Longtime bitcoin holder starting to question the future

[ConnerDalfino]

Saw this:

I'm a long-time bitcoin holder, like many I wish I had bought and held more back in the day but I feel very fortunate to have always kept a core holding and never have sold. The mantra used to be "spend and replace" and I would do that, I found ways to use bitcoin wherever I could.

This whole narrative around bitcoin has changed since 5+ years ago, I just can't wrap my head around "the utility IS as a store of value", it does not make sense to me. At least before when people would ask "why does it have value", my answer was always, its super easy to transfer to anyone in the world, no middle man, nobody can stop you, its relatively fast (10-15 min), and FINALLY it has a limited supply, no central bank can print it.

I really do believe that the utility comes BEFORE the store of value, you need both to have sound money, not just one. The only hope of BTC is that the lightning network actually works, but I have my doubts. I'm open-minded, I don't know if BCH has all the answers either, we are still early in this crypto-revolution, who knows what the world will be like in 20 years and what crypto currency eventually wins out in the end.

Your thoughts?

[Poker Player]

I just can't wrap my head around "the utility IS as a store of value", it does not make sense to me. At least before when people would ask "why does it have value", my answer was always, its super easy to transfer to anyone in the world, no middle man, nobody can stop you, its relatively fast (10-15 min), and FINALLY it has a limited supply, no central bank can print it.

I can. I don't know what the problem is. What is clear is that for day to day payments, in the end it will be used either LN, if it ends up succeeding, or some shitcoin, but Bitcoin as it is is succeeding as the best store of value in the world. For the same reason you say. Try sending $1M of gold in 15 minutes to Japan.

BTW: you've said you saw that but you haven't quoted: https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comments/m562vm/longtime_bitcoin_holder_starting_to_question_the/

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

That is what you call a hindsight, he could've bought more but he didn't so there is no point regretting what you didn't do in the past, the important thing is that you bought bitcoin and you earn a lot of money because you have faith that it will grow more than just its current amount at that time.

[Upgrade00]

I just can't wrap my head around "the utility IS as a store of value", it does not make sense to me. At least before when people would ask "why does it have value", my answer was always, its super easy to transfer to anyone in the world, no middle man, nobody can stop you, its relatively fast (10-15 min), and FINALLY it has a limited supply, no central bank can print it.

Bitcoin can serve different purposes for different people and these people view its utility from different perspectives; Some are in because of the resistance to inflation, for others it's the 'borderlessness' of transactions, and for some others the immutability and decentralization of the network. All of these are correct and accurate and the believe of one person in one does not invalidate the other.

The only hope of BTC is that the lightning network actually works, but I have my doubts.

Lightening Network would sure make daily transactions easier and cheaper for merchants, but the future of Bitcoin is not hinged on its success, there are lots of improvement propositions aimed at improving scalability and in the future a couple more would be proposed.

[NeuroticFish]

I just can't wrap my head around "the utility IS as a store of value", it does not make sense to me.

For the sake of analogy, just think on what banks do with gold.
Do they use it to manufacture good electric conductors? Do they manufacture jewelry? No, clearly no.
They simply store it as a "store of value" because it's known that gold doesn't change its properties and it's believed that gold is scarce.
If the banks would sell all the gold staying for no actual use, it may not be any longer such highly valuable.

Now Bitcoin. It clearly doesn't change its properties and it's known for sure it's scarce. So it already becomes something better than gold, exactly for store of value.
The fact it can be also used like a coin makes it even more suitable for the job.
What else it gives value? Its security. Unlike banks that have to pay for heavily guarded storage, you can hide billions on a piece of paper, knowing that the underlying math and the huge mining difficulty makes it a safe asset (as long as you know how to keep safe the information from "that piece of paper").

And same goes with Bitcoin as with gold. The price is high because of the demand. If there will no longer be demand, if whales sell, the price can also fall.
The "digital gold" choice of words is pretty well chosen and tells a lot.

[AGD]

I just can't wrap my head around "the utility IS as a store of value", it does not make sense to me.

For the sake of analogy, just think on what banks do with gold.
Do they use it to manufacture good electric conductors? Do they manufacture jewelry? No, clearly no.
They simply store it as a "store of value" because it's known that gold doesn't change its properties and it's believed that gold is scarce.
If the banks would sell all the gold staying for no actual use, it may not be any longer such highly valuable.

Now Bitcoin. It clearly doesn't change its properties and it's known for sure it's scarce. So it already becomes something better than gold, exactly for store of value.
The fact it can be also used like a coin makes it even more suitable for the job.
What else it gives value? Its security. Unlike banks that have to pay for heavily guarded storage, you can hide billions on a piece of paper, knowing that the underlying math and the huge mining difficulty makes it a safe asset (as long as you know how to keep safe the information from "that piece of paper").

And same goes with Bitcoin as with gold. The price is high because of the demand. If there will no longer be demand, if whales sell, the price can also fall.
The "digital gold" choice of words is pretty well chosen and tells a lot.

I'd like to add that I can imagine almost any combination of characters and calculate a bitcoin address from it, which I can use to send my money to (NOT RECOMMENDED TO DO THIS, but still ...) Try this with gold!

[NeuroticFish]

I'd like to add that I can imagine almost any combination of characters and calculate a bitcoin address from it, which I can use to send my money to (NOT RECOMMENDED TO DO THIS, but still ...) Try this with gold!

Well, if one is rich enough and mad enough, he can ask for having built something like Voyager probes and launch it to the void 
Or one can mix the gold with aqua regia and probably throw away the result (but I have enough knowledge on the matter).
The result would be pretty much the same 

[lifeforcepools]

Do not ask yourself such questions. Of course, everything will end sometime. But crypto is only at the beginning of its journey.

[AGD]

I'd like to add that I can imagine almost any combination of characters and calculate a bitcoin address from it, which I can use to send my money to (NOT RECOMMENDED TO DO THIS, but still ...) Try this with gold!

Well, if one is rich enough and mad enough, he can ask for having built something like Voyager probes and launch it to the void  
Or one can mix the gold with aqua regia and probably throw away the result (but I have enough knowledge on the matter).
The result would be pretty much the same  

The method AND the result are not the same.

It took me a few seconds to generate a Bitcoin address with your posting.

Well, if one is rich enough and mad enough, he can ask for having built something like Voyager probes and launch it to the void  Wink
Or one can mix the gold with aqua regia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqua_regia) and probably throw away the result (but I have enough knowledge on the matter).
The result would be pretty much the same

1GDKrFverko4oFPDA3NKP5piXxyA1wpB2M
5Kau4cNztUQJHKoL25hm3XLycgpCWe2QEfqTfzp9k3ZU9NP2vjb

It would take a few seconds to do a transaction to that address and about an hour to confirm. When I want my money back, I would need only your posting and some code from the internet to recreate my private key.

[yazher]

That is what you call a hindsight, he could've bought more but he didn't so there is no point regretting what you didn't do in the past, the important thing is that you bought bitcoin and you earn a lot of money because you have faith that it will grow more than just its current amount at that time.

Past has nothing to do with us today we skip it because that's how our destiny would be. Even though in some aspect of our life we have so many things we wished we have done or things that we wish we didn't do. That's the same with bitcoins and the other altcoins which we see in the market that are on the top list. If we have to get something right now, we need to do our own investigation about certain coins, and if we want we can still stick to BTC if we really want something to invest on some high assurance that our money will not lose. unlike the investment on some other altcoins where their price will not recover when it falls.

[Fundamentals Of]

Everybody questions the future. It is only a matter of how you question it. It is either you are questioning the future based on an optimistic mind or a pessimistic one. The one who made this question was clearly a pessimistic person who happened to get stuck at a certain perception of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is not static. Insofar as its use is concerned, it could be flexible up to a certain extent.

[Karartma1]

Why can't it be that Bitcoin is flexibly adapting to the future? Our BTC is still a kid in a way and still has a long way to go. In terms of development there are a few implementations very much needed to allow it to become future proof (taproot); true bitcoin hodlers don't need to question the future as they know it was paved when they first gave bitcoin a chance in the past. 

[masterrex]

I think the (Author) was started doubting about the future of Bitcoin And the one reason I observed is that bitcoin has changed a lot already especially now that the price was skyrocketed the transaction fees were rising and the confirmation time became lengthy and because of that reason he has also quoted about the LN or the Lightning Network function which is until now still not been perfected. so I think that was a normal reaction that pointed out a valid question. When?

[NeuroticFish]

When I want my money back, I would need only your posting and some code from the internet to recreate my private key.

OK, I misunderstood what you meant at first. I thought that you make a burn address simply adding the checksum to something.

And the rest is (more or less) covered by "unlike banks that have to pay for heavily guarded storage, you can hide billions on a piece of paper". Yes, it's much easier to build a Bitcoin wallet than a vault for gold 

[elisabetheva]

I think the (Author) was started doubting about the future of Bitcoin And the one reason I observed is that bitcoin has changed a lot already especially now that the price was skyrocketed the transaction fees were rising and the confirmation time became lengthy and because of that reason he has also quoted about the LN or the Lightning Network function which is until now still not been perfected. so I think that was a normal reaction that pointed out a valid question. When?

if there are still doubts about bitcoin, of course it is something strange and it needs to be questioned again why is it still analyzing bitcoin. where now bitcoin has experienced a very sharp increase and it is clear that many are making transactions and of course there will be significant changes in everything that is done by bitcoin at this time, because changes in price are certainly quite high.
all of that is a natural thing because it occurs cause and effect and we must understand it.
bitcoin will continue to do well and it is clear that the future will remain profitable for its holders.

[javainn]

even though the future of bitcoin is not yet certain, but bitcoin has the potential, somehow the potential of bitcoin in the future. certainly there will be coins that can be valuable like bitcoin, it's just that we don't know what coins. so for now bitcoin is still the best

[buwaytress]

Why not link to source?

I've met my fair share of long-time holders, and I've mentioned before how surprised I am that many seemed to have folded and lost hope in 2018, a year after that rally and ATH. I thought seeing it at least once or twice before would lend them more confidence but I guess ICO era and true mainstream explosion shook their faith and changed beliefs.

I've met people who exited at $10k and they have no regrets. Also met many more who made the entrance above $10k!

Questioning the future can only be a good thing.

[androyster]

to to OP, write again after BTC hits 150K, then 200K, then 500K.

That is life changing for most people.

[doctor877]

anyone who has held for long should be confident of the future as no one knew what would happen today till we got here. a lot of things will still happen to bitcoin that we cant even imagine as of now. the best thing that anyone can do is to keep the hope intact and wait for whats to come. whether LN is implemented or not there is still more greater solutions on the way.

[The Cryptovator]

To be honest, I do not regret about my sold Bitcoin. Doesn't matter what was the price, because I sold for my needs. Holding is always better, but how long? No one could answer that even as a holder I don't know that. Sometimes we need to take real-time decision bases on situations. Our high expectations would lead to loss as well. My thought is should sell when I think the price reasonable. For example, yesterday Bitcoin traded Adobe $61K, but today trading at approx $54K. So if you sold yesterday's price then you could buy back today. Keep in mind, there always a dump after a huge pump. I will say hold bitcoin for life but not for a lifetime.