Bitcoin vs Gold revisited.
I just read the Bitcoin vs Gold thread from December 2017 at
https://goldtadise.com/?p=418539.
that is linked on the right hand side of the screen. I can’t leave a comment on that actual post now. It means that I should have been reading this forum last December, I know – what was I doing instead?
Economies of scale, yes, that surely applies for 1/10 oz vs 1oz gold coins – it takes more or less 10x as much work to make ten 1/10 oz coins as to make one 1 ounce coin. That makes sense. So the premium is higher on the 1/10 oz coins. Like a huge pack of cereal costs less per gram than a tiny pack of cereal.
Commenter Red Label said: “Ask yourself why Crypto’s don’t play by market rules that have existed since the dawn of time?”
That’s an interesting question and needs to be looked into more deeply.
On the other hand, perhaps it is just because they are computer generated.
I’m guessing that, since the crypto miners are apparently getting consolidated, there are probably economies of scale with regard to “mining” cryptos and the little guy is going to get priced out.
In terms of economies of scale and computers, it doesn’t really take more effort to write lets say 1000 letters using Mail Merge as it does to send out 10 letters, once you have your database of recipients.
In the physical world, printing out and stuffing the envelopes takes ages. I know, I have done this sort of thing for a property buyer. The postage stamps also cost a lot of money for the mail.
However, to send a spam email to 1000 people takes no more effort than to send on to 10 people and it does not really cost any more money. You just paste a huge list into the “To:” box on the email, hit send and it’s done. Actually, although you have massive economy of scale there, once you have the internet connection the cost to send the email is virtually zero – and 1000 times zero is still zero.
It’s a fascinating topic. Pity it is not a longer thread.
I missed that post and thread, thanks for linking Dave. Aside from cost to produce, contributing to the ‘value’ of smaller denominated coin (at least for me) is that it does not tie up as much value in a single transaction thus offering more liquidity. I’m willing to pay a certain premium for a smaller unit if it get’s the ‘job’ (converting into cash or used to make a trade for goods/svcs perhaps) done without having to excessively liquidate PM holdings. This is another contributing factor to why I think the relative premium on Silver is so high. The main reason to hold half and quarter oz is because IF (or ‘when’ for the optimists) it gets over say $5k per oz, I don’t want to be locked into large $ txns, and if PM’s go to the moon – even moreso. If things go south in a BIG way, there will likely be fewer who’ll be willing to pony up $10k for a full oz. I figure as the price for full OZ bullion goes up the premium for smaller units will go up even more.
Ok Dave in the UK you drew me in lol.
IMO Economy of scale will come if it hasn’t already, I’m not a crypto guy?
But I do remember when the ATM came in and it was free. When 80% of the pop got on board voila fees everywhere. some even had fees on fees? Banks never made so much money before. The stores pay fees too I believe on Interac? I remember withdrawing $200 when I needed $20 just cause the fee was $1. If this crypto goes mainstream Joe Public is gonna pay just like they always do IMO that’s just the way it is.
Cheers UK Dave
Thanks for the comments guys. I thought it was an interesting topic.
Yeah I remember when ATMs were free. Many still are free to the customer in the UK, about the only thing that is and believe me they boast about iit if it is still free!…
YYZ I wonder if you are a Rush fan?