With more than 5,000 people attending, it will be the largest DeFi conference in history.
Bitcoin is like Carl Sagan, David Attenborough or Nelson Mandela.
Investors don’t need another answer to the question, “What is Bitcoin?” You probably recognize bitcoin as one of the first examples of cryptocurrency.
But that doesn’t make Bitcoin useless — the opposite is true, in fact.
Immutability — A key feature of Bitcoin is the immutability of its transactions.
Supply hard cap — The total supply of bitcoins is capped at 21 million BTC — a strong selling point for those who view it as a store of value.
Trustlessness — Validating transactions on the network with community consensus and trustless organization removes the need for centralization .
Decentralization — Removing a central third party that controls and confirms all transactions puts the control of a user’s money back in that user’s hands.
But by acknowledging where Bitcoin doesn’t fit, we can honor it and our balance sheets by using it where it does.
Immutability — For use in transacting, immutability can become inefficient when reversing a transaction is necessary.
Decentralization — From the user side, there isn’t a clear downside to decentralization, other than some network inefficiency, which will be addressed in the next point.
Proof-of-work also creates opportunities for network centralization, as the people with the best chance of mining bitcoin and powering the network are those with the money and connections to be able to do so at scale, and cheaply.
It is easily traceable, and once a transaction is linked to a user, that user’s wallet is now correlated with their identity, and transactions are no longer private.
Simplicity — While the singular focus of bitcoin on peer-to-peer transacting has inspired countless technological and social progresses, the failure of bitcoin to remain the most efficient method of transacting opens it up to obsolescence.
Additionally, as users lose access to their bitcoins due to the level of technical familiarity needed to safely store one’s bitcoins, the total supply of accessible bitcoins slowly shrinks.
The concept of Bitcoin as a store of value is necessary for bitcoins to preserve purchasing power over time, and has thus always been intended for the currency.
An inflexible currency not subject to inflation and with immutable transactions is proving to be very useful as a way to protect one’s wealth.
So, is bitcoin useful as a means of transacting daily? Not really.
“Hodling” is by far the most reliable “tried-and-true” method of investing in bitcoin for profit.
Bitcoin ETFs are fighting to gain approval in the US , but you’ll also find bitcoin exposure through index funds, backing collateralized loans and sitting on corporate balance sheets.
Miners with the ability to source cheap power and build warehouses full of mining rigs have the best chance at profitability.
As proof-of-work consensus protocols like Bitcoin consume electricity, using them at scale risks being unsustainable.
Its effects are social, environmental, emotional and political, and one’s convictions matter as much as one’s risk tolerance.
The content of this webpage is not investment advice and does not constitute any offer or solicitation to offer or recommendation of any company, product or idea.