Bitcoin objection: “No company, government or FDIC backing“

The number five most cited objection to Bitcoin is that there's no company or country or government or FDIC insurance backing it. So that is true. There isn't. But that is the only way to have a decentralized global money that functions. If a company or a country or something like that was backing the currency, it means they control the currency. It's impossible to have a currency that is not controlled by any any entity that is backed by those entities. For example, the government of the United States can't say if you lose your Bitcoin, I'll give you more of it to replace it because they would have to go buy that Bitcoin on the open market. They can't make it out of thin air. The reason the FDIC can ensure your bank accounts is because if they, you know, they the the the FDI backing of bank accounts is like tiny. They have like some ridiculously small fraction of 1% of deposits that they actually have to back bank accounts, but they have the ability working with the Treasury and the Federal Reserve to make more money out of thin air. So the government of the US can back the US dollar by just making more of it out of thin air. If you lose some, your bank goes bankrupt. They can just print more money out of thin air and it causes inflation and makes prices go up. They give you back money that is worth less than the money you lost. But again, they have this magic money printer that they that so-called, you know, backs the currency. Now, some people will act like currency is backed by the mil military as well, and it's not. Every major currency that went to zero, that hyperinflated, also had a military. The military cannot stop the currency from going to zero. They can make people use it to pay their taxes, but in a hyperinflation situation, everybody just stores their wealth in some other currency or some other asset like Bitcoin and then converts it to the local currency at the last second to pay their taxes. So, you can't make people use a currency other than to pay their taxes and they only have to have that currency for the last 5 seconds before they change the their they pay their taxes. So, the benefit of Bitcoin is that it's not controlled by any company or country or individual. The downside is none of those countries or people or individuals are writing an insurance policy on Bitcoin either. But the upside is nobody controls it. So you don't have to worry about it being manipulated. You don't have to worry about somebody creating more of it out of thin air. You don't have to worry about somebody undermining your purchasing power. So even if you have US dollars locked in a safe, it doesn't matter because the government can make those dollars that are locked in the safe less valuable by printing more of them out of thin air, which undermines your purchasing power even though you didn't change anything. They can do that and there's nothing you can do to stop them. So uh that being said, although Bitcoin the network itself is backed by Bitcoin node runners like me, I own a bit I own and run a Bitcoin node. Anybody can buy one on umbrell.com um mbrl.com for like $500 and you can run your own Bitcoin node. You don't have to. There's no reason for you to, but you can. And if you want to, you can. Um but uh the the network is backed by node runners and Bitcoin miners and this massive ecosystem. But if you want to buy Bitcoin on a trusted platform like Fidelity or Charles Schwab or any of the com, you know, major brokerage firms including Morgan Stanley, if you want to buy Bitcoin on any of those platforms, which you can directly or you can buy a Bitcoin exchange traded fund, then those companies back your, you know, your Bitcoin holdings and your your purchase process. They can't make the price go up or down, but they can tell you that, hey, we're going to secure your account or we're going to give you insurance on your account in case it's hacked or you get scammed or something like that. So, there are companies that will give you Bitcoin services and those companies have an 800 number you could call. they have everything you need in order to you know I guess your your Bitcoin purchasing experience is backed by those entities even though Bitcoin the network itself is not controlled by anyone which means it's not backed by anybody because nobody can backs stop something that nobody controls. So it's as simple as that. There are more complex you can actually buy insurance on Bitcoin. Um you can do stuff like that. So there there is ways where you can uh get additional levels of safety from a company, not from a government, but from a company, but most of those for most people don't make sense. And so as long as you can handle the price volatility up and down of Bitcoin, uh it's again, it's an asset that is not controlled by anyone. But the downside of being not controlled by anyone is that, you know, there's no 800 number to call of Bitcoin. There's no Bitcoin 1-800 number to call and get help, but there is a Charles Schwab number. There is a river.com number. There is a coinbase.com number. There is a Fidelity.com number. And those companies will all back your Bitcoin buying or selling experience. Even if the currency itself floats in a in the open market, is run by Bitcoin nodes and Bitcoin miners, is completely decentralized, means it's uh you know, it's like the internet. it runs forever without human, you know, any single human intervention being required. Um, so anyway, uh, Bitcoin's backed most importantly though by its monetary properties. The credibility of the monetary properties of an asset are the strongest backing that anything could have. And as far as monetary properties, Bitcoin is more durable, divisible, portable, fungeable, authenticatable, and most importantly, scarce. Those six monetary properties are what backs Bitcoin. And that is far more powerful than having a company or a country or you know the FDI backing it is Bitcoin is backed by its monetary properties. Nobody can take away Bitcoin's monetary properties. Bitcoin's monetary properties make it valuable because it is the most scarce money that humans have ever invented or discovered. More scarce than gold. way more scarce than the US dollar, infinitely more scarce than the Venezuelan boloulevard. So, Bitcoin's monetary properties and the credibility of those monetary properties are what backs Bitcoin. Somebody can come along and say, "Hey, but I have a new coin and it's only 20 million instead of 21 million." The problem is there is zero credibility of those monetary properties. Nobody trusts that your coin is not going to change somehow because you're the only person running it. The reasons Bitcoin's network and Bitcoin itself have credibility is because those monetary properties are backed by and reinforced by 400 million users who will not use it if they change. And more than 100,000 node runners, any one of which, including me, can block changes to Bitcoin. and the entire Bitcoin mining ecosystem which has tens of billions of dollars invested to mine uh to secure and audit the Bitcoin network. So that is what backs Bitcoin. Bitcoin is backed by the credibility of its monetary properties which is far more valuable and important than being backed by any one company or any one country or any you know government agency like the FDI which only has a microscopic fraction of the deposits that it claims to back. uh they're just hoping that if they really get it into bind, they can print enough money out of thin air so it's not a problem. Uh but anyway, Bitcoin is backed by the credibility of its monetary properties.