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Comment by DeathArrow | Hacker News Reader

So bitcoin became something like money and stocks, just a number in a SQL database? And we can now finally make bitcoins out of thin air?

How long before the amount of bitcoins traded by hedge funds will be larger than the amount of bitcoins that exist in the actual bitcoin network?

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ETFs don’t let you create the underlying asset out of thin air. They’re just a wrapper that allows the underlying to trade easily on an exchange.

If they fractional reserve too much then they risk going bust as they can't just print more bitcoin in the event of a bank run. Just like the good old days before central banking.

Print tether then. Same result.

If you print tether it will only devalue tether and make the price of bitcoin (in tether) go up further.

Tether is a stablecoin. It’s not getting devalued unless/until there’s a run on it and it goes tits up altogether.

If you print it you either devalue the underlying dollar (and therefore tether), or you risk a run just as you would if you printed bitcoin.

You can't just print money without side effects.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xIAJl-wZElg

The amount of fake bitcoins traded by exchanges and custodians probably exceeded 21 million already over the last 5 years.

Hence, “not your keys, not your coins”

Cold storage wallets.

I'm not a fan of crypto as an investment, but I have no problem with this.

If you are investing with in multiple ETFs and are interested in investing,not owning, in BTC, this makes things simpler - you buy the ETF, the exchange buys the BTC.

If it reaches a point where everyone is just holding for returns, then it could be a timebomb until it all crashes. We could be there already.

No there is a hard limit of 21m Bitcoins. You can't just "print more".

Yes it's possible to trade "paper bitcoins" but if you don't own the underlying asset you are always at risk of being found out and not being able to cover the amount.

So the only difference between Bitcoin and stocks in 2024 is that stocks are backed by an actual underlying company. Nice.

Can you use stocks to trade with others worldwide in realtime with a super low fee and full control over the payment process?

Bitcoin still is a lot more than just that

Traditionally you just use money to do that.

You don't. It's illegal to travel with more than $X over boarder Y. Embargos and different banking systems and culture make 'bank transfers' inaccessible to a majority of people in this world.

The only alternatives are western union and other private companies with 10+% fees or hidden private banking networks like 'Hawala'.

Nope. Bitcoin is the thing that does the backing.

Stocks are just a weak entitlement (not ownership) to some property that will ultimately be significantly "backed" by the bitcoin on its balance sheet

The difference is that the US can back one by printing more money, and they can't print more bitcoin.

No, Wall St. joined the party 15 years late and allowed retail investors to get a 10,000x return before buying it on behalf of their clients.

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