Bitcoin Is A Ponzi Scheme

Ponzi schemes generally require a central authority that convinces early adopters to scam later adopters out of their money for no value. Bitcoin has no central authority and is an equal opportunity sound monetary network available to all. With Bitcoin's limited supply and appeal as sound money, its price is expected to rise as adoption grows and demand increases. While early adopters who take on greater risk and volatility generally should expect greater returns than later adopters, all adopters receive the benefit of sound money, stable purchasing power, and financial self-sovereignty regardless of when they adopt.

Bitcoin Has No Utility

Bitcoin's primary utility is as a sound monetary good that functions as a store of value, medium of exchange, and unit of account on top of a digital, decentralized, permissionless, censorship-resistant network. Additionally, many use cases are being developed on top of Bitcoin and its Layer 2 networks such as digital record timestamping and verification, tokenization of assets, streaming micro-payments, and others yet to be imagined.

Bitcoin Isn't Backed By Anything

Gold isn't backed by anything other than its scarcity and its utility. Not only is Bitcoin more scarce than gold and has more utility (see above), Bitcoin's security is backed by cryptography, mathematics, and the energy expended by miners to secure the network.

Bitcoin Isn't Scarce If It Can Be Copied

While the nature of open source software is that anyone can copy it, what can't be copied are Bitcoin's decentralized inception, first mover advantage, network effects, and developer community. Copying Bitcoin is only effective if everyone invested in Bitcoin agrees to migrate to the new network. Additionally, Bitcoin for all its merits will continue to attract and retain top talent which will further solidify its competitive advantage over any clones.

Bitcoin Mining Wastes Energy

Bitcoin miners are incentivized to use cheap energy to stay profitable. The cheapest energy tends to be abundant renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted like solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal. By consuming this excess energy, Bitcoin miners serve as an energy buyer of last resort without depriving others of power when they need it. Acting as a buyer of last resort actually incentivizes expansion of clean energy grids in developing areas that historically have not had reliable access to power, by making them profitable as soon as power generation is established and not only after the entire grid is deployed. Another source of cheap energy is stranded energy like flared methane gas from oil rigs or methane emissions from landfills. Connecting Bitcoin miners to these stranded energy sources can serve as an additional revenue source while also reducing the amount of methane emitted into the atmosphere, which is much more damaging than CO2. Bitcoin miners, due to the decentralized and distributed nature of the Bitcoin network, also have the ability to turn off when the electric grid is under heavy load, serving as a flexible load that has been proven to help balance electric grids in places like Texas that are prone to blackouts during times of peak demand. Further evidence of Bitcoin mining's environmental benefits can be found in the 2023 KPMG report Bitcoin's role in the ESG imperative.

Bitcoin Can Be Shut Down By The Government

Bitcoin's decentralized, international, peer-to-peer nature makes it impossible for any one government to shut it down. While a government can make it more difficult for its citizens to buy and sell it through its traditional banking systems, it can not shut it down. In the history of money, wealth generally flows to the soundest money available. Those who choose not to adopt it will witness their wealth transfer to those who do, and governments should generally be incentivized to keep wealth within their borders.

Bitcoin Needs To Be Legal Tender To Be Money

In truly free markets, people can trade with whatever monetary goods both buyer and seller agree upon. Argentina's Libertarian President and Austrian Economist Javier Milei demonstrated this in December 2023 by implementing a freedom of currency policy that allowed any monetary good to be used in contract agreements, including Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Is Too Expensive

While the market price of 1 Bitcoin can appear as a steep barrier to entry for many, 1 Bitcoin can be divided into 100,000,000 units and can be purchased in these fractional amounts. $10 of Bitcoin can be purchased just as easily as $10,000 regardless of the market price of 1 Bitcoin.

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