Bitcoin: Exploration and Reflection on Value Storage

A few years ago, a senior I admire in the industry casually mentioned (in essence): he believes the future of Bitcoin is somewhat dangerous. Many of the "titles" and "labels" we attach to Bitcoin are actually debatable.

At that time, I was quite shocked to hear this statement and couldn't believe that this senior would say such a thing.

Even today, I don't quite agree with that statement.

However, since then, this statement has often lingered in my mind, prompting me to occasionally think about every detail of Bitcoin.

Recently, a chance encounter suddenly touched me.

While chatting with a friend, he casually mentioned that several years ago he developed a habit of spending a fixed amount of money each year to buy some small gold bars or gold nuggets and toss them in a corner, regardless of the gold price, whether it rises or falls, to give to his next generation after several years.

My friend said he doesn't understand stocks and doesn't dare to invest too much money in financial products. His life is not tight, but he doesn't have much extra money. After thinking it over, he didn't know what to do with the occasional extra money, so he simply decided to take some of it to buy gold. After all, this little money doesn't affect his life at all, and he doesn't expect it to change his life in any way.

In his daily life, no one tells him how precious, rare, or valuable gold is, or whether it will appreciate in the future.

But his most straightforward behavior is a true reflection of using gold as "value storage."

I guess this might be the awakening of his deep-seated impression of gold after 5,000 years of history?

In contrast, most of us in the crypto ecosystem, while loudly proclaiming "Bitcoin is value storage," when it comes to buying Bitcoin and leaving it for 10 years without any concern, many still complain about "waiting too long" or "the time is too long," and may even secretly worry, "Will it go to zero?"

On one side, there are ordinary people who buy gold without any concern; on the other side, the vast majority of crypto asset participants who promote Bitcoin are constantly watching the price fluctuations.

Which of these two behaviors truly treats the investment target as "value storage"?

A comment from a reader in the comment section struck me as very insightful:

"Most do not dare to buy it (Bitcoin) for value storage," "They just want to obtain more fiat currency."

Because of these experiences, I shared some of my recent thoughts on Bitcoin in yesterday's article.

As for the future, I believe more and more people will enter the crypto ecosystem. So when more people enter this ecosystem, will Bitcoin's attributes resemble more of a "collectible" or more of a "digital gold for value storage"?

We will leave that for time to test.

Personally, I tend to view it more as a "collectible." It is an unparalleled beautiful technological masterpiece created by humanity for the first time using technology. It has created a decentralized world and opened up an on-chain era that has never existed in human history.

Since it is a collectible, its value must be closely related to the ecosystem:

As more and more people enter the crypto ecosystem and it becomes more prosperous, the value/price of this collectible will increase; but as fewer people enter the crypto ecosystem and it becomes more sluggish, the value/price of this collectible will decrease.

This has little to do with concepts like risk hedging or avoidance.

If we follow this line of thought, we should focus on how to prosper the crypto ecosystem and promote its healthy growth.

To prosper the crypto ecosystem and promote its healthy growth, we must focus on examining products and services that can truly provide services/value and generate cash flow.

I believe the future of this collectible is bright because I believe the crypto ecosystem can provide great services and value. On-chain giants like Nvidia and Apple will surely appear in the crypto ecosystem.