I know I am late to the party on this one, but rather late with something to say than just repeat the obvious like most do when a story breaks in the crypto space. If you don’t already know what the hubbub is about, then allow me to catch you up. A few top Twitter accounts were hacked, namely Apple, Elon Musk, Barack Obama and Joe Biden and once open to this person; they posted the same tweet.
If you’re a Bitcoiner for some time, you would immediately recognise the age-old scam of send 0.1 and get 0.2 back BTC. It’s worked for years, and this is proof that it continues to work, but why would someone who holds an asset that is unconfiscatable be so careless in sending their BTC to “Apple” or “Joe Biden” on a whim, from just one Tweet and nothing else.
The truth is there is a vast majority of Bitcoin holders who do not think Bitcoin is valuable; that is the sad and honest truth, this situation only depicts it.
The Bitcoin break down
Bitcoiners are not all the same; they each break off into certain factions and provide an interesting song and dance between one another that create this marketplace we’re so speculatively trade-in and thrive on the volatility it creates.
I can’t speak to the percentage of each type and how they make up the market, but this is my breakdown for the types of people holding or using BTC.
Miners
- Those who have invested in rigs and energy to mint new coins, only willing to sell to cover costs and make a profit on their efforts
Hodlrs
- Long term believers in the chain and willing to accumulate more overtime to try and increase their stake, regardless of price
Day traders
- Those looking to trade on the daily price changes, skimming profits based on market sentiment for the day
Swing traders
- Those who look at certain larger cycles and try to place positions that will earn a profit based on longer length trades
Speculators
- Those who bought BTC, because they heard it can 3x any time and want to get that upside, the dumb money and usual piles in last.
Arbitragers
- These peeps keep the exchanges honest, they look at different market orders on various exchanges and buy-in at one exchange and sell it at another and profit off of keeping prices inline
Consumers
- People actually using BTC to buy goods and services
Hedgers
- Those looking to place a position hoping to play either upside in BTC in case markets fail or non-correlated assets correct in price downward.
Each type has its own reasons for holding BTC, and what they aim to achieve from hanging in this space, they all contribute to the value in some way, and as more interest comes in from all these niches, we see value increase, which is why I don’t mind any of these types of BTC users.
What I do think, however, is there is an overwhelming amount of speculators that outnumber the others, and that is why we have cases of hacks and scams like these.
The game theory of value
Bitcoin is real digital scarcity and requires real-world effort to acquire; it has a market value of over $9000 as of writing this post. Just like a domain name is valuable, or an Instagram account with a lot of followers is valuable, so too is BTC valuable; it’s just more practical than the digital value of the past.
It draws from so many facets of money and combined it into something brand new, and that’s why I get why people can’t understand it from the jump; even for me, it took months if not years to fully understand it, and I still don’t, I’m learning something new about it every day.
The thing is, everyone’s Satoshis are worth the same amount at any given time, the value never changed, never has and never will. Only the perceived value changes per satoshi. The value of Satoshi is not in the unit but in the history of the blockchain.
How many times 1 BTC or 1 Satoshi was used to generate value in a transaction is what adds legitimacy to the chain. Having only 1% in on this asset class and an even smaller % keen on seeing this as a new currency and use case for finance makes it tough to value; it can only be done through time.
10 years have past, and it’s still here, for every year it continues, it gains more legitimacy even if it’s only doing the same thing it did 10 years ago.
Understanding digital value
This lack of understanding is why we see people so careless with BTC, yes the price is over $9000, but people don’t see it as something of that value; they see it as a vehicle to jump in at one price and jump out at another, like a magical money portal.
They don’t understand that what they hold has actual value; they would much rather trade it to get fiat to buy something that has less value because most BTC hodlrs still come into the Bitcoin space with a mindset of inflation and have not taken the time to understand deflation and its benefits.
This is why they’re willing to piss away 0.1 BTC for a chance to get 2; they don’t see that in a few years, that 0.1 would be worth far more than the $1800 they were trying to squeeze out now.
In a deflationary economy, savers are winners; stackers are winners, accumulators are winners. Money attracts more money, so stop giving yours away.
