Bitcoin ≠ money

 Of course, many or most rational people don't understand money, even though they've used it all their lives. I recall sitting in the living room of our rental condo in Dillon CO one morning in 1998, listening to the NPR reporter declare "today, the ruble lost 100% of its value." This held a special poignancy for me at that time, since I was flying to Moscow a few days later.

In the event, the ruble had only lost 50% of its value that day. Restaurant prices in Moscow were changing hourly, and they shut down the cash machines 24 hrs after I arrived there. I carried some dollars and about $100 worth of German marks.

Money, my friends, is a polite fiction. It exists as long as the government that issues it is trusted.

". . . many rational people don't understand Bitcoin. It seems obviously ridiculous. But that's only if you continue to think of it as a new form of money. If, instead, you think of it as a collectible, it suddenly makes a lot more sense. After all, there are lots of rare things that are collectible and lots of rare things that aren't. It's pretty random, and different collectibles go in and out of style. Remember when Beanie Babies were hot? Or Pez dispensers? There's no why about collectibles. They're just reflections of weird human foibles.

Once you make this mental adjustment you will no longer be confused about Bitcoin. It's a collectible that's gotten a lot of hype. Maybe it will stay valuable, the way rare stamps and coins have stayed valuable for a long time, or maybe, like Beanie Babies, it won't. But whichever turns out to be the case, it means nothing profound about the future of money. Bitcoin is just another collectible that will go up and down at the whims of its fans. Capiche?" https://jabberwocking.com/how-baseball-cards-explain-what-bitcoin-really-is/?fbclid=IwAR11EsiXBvFKBOf9s5xAv7VGUWjCQ_YqbGMOSkKmhFYdR3Q_fi4sXNEyRpY