Why Cryptocurrencies Will Never Be Safe Havens

[The One]

https://mises.org/blog/why-cryptocurrencies-will-never-be-safe-havens

Discuss...

[Silberman]

https://mises.org/blog/why-cryptocurrencies-will-never-be-safe-havens

Discuss...

I read the whole thing, nothing new here it is obvious they are pro gold and they claim it is a store of value despite the fact that we do not know how much gold there is and how much it is going to be, they claim history is on their side, but that is not true when Spain began mining silver in the Americas there was big inflation due to all the new silver, bitcoin does not suffer that problem, they are right in some points but in that point they are entirely mistaken.

[craZyLovE0916]

You cannot link a site which is all about investing in Gold and anti-Bitcoin and expect it to be honest about the future of cryptocurrencies.

[BillyBobZorton]

https://mises.org/blog/why-cryptocurrencies-will-never-be-safe-havens

Discuss...

The pro-gold people never bring up two key points:

1) Gold has been already outlawed, and it could happen any time in the future again:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mariotti/when-owning-gold-was-ille_b_10708196.html

2) Gold is absolutely useless when trying to cross borders. If your government becomes tyrannical, you will not be able to escape your country safely with your wealth if it's in Gold, or pretty much anything that isn't Bitcoin (or any other crypto, but we all know Bitcoin is the most solid hold coin)

[BitcoinBarrel]

In the digital-age that we are living, Crypto-currencies are the most practical store of value as long as the internet exists. If we are at the point where the internet is no longer and the world is in total chaos, then what good is gold and silver anyway? People will be more worried about food and survival each day. Carrying gold and silver around will do you no good. You can argue that Food is a better store of value than Gold when SHTF.

[sedkis]

In the digital-age that we are living, Crypto-currencies are the most practical store of value as long as the internet exists. If we are at the point where the internet is no longer and the world is in total chaos, then what good is gold and silver anyway? People will be more worried about food and survival each day. Carrying gold and silver around will do you no good. You can argue that Food is a better store of value than Gold when SHTF.

Well apocalyptic situations aside, the main point of concern is that bitcoin might end up being worthless in the near to mid future.  What do you have to say to that?

[Beparanf]

In the digital-age that we are living, Crypto-currencies are the most practical store of value as long as the internet exists. If we are at the point where the internet is no longer and the world is in total chaos, then what good is gold and silver anyway? People will be more worried about food and survival each day. Carrying gold and silver around will do you no good. You can argue that Food is a better store of value than Gold when SHTF.

Well apocalyptic situations aside, the main point of concern is that bitcoin might end up being worthless in the near to mid future.  What do you have to say to that?

I don't think it will happen, when can be technology or internet will be worthless. Crypto were depending on it. Its is the most convenient ways for transactions. It is the currency in online world where in most businesses use as their medium on developing their business. So crypto can get better in time never worthless.

[Thatstinks]

You don't have to be pro gold to see BTC is potentially a big bunch of nothing in the end. I am happy to own and trade it but am not naïve, too many factors will not allow it to be a global currency. Then you have its issues with security, holding it, exchanges and non centralization. While decentralized currency sounds sexy it also limits it in terms of acceptance.

I enjoy its tradability and hope it does well so we all do well in terms of getting more CASH or gold or stuff but it certainly no storage.

BTC will not buy me bread in a crisis when the web is down, end of story. When markets crash and money pours out of digital/cryptos youll beg for cheap gold you can hold and use.

Heaven forbid the day but you still buy insurance any way...gold

[Stedsm]

The way they are trying to make everyone go off Bitcoins is not gonna work, but it is definitely helping Bitcoins gain much more popularity as well as publicity (negative publicity is also a type of publicity tbh). If Cryptos would never have been safe havens, are those big investors fools to declare it one of the best available investments of all time? Even better than Gold?
Btw, I don't understand how and why people compare Bitcoins to Gold because according to my knowledge, Bitcoin is a currency (global) and Gold is an asset (physically buy/sell possible) so what is the logic behind all that bullshit?

[alyssa85]

In the digital-age that we are living, Crypto-currencies are the most practical store of value as long as the internet exists. If we are at the point where the internet is no longer and the world is in total chaos, then what good is gold and silver anyway? People will be more worried about food and survival each day. Carrying gold and silver around will do you no good. You can argue that Food is a better store of value than Gold when SHTF.

Well apocalyptic situations aside, the main point of concern is that bitcoin might end up being worthless in the near to mid future.  What do you have to say to that?

There are too many uses for bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) for it to become worthless. The price might go down a bit, but it won't go worthless. It's here to stay.

The problem with apocalytic scenarios is people assume that the apocalyse will affect the whole planet. But even WW2 didn't really affect the Americas, which meant that both North and South America made a lot of money during the war. If there is a true apocalyse like an asteroid wiping out all life on earth, gold won't be any use either.

[audaciousbeing]

https://mises.org/blog/why-cryptocurrencies-will-never-be-safe-havens

Discuss...

I don't even need to open the link to be sure that the report is just one sided planned to favor a particular course and that's exactly what is being portrayed here and I see some level of jealousy in that write up and I don't expect to see anything different from a competitor but what they also need to realize is that, times are changing and people are moving, and its either they join in that movement or they are left behind.

[robelneo]

Some of his points are correct, but we are evolving in a future technology and I don't think crypto currency will be out in the future, we will have to live in the blockchain technology in the future and it's happening although in my opinion gold is still has a value and will always have.

[nicolioz]

with nanotechnology and the ability to manipulate atoms (we're currently at the molecular level, and just getting started), gold will become as worthless as any other mineral.  Its value is only due to its scarcity on this particular planet.

[xderek]

The counter point of bitcoin is its volatility, gold value only decrease if is mined somewhere but overall in the universe, gold is as rare as supernova is. Bitcoin now is on other strong point is that over time it's value gets to be higher...

[thaytch]

Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies are so volatile against fiat currency pairs because of their relatively small market caps. BTC/USD has had an average volatility of 5.41% in the past 60 days.

As of July 12, the total amount of USD in circulation was approximately $1.56 trillion according to the Fed. The ECB has reported similar € amounts to be in circulation. In comparison to BTC/USD, the EUR/USD pair has had an average volatility of 0.73% in the past.

Deeper injections or ejections of capital are required to move legacy markets simply because of their larger market caps. To move BTC/USD 1% ($67 billion market cap as right now), it requires $670 million. To move EUR/USD 1%, it would require at least 100X of that.

Obviously these are very rough and not necessarily spot-on metrics, but they provide a nice view as to why Bitcoin is yet to be regarded as a serious stable medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account (never mind other cryptocurrencies). It is neither of those three.

If we really want to achieve mass adoption and these three necessary proporties of money, we need to achieve these four milestones:

1) Large injections of capital that has lost trust in legacy finance and is willing to withstand the inevitable repetitions of the emotional market cycle on the way to mainstream adoption (smart money). This could happen in the case of an systemic failure in the legacy fiat system fuelled by an exuberant credit bubble.

2) An ever-growing market cap will result in reduced volatility which will increase the credibility of Bitcoin to become 'actual' stable money, fuelling further adoption and reducing volatility and so on..

3) Finally scaling Bitcoin unanimously. No normie will ever take Bitcoin seriously if people keep forking off to create yet another useless altcoin. I'm not a Bitcoin maximalist and lots of altcoins have very interesting technologies, however we need to be honest that many altcoins are trash. SegWit is being activated on the original Bitcoin chain and its way leading us to LN should be finally letting us open the last steps towards mainstream adoption. LN will also allow for atomic cross-chain swaps (essentially blockchain interoperability) that will also allow to enhance the credibility of many altcoins for actual use cases. These technologies could finally provide a gateway to a yet uncharted revolutionary multi-currency financial network that defeats any fiat currency payment network ever created.

4) People will need to start doing commerce with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies without needing to exchange its amount to a fiat currency afterwards. There has been a lot of commerce in Bitcoin already, however Bitcoin is still only a proxy for fiat for the vast majority of people.

[Iranus]

My thought is that no cryptocurrency has yet come close to mainstream adoption in stores, and it may take a long time before there is one appropriate for that to really happen.

So once there is some kind of genuine need for one specific cryptocurrency in order to pay, it can retain that power over regular payments and ignore the existing "tech race".  Then it will be a good safe haven for funds.

Until then, I perceive cryptocurrencies' market prices to just be the market's opinion on which cryptocurrencies are making the best developments towards being a good currency (or good use of blockchain technology).

Bitcoin is not part of this innovation race simply because there is a perceived value to the adoption that it already has.

[jonatuzc]

https://mises.org/blog/why-cryptocurrencies-will-never-be-safe-havens

Discuss...

Now here they come again, the Anti-Bitcoiners, lmao. People who wouldn’t let Bitcoin rest for just a sec. People that are always nosing around, and sticking head into businesses where there opinions are not even needed. If they want to support gold, they should go ahead and support gold and not talk about Bitcoin. Their opinion is not regarded.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

In the digital-age that we are living, Crypto-currencies are the most practical store of value as long as the internet exists. If we are at the point where the internet is no longer and the world is in total chaos, then what good is gold and silver anyway? People will be more worried about food and survival each day. Carrying gold and silver around will do you no good. You can argue that Food is a better store of value than Gold when SHTF.

Well apocalyptic situations aside, the main point of concern is that bitcoin might end up being worthless in the near to mid future.  What do you have to say to that?

Could happen,  can't say with certainty that it won't or can't.  Governments are powerful.   Having said that,  I don't think the US government is going to outlaw crypto anytime soon.   I did not read the article as I don't like visiting unknown sites.  A summary in OP would be nice.

Safe haven?  Stability is nowhere close to that.  Right now crypto looks to be in a real bubble.  That's the opposite of stability.

[Hydrogen]

Many banks only insure up to 100k. A million deposited would only give 10% back in an emergency.

This is a case for banks not being safe havens.

If banks may not be safe havens, what chance is there for anything else being safe?

In the news there are many stories about people hiding large sums of money in their mattresses only to have their cash be eaten by termites or thrown away accidentally, never to be recovered.

The concept of a financial safe haven may be a myth at best.

[C10H15N]

If things get bad enough that our tech infrastructure goes down, the only currencies worth anything will be potable water, food, and ammunition.  Then again, all that gold would make some really nice bullets.