Agree mate. Well done @ttmygh @profplum99 and @nic__carter on a ripping show. Im obviously in the "gold is superior" camp, though I am long #BTC (tiny position). I thought the best/most interesting point of whole debate was raised by @profplum99 regarding the fact that a 1/n

#Bitcoin transaction is never really final, given the energy required to keep the network running, and obviously its scale issues will only grow over time. That said, I actually though @nic__carter "won" the debate as it were, and I was unconvinced by the threat to national 2/n
security or undermining Fed policy angles Mike put forward. Two areas that are super interesting to me. One is the issue of #Bitcoin ownership, and how concentrated it is in terms of a small % of addresses that own most of it (2% addresses > 95% of holdings I think). 3/n
@nic__carter made great point a lot of this is omnibus/exchange related - so exchange or fund - ie @Grayscale holds #bitcoin for multiple investors. That may well be true - but it brings up 2 other issues. One - it proves that #bitcoin doesn't really "work" without 4/n
centralisation - as this implies most people need exchanges or funds (or @Paypal) to buy it. If so, that kills off a major "bitcoin is better than gold argument" - as in reality, gold is way more decentralised (from mine supply to ownership distribution). It also brings up a 5/n
major governance/risk issue - in that crypto exchanges aren't really exhanges in truest sense of word. Many are quasi-bank like (and typically unregulated ones at that) - in that they hold legal title to the underlying asset - you have an IOU. And there is not audit anywhere 6/n
that says the "net long" position of all investors on an exchange is 100% backed by #bitcoins owned by that exchange. I'd put very solid money (gold, bitcoin or fiat) that most are fractional. Given even many #Bitcoin proponents like @nic__carter acknowledge the fact not all 7/n
exchanges act particularly ethically (to put it mildly) when it comes to things like reporting trade volumes, that does make you worry about the health of the underlying crypto ecosystem, and the risk investors are exposed too. Finally, and this is not a critique @nic__carter 8/n
or @profplum99 but I though the "gold isn't money" (Mike) and "bitcoin is better than gold because divisible, transportable, verifiable" could have used more fleshing out, and missed a bigger picture. It would be great to see #bitcoin compared against gold-backed government 9/n
issued money, as that would seem to solve for all the "problems" identified by both parties. OK thats enough unsolicited feedback from me. Once again thanks @ttmygh @nic__carter and @profplum99 - one of most enjoyable and insightful podcasts I've listened too 10/n
@threadreaderapp unroll 11/n

More from Bitcoin

You May Also Like

The entire discussion around Facebook’s disclosures of what happened in 2016 is very frustrating. No exec stopped any investigations, but there were a lot of heated discussions about what to publish and when.


In the spring and summer of 2016, as reported by the Times, activity we traced to GRU was reported to the FBI. This was the standard model of interaction companies used for nation-state attacks against likely US targeted.

In the Spring of 2017, after a deep dive into the Fake News phenomena, the security team wanted to publish an update that covered what we had learned. At this point, we didn’t have any advertising content or the big IRA cluster, but we did know about the GRU model.

This report when through dozens of edits as different equities were represented. I did not have any meetings with Sheryl on the paper, but I can’t speak to whether she was in the loop with my higher-ups.

In the end, the difficult question of attribution was settled by us pointing to the DNI report instead of saying Russia or GRU directly. In my pre-briefs with members of Congress, I made it clear that we believed this action was GRU.