Comment by fluoridation

Comment by fluoridation 13 hours ago

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There are two components to price: what the thing is worth, and what you might be willing to convince someone else to buy it from you in the future for. The latter is the speculative component. The former must be related to some intrinsic property of the thing. For example, an orange has some minimum price, because if nothing else it's composed of matter and so can weight things down. If bitcoin is useless to transact, then its intrinsic worth is zero, so its price is 100% speculative. That's not so much a bubble as just air being pressurized by no container.

derangedHorse 7 hours ago

> what the thing is worth

This is subjective. Value is subjective. This is taught in many introductory economics classes.

> an orange has some minimum price, because if nothing else it's composed of matter and so can weight things down

You talk as if "minimum price" is objective. The "minimum price" you're referring to here is the most useless, but valued, property of the object for you. For other people, having weight can be a burden.

> If bitcoin is useless to transact, then its intrinsic worth is zero, so its price is 100% speculative

Again you speak as if as if everyone assumes the same value system as you, but differ only in a penchant for gambling in the form of price speculation.

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  • fluoridation 3 hours ago

    >You talk as if "minimum price" is objective. The "minimum price" you're referring to here is the most useless, but valued, property of the object for you. For other people, having weight can be a burden.

    It doesn't matter. The things oranges are good for are known, even if they're not applicable to you personally. Those applications are objective. It is objectively true that oranges are edible, even if you subjectively don't like them. It is objectively true that an orange can weight paper down, even if you can't carry even a single orange more right now.

    Of course, sometimes there's an asymmetry of information where someone might price something incorrectly (e.g. someone doesn't know that oranges can now be used as fusion fuel, so he sells it for less). But the fact that we can say that the price is "incorrect" means there is a correct price.

    >Again you speak as if as if everyone assumes the same value system as you, but differ only in a penchant for gambling in the form of price speculation.

    I don't see you giving any examples of what Bitcoin is good for.

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