Show HN: Comparison of Bitcoin, USD, Gold and Silver as a Store of Time

by AlexKaul • 5 years ago

12 25 5 years ago

roenxi• 5 years ago

This graph says Bitcoin is up something like 500x since 2013.

That isn't a store of time, it is a speculative return. Gold, silver & the US dollar all did pretty much what they are advertised and expected to do (go flat, flat and steady down in value respectively). Nobody knows what Bitcoin is going to do next.

What Bitcoin does has nothing to do with storage. Obviously we'd all rather have had Bitcoin from 2013 to 2021 than storage, but hindsight makes these decisions easy.

tom_mellior• 5 years ago

Both gold and silver had ~2x swings in the last two years (https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=XAG&to=USD, https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=XAU&to=USD). Not exactly "flat".

disruptalot4• 5 years ago

Every position is more or less speculative. This is why "asset management" is a thing.

Nobody knows what gold or fiat is going to do next either:

- Fiat can be advertised in whichever way but ultimately there is no guarantee things will behave the same as it's centrally planned. The pandemic triggered unprecedented action from the money printer.

- Producing more efficient ways of mining gold, discovering new reserves on the planet or outwith will trigger a re pricing of gold's value.

The only meaningful horizon is time, and so far Bitcoin is doing well.

bawolff3• 5 years ago

Nobody knows what anything is going to do for sure, but that doesn't mean we know nothing. Things that go way way up quickly tend not to be stable. Shit can change, but the probability of gold massively changing in value is much less than bitcoin taking a massive swing.

fny2• 5 years ago

Since 2013, the price of Bitcoin has increased 600 fold.

Neither the global money supply nor inflation has increased by 600 fold. No other asset class has had a 600 fold increase in this environment either. Not equities, not gold, not commodities.

Yes, every position is more or less speculative, but BTC is pricing in tremendous future potential that needs to be realized to justify the price.

tromp• 5 years ago

A PoW coin with forever fixed block reward is a store of mining time. In a coin with a 1 minute blocktime and 60 coin block subsidy, each coin represents exactly one second of mining.

Cobragri2• 5 years ago

that is Gold' s monetary policy,mined infinitely.But seems scarce than Gold.

ForHackernews2• 5 years ago

Okay, I want my time back. How do I cash out?

disruptalot4• 5 years ago

You can't. Along with energy, it's the most finite asset you have. Which is why it's critical that you store it in the best medium possible.

ForHackernews2• 5 years ago

Is this the MongoDB theory of storage, one that doesn't imply retrieval?

brulard• 5 years ago

You stored one day in 2013, now you can take 500 days off your job and live off that profit instead.

cj2• 5 years ago

How about adding the S&P index to the list? That is where many people store their excess earnings (ie. retirement accounts).

I know very few people who store their excess income as cash (or Bitcoin, or gold).

pwinnski• 5 years ago

Somewhat easy to do here: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BTC-USD/chart?p=BTC-USD#eyJp...

AlexKaul• 5 years ago

Done! Added NASDAQ Composite and S&P500

cj2• 5 years ago

Nice!!

itsdsmurrell• 5 years ago

You should add a few usefulness graphs, and then include Bitcoin Cash.

puddingnomeat• 5 years ago

if data only supports your priors, is it useful?

Cobragri2• 5 years ago

Gold and silver is suppressed and manipulated with fractional reserve banking, Btc is immune to this.. so far at least now.

Show HN: Comparison of Bitcoin, USD, Gold and Silver as a Store of Time

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