The difference is that if someone was able to accumulate all the shares of TSLA they would have a company that produced something at a profit. P/E of 56 lets me know that if nothing changes then 56 years from now they will have a paid for company. Now if someone were to accumulate all the BTC, what would they do with it?
I believe that trust is the crux of the problem. No one wants the government involved, yet the moment something goes wrong there is a great hue and cry for government to regulate. There is also a need for the trusted third party. (the hated banks, etc) When I agree to exchange money (fiat or crypto) for goods or services I don't mind having a middleman who can reverse the transaction if the other party does not live up to the agreement. I like the fact that if my credit card is stolen I will not be responsible for the charges made. I like the fact that my bank deposits and brokerage accounts are protected if the bank or the broker should go under. As far as I know none of that happens with BTC.
I do agree with this. As unlikely as this scenario is, bitcoin requires that is it broadly accepted and used. But this very same thing can be said about money or gold. If someone had every dollar bill, people would just barter what they need. Money and gold only have value because they are so easily exchanged. Clearly the analogy between a business and bitcoin only goes so far. With bitcoin, we really only want it to do one thing. Gold for example does many things and it therefore just complicates the some of its intrinsic values. Totally agree. But imagine if people knew that in order to rescue a failed pension plan, everyone else has to pay for it. Assume the Ontario Teacher Pension Plan was 100% in FTX and now its all gone. The government comes in and makes them whole to the tune of 50 billion. Clearly the government doesn't have it, so they print it. This means the rest of Canada has to pay with higher taxes, or higher inflation. I don't think most Canadians would appreciate this. Many Canadians don't even have pension plans, and yet they have to use their tax dollars to pay so someone else with a generous pension plan gets bailed out. You are correct, a bitcoin transaction is final. I think what most of us can agree on is that all of this could have been avoided if the government practices some restraint and common sense with regards to monetary policy and spending. Us individuals have a limit. The banks only lend us so much, and credit cards eventually cut us off. And clearly none of us can print money. But for some reason, we let the government get away with this. Since they are showing they aren't responsible, the ability to forever borrow and forever print has to be taken away from them. Its for the benefit of everyone else. But how do we accomplish this? We are way past the point of just taking someone's word it, so we need real, enforceable, unbreakable rules. When you are against bitcoin, you're essentially saying that you don't mind the government stealing your money and handing it out to their friends and associates.
quote from a good friend living in germany: "don't play with the pigs - they love the mud far too much!"