Other than the number in someone's bank account, what do you get from cryptocurrency?
With technologies like washing machines and dishwashers and stoves, it's pretty easy to see the real gains in wealth: you save labor. Ditto cheap housing and automobiles: you can live places you wouldn't before, which opens up a yard and white picket fence to people who previously lived in tenements. The Internet opened up a whole new world of information, which let people start businesses, learn new skills, apply for jobs they wouldn't otherwise know about, plan vacations, etc.
With cryptocurrency, the product is money. Money isn't wealth though; it's something you can trade for wealth. And whatever money you get from cryptocurrency got paid in by someone who newly bought what you just sold. There are people who have bought houses with gains from crypto (more power to them!), but that's paid for by other people putting money into crypto and getting nothing tangible in return. For those other people to get tangible benefits, somebody else would have to put money into crypto, and so on.
Money is a measurement tool, not a thing in of itself. In a properly functioning economy you get money when you create wealth, but money isn't itself wealth.
I agree with you. However I’m not sure about classing them as losses.
If the price now plateaus indefinitely (obviously this won’t actually happen) then the early adopters made some profits and the more recent investors don’t lose anything. Everyone is free to buy and sell as they wish going forward.
Plus, if the crypto offers some people some benefits, such as avoiding large fees when sending money abroad or avoiding inflation, then it’s possible that the crypto invention is a net positive.
Thank you; your two posts have given me more of a practical understanding/faith in cryptocurrencies at large than any number of passionate posts over the years.
I guess it pays to think of Cryptocurrencies other than BitCoin (which is in 90% of headlines), and imagine what CAN be / what superior systems are and can be out there.
With technologies like washing machines and dishwashers and stoves, it's pretty easy to see the real gains in wealth: you save labor. Ditto cheap housing and automobiles: you can live places you wouldn't before, which opens up a yard and white picket fence to people who previously lived in tenements. The Internet opened up a whole new world of information, which let people start businesses, learn new skills, apply for jobs they wouldn't otherwise know about, plan vacations, etc.
With cryptocurrency, the product is money. Money isn't wealth though; it's something you can trade for wealth. And whatever money you get from cryptocurrency got paid in by someone who newly bought what you just sold. There are people who have bought houses with gains from crypto (more power to them!), but that's paid for by other people putting money into crypto and getting nothing tangible in return. For those other people to get tangible benefits, somebody else would have to put money into crypto, and so on.
Money is a measurement tool, not a thing in of itself. In a properly functioning economy you get money when you create wealth, but money isn't itself wealth.