Spencer on Nostr: How scarce is Bitcoin? There are ~36 b acres of land on Earth. An estimated ~5 m ...
How scarce is Bitcoin?
There are ~36 b acres of land on Earth.
An estimated ~5 m bitcoin have been lost forever. Leaving ~16 m bitcoin in circulation.
Owning 1 whole bitcoin is equivalent to owning ~2,250 acres of land.
Owning 1 sat is equivalent to owning ~1 square foot of land. (There are 100,000,000 sats in 1 bitcoin.)
At today's exchange rate of $26,000 for 1 bitcoin, that means ~3,800 sats for $1. In other words, the equivalent of 3,800 square feet of land for $1.
The Homestead Act of 1862 in the United States let any adult claim up to 160 acres of land. This offer ran for years while the US was emerging as a powerful country. The sat equivalent of 160 acres of land is 6,970,000 sats. In other words, at today's exchange rate, for the cost of ~$1,800 any person can claim the equivalent of 160 acres worth of territory on the world's most powerful emerging monetary network.
The primary questions facing a potential homesteader in 1862 were:
1. Would the land be useful to them? Did they have the skills to farm, build, ranch? Or were they more suited to stay living in the city?
2. Would the land become more desirable to inhabit as time passed? In other words, would social infrastructure surrounding their land make their land a more desirable place to live with time? Or less?
These are the same basic questions facing potential bitcoin moneysteaders now:
1. Is the bitcoin useful to you today? For most people in developed, safe countries, the current answer is 'not really.' Unless someone finds themselves in a situation of being financially repressed, they don't have an immediate use for bitcoin's amazing censorship resistant properties.
2. Will bitcoin become more desirable as time passes? Or less? Will an open source protocol that invites anybody to build on top of it become more appealing for people to use with time or less?
There are ~36 b acres of land on Earth.
An estimated ~5 m bitcoin have been lost forever. Leaving ~16 m bitcoin in circulation.
Owning 1 whole bitcoin is equivalent to owning ~2,250 acres of land.
Owning 1 sat is equivalent to owning ~1 square foot of land. (There are 100,000,000 sats in 1 bitcoin.)
At today's exchange rate of $26,000 for 1 bitcoin, that means ~3,800 sats for $1. In other words, the equivalent of 3,800 square feet of land for $1.
The Homestead Act of 1862 in the United States let any adult claim up to 160 acres of land. This offer ran for years while the US was emerging as a powerful country. The sat equivalent of 160 acres of land is 6,970,000 sats. In other words, at today's exchange rate, for the cost of ~$1,800 any person can claim the equivalent of 160 acres worth of territory on the world's most powerful emerging monetary network.
The primary questions facing a potential homesteader in 1862 were:
1. Would the land be useful to them? Did they have the skills to farm, build, ranch? Or were they more suited to stay living in the city?
2. Would the land become more desirable to inhabit as time passed? In other words, would social infrastructure surrounding their land make their land a more desirable place to live with time? Or less?
These are the same basic questions facing potential bitcoin moneysteaders now:
1. Is the bitcoin useful to you today? For most people in developed, safe countries, the current answer is 'not really.' Unless someone finds themselves in a situation of being financially repressed, they don't have an immediate use for bitcoin's amazing censorship resistant properties.
2. Will bitcoin become more desirable as time passes? Or less? Will an open source protocol that invites anybody to build on top of it become more appealing for people to use with time or less?