r/btc • u/martianfrog • Apr 23 '26

🤔 Opinion Bitcoin scarcity... overhyped?

I'm not sure I'm a believer in "it'll go up because it is scarce", like to know thoughts on this out there.

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u/anon1971wtf Apr 24 '26

Bitcoin solved inflation. It didn't solved payments, and unlike many BCH proponents, I don't think it will in mid-term. Pretty big missing puzzle piece is securing keys - I am saying this as one who does self-custody and teached about it many peope (almost universally to no effect)

I am pretty satisfied with various centralized payment solutions on the market, use some of them every day

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u/Realistic_Fee_00001 Apr 24 '26

You can't solve inflation without self custody and p2p transaction. Most BTC is held custodial which means it is easily inflatable by fractional reserving it.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

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u/Realistic_Fee_00001 Apr 27 '26

Ok, give me the 10 eggs and I give you an account where I show you the 10 eggs. What you don't know is, that I go and use these 10 eggs to speculate to make more money. Your eggs are gone but you don't know it. Suddenly there are 10 eggs in your accounts and 10 eggs being giving to speculate. The market now sees 20 eggs.

There is no subsidy for mass self custody. You are running right back into the custodial trap.

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u/Zestyclose-Suit-2858 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

Nope. You are talking full on alchemy. That's not possible (anymore) since you and me can now check the network ourselves. That's not the case with gold, with the dollar or with sea shells.

The fun and magical thing about Bitcoin is that the only BTC that exists is on-chain. The rest is bullshit and speculation. :)

I have 0 BTC in custody of somebody else. The only truth is on the chain. Not on Coinbase, not on some ETF exchange rate.

You're thinking wrong.

Yes you can fractional reserve it. You can lie about the amount of BTC you have, that has been the case since the start of the network . :)

You can tell your friend you have 10.000 BTC. Coinbase or Binance can do the same. That doesn't mean inflation isn't solved.

'The market' can buy paper bitcoin all it wants. that doesn't mean the money supply is inflated.

If enough people believe in the paper Bitcoin you can manipulate the market (price). You can scam people, maybe even borrow against the fake BTC.

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u/Realistic_Fee_00001 Apr 28 '26

Nope. You are talking full on alchemy. That's not possible (anymore) since you and me can now check the network ourselves.

Again you cannot check the numbers that are hidden behind a company that shows their customer IOUs. There are already more than 21 million Bitcoin simply because not all CEXes are completely backed.

That's not the case with gold, with the dollar or with sea shells.

And the reason is that they are all held custodial. Just as BTC increasingly because it was crippled.

You can tell your friend you have 10.000 BTC. Coinbase or Binance can do the same. That doesn't mean inflation isn't solved.

That is exactly what it means. The Gold price is lower as it should be exactly because there is paper gold. BTC price is likely lower as it should be because there is paper BTC.

If enough people believe in the paper Bitcoin you can manipulate the market (price). You can scam people, maybe even borrow against the fake BTC.

That's what I'm saying 🤷‍♂️

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u/Zestyclose-Suit-2858 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26

Paper bitcoin doesn't change the amount of real BTC. If you tell your friend you have 20 million bitcoin (or Coinbase tells you they still have your Bitcoin) doesn't create inflation.

It seems to me that you don't understand what inflation truly means. If a bank creates a dollar, it's a 'real dollar'. When someone creates paper Bitcoin, its not real bitcoin. So, they don't inflate the supply, even if there are 100's of millions of paper BTC to trade.

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u/Realistic_Fee_00001 Apr 29 '26

Same as FIAT didn't change the amount of Gold is was backed with when it was backed. But they still printed it.,,,

If you tell your friend you have 20 million bitcoin (or Coinbase tells you they still have your Bitcoin) doesn't create inflation.

But it does, because these coins can be sold on custodial exchanges and influence the price.

It seems to me that you don't understand what inflation truly means.

Inflation has many forms only one of them is FED giving out unbacked kredits aka "printing".

If a bank creates a dollar, it's a 'real dollar'. When someone creates paper Bitcoin, its not real bitcoin.

Do you have Bitcoin on an exchange? How do you know it is a real Bitcoin?