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Comment by spamizbad | Hacker News Reader

I don’t think you can. Apple owns real estate, intellectual property, and tons of tangible physical assets. The market is not going to decide Apple’s patents are worthless, California Real Estate is worthless, their factories and manufacturing equipment is worthless until there’s some world-ending cataclysm.

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> The market is not going to decide Apple’s patents are worthless, California Real Estate is worthless, their factories and manufacturing equipment is worthless until there’s some world-ending cataclysm.

I'm not sure why you think there has to be a world-ending cataclysm for this to happen? If there were any major change in the way societies or economies were organized, Apple the entity could cease to exist entirely, or some/all of its assets could cease to belong to them. Like for patents, it certainly seems like the world is very far from deciding to abolish IP, but if society wills it, it is very simple to do.

Apocalyptic events like that are rare. Sudden rapid divestment from Apple is unlikely.

That's literally the definition of an catastrophic event

It could happen, in the same sense that a planet-killing asteroid could strike the Earth tomorrow.

By contrast the sudden demise of all crypto value could also happen, in the same sense that tomorrow might be cloudy.

My real point here is poking fun at how, as has been observed in the past, "it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism." People are talking about world-ending cataclysms when the much more mundane "downfall of an economic order and rise of a different one" is a possibility too.

I think it's reasonable to say that "any major change in the way societies or economies were organized" which resulted in all of Apple's assets going to zero, including the US Dollar, would qualify as the end of the World As We Know It, and would be effectively cataclysmic in magnitude as far as its effects on society.

...Whereas blockchain assets going to zero doesn't even register as a blip to the average citizen.

The requirements for a major sudden loss of value in Apple would likely involve a loss of value in a vast number of other presently high-intrinsic-value assets: real estate, the entire tech sector, the US and global economy, etc., etc.

Devaluation of cryptocurrency assets, on the other hand, could come about from someone sneezing. Or other events which would have similarly little impact on any asset valuations outside the crypto bubble itself.

The market's view of the likelihood of Apple disappearing via the things you suggested is priced in by people choosing to hold things like gold, NZ property to escape to or I guess guns and bunkers.

no we were talking about the 'cash' they hold. I dont get why you're bringing such tangential things into the discussion. what guarantees the value of USD is (a) its current adoption and (b) the fact the US stands behind it and will police and secure its usage. how is that different from a proof of work, asic resistant cryptocurrency?

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