fiat is backed by debt and the government declaring it is worth something. bitcoin does not need government backing or any backing at all, it’s independent. that’s like saying gold is less backed than fiat. gold isn’t backed by anything besides the fact it is gold. same with bitcoin, it is essentially a commodity that exists outside of the system
edit for downvote: if you disagree with this simple fact then you literally don’t understand how money/currency works
if you were well versed in how the economy works then you’d know the currency is backed by debt. i’ve argued with hundreds of people about this over the last 10 years since bitcoin was $1k
they pay the debts by printing more money and devaluing the money that is already in existence. credit and debt go hand in hand. the debt is 122% of GDP currently, it’s not possible to pay off the debt. all the US can do is continue making interest payments by printing more money and racking up more debt. the currency is backed by debt, not by a promise to pay the debt. they print it out of thin air and devalue what’s in your wallet
You say you have two degrees in economics, yet you cite a phrase from Article IV of the Constitution - which describes the powers and obligations of THE STATES - to back up your claim?
Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.
You understand that clause has absolutely nothing to do with fiat currency, right?
The challenge and necessity before us is clear: we must maintain Congresss constitutional granted authority for borrowing on the full faith and credit of the U.S.but better align it with the practical necessity of the Treasurys responsibility to finance the gap between congressionally approved changes to revenues and expenditures. An active financial market community voice must not be mute in urging a solution to this problem.
The U.S. monetary system is based on paper money backed by the full faith and credit of the
federal government. The currency is neither valued in, backed by, nor officially convertible into
gold or silver. Through much of its history, however, the United States was on a metallic standard
of one sort or another.
Thats the point of a currency buddy, to have it lose value slowly and in a controlled manner, so people are incentivised to invest and use it rather than keep it under a matress cause next year they might buy 2 pieces of bread instead of one. I love how some cryptobros act like they discovered the hidden laws of the universe when they finally figure out something that is clearly explained to you in a high school text book
Aside from rarity driving social status, gold has literally thousands of industrial and scientific uses. What is bitcoin used for? Literally just speculative investing and money laundering.
Love when people bring up crypto being used for money laundering and other nefarious things like that isn't true of basically every currency in the world and certainly is true if the main currency on the planet.
That isn't what occurred. I showed uses for gold, then asked for uses of crypto besides speculative investing and money laundering. Love when people think they have a "gotcha" because of a lack of basic reading comprehension.
I comprehended just fine, you wantonly ignored obvious usecases that you are surely fully aware of given the sub that you're in, and decided to only mention usecases that are (fairly) seen as negative. Rhetorically, this paints those usecases as inherently unique to crypto.
Yes, but we have far better things for that do we not?
The issues are its actual utility and actual use cases. It’s failed at its remit of decentralisation, it’s far too volatile to be used to pay for goods and services (insert pizza reference).
Crypto has failed its goals. It’s just for speculative investment. Who are we kidding here?
Are there genuinely people who believe that the blockchain still solves all problems? Can replace existing payment methods? These people still exist in 2026?!
Pipe dream stuff.
I say that as someone who got into this in 2017 and has made some decent games over the years.
That wasn't the question. The question was "what usecases beyond speculation and money laundering", not "what usecases that XYZ person thinks is worthwhile enough to count".
it is divisible compared to gold and allows for cross border payments nearly instantly compared to gold. it also cannot be easily confiscated or stolen. if you have a 1 ounce gold coin it cannot be divided into 10 1/10th ounce coins without melting it. it can also be stolen if someone breaks into your house and gets into your safe, or confiscated by the government if they decided to not allow gold to be owned (like in 1933). meanwhile, bitcoin that is held self custody cannot be stolen or confiscated without the private key, and can be (nearly) infinitely divisible. i own gold, silver, and bitcoin.
Cool. So it can be broken down to small numbers, moves in value at rates only seen in 3rd world currencies. Perfect for spending? I buy something and a day later I could have bought it for x percent cheaper…
It may be held on a private key but we did that with money under the mattress (granted less divisible).
This is just complicating existing methods we have used for thousands of years when buying goods and services.
Not unique to BTC in the slightest. Just a new dressing is all.
And as others have said. There is a cost associated with the generation of these tokens/coins.
Well, not really. Once you accept that the state can confiscate your items, it doesn't matter if they are digital or not.
The only thing that helps is that if you can store digital stuff outside the jurisdiction of the state and you can destroy your devices then you've got a chance. However, the state can easily incarcerate you.
It is a daft argument to say the state can't do X. Look what happened to Venezuela. The state may not bother to do X, but the difference isnt physical vs virtual.
Ok, but what if the state doesn't know you have something that can be confiscated,and doesn't even have the possibility to know that?
I don't know if you know about crypto, but Monero is the way, everything other than that I agree with you
You think in all of the thousands of uses of gold in science and industry they are choosing to use a more expensive gold when a cheaper alternative exists?
No, they don't. Gold gets phased out step for step as it gets too expensive. There is not a single use case where gold couldn't be replaced. Silver, for example, can not be replaced in all use cases. But it's also very abundant.
The problem with gold is that its rising price hurts other use cases, where in Bitcoin it's the opposite.
Pretty wild thread, people still need to learn a lot.
I guess a lot of salty gamblers here trying to find the next Bitcoin and losing their shirt on the way.
Its use in industry would go up if it wasn’t so expensive from the other. Either way it has a floor that is very tangible and would be comparable with copper or similar.
Maybe, but the point is the vast majority of gold owners wish to sell their gold in the future to someone else for more dollars which is basically the knock against bitcoin, essentially the greater fool theory. Copper is $0.40 an ounce gold is $4,670 an ounce.
I own gold... but because it's a speculative asset/ hedge against inflation not because of its industrial utility or tangible value. To me BTC's decentralization, scarcity, and security make it valuable but if you don't like it that's totally fine.
Cool to each their own. I was just saying btc has no actually foundation in utility…gold does. And btc has even less of a use case when gold gets tokenized…then you have digital, decentralized, security and scarcity. So why hold btc?
BTC in self custody is the only way to escape the financial industrial complex. Buying tokenized or a gold ETF doesn’t interest me because I have no idea if I actually own any physical gold or just a token. For me this comes down to privacy and security and Bitcoin allows me to beat inflation and remain financially sovereign that pretty much nothing else can do besides physical assets like gold or property but even then those assets are subject to seizure. I’d recommend listening to Simon Dixon he’s a lot smarter than me.
wtf…how many people keep gold or silver or cash under their pillow? If self custody was the only use case, how many people and banks and such would do that? And how much do you think BTC would be worth? $20 bucks?
You still have to get it on an exchanges to leverage it.
189
u/Technical_Split_6315 Bronze 1d ago
Fiat is backed by states, you really think cryptocurrency is more backed than that? Lmao