lifeanon269 - The inflation argument doesn't make sense to me as a reason to buy Bitcoin. If Bitcoin's return was equal to inflation, people would abandon it. The risk is an -80% drop, versus the return of +2.3% (current CPI inflation). Instead of Bitcoin, someone can buy Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS), backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
Why would you buy something "backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government" if you're hedging against something perpetrated by the US government? I want to clarify, as I stated in my original post, I said hedging against
monetary inflation, not CPI. Understanding monetary inflation means understanding what is driving that inflation within any given economy. If you're American, that means the US economy and the US government. Buying TIPS in this regard makes absolutely no sense. Buying a scarce asset because of
monetary inflation doesn't mean doing it because you're afraid of a 2-3% loss of consumer good purchasing power every year (CPI/price inflation). A lot of the monetary inflation causes scarce assets and commodities to rise in price far faster than consumer goods due to their scarcity. What drives monetary inflation also has a lot of geopolitical implications in the world that would provide many valid reasons to want to own something more decentralized and independent like bitcoin. So yes, hedging monetary inflation with bitcoin is something that makes a lot of sense and is a major driver in its appreciation over the years as more people begin to understand this.
Saying the only things have driven up bitcoin's price over the years is Trump and ETFs is probably one of the most gross misrepresentations of the course bitcoin has taken over the last 16 years and really makes you lost objectionable credibility in the discussion at hand.
It also seems like you're trying to hold both positions that bitcoin is somehow both mainstream and not mainstream at the same time. You're claiming here that bitcoin is already mainstream and therefore because of that you don't see much price appreciation for it in the future. However, you also seem to hold the position that bitcoin is not mainstream (as seen in some of your past comments) and is not really used by anyone.
How could Bitcoin get more mainstream than this?
I hold a few perspectives on that aspect. First is that a vast majority of people in the world (not just the US) haven't used or owned bitcoin. So there is a lot of potential for bitcoin to spread with adoption to new people and regions and have it benefit the lives of these people. There is also the fact that a lot of people that have own bitcoin before, might have only held a small amount of it because of their lack of trust in it. As bitcoin continues to exist (which it will) trust in it grows. Therefore with increased trust in it, perhaps people that maybe only would've held a negligible amount of bitcoin might now start to hold more meaningful amounts of it as they see its benefits and turn to it for them.
So yes, I do see a lot of growth and I physically see that growth on a daily basis as I interact with people in the community and see more and more newcomers realizing its potential benefits. I see far more transactional activity on my lightning node as well and I can say for sure that's not because of some presidential election or ETF growth. That's grassroots growth.
