Check out a movie called cryotopia on YouTube. Does a good job starting from beginner. Saifdean ammous (spelling is prob wrong) wrote books titled the fiat standard and the Bitcoin standard. Check lex Friedman podcast with him, he does a good job of explaining a lot about money and crypto.
I've struggled with it too. the stock market is a tool for the wealthy and politicians to make money in a system designed for their benefit. Theres a guy on TikTok named quiverquant that analyses the stock trades of politicians. Most of them make 23% returns which is better than Buffet. How's that happen?
Bitcoin is the original, all the rest want to be bitcoin until it comes to regulation. What I take away from that is a company has an owner and they can decide how to run a business. All crypto except Bitcoin also have an owner that can fork it or change it and poof there goes ur money. Bitcoin has no way to be changed or forked or whatever.
Unlike USD there will only ever be 21 million coins minted and that's that. Which means it's deflationary. The USD on the other hand is increasingly inflationary. I also heard that it's a leverage tool against other countries as the US can borrow money and over time the value of the dollar falls so essentially they repay with less and less value. Think China.
As stated earlier the us is going to crypto dollar. Or rather has already. All our bills are online along with our banking. Unless you have cash under the mattress you are already using digital currency. Credit cards, debit cards etc. I'm getting more paranoid with age and don't like the fact that there is only digital currency and if it's cbdc and the gov decides I'm a threat or like the Canadian truckers they decide to freeze my assets. Which yes I know they can do already. Still this is a gov that is just spending it's way out of debt, ha! Also money isn't value created it's debt created. Sit with that. The dollar is not a store of value it's a tool to repay debt. A hammer will always have value but a dollar buys less every day. In a hundred years that dollar under your mattress will buy you what? Hammer, still same value. Worst analogy ever but hopefully you get it
The reason Bitcoin and others are volatile is because of the speculators trying to make a quick buck flipping it. Does a sj or a home lose value because somebody flips it? You could argue it drives the price higher than the value but at some point there will be a fixed number and then it should remain pretty constant. When the price goes to 60k and then back to 20. I think that 20 is basically the old-school hardcore members on this forum. They might be here all day or once a year but they are not ever leaving. While others come and go. The x holds its value for those who know. I think one of the reasons the us is frantically trying to regulate crypto and usher in cbdc is that if they don't then Bitcoin will take over and then they won't control the money. This is why they are having such a hard time because the rules they make will apply to cbdc and they cant handicap themselves but they also hope nobody pays attention to Bitcoin and some of the other crypto cause they might realize that a digital dollar is still a depreciating currency and who knows how secure. I mean, the gov has such a good track record already don't they? They will actually have to do what the rest of us have to which is play by the rules and balance and maintain a budget. Also don't come at me, yes it's a great country, it was, it could be. We have problems just like the rest. We have freedoms but at the costs we are taking on constantly I'm not sure how to feel about that. Free to be exposed to a toxic environment controlled by corporations? I'm still dreaming of the for the people by the people.
Just my own thoughts and observations. I remain open to new information or being enlightened by someone with more knowledge.
Crypto is only a value if it has a function. For example, Ethereum is about digital contracts. Problem is vitalik can influence it. That makes it less secure than Bitcoin but faster and supposedly cheaper to use. A coin or etf has no real value like say Doge coin or bored apes other than what somebody thinks it's worth. So many poopcoins out there and if you don't read the white paper and understand what it's purpose is ur just gambling. Which is cool but you can't cry later when you lose. Or don't jump off at the high before it tanks. Over time it will be obvious what is beta, vhs, CD and mp3. And what is gold(also inflationary but at a more fixed pace). Bitcoin is digital gold.
