Okay Okay, calm down boys. I know you’re all sharpening your knives and laying ambush in the comments section. Hear me out. I love Bitcoin. I hold Bitcoin. But I don’t understand folks bashing EVERYTHING ELSE and advocating holding ONLY Bitcoin.
Some of these bitcoin maxis are so much, that they advocate not just holding only bitcoin amongst all crypto, but across ALL stores of value, as if with the invention of Bitcoin, it automatically invalidates all other stores of value / investment / savings vehicle.
What is Bitcoin?
We’ve established that bitcoin can be many things to many people.
To some, it is very simply, money. Cash, to transact and transfer ownership over items. To others, it is a savings vehicle, the likes of which we’ve never seen before, if we track its meteoric rise in value from 2009. The hard supply and inherent digital nature is what has been driving this narrative, to it being a leading store of value as it stands today.
To certain groups, it represents censorship resistance value, and the platform/network that can truly separate money and State. As the recent Freedom Convoy protests in Canada has shown, what you thought was your money, safe in a bank, is never truly yours. It is only yours if you stand on the right side of the government. But what happens when there’s an overreach of governance that goes against your beliefs?
What about Bitcoin as a new asset class? A store of value that, because of it’s immutable scarcity, retains and even increases in value over time, as global adoption takes place.
Of course, there are also people (usually old) who thinks Bitcoin is a speculative bubble and/or rat poison.
Bitcoin vs all other crypto
So, bitcoin maxis will happily tell you that bitcoin is the one true coin. That EVERYTHING ELSE is a scam and will go to zero.
Huh? Why?
Historically, has humanity ever behaved in this way? A unified agreement of ONE asset that rules over everything? Or is there space to accommodate for multiple stores of value and value transfer? Especially if there are different use-cases?
No.
I don’t hear people saying “Gold is the real deal, the only true precious metal, and EVERYTHING ELSE WILL GO TO ZERO! ALL OTHER STONES ARE SHITSTONES.”
Other precious metals like Silver, Rhodium, Platinum, Palladium and Vibranium all still hold value, and have their place in the precious metals chart.
I don’t hear people saying “Facebook (lol) is the real deal, and that other copycat social networks like LinkedIN, Twitter, Pinterest and TikTok WILL GO TO ZERO! ALL OTHER NETWORKS ARE SHITWORKS!”
There will always be a value for them, as the nature of humanity is such that we seek out different things. Sure, some of them will die a natural death due to user attrition or a loss of interest, but that’s more market forces than the ONE TRUE THING syndrome.
People will simply gravitate to that which works best for them.
Sure, there are a lot of crypto in the market, and many of them are pretty scammy, but that doesn’t make Bitcoin the only one with value. Value is what people collectively ascribe to it. If nobody today believes in it, there’s no value. Period.
If a unicorn were to be born out of stone today in an uninhabited forest (and I think we can all objectively agree that a real life unicorn will be somewhat valuable), and lived a good life and died without anyone having seen it. To us, that unicorn has brought zero value to the world.
Bitcoin vs every other asset
Then there are some maxis who are like “SELL EVERYTHING AND BUY ONLY BITCOIN! PROPERTY IS A SCAM! IT’S ONLY INCREASING IN VALUE BECAUSE THE DOLLAR IS CRASHING!”
If that’s the argument, then from a Fiat perspective, is USD the one true fiat currency, given its global reserve status? And that if you hold any other currency, regardless of its relative strength, that it’s a shitfiat?
Okay, calm down.. sure, everything is increasing in value because the dollar is crashing, but doesn’t mean property in and of itself doesn’t have any value.
It creates a home, a blanket of security, a legacy with which you can pass over generations. Plus in places like land-scarce Singapore, property is always a good store of value.
We’re also taught not to put all our eggs in one basket, which is generally sound advice.
Again, I want to say, that I love bitcoin. I believe it has good long term prospects, and that despite the meteoric rise in value, we’re still early in terms of global participation in the bitcoin network.
All I’m trying to say is, not every other crypto is a scam. If you think that, I think you’re quite conceited. I would be very happy if maxis were to say “I only own bitcoin, because all other crypto has no value TO ME.” That, I happily accept, because you’re conferring your own opinion, and not passing it off as objective fact.
I believe maximalism of any sort is almost always unhealthy, and if anything, their demeanor deters more than builds to conversations.
Okay, this has been a very off-the-cuff post, so thanks for reading. Happy to be debated in the comments.