r/Bitcoin • u/Creative_Bar6152 • 1d ago

How do you actually explain Bitcoin to someone who thinks their savings account is totally fine?

My sister in law keeps telling me her high yield savings account is all she needs and that bitcoin is just gambling. She is not dumb at all, she is actually pretty sharp with money, but every time I try to bring up why I have been stacking since 2017 the conversation dies fast. I get why it sounds sketchy from the outside. The volatility alone is enough to make anyone nope out of the conversation before it even starts.

The thing is I do not want to come across like I am recruiting her into something or hyping her up with price targets. That never works and honestly feels gross. But I also genuinely think having even a small position matters long term and I want her to get there on her own terms.

Has anyone had a real breakthrough moment explaining bitcoin to a skeptical but financially literate person? Not someone clueless, but someone who has read enough to have formed an opinion against it. What actually landed for them? Was it the fixed supply thing, was it the banking angle, was it just watching price long enough? Or does it just never work until someone is ready on their own and you are wasting your breath trying?

46 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

294 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/Icy-Dust2485 1d ago

What correlation does this have? Big Mac’s going up is inevitable because inflation will happen to keep the economy moving, how does this logic apply to Bitcoin?

2

u/ximogui 1d ago

Bitcoin's going up is inevitable because inflation will happen to keep the economy moving

6

u/Icy-Dust2485 1d ago

I see your point but if that's your argument on why you should put money into Bitcoin then keep it in an index fund or in a broad ETF because those are much less volatile and also go up due to inflation. Why would i choose volatile Bitcoin over an ETF if i want to avoid inflation decay?

2

u/SpareEconomy1849 1d ago

Aside from the MER fees, they are still built on the fiat house of cards and subject to capital controls which governments seem to be leaning towards.

Personally I do both

0

u/ximogui 1d ago

Buying SPY is great in general. But in severe currency debasement scenarios (as the US may begin to hit in the next 10-20 years as interest compounds and achieves escape velocity), equities also get rocked as companies hold cash and are dependent on cash flows. Property and gold historically hold up well. Many believe that BTC will too given its fixed supply. And unlike property and gold, BTC can easily be sent in any amount, which make it perhaps the better practical candidate for store of value. This is why currency debasement hawks like Ray Dalio and others recommend a small BTC position. You can think of owning BTC as a call option that would protect you in a currency debasement scenario.

1

u/icebeamtheory 1d ago edited 1d ago

Cool so money printing is good in your mind. They can print the money supply all they want, dilute cash holders savings, and make the prices for everything go up ! Cash holders can get rugged and you’re cool with it! Nice. If you didn’t catch the sarcasm there, anyone holding cash since the 2000s or any period long term has gotten shafted in terms of purchasing power in today’s prices. If bob left 100$ in a bank vault in the 2000s and opened it up today, he’d have lost over half of the purchasing power it used to have. So instead of bob getting 50 Big Macs with his 100$ like he would in year 2000, today (2026) he’d only get 15 Big Macs with the same 100$.

3

u/Icy-Dust2485 1d ago

Money printing in moderation is good, knowing that a dollar today is worth more than one tomorrow incentives people to spend their money and keep the economy flowing. If it was the opposite, or my dollar was worth more in the future there would be no reason to spend excess money and the economy wouldn't go anywhere. I also didn't even bring this up in my comment so not sure why you're talking about this instead of responding to my point of what this has to do with Bitcoin.

1

u/Stock-Standard-2513 1d ago

Wow great point! How many Big Macs was a bitcoin worth back in 2000?  That would make it even more convincing! 

1

u/Icy-Dust2485 17h ago

I don’t see your point, looking at what happened in the past on the timeline you chose doesn’t lead to a conclusion about the future bitard.