Comment · Fri, November 22, 2013
@SUBWAY just retweeted me to their 1.6 million followers mentioning /u/techguy90's Bitcoin purchase in one of their stores, linking to his article.
What they were answering
BenSBernanke · 1 points
It's not so much that you are stupid. It's that you are human, and you think linearly. Surely, someone may have reacted similarly to a suggestion a fixed 10,000 BTC spent on pizza would later be worth $1mm.
Consider the growth of M3 during 2007; or compare total Federal Govt assistance to banks from 1800-2006 and 1800-2007; or market cap of Caracas/Zimbabwe stock exchanges. It's hard for the human mind to pre-conceive exponential, non-linear eventualities. It's easy for a human to imagine an ice cube on the floor, much harder to predict the shape of the imminent puddle.
You are also tunneling by platonically categorizing Bitcoin and then narrowly defining it's competition and assuming that BTC's future market cap must be justified or taken from current capitalizations. But even keeping to your narrow and obfuscating non-reality based assumptions we could easily model a $44,000,000 BTC based entirely on collapsing capitalization of the total market capitalization of all currencies, transfer systems, value stores, legacy equities, shadow/traditional liabilities, and other encumbered assets.
Edited: Grammar
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
It's interesting that you make value judgements on the manner in which I think, based off statements so heavily draped in sarcasm, a toddler with Asperger's would recognize them. I do not really think I am stupid, nor am I attempting to define Bitcoin by "platonically" categorizing it and narrowing its competition down unnecessarily. I was merely giving some lighthearted perspective on the matter by comparing it to not only the world's largest currency, but one of the largest commodities and the entire capital flow of the planet.
Perhaps I should have compared it to bananas to have avoided constraining myself to such a linear thought process. Maybe I should have thought of Bitcoin's expansion as more of a pouring of liquid mercury onto an electrically charged hot plate. It's market penetration correlating to the size and shape of the resulting puddle. But as you said, I am too simple-minded to understand fluid dynamics, or arbitrarily relate aspects of it to cryptographic currency.
Perhaps I should have misused words like "obfuscate" to try and sway readers into thinking I know what I am talking about. Because it is true, most of my discussions are merely the incoherent ramblings of a narrow-minded fool. I do find it hard to conceptualize exponential eventualities; especially as they are a happening right before my eyes. I much prefer the safety of my own ignorance.
So you are correct, there is no way my feeble mind can imagine a world where each BTC is worth $44 million. I wasn't just adding a little light-hearted perspective to the discussion. I am actually physically incapable of imagining that scenario in my brain.
Good talk.