The ballast

[LucioLemgruber]

the ballast of a currency is given by the social cohesion of a society.
Bitcoin has no such characteristics, so it has no future.
You can bet against it, you just can't assess the time horizon of your downfall.

[jackg]

Actually you're wrong about currency.

A currency does well because a bank or government gives incentives for its use or promises it will be worth something.

Assets like bitcoin and gold can, for the moment at least, be considered more material than actual currency... 

[LucioLemgruber]

I'm talking about ballast, today there is a discussion about whether or not coins need ballast. they need, but in a superior way, they are the result of the strength of a society, the strength of a common ideal that unites them. This is reflected in a government with fiscal capacity, which is the most obvious form of ballast, which most of the time remains hidden to untrained eyes.

[Dart18]

Why go far into talking about ballast.
Why not just say stability?

That is what we don't know. This is kind of discussion had been discussed here for a lot of times already but they are just using the word "stability" which is just the same.
Look, it is volatile now but ain't gold the same way before?
Who knows what an ounce of gold is valued before. They just use it for barters or creating a coin but that doesn't mean it has an exact value.
Same goes for the young bitcoin. Maybe you should try looking at the future then we can find out.
Who know what will happen tomorrow.

[jackg]

Currency is just a promise though that you'll be able to exchange it for food/clothes/stocks at some point. Everything represented by a number is almost always a human generated arbitrary unit to explain something and money is the same...

Internationally currency reflects confidence in a certain country. If someone has a large amount of cash, they wouldn't want to store it in just the one currency so the demand on a currency is reflected in its value on exchanges. It's why uncertainty manipulates the market more than actual legislation (in most cases).

The idiot stores their funds in cash alone... You can at least hold anything more than a few months expenses in stocks to keep your portfolio of non emergency cash growing.

Sidenote: have you learnt a new word today (ballast)?

[LucioLemgruber]

Ballast grants stability, not the other way around. There is always something that causes stability.

[mu_enrico]

Ballast grants stability, not the other way around. There is always something that causes stability.

Did you mean a stabilizer?

Let's assume "the ballast" is the social cohesion like what you said. How could Bitcoin not promote social cohesion?

[Cherylstar86]

I'm talking about ballast, today there is a discussion about whether or not coins need ballast. they need, but in a superior way, they are the result of the strength of a society, the strength of a common ideal that unites them. This is reflected in a government with fiscal capacity, which is the most obvious form of ballast, which most of the time remains hidden to untrained eyes.

I got your point mate. Well, as far as I know it needs a long time study about your own analysis since the market is so down and very bearish it not easy as what you think. Many crypto enthusiasts affected about the situation of the market and it should each and everyone of us must aware the next things to do in order to avoid the possible consequences in the end.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Ballast?  I don't think I've ever heard that term used about a currency before, and I've been reading financial news for at least twenty years now.  I'm not sure if OP is applying it where it's not quite appropriate or if I've missed out on some new jargon lately.

Why go far into talking about ballast.
Why not just say stability?

Beats me.  It might be easier (and clearer) to say that bitcoin is extremely volatile, and the reason it's not stable is because 1) it's relatively new, and 2) it floats on the open market much like a share of a stock and gets traded quite a bit.  Maybe if it had a higher market cap it might be a little less volatile, which tends to be the case with large cap stocks.  Don't know where the ballast part comes in.

[LucioLemgruber]

Come on guys, I'm not that old, but it was gold was a ballast, time of the gold standard. Today, the most obvious and easy way to identify is the correlation between state fiscal capacity and the value of money. When the state's fiscal capacity is changed, I know the very subjective characteristics to determine this ability, but it is not a completely free thing. When we look more closely, we see that the less fragmented a society is and the more united it becomes in its ideal lathes, the less uncertainty about its currency and consequently the stronger it is.
this Bitcoin does not have and never will, I am sorry.
The ballast aways be necessário, they apperent unnecessary is a illusion.

[Febo]

the ballast of a currency is given by the social cohesion of a society.
Bitcoin has no such characteristics, so it has no future.
You can bet against it, you just can't assess the time horizon of your downfall.

In 300 BC Aristotle described what are traits of money. https://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article10370.html    Until now that had not changed, or some modern philosopher would expand his theory. I dont see he mention "the ballast of a currency" .

[panganib999]

So ballast means let's say center pillar, the one that supports it's very existence. Isn't the fact that we traders right now are trading BTC, the ballast itself? Also, with the adoption of BTC to various stores, with it being used as a MOP right now, that could serve as it's ballast as well. See, currency wasn't limited to fiat. It started with gold and silver coins then started to move on to fiat, and all these were provided by the fact that humans accepted them as a form of currency. Without that acceptance, fiat could've never moved on from the age of gold and silver, and could've never moved on from the system of bartering where you just trade and no certain medium to trade items properly with.

With us traders as proof, the ballast itself of Crypto is forming slowly. Starting from us, towards the entire world. Easy as that. We wouldn't be here nor you without the so called ballast you are saying right now.

[CarnagexD]

Ballast?  I don't think I've ever heard that term used about a currency before, and I've been reading financial news for at least twenty years now.  I'm not sure if OP is applying it where it's not quite appropriate or if I've missed out on some new jargon lately.

never head of it too. I've been on this space in a while but never encounter this word before, as for looking it on google it is related to having limit that can be associate with stability on which I cannot clearly state if it is appropriate.

Why go far into talking about ballast.
Why not just say stability?

Beats me.  It might be easier (and clearer) to say that bitcoin is extremely volatile, and the reason it's not stable is because 1) it's relatively new, and 2) it floats on the open market much like a share of a stock and gets traded quite a bit.  Maybe if it had a higher market cap it might be a little less volatile, which tends to be the case with large cap stocks.  Don't know where the ballast part comes in.

He's referring to the fiat currency that has a ballast or stability because it is regulated by the government in contrast with the bitcoin that has no certainty. Is there anyone who claims that bitcoin is stable? NONE. what must be the problem is that the OP is against bitcoin and cryptocurrency saying it has no future at all.  

[Tytanowy Janusz]

Average fiat currency life expectancy is equal to 27 years. That's how much your "ballast" made by "social cohesion of a society" is worth. In most cases its end up with hyperinflation (up to -90% of value in a matter of 1 month for few months)

Bitcoin can be uses as currency for more than 10 years. 30% of average fiat currency life expectancy and I'm quite sure it will beat an average no matter how many people will try to find reasons why bitcoin is not a currency.

[jameshugo17]

It's been 10 years since Bitcoin appeared. Now I think bitcoin has proven itself. Bitcoin will become more common day by day. There are situations. Smaller transfers require a faster method. LN is the solution.

[Ucy]

the ballast of a currency is given by the social cohesion of a society.
Bitcoin has no such characteristics, so it has no future.
You can bet against it, you just can't assess the time horizon of your downfall.

Stability could be faked for any currency. I bet many currencies will collapse if they are allowed to free float naturally. If the stability of fiat currencies are determined by the so called ballast, why do we have "people" fighting day and night to keep them artificially stable?
Bitcoin could easily be kept stable with algorithm but how do we know the currency is doing well or not?
If most fiats are allowed to float like Bitcoin, they probably would not last long.

[xen1oph]

the ballast of a currency is given by the social cohesion of a society.
Bitcoin has no such characteristics, so it has no future.
You can bet against it, you just can't assess the time horizon of your downfall.

I agree that we may be wrong. This is common to all people. However, it seems to me that in this case you are mistaken. You do not understand the essence of this. Cryptocurrency is something else. You can not judge cryptocurrency in the usual framework. Cryptocurrency is developing in its own way.

[Amel]

the ballast of a currency is given by the social cohesion of a society.
Bitcoin has no such characteristics, so it has no future.
You can bet against it, you just can't assess the time horizon of your downfall.

Stability could be faked for any currency. I bet many currencies will collapse if they are allowed to free float naturally. If the stability of fiat currencies are determined by the so called ballast, why do we have "people" fighting day and night to keep them artificially stable?
Bitcoin could easily be kept stable with algorithm but how do we know the currency is doing well or not?
If most fiats are allowed to float like Bitcoin, they probably would not last long.

What do you mean by this floating? decentralized? As far as I know, bitcoin has survived all this time because of the decentralized system itself, bitcoin has been floating freely for the past 10 years and that has made bitcoin go crazy. If you say it doesn't last long, on what grounds do you say it like that? before bitcoin were there similar currencies?

[hugeblack]

It is a mistake to rely on one variable to describe a currency as having no future.
I did not understand your description of the currency, but it seems inaccurate. The guarantee you are talking about varies from one currency to another. For example, paper money is a guarantee of government promises.
Gold represents an asset that have a value on it self, and Bitcoin depends on the revolutionary technology that supports it in addition to providing solutions that cannot be solved by paper money and therefore it is valuable.

[buwaytress]

Come on guys, I'm not that old, but it was gold was a ballast, time of the gold standard. Today, the most obvious and easy way to identify is the correlation between state fiscal capacity and the value of money. When the state's fiscal capacity is changed, I know the very subjective characteristics to determine this ability, but it is not a completely free thing. When we look more closely, we see that the less fragmented a society is and the more united it becomes in its ideal lathes, the less uncertainty about its currency and consequently the stronger it is.
this Bitcoin does not have and never will, I am sorry.
The ballast aways be necessário, they apperent unnecessary is a illusion.

Probably something lost in translation but I totally get that opinion that Bitcoin does not have one cohesive society (probably true now) but we won't have enough data or time to find out if it never will.

Gold has certainly outlived modern economists too (in the 1970s they predicted the dominance of fiat would eradicate gold's value in a decade, and it has only become stronger). I don't see why Bitcoin won't go on to prove the economists wrong today.

Remember, rational models no longer work.