Gavin Andresen: Is Store of Value enough?
2012 Jul 11
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Gavin Andresen: Is Store of Value enough? @ Satoshi Nakamoto
- Author
-
Gavin Andresen
- Email
-
satoshinakamotonetwork@proton.me
- Site
-
https://satoshinakamoto.network
I'm still deep down the Bitcoin rabbit hole, and I've been
thinking about its "store of value" and "means of exchange"
properties.
I wonder: if Bitcoin is used as just a store of value and nothing
more, could that be enough?
Imagine it is years in the future, when the generation of new
bitcoins has slowed to a trickle.
As a pure store of value, bitcoins would function as I-owe-you
tokens. People who wanted to store value would buy bitcoins from people
who were done using them to store value and needed some cash to buy
something.
The value of a bitcoin would be a function of how many people wanted
to store versus spend. If everybody decided at once they wanted to spend
their money instead of saving it they would find no buyers and the price
would drop to zero.
If lots of people had lots of extra money that they wanted to store
(and they decided bitcoins were a good place to store it) the price of
bitcoin would go up.
I'm not an economist, but I would guess that the desire for a good
place to store value is pretty steady. I base that on the recent
behavior of US Treasuries; people want a safe place to park their money
so much that they have actually driven the inflation-adjusted interest
rate on many Treasuries negative ("investors" are paying the US
government to hold their money for them).
Bitcoins are a pretty darn good store of value; they don't take up
any space, you can back them up, you can protect them with a password,
you can split them up and store them in a lot of different places, and
when you want to spend them you can do it from the comfort of your
barcalounger using your cell phone.
You can even store
them in your brain if you want (my brain is too flaky, I try not to
store valuable things in there).
I can imagine that once they grow up bitcoins could have a lot of
value purely as a store of value, even if they never take off as a
currency used for everyday purchases.
I'm sure the overall demand for "store of value" goes up and down,
but it looks to me like it is counter-cyclical– when the economy is bad,
people take money out of things like the stock market and put it into
things like T-Bills or gold.
If bitcoins are used only as a store of value in the future, then we
should see their value going up during recessions and down during boom
times.
If they're used only as a means of exchange then we should see the
opposite.
I hope they'll be used for both so they'll have a mostly steady value
regardless of what the economy is doing.
DISCLAIMER: I've been saying this for a couple of years now, but it
is still mostly true: Bitcoin is an experiment– only invest time or
money in it that you can afford to lose!
Gavin Andresen: Is Store of Value enough?
2012 Jul 11 See all postsGavin Andresen
satoshinakamotonetwork@proton.me
https://satoshinakamoto.network
I'm still deep down the Bitcoin rabbit hole, and I've been thinking about its "store of value" and "means of exchange" properties.
I wonder: if Bitcoin is used as just a store of value and nothing more, could that be enough?
Imagine it is years in the future, when the generation of new bitcoins has slowed to a trickle.
As a pure store of value, bitcoins would function as I-owe-you tokens. People who wanted to store value would buy bitcoins from people who were done using them to store value and needed some cash to buy something.
The value of a bitcoin would be a function of how many people wanted to store versus spend. If everybody decided at once they wanted to spend their money instead of saving it they would find no buyers and the price would drop to zero.
If lots of people had lots of extra money that they wanted to store (and they decided bitcoins were a good place to store it) the price of bitcoin would go up.
I'm not an economist, but I would guess that the desire for a good place to store value is pretty steady. I base that on the recent behavior of US Treasuries; people want a safe place to park their money so much that they have actually driven the inflation-adjusted interest rate on many Treasuries negative ("investors" are paying the US government to hold their money for them).
Bitcoins are a pretty darn good store of value; they don't take up any space, you can back them up, you can protect them with a password, you can split them up and store them in a lot of different places, and when you want to spend them you can do it from the comfort of your barcalounger using your cell phone.
You can even store them in your brain if you want (my brain is too flaky, I try not to store valuable things in there).
I can imagine that once they grow up bitcoins could have a lot of value purely as a store of value, even if they never take off as a currency used for everyday purchases.
I'm sure the overall demand for "store of value" goes up and down, but it looks to me like it is counter-cyclical– when the economy is bad, people take money out of things like the stock market and put it into things like T-Bills or gold.
If bitcoins are used only as a store of value in the future, then we should see their value going up during recessions and down during boom times.
If they're used only as a means of exchange then we should see the opposite.
I hope they'll be used for both so they'll have a mostly steady value regardless of what the economy is doing.
DISCLAIMER: I've been saying this for a couple of years now, but it is still mostly true: Bitcoin is an experiment– only invest time or money in it that you can afford to lose!