Quote from: headingnorth on August 11, 2025, 04:20:50 AM

1. Bitcoin is a neutral asset
2. Bitcoin is a store of value

In a nutshell, those are the two most important properties to describe bitcoin.
It's what distinguishes bitcoin from any other crypto and makes it totally unique
from anything else IMO. When someone asks me why I invest in bitcoin, that is what I tell them.

It makes it easy for most people to understand IMO, to boil it down to those two simple points.

What makes bitcoin a neutral store of value?

1. Bitcoin is truly decentralized, meaning no person or small group of persons
   can unilaterally control it.
2. Unlike fiat and all the countless millions of shitcoins out there, bitcoin cannot be printed out of thin air.
3. Unlike fiat and all the shitcoins, it wasn't made to enrich its creator (Satoshi never profited from bitcoin).
4. Unlike ethereum, bitcoin does not have an unlimited and endless supply.

Comparison to Gold

1. Gold can also be a good neutral asset and store of value. But unlike bitcoin,
   you can't send and receive gold very easily. Delivering gold through the mail is very risky.

2. To buy and sell gold, you have to travel to a gold exchange. Depending where you live,
   you may not have one nearby. You have to physically transport the gold, which is a security risk.

3. Storing gold in your house is no better than storing large amounts of cash.
   Banks do not normally accept gold as a deposit, so you just have to store it in your house.
   That is a major security concern. Bitcoin solves the self-custody security problems of gold and cash.

4. Buying and selling larger amounts of gold can be a challenge. You always worry if you are
   buying real or counterfeit gold, and verifying its authenticity isn't always easy.

5. Bitcoin is used for digital payments, and adoption as a payment method is growing.
   Gold is not convenient as a payment method, and hasn't been used as a medium of
   exchange for hundreds of years, at least not in the modern world.

6. Unlike bitcoin, gold is not easily verifiable. A government can tell you it has two thousand tons of gold.
   But that claim is impossible to verify without you being there in person to see it for yourself.
   Which the government will never let you do. And even if they did you won't know if the gold bars
   are actually solid gold or just gold-plated. This is a problem with gold all over the world including the US
   which has not provided proof of its reserves in decades, despite orders from the courts and Congress to do so.
   They just simply ignore it.

Bitcoin is just a better version of gold.

What makes Bitcoin a neutral store of value?

The four points you proposed (decentralization, scarcity, no pre mining, limited supply) are its foundation. We can go further and see that these characteristics collectively create an unprecedented level of 'absolute scarcity' and 'censorship resistance'.

Absolute scarcity in mathematics: The 21 million limit of Bitcoin is a rule written in code by the protocol layer, jointly executed and maintained by tens of thousands of nodes worldwide. This is not a 'policy commitment' like a central bank, but a mathematical law like a physical law. This verifiable and tamper proof scarcity cannot be provided by either gold or fiat currency (the total reserves of gold are unknown and can be increased, while the total amount of fiat currency is infinite).

Neutral and censorship resistant: Its decentralization means it does not belong to any country, company, or individual. The network rules treat everyone equally. Your Bitcoin assets will not be frozen, confiscated, or refused payment (as long as you keep your private key safe). This' neutral 'characteristic makes it the ultimate financial safe haven in turbulent environments.

Comparison with Gold: Bitcoin is an upgraded version of gold in the digital age

Your analysis of the drawbacks of gold is very accurate, especially regarding the pain points of storage, transportation, and verification. Bitcoin perfectly solves all these problems:

Custody and Transportation: Bitcoin can be stored in a hardware wallet or even memorized in mnemonic words in the brain, making it easy to transfer assets worth billions of dollars worldwide at a very low cost and arriving instantly. This solves the huge risks of "transportation safety" and "home storage" that you mentioned.

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