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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Why Bitcoin is Better Than Gold, with Wences Casares
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Xapo CEO and founder Wences Casares explains why, after a 5,000 year reign, gold has been surpassed by bitcoin as the ideal ledger.
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WENCES CASARES:
Wences Casares is the founder and CEO of Xapo, bitcoin vault and wallet described by the Wall Street journal as the Fort Know of bitcoin storage.
Prior to founding Xapo, Casares launched Argentina's first Internet Service Provider, Internet Argentina S.A. in 1994, a company he would go on to sell in order to found the Argentine online brokerage Patagon in 1997. With Casares serving as Chairman and CEO, Patagon established itself as Latin America's first comprehensive Internet financial services portal and expanded its online banking services to the United States, Spain, and Germany. Patagon was acquired by the Spanish bank, Banco Santander for $750 million in 2000.
Casares founded Wanako Games, which developed the award winning game Assault Heroes honored as "Game of the Year" for Microsoft Xbox Live in 2006, and was later acquired by Activision.
In 2002 Casares along with his partners founded Banco Lemon, a retail bank for the underbanked in Brazil. Banco do Brasil, Brazil's largest bank, acquired Banco Lemon in June 2009.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Wences Casares: Bitcoin is a new digital currency that is perhaps the best form of money that we have ever seen. It’s important because most of us don’t understand money very well and perhaps the concept that is hardest for us to understand about money is that money is and has always been a ledger. And people often ask: "What is money backed with?" And the truth is money’s not backed with anything. It has never been backed with anything. The euro is not backed with anything in particular and neither is any other currency in the world. And gold, for example for that matter is not backed with anything either.
Some people think that gold has value because we use it for jewelry but it’s actually the other way around. Gold is valuable because it’s very scarce and because it’s very scarce it has been the best ledger we’ve found in 5,000 years. In bitcoin we have something that is as good a ledger as gold, meaning it’s incredibly scarce. There will never be more than 21 million bitcoin. It’s even more scarce than gold.But in history we have had this tradeoff between things that have been very, very good store of value like gold for example and things that have been good for payment like the Portuguese escudo, the U.S. dollar, American Airline miles, or Facebook credits. Those things are better for payment but they’re not so good as a store of value historically. And the things that are good for a store of value like gold are not good for payments.
In bitcoin we have something for the first time that is incredibly superior than anything we have seen before as a store value and also as a form of payment.It’s hard to have a rigorous discussion about bitcoin without understanding money. And the best way to understand money is to understand the history of money. Anthropologists agree that there’s no tribe, much less a civilization, that ever based its commerce on barter. There’s no evidence. Barter never happened. And that’s counterintuitive to most of us because we are taught in school that we first barter and then we made money because barter was too complicated.
Well, barter never happened and that’s one of the key myths about money. So then you would ask the anthropologists, "So how did we do commerce before money if there was no barter? There was no commerce." No, there was plenty of commerce and the way that commerce would happen is that let’s say that someone in our tribe killed a big buffalo and I would go up to a person and say hey, "Can I have a little bit of meat?" And that person would say "No" or "Yes, Wences, here’s your meat." And then you would go up to a person and say "Hey, can I have a little bit of meat?" and that person said "Yes, here’s your meat."And basically we all have to keep track in our heads of what we owed other people or what our people...
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Oh look, a bitcoin related company CEO talks about how good bitcoin is.
Sometimes you fuck up royally, Big Think.
Did I say bitcoin related? Well it's a bank. A bitcoin bank.
This guy is simply a salesman, don't listen to a single thing he says, judge bitcoin on your own.
FaBFaB66 The best part about bit coin, you don't have to store it in a bank if you dont want. So hype yourself for nothing
TonyKingOfTheOzone Yeah, you don't have to store your money in the bank either. But you do.
Ok downies, theres a difference between actual money and bitcoin. Like the fact that I can break the password into 3 keys, and multiple other ways to do it. I bet you cant split your money up without a central bank and them taking a chunk.
TonyKingOfTheOzone I don't think you understand what I meant (or maybe I'm not very clear), I disregard whatever he has to say because he is a salesman, I didn't say he is wrong.
My biggest issues with Bitcoin are: if you have no internet connection you cannot use your bitcoins at all. Not all of world has internet connection.
And, if computer is broken, damaged, stole etc your hard drive (with wallet info) is either compromised, missing or needs to be removed.
You just use a paper wallet (A address and private key) A private key is like a password. It doesn't require a computer. Or just use an online wallet. There is also new technology where balloons fly over a certain area once a day and people can use internet for 30 minutes a day anywhere in the world.
i think it won't be a problem we would be able to print in advance some money/bitcoin
also there will be more reliable/durable storage in the futur suitable for archive (e.g. : fused silica data storage)
wellthi Exactly.
***** ' "anywhere in the world" alright we can all agree that is total bullshit
Fair concerns, but exactly how is gold better in those regards? Is one suposed to carry the gold equivalent of his or her net worth? Can it not be stolen? To turn bitcoin into "cash" and use it you need a computer and internet, but turning gold into "cash" requieres some infrastructure too (you do not pay with gold, even if you carried it).
Recall he is claiming bitcoin can replace gold as a backend, not paper money as a frontend. Which in all fairness it can also do, subject to the concerns you pose.
Bitcoin is actually divisible into 100 million pieces! 8 Decimal places man!
That dislike bar along with the fact that the video was just published very recently has led me to the assumption that some people are just naturally salty about Bitcoin.
It should be noted however that he is the CEO of Xapo, a Bitcoin wallet company.
Take it with a grain of salt.
Did it ever occur to you that he is the CEO of xapo because he is fascinated and truly excited about bitcoin, and not the other way around?
Jesse Busma Both are valid points ;)
It was noted in the beginning of the video
Well well ...
@@brandonderrick006 Yup.....this comment aged well....:)
This guy is right on about the essence of money being the ledger. Thank you for the lesson Mr. Casares.
You rich now?
You bought 10-20 bitcoin for almost zero cost in 2014?
I paid 80.000 Dollar for only 3 btc
I thought the title was "Why Bacon is Better than Gold" and said to myself "Well, duh.. You just realized?"
Desmond W. I have to Recommend this Article 👌 investarr.com/should-you-buy-bitcoin-or-gold/
Very nice. Why so many dislikes?
Precious metals reactionary bugs, AKA gold bugs.
It's also probably because some don't want to understand the concept of bitcoin.
Because conservative minds have overactive amygdalas and recoil at the hint of anything new or a sign of change. Add to that people who have made theirs in existing infrastructures of finance who do not want to understand or do not wish to learn a new system, and that will create an aversion to the concept.
You see, bitcoin cannot be handled by middlemen seeking to profit off the exchange- therefore it is not a given that you can make money off of money with bitcoin the way you can with gold... basically bankers will go the way of the Dodo bird, as they should. Then the lawyers can go, and then the ad agencies quickly followed by every other leech "profession" that rides the dirty coattails of the entire existing monetary system.
Once you eliminate all the bloodsuckers who have their fingers in the pie, people will be able to better realize gross global happiness, instead of gross national product.
Too utopic?
***** I get the feeling you don't actually know what goes into the banking, legal or ad agencies. Especially when you say they are middlemen. If you think there won't be legal battles over bitcoins or loans and investments made with bitcoins, you are essentially shooting your support of bitcoins in the foot.
Will Mael "They don't agree with me. They must not understand it or else they would"
Yep, about what I'd expect from Big Think comments...
This aged beautifully
An asset, be it a commodity as gold, a security as a stock, or a currency pair like the EURUSD or BCTUSD, doesn't have a value per se. Assets are only as valuable as the confidence attributed by market participants to the price finding mechanism through supply and demand, the available liquidity, and the trust they have on their underlying economic purpose.
New video idea: "Why Bitcoin is basically obsolete/worthless now while gold is still increasing in value after thousands of years"
Fool
A commercial? Did I just watch 5 seconds of a commercial? I googled who this guy is and now I'm writing this and now I am gone.
He talks about bitcoin's liquidity: that seems like an appealing aspect.
He's ahead of the times back in 2014.
Great discussion! I learned something new today.
Without electricity and the internet its infrastucture Bitcoin disappears. Without electricity gold and silver is still around
😅😅
Gold is used in jewellery because of its malleability and density. It is much easier to set precious stones in something that is malleable because you can conform the gold to the shape of whatever stone you are using. Also, 22K or 24K gold has quite a striking colour to it that makes a more interesting contrast than silver (which actually has much less above ground supply than gold), brass, or other metals common in jewellery. It's malleability also means the jeweller can make much more intricate designs in the same amount of space compared to using a harder metal (think trying to draw something in a small space with a Pilot Fineliner versus a magic marker). The malleability characteristic also allows gold to be used for things like gold leaf and/or gilding, and when artisans want to make smaller pieces, such as jewellery, gold is something they are used to working with. The fact that it is difficult to obtain and is somewhat scarce (there are certainly metals that have much less supply than gold, however the demand for them is simply not there like it is with gold. Scarcity alone cannot drive value) is just icing on the cake for creators.
It also conducts electricity and heat extremely well, and also is very corrosion resistant, making it very useful for electronics (you know, those things that are necessary for the bitcoin infrastructure to run?). If bitcoin (or any digital cryptocurrency) ever makes it to a point where it is used heavily (like this video seems to advocate), gold and silver will be backed partly by the fact that bitcoin requires gold and silver available to facilitate the network (especially as mining becomes more and more cumbersome and requires ever more computing power). Scrapping existing electronics for their G&S content in order to build faster and newer designs is not as easy as it sounds because they are in such small amounts scattered throughout the machine. The labour involved in doing so would dictate very high prices for each.
To say that gold is backed by labour, scarcity, aesthetic value, etc. is not untrue, but the underlying factor is the metal's properties. This should not be difficult to understand by the bitcoin crowd, as bitcoin is very much the same in this: it's value is in its properties as a currency. I am not aware of any other use of bitcoin other than a currency. I actually like bitcoin's values as a currency at present (low transaction costs, only limit for sending is the receiver has to have a computing device with the client installed), however, bitcoin is at its heart is software, and software has a tendency to change (or perhaps worse yet, not change and fall behind the curve) over time. When a competitor comes along, protecting your capital will mean correctly recognising the better and transferring everything over to the newcomer before everyone else does in order to get the best value, then waiting for everyone else to catch on to provide liquidity. As much of a cutting edge guy as I am, that sounds like far too much risk for savings and insurance. The potential risk of owning a currency that nobody wants outside of its novelty value (hello Zimbabwean dollars) does not put my mind at ease as to its supposed store of value characteristics. Gold, on the other hand, just sits there, unchanging. It is elemental, meaning it's not like steel where a new formulation could blow the properties of the formulation you hold out of the water. It does not decay easily. There are ancient gold coins available from millennia ago, and while they are rare because of the time span and the fact that they were usually melted down by a successful invading force and recast into that force's coin, they are physically more or less the same as when they were in circulation.
5 years later ... bitcoin has scalability problems, transactions take ages and are expensive, miles away from adoption. For now bitcoin can be digital gold, but not digital money.
How about cocaine? It's used as a store of value and currency in Guerima, Colombia..
i don't think there is any currency that is consumed... gold can be consumed but that's retarded as well as eating paper gold. that's retarded.
Yeah, but gold has always been worth something. If in the next few years better, bigger drug comes along, your coke isn't worth shit anymore.
Sort of the same problem with any commodity. Lets stick with gold for a second. If someone decides "nah, gold ain't worth shit to me" if you ever have to deal with them you deal on their terms of what worth is. Gold is just the standard people accept. Then again, I'm not totally sure most people know what the gold standard is. More "this person gives me numbers that represent money. If I have more, I can buy more things with my numbers". As we're entering a weird time of hardly using physical money anymore either.
That could work :D
Justin Koenig
Salt served as a currency for long time.
Anything scarce, identifiable and divisible can be used as a currency. The point is, bitcoin is a really good currency.
you can't send cocaine to Jakarta via e-mail or SMS.
The problem with saying Bitcoin is superior to gold is that it is predicated on the notion that a web-based economy, communication, and current socio-political economic models will persevere for "900 years from now" especially considering how rapidly all have evolved just in the last 100 years. The fact that it may be superior within the context of current models is by no means objective evidence of lasting superiority.
this was very well put i need to buy some lol
The argument that gold is bad for payment is dumb. Gold can be exchanged anywhere in the world for anything of value (currency, goods, labor, etc).
The irony is that to mine bitcoin (computers) and to use bitcoin (cellphones/computers), you have to use physical gold. Gold is in every cellphone and every computer; they would use another metal if it was cheaper, but gold must be used in computer and cellphone technology.
4:20 Federal Reserve can print money out of thin air, and loan it out to our government with interest. Then more is owed than exists..
Great video. The history of money is not well understood despite many great books on the subject (such as "debt, the first 5,000 years"). This video nails it: if you understand the history of money then it makes perfect sense that bitcoin would be the future of money.
If you understand the history of money, you will see why bitcoin makes no sense for the future of money.
Diviance I'm not an expert, but I've read a little bit. Even in Nial Fergusson's book "The Ascent of Money" we can see how innovative the field of finance can be, and must be to stay ahead. How often the field of finance is disrupted. I can see bitcoin being the next chapter, just as new and unpredictable as the surprising twists and turns of the previous chapters in the history of money.Wences Casares is totally right in this video.
Barnaby Bienkowski
How can something that fails the basics of currency be the future of currency?
Of course a currency of the internet would have to be international and thus cannot be issued by any one country. It also has to handle microtransactions and have very tiny costs. And internet money would have to be open source.
In exchange for these traits, Bitcoin had to sacrifice one or two other traits of previous currencies. Fine don't call it a currency, call it something new (and wonderful).
Right now Bitcoin volatile, so it's currently not a good store of value. But please do not mistake a phase for the end product. It will stabilize.
Barnaby Bienkowski
"Of course a currency of the internet would have to be international and thus cannot be issued by any one country. It also has to handle microtransactions and have very tiny costs. And internet money would have to be open source."
*Handling microtransactions is not unique to bitcoin, nor is it a very useful thing. It's costs continue to rise, I might add, and the end game of Bitcoin **_forces the costs to rise even further._** Also, open source is absolutely a detriment when it comes to a currency.*
"Fine don't call it a currency, call it something new (and wonderful)."
*I won't. I will. It isn't.*
"Right now Bitcoin volatile, so it's currently not a good store of value. But please do not mistake a phase for the end product. It will stabilize."
*It will stabilize... but that will be due to people abandoning it. It simply cannot succeed as anything more than a paypal variant... with, at the end, even higher fee's.*
I admire Wencase's motivations behind his efforts to make Bitcoin succeed. The financial wellbeing of his family and millions of others being subject to the whims, incompetence and in many cases, outright deceit and corruption of those who work in politics and government is something that needs to be dismantled and Bitcoin seems like it can work. There need to be more people like him with a functioning moral compass that's pointing towards a better system of currency for everyone in the financial world.
😮😮
In case of catastrophic events with no electricity...I'd bet on gold again
😅😅
It’s not fungible
this has aged very well.
I have a question. How much money do I need to invest in Bitcoin?
You can invest as little as a couple dollars if you want, I started with 5 bucks
best one of these i've seen for ages Lee Brenton
Interesting that a socialist would look towards securing the currency, over reinvesting currency.
By that I mean, who cares what money is worth? If you constantly check the buy-sell rates of stocks (currencies, or other investments), or you somehow do your best to secure the best stability of your currency - you do that, knowingly, as a way of getting a leg up on those who don't.
If currency crashes, and nobody is the wiser, it does not matter (outside of globalisation and trading) - local markets, in my thinking, will be unaffected. The numbers change, but everything else stays the same. Conservatives who "hold their chips" will lose the most, but they gamble hoping over time their money will grow.
My major point here, knowing your socialist leanings, is that the instant reinvestment of money seems to be the absolute best way to deal with markets.
If I work one day, and at the end of the day, I spend my money on food, and books for children and pay for my peers to do research and otherwise keep the money circulating, that means my dollar/bitcoin will be reused many times and have the greatest follow on benefit.
If I save my money, everyone else must fight and invest without my influence, whilst I bet on the outcome and hope to achieve some kind of growth on my economic stagnation. It seems the best way to be is to spend. Spend wisely surely, but Bitcoin seems to be barracking on stability.. whereas we really want money to be ultimately exchangeable instantly for maximum social benefit?
In short. I save my whole life, and leave my legacy to charity.. Will the follow on effect be larger than a consistent investment over time?
Morgan Parkinson Mmmm, you raise some interesting points here broski. I agree on the whole, hoarding wealth intuitively seems like a bad thing for a government to do. I don't think you need any particular preference for socialist economic theory for that.
In the contemporary context I'm not in favour of governments or big business maintaining budget surpluses. Why should they, in the case of governments, if you've payed all the bills, and all the necessary enterprises are balanced, and the rainy day fund is full (an unlikely scenario), then yeah, if they've still over collected, then in that case a tax break would be in order. In the case of big business, if the same criteria are met then they pay a dividend to their shareholders.
You mention control of currency, I think that's important. There are economic levers of control that I think should be in the hands of the proletariat, which in our system are not. In your example you seem to be referencing inflation a lot. There are methods for dealing with inflation. Why are they not in play?
You frame your statement in a zero-sum gain manner. The socialist in me asks you to consider that collaborative and collective approaches might bring a net gain to the system as a whole. Solistist are often accused of being 'utopian' for this.
Socialist economies are a deep well to dry from. Cuba, China and Denmark all have socialist programs. Socialism can look like a lot of different things.
I agree with you. Reinvesting 'Capital' (it's important to define Capital as distinct from Money or Currency) into forms of common wealth seem to be the best things to do. NBNco, education, public health, high speed rail, national highways, child care, TAFE. When we spend on any of these things we decrease the burden on the citizen. The citizen then becomes more efficient and more productive. This in turn leads to a higher revenue base. More reinvestment in NBNco ect.... It's a virtuous loop.
what if.. there was another element.. like gold.. with all the exact same chemical properties of gold.. everything was the same.. except for arguments sake it was a pretty purple instead of pretty yellow.. and it just appeared on earth one day mixed in the dirt as nuggets and ore.. in the same quantities as gold..
at first it'd be easy to mine.. people would quickly find all the large nuggets.. then it'd be harder and harder to find.. (mirroring gold's exploration history probably faster)
what would happen to the gold price? as far as industry is concerned it's the same thing.. people are fascinated with the purple interdimentional space gold.. it's pretty and makes nice jewelery ..
perceivably gold would all of a sudden be half as valuable in many applications because we can use this easier to get (at least for now) metal.. diluting it's usefulness just because there's another metal that does exactly! the same thing...
now extrapolate that same scenario over to bitcoin.. it has value for all the said reasons in the video.. divisible etc etc.. (mind you, it left out a major flaw.. in that we need computing power and networks to make it work.. as long as the free and open internet never goes down and we always have power.. then it's fine)
but being just an algorithm.. you can copy it.
instantly another potentially just as useful form of currency..
just goto here:
coincreator.net/
choose your algorithm and away you go.
now it's not 'that' simple.. just copying bitcoin.. doesn't make it instantly valuable .. people have to use it for it to be valuable.. but there are downsides to bitcoin.. like downloading the exponentially increasing blockchain ledger before you can start trading (this will become a bigger problem soon) that might make a newer coin (with smaller blockchain) appealing.
Gold will always have that over cryptocurrencies it's real, it's one of a kind. and everyone wants it.
There will be a newer crypto currency that addresses these issues --- there has to be.. and then bitcoin will fall out of favour for the new more useful currency...
But gold will still be the safe haven .. power free, internet free, value storage.
Lee Brenton What do you do with all the wealth that crypto currency represents (all that Capital)?? Do you hold it, or reinvest it, and in what?
This does a great job explaining the first part of bitcoins and why they are a good, potentially viable currency system. The next questions I always get that I hope they do a follow-up video on are the how do we know there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins? Why is it so hard to fake one? How can sending one over SMS be secure, etc? This covers why it is a good currency, but the next questions are always about how we know it will actually remain a scarce or secure currency.
Who is watching this video in 2022? and in love with bitcoin smash 👍
A lot of people here probably don't even own any gold, but they're quick to tell you how valuable it is. Right now you could all own a bitcoin, but none of you have the smarts to even get a fraction of a coin, because you're all scared to lose 20 dollars. No one is scared to give all their information to a bank and let them steal money from you every month. A bunch of genius TH-cam economists up in the house!
Haha right on!
So join a credit union like the smart people and stop using regular banks?
Oh, you are probably one of those bitcoiners that the banks won't touch anyway. Credit score either non-existent or in the 200-300's.
Diviance Credit Unions take a lot of fees and are usually not instant and a hassle to use.
*****
What kind of credit unions do you have near you? I have a normal bank, for that matter, and they don't charge a single fee.
Well, no unreasonable fee's for basic usage anyway. Things that cost them time, labor and money they do charge a small amount for, which is to be expected.
Diviance I wanted to transfer 20$ to my mom, via a wire transfer. The fee for A TRANSFER NO MATTER TEH AMOUNT is 25$ .
this is great stuff, Thanks for the upload
Money does not need to be backed. Money is printed based on how much of it is needed. Central Banks print money knowing that too much would cause inflation and too little would cause deflation, it's their responsibility to target the right amount.
Money has value because people want (demand) it. That's basically what gives something value: The amount people are willing to pay for it. A piece of paper is worth nothing but a piece of paper with Nelson Mandela's signature will be given value by people who believe Nelson Mandela's signature is worth money.
Same with gold: It doesn't have value because it is scarce but because people demand it. If gold was not that shiny or smelled bad, nobody would probably want it and it would be worthless. The fact that gold is scarce just makes it harder to devalue, or more expensive when people really want it.
Trust me, I'm an economist.
the Urban Art Project exactly. The fact that it is used for things is what makes people want (demand) it. However, value is ONLY related to what people perceive it to be worth and are willing to actually pay. For a lamp, people might be willing to pay $15.00, but if it is Einstein's old lamp maybe somebody would want to pay $5,000.00.
Gold gets put work into because people perceive it to be valuable. If people though gold is ugly, smelly, and useless (which it isn't), it would be worthless and nobody would bother to find and mine it.
Yeah, and they're not supposed to do that (print currency backed by nothing). Look where that got people. Printing money doesn't create value, that's a base level illusion, it just steals a bit of the value of all other currently existing money and adds it to the newly created money. Printing money doesn't make the world any richer, it just skims the top of everyone else's money's value and adds it to one place (whoever takes the newly printed money).
The value of money changes proportionally to the change in it's supply. Inflation is literally a tax.
But you're an economist after all, right? So you must already know all this.
I wonder if a country should institute BITCOIN as its oficial currency. What would happen then.
I see quite a few people here keep saying "Bitcoin has been hacked!". I don't think they understand how bitcoin works. When you don't, you don't see the value of it.
I understand how it works quite well. Which is exactly why I don't see the value in it. For everything it does, aside from the central ledger... which I want nothing to do with... there are better options already out there.
Including wasting electricity.
Gold is real money and everything else is credit. Bitcoin might go to zero. Can’t make jewelry out of bitcoin. Gold is a status symbol, and when you hold a bar of gold, it gives you a warm feeling.
Who produces bitcoins?
Bitcoin isn't produced, it's mined by computers at a fairly slow rate. Although it doesn't cause inflation. Bitcoin will be completely mined in about 100 years when 21 million bit coins are created and there can't be any more. Not actual mining, just computers using power to confirm transaction and create bit coin, it's just a term.
The potential implications of the development of distributed consensus technologies is revolutionary.
Bitcoin is an open source peer to peer decentralized digital currency. There is no possible fraud, since is cryptographycally secured by a distributed global mathematical algorithm and public decentralized open source ledger, a revolutionary disruptive technology called 'Blockchain'.
This could be the future of money for everything, from donations, micropayments, money transfers, online shopping and bill payments, etc.
Empowering and welcoming to the game to billions of unbanked people. And the blockchain peer-to-peer open source decentralized secure technology will be used for many more applications, like escrow, contracts, voting, global ledger, etc.
Please don't be like the ones that were dismissing the internet not long ago as a "den of pedophiles, drug dealers and terrorists". The blockchain is the biggest thing since the internet and will benefit also the billions of under and un-banked people.
Transfer money anywhere, safely, no fees, no middlemen, no charge-backs for merchants and no fraud.
These are just physical businesses accepting bitcoin, with tens of thousands more online:
cointerest.org/map
coinmap.org/
If you want to learn more:
www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/
bitcoin.org/en/
Bitcoin Cryptocurrency Crash Course with Andreas Antonopoulos - Jefferson Club Dinner Meetup
"Not having an internet strategy in 1995 is the equivalent of not having a bitcoin strategy now.”
-Moe Levin
Note: Bitcoin yearly gains so far since creation:
2009 +4,867%
2010 +387%
2011 +1,320%
2012 +170%
2013 +5,317%
2014 +????%
People, who are asking about the dislikes, this comment is for you. This is my explonation of giving this video a thumbsdown (mho, nothing more):
1) Shamelss same promotion on a science channel. I do understand, that studying currencies can be called science too, but please, at least put someone less involved, that CEO of the Bitcoin company. It leaves the same impression, as if CEO of Coca-Cola company would come out and start saying, why their drinks - are superior to everyone elses.
2) Currency is reffered to as a "superior financial system". No, it's not. It's a good currency for the internet, which makes the internet - a nation of it's own. But otherwise, I don't see this currency being the "next big thing" in worlds economy.
3) Whole concept of creating new currencies. Monetary system, as we now it today, relies too much on our belief of the established value. Downside is, that the value - is controlled by a group of people, not the whole populous of Earth. Get the sad idea behind this?
4) "Most currencies are not backed up". US dollar - yes, it's just a piece of paper. Yet, USA =/= whole world, even though most of northern Americans believe it to be so. Euro, which was mentioned in this video btw, is also backed up by collective gold supply of the EU. Russian ruble - backed up by their personal gold supply. Pretty much any national currency in the world (except for, well, the green bucks) - is backed up by their respected nations gold supply. Boo on you, BC CEO.
5) And well, the idea of Bitcoins as a whole. Even though amount of Bitcoins is limited (which means, that their value is a constant) - it's still money. And system will still be abused by people, who want to abuse it. It's humanity, you can't change it and you can't control every single member of it.
This is why I gave this video a dislike. But I believe other people have other reasons. Anyways, good day to you, people, who'd read this comment :D.
Great video!!
but how many of the finite bit coins have already been hoarded by the banks and financial institutions? does anyone have an idea on this
So far the biggest wallet that exists in bitcoin has a value of 800 Million. Which is owned by the creator of bitcoin (who is unknown) but so far their is no info on if any banks have invested in bitcoin or not.
***** Which is ALLEGEDLY owned by the creator.
Jesse Busma Not ALLEGEDLY, It IS owned by the creator. And it's proven. You can check on the blockchain and it will show the first bit coin address created and when and how long it took to mine those bit coins.
Let's be honest, the only reason he says this is because his business venture relies on people taking Bitcoin seriously. It's an interesting talk but it's difficult to take it seriously once you factor in that it's in his financial interest to be biased.
Rip
But even if bitcoins are limited u will be able to chop them into ever smaller pieces? So that means it isn't limited as much we would like it?
I agree but isn't it more about the value rather the quantity? If the value of ur pizza goes thru the roof because its the last pizza on earth you could sell tiny bits of it.
paddi241 this about this hard. If you could divide one of your pennies digitally up into a billion pieces would it still be worth a penny or more? Same with bitcoin. You can send me a billionth of a penny, but in the end it will still be worth a billionth of a penny, not any more, not any less.
The only thing that has real value is something that can actually produce something like agricultural land. The only reason things like gold, silver and money has value is because we believe it does. And we shouldn't trust our belief systems.
The security of BitCoin will be jeopordised one day when the encryption is broken, like all online security. Quantum computing is the 'hydrogen bomb' of online security. Just a matter of time.
Offline is more secure.
I would be happy for someone to provide a better solution.
Cacao was the original currency in all Mesoamerican cultures
If nobody wants your bitcoins how much value do they have? None.
If nobody wants your gold how much value does it have? A lot. You can make useful things out of it like the circuitry needed in every computer used for bitcoin transactions.
This is a great video.
I can't understand the fifth quality of money that he says. He lists scarce, durable, divisible, transportable, [something I can't make out], and fungible. Recognizable? I don't know.
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I decided to do a simple read into Xapo, unfortunately I have to sign up for and agree to an account before even being able to read the terms or privacy statements. It is also quite odd these 2 things are not highlighted. If this is truly a financial institution than proper presentation of account terms would be appreciated.
Found them "Xapo cannot and does not guarantee the value of bitcoins." The Federal reserve guarantees my deposits at my financial institution up to $250,000 per account. Rate of returns on 401k/IRA accounts are not guaranteed as they are an investment. So, bitcoins are not a currency but an investment? I think I will stick to a conservative and stable growth rate for my future. Good luck with bitcoin.
Andy G Bitcoin are a store of value that currently enjoys a lot of volatility because of its nascent nature. All goods to you if you decide to stick to conservative and stable growth rate but be aware that this ties you to an inflationary fiat currency that stands behind a very unhealthy economy.
Andy G Let's say you use Bank of America (Most popular in the US) that's about 57 million buisnesses and people calling the Federal Reserve at once? Bank of America has 2.14$ TRILLION in assets, the united states is 17 Trillion in debt. Do you think they will really pay your money back?
*barter never happened in tribes?* Why would you even say that? Don't tell me simple tribesmen didn't just say "take a bucket of buffalo meat for your 2 ducks" before they used beads.
Maybe it's his English, but it surely is untrue. Different wording would have made sense, e.g. "barter was eventually replaced by this bead system."
Because if there is no evidence for barter to have happened, how on *earth* can you confidently say they used the "remembering technique"? What possible evidence could there be for that?
I would like to save in PM and transact in BC. In any case, a plurality of mediums for the transfer and storing of value is, IMO, very important.
you can tell he doesn't even believe what he is saying himself. He is shaking his head no in disagreement with what he is saying the whole time.
gold is tangible, bitcoin is not.
He says there was no barter, but expects me to believe that someone went to someone and explained how they should take beads he didn't want. Evidence for this, please?
Question...
¿What happens if there is no electric power?¿Where does my bitcoin go?¿Where do I keep it other than in a digital form?
Scarcity itself doesn't matter, nor physical form does. What actually matters is people's collective conviction (nothing intrinsic about it) that some properties are of use to them (bling and scarcity for gold and digital decentralized noninflationary currency for bitcoin). The difference between gold and bitcoin is that people believed in gold for ages and that makes it a safer store of value than bitcoin that has only been around for couple of years.
Oh boy 😂
What ? :)
😅😅
I'm pretty sure digital currency is the way if the future. But why should I use bitcoin, when regular currency is already digitized? I haven't used cash in I don't even know how long. All of my money is stored in a bank and I use a check card. So why bitcoin?
Because it isn't backed by any central bank, and somehow that makes it more attractive despite making it ridiculously less safe to use.
Can you send any amount of money anywhere in the world instantly, free, without anyone knowing and without anyone being able to stop you and without giving any personal details to 3rd parties with your credit card?
Profetu Rulz The thing is....you can't. at least not today. Almost no one accepts bitcoin today.
NearCry l was talking about sending money not paying for goods. Bitcoins can be cashed out using an exchange. There are 60k merchants that accept it including big names like dell newegg which has a 150$ free on orders payed in bitcoin promotion or expedia. But yes this is nothing compared to the total but its a good start. People still get their information from the media. Me i just need my local online retailer from where i buy everything including dog food, a food shop and a restaurant/bar to accept it and i'm good.
Profetu Rulz I don't think you realize just how many retail businesses there are in the US alone if you think 60 thousand is a big number. Bitcoin being a real currency is a pipedream right now, one need only look at how many people use it to see that (I know a lot of people push the 21 million users stat, but it's really closer to 6 million when you take out those with only what amount to a novelty ammount they never use)
2014 bitcoin price was USD 400, in 2019 today 1 bitcoin worth USD 5000.
Bitcoin fluctuates far too much to store for long periods of time, it has less than 10 years on the market and its already crashed and jumped like crazy. The only thing it has over the dollar is that its virtual and cannot be destroyed.
How much does it cost to actually mine gold? $450 an oz?
These viewpoints and assertions are pretty profound. I wonder, could this man Wences Casares possibly be Satoshi Nakamoto? Each one of those insights could substitute for the motivation behind Bitcoin's creation.
😮
Gold was surpassed by fiat currency pretty much everywhere more than a generation ago. Gold is backed by it's rarity. And the issue is that it's more rare than gold, while the general consensus is that there isn't enough gold to support the world economy, so that is even worse for bitcoin.
😅😅
i dont think this guy doesnt understand economics
And somehow I don't think you watched the video.
I haven't either, but I'm admitting it. You responded way too quickly.
Double negative
I thought what he said made sense. Can you tell me why you don't agree?
in terms of every day commerce yes bitcoin is better than gold but for that I would use silver, for investing stick with previous metals. Now people can make crypt coins like dodgecoin. you simply cant create gold or silver. Im what some people would call a "prepper" in a scenario where the grid goes down bitcoin becomes worthless cause you cant access it. how does inflation effect bitcoin? I dont hate bitcoin its better than the worthless dollar my govt keeps trying to save
No he doesn't. That's why he is CEO of a bank. FACEPALM
Barter never happened? And then he goes on describing how barter actually happened? Did I miss something?
Comparing BitCoin to Gold ? I am sorry but that's as stupid as to compare a computer flash drive with MS Word 97 document to Egyptian hieroglyphs ...
so hackers will be the richest with this bitcoin biz?
It's 2019, and you couldn't be CLOSER to the truth. Hackers have to date have gained hundreds of millions, if not over a billion. It is still easy to lose your crypto. You called it.
But is this good for bitcoin ?
This guy needs to get a bit educated. Being a CEO doesn't mean they are an expert lol.
Don't get me wrong, I don't disagree bitcoin can be a good ledger, but it'd be backed up the same way gold, US dollar, whatever is, our own societal opinion on its value.
Also, there have been societies that were based on a barter system...
Bitcoin is not tangible, no internet, no bitcoin! enough said!
Physical bitcoins you idiot.
*****
That's an oxymoron, usually the people that call others idiots tend to reflect what others think of them. Physical bitcoin negates the purpose by which it was created, you are clearly uneducated, go educate yourself on bitcoin, i can almost guarantee you posses none.
pradaluggage2 I possess 5.3 bitcoins. I have been with bitcoin since early 2013. I research it, and spend a lot of time each day researching it and looking at news regarding bitcoin. You can send bitcoin transactions, and as soon as your wallet gets a sliver of internet, it will send the transaction. A good example of this would be the new google weather balloon internet. Being able to send one transaction a day is much better then no bank at all. This is very appealing to people without access to banks.
Brilliant synopsis that ive not heard before.
So if there's only 21 million bitcoins what happens if bitcoin gets so popular 25 million people want them?
they are divisible down to the 8th decimal
It however relies on the existence of electricity and the internet.
much like.... everything in your life, correct ?
Alex
Not gold.
Don't try to abolish or slander what you don't understand just because "you don't like it." Money is money whether that's gold, USD, GBP, BTC or any other option. Let people choose their currency based on what is most convenient to use. Then we will see what prevails. If you think USD is better than Bitcoin, just look at the last century... Watch the trend of US currency and its manipulation. Imagine never having to go to a bank again (you still could, but why would you?). Imagine transferring any amount of money to anyone anywhere in the world for free. Most banks charge $20 or more per transaction for that kind of premium. Imagine having a currency that only becomes more valuable as you keep it. Imagine a society that can't spend more than it has. I think that's why so many people are scared of Bitcoin: Because it means that every transaction is traceable and there is no more need for the huge, destructive banking system that funnels illegal money into the pockets of crooked people everywhere. Bitcoin means that we can see where every cent of every politicians' funds came from. BTC means full transparency, decentralization and adheres to all the values of a "free society." If any of this is confusing to you, you either take gain in our broken financial system or you ought to do more research.
Gold can also be used for electronics. Everyone can start a crypto currency. Because of that, the market can get saturated. People say that bitcoin is safe and anonymous. Not true, everything can be traced back digitally. Cash is the best way to stay anonymous, but that will include other risks.
"Everyone can start a crypto currency. Because of that, the market can get saturated."
Try moving $10,000,000 through bitcoin vs moving $10,000,000 through potcoin. With bitcoin a transaction of that size is possible. With potcoin you would rock the market purchasing coins, run up the price and speculators would cash out crashing the price causing you to lose a significant percentage of value during the transaction.
Bitcoin has a built in feedback loop. Because it has the highest market cap it can support the most volume, because it has the most volume it has the highest market cap.
Arn't countries banning bitcoin currency?
Yeah because they don't want people to use currency that they don't have any control over.
Hackis Bell
That is cute. Like they couldn't take control if they wanted to.
Of course, it also isn't a currency either.
Just occasionally Ted's TH-cam channel has a bullshit video. This is just one example. I'm thinking this whole Bitcoin saga will end in disaster.
I feel so sorry for you
Happy new year 2021
Great talk, Wences. I'd like to point out, though, that because of the open nature of the blockchain, Bitcoin isn't entirely fungible. Since all transactions can be tracked, it's possible for companies to not accept or "blacklist" certain bitcoins associated with illegal/immoral activities such as gambling, porn, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love bitcoin. But that one draw back could prove problematic down the road when bitcoin is more popular. For that reason, I've begun to diversify into Monero, which is a cryptocurrency that is truly fungible.
but you can always create new wallet and perform transactions from there
What he says makes sense but it's with the assumption that the technology well still be there in the future, war or disaster large enough could could make its access impossible making it worthless. Good will still have value then but even then if large enough you would then not be able to reach the gold too.
E. David The history of the Earth disagrees with you. Gold has been valuable for thousands of years -- through war and calamity, across various monetary systems, all around the world. If gold can become worthless why hasn't it happened throughout recorded history? Charts are available back to the 1700s. Look for yourself -- the most value gold has ever lost in a single year is about 30%.
Sorry bro YOUR argument is invalid. Humans value gold. They always have, and they always will. Even in times of war or disaster.
NumbNutz12000
The history of the earth? The earth has never had 7 billion people on it. Nor has it ever relied heavily on electricity. You think millions of households that depend on credit/debit cards, electricity and food that is practically delivered to them will care about gold if everything shuts down? Food and water will be a trillion times more valuable than some some shiny metal that people only wear as decoration if power was never restored. We would be back in the stone age for some time. Toilet paper and tampons would be luxury items.
But let's be realistic.
247musicloop So... you're saying that other things will be more valuable than gold.
... No shit bro. Great observation.
Behind an idea there is a good and simple explanation. What is this?
buy SILVER which has store of value and plenty of industrial use
*****
Buy futures in a derivatives market...
"Gold isn't backed by anything" Yeah it's not but that does not make it worthless. We use gold for more then looks. Gold is used to make computers and other things. Plus, it's scares like you said, raising it's worth. Also, just like any other metal. You can make valuable things like tools, car parts, tons of stuff. Virtual money can't have any other purpose then virtual money. Dirt is worth more then a thousand bit coins it terms of use or practicality. Like I said, things that are hard to find and can be made into things that are important to us like a house, tools or food are actually worth something. Even normal money has worth in terms of building stuff. US money is made with cloth or zinc depending if it is a coin or dollar. Cloth can be made into clothes and zinc is pretty useful too. It's way too abundant though, so it is pretty worthless. So over all what am I saying? I think we should use gold or any other metal as a global money system rather than Bitcoin.
Bitcoin creator committed suicide by... "" NAILGUN " I'm not making this shit up ppl....lol
You are clearly making shit up as no one knows who created bitcoin. Idiot.
Why "There will never be more than 21 million bitcoins" ?
No😅😅
sorry, you can hold gold in your hand. better than bitcoin
the problem with bitcoins is that it's trying to be both a store of value as well a means of exchange. as bitcoins become more and more valuable due to their scarcity, it will be used more and more to store value and less and less as a means of exchange. this deflationary spiral will likely mean the end of bitcoin.
mises.org/daily/6709/Deflating-the-Deflation-Myth
"Money has never been backed with anything", that's just not true, at all.
I'm disappointed. I was expecting to see the fist puppet guy.
Debt, the first 5000 years.
I disagree about the barter thing. Spend some time in any prison and you will see barter economies spring up very rapidly. Cigarettes, small packs of kool-aid, coffee, magazines, envelopes, ect. Eliminate one of these and a new item will quickly replace it. I do agree that scarce and useful items act as a form of ledger, but the bartering happened first. Bitcoin skipped the barter part of course and went straight to being a ledger.
Barter can exist in isolate environments. It certainly is the case for a prison where no one would be foolish enough to grant "credit" to another prisoner unless there is an important amount of trust between them.
The best thing to you also have to think about your family's well-being what you had and how much it was going to last and how long
The only reason why Bitcoin has any value is because there is demand for it fueled by the guys like this one
sooo exactly like Gold right?
Alex Have long position in bitcoin and cannot get rid of it? huh? :-)
Wont we eventually run out a bit coins because of computer crashes where the computer that crashed had the bit coins on it so in effect they are lost? Or when you find bit coins online is it held in like an online bank but even then if those were to crash and lose the data than the bit coins are lost, And it's not like we can just make more to replace the ones lost because as he said there will never be more than 21 million
There is no way bit coin is better than gold. Here's an explanation why in one sentence. During a power outage you can pay with gold...where's your bit coin when the power goes out?
There is no way email is better than the postal service. Here's an explanation why in one sentence. During a power outage you can still send a letter.. where's your email when the power goes out?
So bitcoin will only replace gold...