sure that it does not change, as it would be detrimental to the health of all of our money.
Bitcoin Is Decentralized (Cont.)
This also means that we don’t have to go through a third party like a bank. We can simply send Bitcoin to one another over the internet, so all the control that banks have and the fees they consume from our money are all but eliminated.
Bitcoin is true financial freedom of you owning your wealth and being able to do with it what you please, while not having to worry about the predations of governments or institutions.
The Quote That Got My Attention
Hard Money = money that has a stable value, a strong exchange rate, and is protected against inflation
“History shows that it is not possible to insulate yourself from the consequences of others holding money that is harder than yours.”
Resources
Resources (Page 1)
What is Bitcoin? (Video) - 12 Minutes
Bitcoin Explained And Made Simple (Video) - 3 Minutes
How Bitcoin Works (Nic Carter) - 5 Minutes
The Core Values Of Bitcoin (Nic Carter) - 5 Minutes
What Could Cause Bitcoin To Fail? (Nic Carter) - 8 Minutes
Does Bitcoin Consume Too Much Energy? (Nic Carter) - 4 Minutes
What Is The Future Of Bitcoin? (Nic Carter) - 4 Minutes
Resources (Page 2) (Audio)
Can Bitcoin Scale? (Nic Carter) - 6 Minutes
How Can Bitcoin Take Down The Dollar? (Nic Carter) - 7 Minutes
Do Bitcoin And Ethereum Compete? (Nic Carter) - 1 Minute
Resources (Page 3) (Audio)
What is Money? (Robert Breedlove) - 5 Minutes
Do We Really Need Central Banks? (Robert Breedlove) - 5 Minutes
What is Bitcoin? (Robert Breedlove) - 7 Minutes
Why Can’t Bitcoin Be Dethroned? (Robert Breedlove) - 3 Minutes
Fiat Currency Is Slavery (Robert Breedlove) - 3 Minutes
Will Central Banks Kill Bitcoin? (Robert Breedlove) - 2 Minutes
Bitcoin Cycles And Price Increases (Robert Breedlove) - 6 Minutes
Resources (Page 4) (Audio)
The Evolution Of Money & Its Effects (Robert Breedlove) - 18 Minutes
Bitcoin Objections: No Intrinsic Value (Robert Breedlove) - 2 Minutes
Bitcoin Objections: Fixed Money Supply (Robert Breedlove) - 2 Minutes
CPI And Zombie Companies (Robert Breedlove) - 7 Minutes
Bitcoin Reduces Violence (Robert Breedlove) - 3 Minutes
CPI Is A Joke & Inflation Is Theft (Robert Breedlove) - 6 Minutes
The Importance Of Property Rights (Robert Breedlove) - 10 Minutes
Resources (Page 5) (Audio)
Bitcoin Is Property Rights (Robert Breedlove) - 7 Minutes
How A Fixed Money Supply Works (Robert Breedlove) - 6 Minutes
Resources (Page 6) (Audio)
Why Hold Bitcoin Over Anything Else? (Michael Saylor) - 3 Minutes
Will Gold Holders Turn To Bitcoin? (Michael Saylor) - 6 Minutes
Bitcoin vs. Altcoins (Michael Saylor) - 3 Minutes
When Should You Sell Bitcoin? (Michael Saylor) - 10 Minutes
Bitcoin vs. Gold - Risk Factors (Michael Saylor) - 3 Minutes
Bitcoin vs. Gold - Long Term Price (Michael Saylor) - 4 Minutes
Energy Consumption In Perspective (Michael Saylor) - 6 Minutes
Resources (Page 7) (Audio)
The Problem Bitcoin Solves (Michael Saylor) - 4 Minutes
Bitcoin Is An Asset You Never Sell (Michael Saylor) - 2 Minutes
Fiat Is A Moral Hazard (Michael Saylor) - 3 Minutes
Bitcoin Is The Apex Monetary Property (Michael Saylor) - 18 Minutes
Bitcoin Obliterates Gold And Real Estate (Michael Saylor) - 21 Minutes
Can Bitcoin Succeed Without Inflation? (Michael Saylor) - 4 Minutes
Misconceptions About Inflation (Michael Saylor) - 6 Minutes
Resources (Page 8) (Audio)
The Problem With Diversification (Michael Saylor) - 7 Minutes
A Gold Hedge Is Not A Solution (Michael Saylor) - 4 Minutes
The Oncoming Fiat Exodus (Michael Saylor) - 7 Minutes
Inflation 101 (Michael Saylor) - 17 Minutes
Why Bitcoin With Tucker Carlson (Michael Saylor) - 47 Minutes
Resources (Page 9) (Audio)
Advice For New Crypto Investors (Cory Klippsten) - 7 Minutes
Bitcoin Price Target of $500K (Tyler Winklevoss) - 3 Minutes
Bitcoin Is Excellent Money (Ross Stevens) - 9 Minutes
Bitcoin Incentivizes Clean Energy (Ross Stevens) - 5 Minutes
Cash Is Trash (Ross Stevens) - 6 Minutes
Fiat Corrupts The World (Saif Ammous) - 7 Minutes
Bitcoin Makes Us Care About The Future (Saif Ammous) - 10 Minutes
Resources (Page 10) (Audio)
Why Hard Money Matters (The Bitcoin Standard) - 8 Minutes
Bitcoin Is A Trojan Horse For Freedom (Alex Gladstein) - 8 Minutes
The Best Bitcoin Investment Strategy (Saif Ammous) - 8 Minutes
Resources (Page 11) (Long Videos)
Bitcoin vs. Gold Debate - 40 Minutes (Makes You Hate The Dollar)
MicroStrategy Is First Company To Buy BTC - 90 Minutes
Why Bitcoin Now? - 98 Minutes
$15 Million Bitcoin Price Prediction - 80 Minutes
The Philosophy Of Bitcoin… - 128 minutes
Bitcoin vs. Fiat Standard (Jordan Peterson + Saif) - 118 Minutes
Mexican Billionaire Breaks Down Bitcoin - 36 Minutes
Patron Saint Of Bitcoin: Michael Saylor - 116 Minutes
Resources (Page 12) (Articles)
The Bullish Case For Bitcoin - Web Article - Audio Version
Modeling Bitcoin Value With Scarcity - Web Article
WTF Happened in 1971? - Web Article
Bitcoin And The Stock To Flow Model - Web Article
Planting Bitcoin - Web Article
Resources (Page 13) (eBooks)
The Bitcoin Standard - eBook
The Bitcoin Standard - Audiobook
The Bitcoin Standard - Video Summaries
Inventing Bitcoin - eBook / Audiobook
Digital Gold - eBook
The Bullish Case For Bitcoin - eBook
Resources (Page 14) (Advanced)
Crypto Market Caps (CoinGecko) - Web Page
Bitcoin Treasuries (Which Companies Own Bitcoin) - Web Page
Stock To Flow (Live Chart) - Analytics Web Page
Bitcoin Data (CoinMetrics) - Analytics Web Page
PlanB Site (Resources) - Web Page
Bitcoin Hash Rate Chart - Web Page
Exchange Flows (CryptoQuant) - Web Page
Resources (Page 15) (Advanced)
Bitcoin’s Survivability - Twitter Thread
Woobull Charts (Analytics) - Web Page
WillyWoo Twitter (Analytics) - Web Page
Jordan Lindsey Twitter (Analysis) - Web Page
Allen Au Twitter (Analysis) - Web Page
Glassnode (Analytics) - Web Page
Coinalyze (Analytics) - Web Page
Resources (Page 16) (Advanced)
Bitcoin MACD and RSI (Analytics) - Web Page
Laevitas Options Activity (Analytics) - Web Page
Look Into Bitcoin (Analytics) - Web Page
Bitcoin Price + Volume (Graph) - Web Page
Aurox Graph Tool (Analysis) - Web Page
Justin Bennett Twitter (Analysis) - Web Page
Bitcoin Rich List - Web Page
Resources (Page 17) (Advanced)
Satoshi Nakamoto Institute - Web Page
Crypto Liquidation Data (bybt) - Web Page
CoinCodex (Price Information) - Web Page
Hope.com (Multitude Of Resources) - Web Page
End The FUD (Debunking Counter Arguments) - Web Page
200 Weekly MA Live Chart - Web Page
Wallet Best Practices - Web Page
Resources (Page 18) (Advanced)
Best Hardware Wallet Comparison - Web Page
LearnMeABitcoin - Web Page
BTCSessions Bitcoin Tutorials And Learning - YouTube Channel
Bitkey (Interesting Hardware Solution) - Web Page
Mempool BTC Transaction Fee Breakdown - Web Site
UTXO Consolidation 101 - YouTube Video
Bitcoin will also help the world in a few not so obvious ways:
1) Bring prosperity to those suffering in 3rd world countries, as unbanked groups that cannot store their wealth very well will be able to in Bitcoin. This allows them to take surplus value they generate from their work, even as a farmer, and store it in something that will never deteriorate instead of storing their crops which will spoil.
2) It will help the environment in how it reduces the carbon footprint of humanity. For example, a remote waterfall can be used to power a Bitcoin miner to validate the global financial system, and even are added energy that cannot be transported to metro areas to be consumed can be redeemed by powering miners to power the system.
3) It will turn disincentive such a consumer based economy where people indulge in materialism. It will do so by actually rewarding people for saving and being financially responsible because their money appreciates over time instead of the opposite. If your $100 is going to be with $50 next year, the wise thing is to spend that money now, not save! This will also help people become more focused on the future and long term thinking instead of impulsive and indulgent.
4) It will prevent many wars and unnecessary violence. Wars can be financed by our government (or other governments) via money printing. They don't have to balance budgets. They just print what they need to attack and don't require sign off from the people and don't need them to agree to additional taxes to fund. They just steal the money from us by devaluing our dollars and printing their own. And also, many wars are financially motivated. Stealing a country's wealth (in many cases their gold). Bitcoin cannot be stolen in that manner. Without the private keys, the money is non confiscatable. This will make countries less likely to go to war with one another because there is no reward.