Understanding money and bitcoin: Part 1


 

 

 

 

 

 

By Deepak Machado (@dpkmac)


In this series of articles I expect to cover bitcoin. In part 1 of the series, you will learn about what makes money, money. To understand bitcoin and digital currencies, we must first understand what money is. We could then appreciate how bitcoin makes perfect sense.

Year 2013. This was the first time ever I had heard of bitcoin. I read about how the Silk Route promoter, Ross Ulbricht was arrested dramatically. Silk Route was a darknet website, which helped peddle drugs, contrabands and accepted bitcoin as a payment. I thought, well, criminals have gotten better, with their own currency. Not gonna touch this or bother.

The next time I heard about it was the news when a gentleman named Charlie Shrem was arrested for assisting in 'money laundering'. This was in the year 2014. Charlie was the founder of BitInstant, an exchange company for bitcoin. I said to myself, this is it, never going to bother about this. Governments and news were still bashing bitcoin for what it has enabled criminals and money launderers do.

Till that point in time, I was never drawn to bitcoin and never made any serious efforts to learn about it. Then one day a colleague and I were discussing about our investments and how to keep our money growing and this is where my colleague mentioned, 'bitcoin'. Yes, you heard it right. I rolled my eyes. But thought to myself that I would read and understand more about bitcoin and not brush it away as I had done in the past.

The more I read, the more I wanted to read. I read different books about bitcoin, watched YouTube videos, read blog posts and a revelation dawned on me that, bitcoin is a revolutionary new way to store wealth, it’s a medium of exchange, a unit of account and however you could define money. Bitcoin made perfect sense. Bitcoin is not a solution to all problems (neither is Rupee or Dollars.) but it has brought with it a new wave of innovation and creativity that rivals any other forms of money present.


Evolution of money

To understand bitcoin, you must first understand what money is. At this point you are probably saying, I know what money is. It’s my national currency. Dollar for some, Dirhams for some, Rupee for some, Pounds for some. Money has different uses for different people. For some it can act as a medium of exchange, for someone else it is store of value, for some it is standard of measure and so on. Money has different properties, like, Fungibility, Durability, Portability, Cognizability, Stability of value.

We have come a long way from barter, which had its own inefficiencies due to limitation of scale and geography. The biggest disadvantage of barter was double coincidence of wants (2 people wanting to exchange each other’s goods/services perfectly).

Over time, humans evolved and started accepting 'valuable collectibles', like rare sea shells, feathers, stones etc. These goods served as collectibles and thus 'store of value' rather than 'medium of exchange'. Compared to the current day money, these kinds of money had low velocity (circulation) and changed hands only few times in their lifetime.

At this point, humans would face a rather strange dilemma, 'what would be in demand by other humans in the near future or the distant future?' Would it be that rare feather? A strangely shaped stone?’ If you were to correctly predict which objects or goods would fetch higher demand in the future, you'd be the wealthier individual in the society. If more people desired for the similar good, the higher would be the demand for it. In simple words, the money was meant to store wealth (primary use) rather than be a medium of exchange back then. In the current context, think about unique car numbers, unique mobile numbers etc. Think of why people in India still believe gold, land and property are the best investments.

So, now, different cultures, countries had different forms of money. And when the trade routes grew between nations, so did the competition among the money of different societies. Traders from different parts of the world faced a dilemma whether to accept trade in their store of value or the foreign store of value or a mix of both. Each had its own advantages and disadvantages.

In the 19th century, most of the world would agree on a single most store of value, Gold. And the reason for all the developments leading up to 20th century and beyond can be attributed to this. The world trade exploded in the 19th and 20th century. So, whoever had more gold commanded the trade routes and demand for goods and services.


What makes a goods store of value?

When we have multiple competing stores of value, the key attributes that win or lose arguments are as follows.

A store of value has to be:

- Durable
- Portable
- Fungible
- Verifiable
- Divisible
- Scarce
- Established or known history
- Censorship resistant


Durable:

Gold wins hands down in this department. Gold mined has been durable over many centuries, from the ancient kings of India to the Pharaohs of Egypt and to the present day. It has stood the test of times. Compared to Gold, Fiat currencies and bitcoin are in digital format, unless you convert fiat into paper currency or coins. The durability of fiat currencies or bitcoin should be looked at from the point of view of the institution which issues them. Many national currencies have disappeared in this century itself. You might think, the Pound or the Dollar will survive any test of time. My friend, if history is a lesson, there is always a lesson to be learnt. For bitcoin, it is the network which secures bitcoin that can be considered durable. However, due to a limited history of bitcoin, it is wrong to consider it a contender in this parameter. However, the signs are positive. In the past 9+ years, bitcoin network has withstood the test of time, proving a promise. The bitcoin protocol has never been hacked or compromised.


Portable:

Bitcoin can be considered the best store of value which is portable. If you have owned bitcoin, all you need to access your wealth is the private key that can be stored on a hardware wallet, on a software wallet, on a paper, in your brain and access to the bitcoin blockchain. It is easily portable across the world. By being a digital store of value, bitcoin trumps both gold and fiat currency here.


Fungible:

By fungibility I mean that one unit of the money is indistinguishable from the other. 1 gram of gold is exactly the same as another 1 gram of gold melted. Fiat currencies do not play well here and governments can render this quality void as it happened in India in December 2016 when the government demonetised 500 and 1000 bank notes. This caused the same notes to be traded at a discount. At a network level, bitcoin is fungible. However, some bitcoins may be tainted due to their use in illicit usage. To be perfectly fungible, bitcoin network must make improvements to its privacy and anonymity protocol.


Verifiability:

Gold and currencies can be easily verifiable due to their physical attributes. However, we know that due to the usage of sophisticated technology, fiat currencies have been counterfeited and are thus carry this risk. Bitcoin on the other hand can be easily verified through cryptographic signatures.


Divisibility:

One bitcoin can be divided into 100 million units, each known as Satoshi. Fiat and gold can also be divided up to the level required.


Scarcity:

There can only be 21 million bitcoins ever in circulation. At the time of this writing there are 17 million bitcoins in circulation. Gold on the other hand has been scarce throughout the history and this is one reason why it is valuable. But, a new gold reserve could be discovered and the supply increased overnight. Fiat currencies can be printed out of thin air by central banks across the world. This has a huge amount of pressure on existing circulation. By printing fiat without control, the value of the existing fiat diminishes and also causes inflation; more and more money chasing few and few goods.


Established history:

Gold has the most established history among all forms of money. Gold has been there for millennia and still is relevant. The same gold coin which was minted thousands of years ago still has the same value (in some cases more due to the history.). However, same is not true for Fiat currencies. Fiat currencies can not be trusted to carry value over medium to long periods of time. Think of what happened to Deutsche Mark after the world war. Bitcoin, though has a short history has perfectly weathered all kinds of attacks on the protocol and network. The longer bitcoin exists, the higher will be the confidence.


Censorship resistance:

Nothing compares here to bitcoin. Gold can easily be confiscated (think about customs at Mangalore airport or any other port.), fiat currencies can be dealt worthless overnight (Remember demonetisation of November 2016?). But bitcoin can not be censored. In the initial, formative days of bitcoin, it was thought to be of best use for illicit affairs like drug purchase, financing illegal activities etc and was thought to be anonymous. However, bitcoin is not anonymous, but pseudonymous. Every transaction in the bitcoin blockchain is recorded forever in an immutable database, which is public; meaning, with careful analysis, bitcoin's transaction history can be easily traced. This means, bitcoin would be least preferred by perpetrators. In fact few law enforcement agencies have gone on record and mentioned that they would be happy for criminals to use bitcoin for them to trace the perpetrators easily.


How money evolves

We attribute so much value of money in terms of its role in transactions. Whereas, in fact, money evolves in following stages:

1. Money as collectible
2. Money as a store of value
3. Money as medium of exchange, and
4. Money as unit of account.


Gold used to satisfy most of these roles until the time governments intervened to transfer the medium of exchange role to fiat. Currencies in the same country may play different roles. In countries like Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Argentina, the local currencies do not anymore play the role of store of value given the inflation and play a role of medium of exchange.

Bitcoin is currently in the transition stage of being a store of value. It may take decades before bitcoin becomes a prominent medium of exchange. I am not saying fiat or national currencies are not required. I foresee a world where both fiat currencies and bitcoin will be complementary to each other. With bitcoin, there is a huge knowledge gap currently and it could take couple of decades before the knowledge gap is filled. I envisage the current and future generation will really appreciates what bitcoin enables. Think for yourself, if someone in 1994 said that you would be reading articles on something called internet and you would be buying things on internet. You’d call him a fool, wouldn't you? Bitcoin can be referred as Internet 2.0.

We sometimes need to keep an open mind.

In the upcoming part, I will write about what bitcoin is, how bitcoin works and what gives bitcoin value.


Disclaimer: The contents of the article are gathered from various sources and are for information purposes only and are not to be considered as financial advice. The opinions expressed are that of the author and do not necessarily reflect that of Daijiworld Media Pvt Ltd.

  

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Comment on this article

  • Neena, Bangalore/UK

    Tue, Sep 04 2018

    Correction:
    It is not 'Silk Route' but the Dark Net Marketplace accessible through ToR was was called 'Silk Road'. These Dark Net marketplaces are still flourishing today under different names and still accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, BCASH and other cryptocurrencies.

    DisAgree Agree [5] Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Yes, shan is correct!!

    Do not speculate! I am not implying or influencing anyone to buy or trade bitcoin!
    Thanks shan.

    DisAgree [5] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    The cap can not be undone without the consensus. Again 21 million is bitcoin and each bitcoin can be subdivided into 100 million satoshi. Not sure how you say future downside risk. If such is the case, downside is part of all forms of capital and currency!

    Sorry, but I beg to disagree with you on mining! It's getting cheaper by the day and is driven by pure economics.

    You seem believe in Keynesian camp of economists! Sorry, but the precise reason for the troubles in 1929 (onwards) was because of shift away from gold standard.

    DisAgree [5] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • sri_elder, Karkala

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Downside risk means it may not be there in the long run...
    Bitcoin is nice cryptographic concept! No disputes 😊

    Bit coin fractional unit is nice for computer calculations and not for general public transaction... So bitcoin survive only as asset class and only few million do transaction..
    Global population is 8 billion so, only some million having this money and no new people showing interest in this means, obviously negative... To be honest, more people should have some amount either through investment or by getting through some one time promotional activity, then things will change for sure!

    DisAgree [3] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Hi Eric,

    I will attempt to answer these here:

    1. Bitcoin used to be preferred way for 'underground' trades. Not anymore!! Because, bitcoin is pseudonymous and not anonymous as people understood it to be.

    2. Tough one to answer! But governments would like to keep control over it's currency to influence the monetary policies.

    3. Many...I have highlighted some in the article and will cover more in the upcoming series.

    4. The whole premise of bitcoin was for a digital money that is out of the control of governments. Governments by virtue of control can sometimes mess with the currency. Lucky that we have a strong RBI; look at countries like Venezuela, Zimbabwe! This is exactly why we need something that is independent of government control.

    5. I am not implying in any way that bitcoin is the saviour. If there is another better store of value, we would shift to that. This is precisely why we have shifted from feathers, sea shells, salt, copper, silver, gold etc if you read history.

    DisAgree [6] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Swamy, Mangalore

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Money, judiciary, army etc have to be a single entity of authority without another parallel entity operating which defeats the authenticity, value and purpose. Anyway, interesting and looking forward to your future thoughts.

    DisAgree Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    I am too sure, but it is neither 'illegal'.

    DisAgree [5] Agree Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    This should be:

    I am not too sure, but it is neither 'illegal.'

    DisAgree [5] Agree Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Hey Adarsh, mining is nothing but verifying the transactions on the bitcoin blockchain. It's not an easy way to earn bitcoin given the number of competing computers solving the puzzle. This is a shrewd reward system incorporated within the bitcoin protocol that makes / keeps the network secure. It's a voluntary for you to join. More of this will be covered in the upcoming series.

    DisAgree [4] Agree Reply Report Abuse

  • shan, dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Unless you can't take the risk in this trade please don't invest........ Option, or Bitcoin or any other currency trading is very risky...... i.e. one bitcoin in 2015 it was u.s. dollar 300/- in 2018 it went up to us dollar 19000 and now its about U.s. Dollar 6500/- . If rate was USD 19000 and people were predicting it will go to 50000 so people purchased and now its 6500 means you might have lost US Dollars 12500 it means you might have lost 10 lac on one bitcoin trade. If anybody is having capacity to purchase or sell with such huge loss or profit than only enter into this market.

    DisAgree Agree [2] Reply Report Abuse

  • sri_elder, Karkala

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Unless they remove maximum 21 million cap on bitcoin there is a future downside risk.
    Mining bitcoin requires lot of resources and becoming expensive. If they reduce rewards for mining then automatically nobody will be there to do mining... Then who will confirm transaction and who will accept the bit coin even if you have plenty of them...

    In the history similar situation arised in USA during 1929.. There was limited money, no fresh loans, and resulted in unemployment and great depression... So then came paper currency and plenty of money, reduced interest rates... And now all are happy!

    DisAgree Agree [5] Reply Report Abuse

  • Eric, Mangalore

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    1. Why this medium of wealth exchange popular in underground trades?.
    2. Why govts around do not recognize this form of money circulation?
    3. What are the benefits Vs normal money exchange and circulation?
    4. Why another form of money exchange and circulation instead of one govt recognized, regulated, unique and integrated wealth recognition.
    5. What if another third money exchange and circulation medium comes into existence?. Then where does country's economy and wealth recognition stands?.

    DisAgree [1] Agree [4] Reply Report Abuse

  • Ambrose, Mangalore/Bangalore

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Hello Deepak

    Good to see your article here on Bitcoin while I appreciate your article just wanted to know if it’s a leagal in India?

    Regards

    Ambrose

    DisAgree [2] Agree [1] Reply Report Abuse

  • Adarsh, Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Deepak, thanks for the explanation. I do not like the idea of mining the bitcoin, if this is the case people will buy powerful computers and start earning which doesn't make sense? I have already seen people/companies doing this to earn bitcoins.

    DisAgree Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Pavan Kumar bolar, Mangalore

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Hello Deepak excellent article probably first of many to come. I am extremely proud to see my classmates at Mangalore University today very successful and has written this wonderful article. I fully agree with what you say in the article. Cheers Deepak from your very good friend.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [2] Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Hey Pavan, thanks for your words. Glad you liked it. Lucky to have you as a friend and classmate.

    DisAgree [5] Agree [1] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jossey Saldanha, Mumbai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    We should stay away from any currency which is FAKE ...

    DisAgree [2] Agree [11] Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Hello Jossey, could you care elaborating please?

    DisAgree [6] Agree [4] Reply Report Abuse

  • Jossey Saldanha, Mumbai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Bitcoin is a virtual currency & therefore unlike conventional currency is not backed by any Country or Government. There’s also a theoretical limit to the number of bitcoins that can be created. So rules that apply to Forex or foreign exchange don’t apply to bitcoin. One day this currency will suddenly vanish like Nirav, Lait & Mallya. My sincere advice is please don't burn your fingers ...

    DisAgree Agree [9] Reply Report Abuse

  • sri_elder, Karkala

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Bit coin is not really fake but modern currency.
    I was just thinking about its practical use, but it is not possible here. I thought I will buy some bit coin and start using it immediately but not possible, because bit coin is again traded against dollar or rupee. That I do not like.

    DisAgree [5] Agree [1] Reply Report Abuse

  • Mark Dcruz, Mangalore

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Karkala, I suggest you invest money in Bitcoin and see if it's true or fake.

    DisAgree Agree [4] Reply Report Abuse

  • sri_elder, Karkala

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Nobody is there to accept bitcoin payments!

    DisAgree Agree [4] Report Abuse

  • Dr.S.Kamath, Mumbai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Any Currency,Asset,Investment that doesn't have sanction of the Government is likely to be axed in some way or other
    However cryptic the currency be Governments of the world over will try to prevent Monetize the cryptocurrencies into usable money fr day to day use
    And thus Bitcoin also will be a dangerous investment because all illegal things like Drugs,Mafia,Terrorism ,Corruption be routed through this Bitcoin
    But these articles to articles will keep on coming just to make people show interest in these
    One should be always see the possibility of usage for illegal activities even though we may not do that we will be indirectly supporting them

    DisAgree [1] Agree [7] Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Hello Dr. S Kamath, thank you for your comment.

    I would disagree with you on few points:

    1. How do you think the majority of illegal activities happened before bitcoin or even happening these days?? It happened, happens and will happen in CASH! You'd be better off using cash to do illegal activities like buying drugs, financing terrorism etc, because the bitcoin blockchain (Bitcoin) records each and every activity on the ledger and this record remains forever on the ledger and can not be undone. To reiterate, most of the illegal activities happens and is enabled by usage of cash. Does this mean, we make cash illegal?

    2. I am neither trying to sell bitcoin through this article nor am I an agent of bitcoin!! I am trying to help readers think objectively and critically on what we know and what could be beneficial!

    DisAgree [7] Agree [6] Reply Report Abuse

  • Dr.S.Kamath, Mumbai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Hello Deepak
    You started your article by writing about how people around were arrested for usage of Bitcoin in drugs deal
    I'm your reply you have not answered the risks of getting caught or overtaxed by Govts through taxes whole Monetization of Bitcoin into usable money
    That's the most important disadvantage of Bitcoin which need to be told to all please other wise general public will get fooled

    DisAgree Agree [5] Reply Report Abuse

  • James Mendonca, Vamanjoor / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Good article Deepak. It enhanced my knowledge about money and bitcoin. Keep writing more often. All the best.

    DisAgree [4] Agree [6] Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Hello James, thank your for your words of encouragement.

    DisAgree [4] Agree [2] Reply Report Abuse

  • ANIL THOMAS DSILVA, Mangalore-UAE

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    VERY GOOD EXPLANATION DEEPAK.. THANK YOU FOR SHARING..

    HOPING TO SEE MANY MORE ARTICLES FROM YOU.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Hi Anil, thank you for the comments and expressing your opinion.

    DisAgree [5] Agree [2] Reply Report Abuse

  • sri_elder, Karkala

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    As per my understanding this bitcoin was invented to stop dominance of US $..
    Mining is somewhat interesting thing to earn bitcoin but algorithm that caps 21 million bitcoin is not really going keep this currency in a desirable manner...
    There should be demonetization and discarding of all existing bitcoins say prior to 2015...

    Start fresh issuance..
    Each successful mining activity should give one bitcoin each time and this should continue throughout life...no limit... forever!

    1 bit coin should buy at least one ice-cream!

    DisAgree Agree [4] Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Hello sri_elder, in the upcoming article, I expect to touch upon this topic as mentioned by you.

    DisAgree [4] Agree Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    I would say, the reason for bitcoin was not to stop the dominance of US$ but create a digital money outside the control of governments. By vitue of its design, not one entity or person controls bitcoin! No one can influence the monetary policy of bitcoin and it happens through consensus. Most of your suggestions were already made on the bitcoin protocol and not accepted.

    Just to let you know 1 bitcoin is equal to 100 million satoshi (1 satoshi = $ 0.000065 roughly). This is a property of bitcoin which is very important for sound money, namely, Divisibility.

    I will cover these aspects in detail in the next series.

    DisAgree [4] Agree [2] Reply Report Abuse

  • sri_elder, Karkala

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Thank you!

    Obviously, theoretically they say it is consensus, but there would be some administrator, who controls computer program, like how many bit coin to be issued after each successful mining..

    If somebody wants bit coin to be world wide currency, bit coin should be whole, no fractional part.. make it more practical.

    DisAgree Agree [4] Reply Report Abuse

  • Vineet Stewart Lasrado, Meramajal(Omzoor), Mangalore

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Amazing explanation Deepak. A must read article to understand about money and bitcoin.

    DisAgree [3] Agree [6] Reply Report Abuse

  • Deepak Machado, Belman / Dubai

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Thanks Vineet, glad you liked it.

    DisAgree [4] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse

  • sri_elder, Karkala

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    I think no country in this world would like to run any parallel currency... That is one threat to digital currency...

    DisAgree [1] Agree [8] Reply Report Abuse

  • Mark Dcruz, Mangalore

    Sun, Aug 26 2018

    Bitcoin is fake, there is no guarantee for money because there is no owner . Any one can operate the website, just need bank account to collect money from the investors.

    DisAgree [1] Agree [3] Reply Report Abuse


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