Does bitcoin really have limit?

[ericwang]

I know there is total 21 million bitcoins by 2140, but my understanding is that altcoins are coded based on the same protocol of bitcoin, and almost share all the pros and cons of the bitcoin. So when bitcoin out performance others, like a week ago, altcoins were soaring with the fund flooded into them out of bitcoin, than means whenever the market demand more bitcoin and cannot be satisfied in short time, altcoins come in as the alternatives. In this case, how could we say bitcoin is limited and can be good means of store of value? Just confused.

[DeathAndTaxes]

How can gold be a store of value?  Aren't there hundreds of other elements?  I mean people could make copper bullion, tin bullion, hell even dirt bullion.

The same concept applies.  Bitcoin is bitcoin, nothing else is bitcoin.  No competing network has the same acceptance, security, and adoption.  This isn't to say that competing networks can't have value, in theory they could have higher value than Bitcoin but they will never replicate the exact conditions which make Bitcoin, bitcoin any more than a bar of tin is a bar of gold.

[ericwang]

How can gold be a store of value?  Aren't there hundreds of other elements?  I mean people could make copper bullion, tin bullion, hell even dirt bullion.

The same concept applies.  Bitcoin is bitcoin, nothing else is bitcoin.  No competing network has the same acceptance, security, and adoption.  This isn't to say that competing networks can't have value, in theory they could have higher value than Bitcoin but they will never replicate the exact conditions which make Bitcoin, bitcoin any more than a bar of tin is a bar of gold.

ok, gold as a store of value, because its scarcity, and other its physical properties. None of other metals you mentioned above are similar as gold, so they can not be a store of value.

But altcoins are based on the same code, so they share the fundamental similarity as bitcoin.  Their relationship are quite different with gold and other metals.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Other elements share many of the properties of gold.  Also the industrial uses of gold are rather limited.  Less than 10% of annual gold production is "used" for anything.  Most just gets dug out of the ground, melted into bars and coins and sits around forever.  Gold is valuable simply because people say gold is valuable.  There are elements which are many magnitudes rarer than gold and there are plenty of elements with similar charecteristics (resistance to corrosion, high malleability, high electrical conductivity, etc).

[ericwang]

Other elements share many of the properties of gold.  Also the industrial uses of gold are rather limited.  Less than 10% of annual gold production is "used" for anything.  Most just gets dug out of the ground, melted into bars and coins and sits around forever.  Gold is valuable simply because people say gold is valuable.  There are elements which are many magnitudes rarer than gold and there are plenty of elements with similar charecteristics (resistance to corrosion, high malleability, high electrical conductivity, etc).

Shell once was a currency, since people believe it is rare, and it collapse when people found plenty of them. copper was a currency and collapse because it's  chemically unstable. People all over the world choose gold as a currency eventually, not because people saying it is valuable, but because it is valuable in the context of exchange. other metals didnt be choosen, either because they are too rare, too liquid, too poison...or simply cannot be found naturally.

bitcoin verses altcoins are totally different.

[DeathAndTaxes]

... then your right Bitcoin is utterly worthless.  All altcoins are identical to Bitcoin and as such the money supply is infinite and it can never have any store of value characteristics.

That seems to be the conclusion you have already reached anyways.

[ericwang]

I thank you for your reply and appreciate your thought. I am searching the answer to this question and hope to understand more about bitcoin, since I can not figure it out by myself.

[DannyHamilton]

. . . other metals didnt be choosen, either because they are too rare, too liquid, too poison...or simply cannot be found naturally . . .

Silver, platinum, titanium, diamonds, etc.  Are not "too rare", "too liquid", "too poison", and can all be found naturally.

I think you are mistaken.

You have an overinflated sense of the value of gold as compared to other materials.