undefined | Better HN

0 pointsvmception4y ago0 comments

there are many many more ways to acquire crypto, which many many people have done already

it sounds like you have only attempted to acquire it by a combination of

1) Purchasing it

2) with a credit or debit card

All it comes down to is that its a $2 trillion market with an extremely high volume of transactions, at all and when compared to the capitalization of the market

so service providers cater to that, and fortunately for the end users, a very large portion of that $2 trillion did not require people to pay once to convert their existing cash into crypto.

0 comments

the_gastropod4y ago

So liquid, in fact, that it needs a host of very opaque and questionable stable coins to maintain some semblance of liquidity.

A $2T market cap doesn't mean a whole lot. It's unclear how much money actually changes hands in this system. You and I could make a $2T market cap system today, right now. I'll start an excel spreadsheet and sell you a cell for ~$40. BAM! $2T market cap excel spreadsheet, even though only $40 has changed hands! Neat, eh?

I've argued with crypto enthusiasts long enough to anticipate the requisite "WHAT ABOUT STOCKS" retort. Yes. Stock market caps are also a sloppy measure, though significantly less so in magnitude. Businesses are regularly purchased outright at their market caps. There are, of course, exceptions, like Gamestop, Tesla, AMC, and many other meme stocks. But these are the exception to the rule.

vmceptionOP4y ago

The questionable stable coins are 10% of the total market capitalization ($180bn) and even the worst, most fear addled estimates are that 90% of that is paid up capital, where dollars were exchanged directly to create an equivalent stablecoin, and a large portion of it is overcollateralized. The people just wish that was 100%, in the case of Tether.

Strawman arguments are interesting, because usually it involves creating an argument nobody had offered just to discredit that argument, hoping to discredit the thing people actually were talking about. But in your case, your argument isn't a problem? The crypto ecosystem doesn't need to host stablecoins, it just does because people launched them and others found utility in that. They contribute to the market capitalization, and the liquidity, bolstering my observation. Is there a term for that? Reverse strawman?

the_gastropod4y ago

Hmm. I'm not sure I follow. My point was two-fold:

1. Market capitalization is fairly meaningless, especially when you don't know how much money is changing hands (wash trading, for example, is rampant in the crypto world). I'm confused why you're citing market caps, again, to try to suggest stable coins don't play a significant role in crypto's liquidity. That doesn't make any sense.

2. Liquidity is very much lacking in the crypto world. Bitcoin's order books are extremely thin, which is one reason volatility is so high. Stable coins were developed not in a vacuum, but precisely because liquidity was so lacking.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsvmception4y ago0 comments

there are many many more ways to acquire crypto, which many many people have done already

it sounds like you have only attempted to acquire it by a combination of

1) Purchasing it

2) with a credit or debit card

All it comes down to is that its a $2 trillion market with an extremely high volume of transactions, at all and when compared to the capitalization of the market

so service providers cater to that, and fortunately for the end users, a very large portion of that $2 trillion did not require people to pay once to convert their existing cash into crypto.

0 comments

the_gastropod4y ago

So liquid, in fact, that it needs a host of very opaque and questionable stable coins to maintain some semblance of liquidity.

vmceptionOP4y ago

the_gastropod4y ago

Hmm. I'm not sure I follow. My point was two-fold:

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse