Quote from: Anon136 on May 24, 2018, 10:16:20 PM

Quote from: Spaceman_Spiff_Original on May 24, 2018, 09:32:59 PM

Quote from: Anon136 on May 24, 2018, 09:30:29 PM

I strongly agree with what I think is your more general point that A) commodity money is important B) cryptocurrency is not a replacement or substitute for it

Mind explaining why you think commodity money will stay important? Genuinely interested.

Sure. Basically I don't think bitcoin makes a very good reserve asset. It isn't nearly as well suited for a base of the liquidity pyramid as gold is.

Part of what makes it poorly suited as a reserve asset is that technology improves over time. There is a risk that the leading cryptocurrency will always be overturned by new and better technology. Which is a good thing, just not a good thing if you want the properties of a stable long term bottom of the liquidity pyramid reserve asset. Interestingly there is an implication here that if bitcoin can win against all of the other alts and come to soundly dominate this sector it will more closely approximate the utility of gold as a reserve asset. But if it get's overtaken by ethereum or bcrap that could open pandoras box and doubly prove my point.

There is also an existential threat posed to bitcoin from forks that you wouldn't want in a reserve asset.

There is a technological threat, what if the network gets owned? What if it is built on assumptions that turn out to be wrong? It's well safe enough for speculation and payments and building businesses ontop of, but there is enough of a risk in this regard to hamper its utility as an ultra safe long term reserve asset.

TLDR; if you were to insert bitcoin into the pyramid it would fall in-between gold and circulating money, not next to gold, and certainly not beneath it.

The (possible) future: