Asklemmy

44143 readers

1525 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

117

Are there any honest benefits to a Federal Strategic Bitcoin Reserve? (midwest.social)

submitted 4 days ago by DemBoSain@midwest.social to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

66 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I can't think of any. The current oil reserve is supposed to be used in the case of another oil embargo. But its actual use is to lower gas prices when the administration in power needs a political win.

I actually think the purpose of a Bitcoin reserve is to temporarily increase the price so tech-bros (re: Elon) can sell at a massive profit. Then buy back at a much lower price. It's just a way to indirectly transfer federal dollars into administration pockets.

I can't find any reason for the government to buy crypto and hold it in reserve.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 20 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It is the same reason why the USA still holds gold and silver even through they aren't pegged to the dollar, it is an asset class which could be useful in the future.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

You can make that argument in 5000 years. As of today, it's still equivalent to MtG cards.

[–] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

So what you're saying is we need a strategic MtG card reserve.

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 1 points 2 days ago

I heard there are about 70 Black Lotuses missing. Some people think that’s what the drones over New Jersey are looking for.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 6 points 4 days ago

A lot of countries keep a reserve of Euros, which is a fiat currency not tied to a single country and only came into being about 25 years ago.

Currency is like Tinkerbell, it only lives through belief in it. Right now, enough people believe in Bitcoin being a currency and that belief doesn't seem to be going away as long as the Internet still exists.

[–] Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The issue is that relative to gold or silver, Bitcoin is very volatile. A crashing bitcoin could endanger the reserve, forcing the government to double down, making the volatile nature a bigger issue.

Yes gold is somewhat volatile but compared to Bitcoin, it is super stable. And ofc gold and silver are real resources that you can do for their physical properties.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 3 points 3 days ago

Price support can be a reason to create a reserve, but it isn't the only reason. Most countries don't plan their good and silver purchases based on trying to meet a value represented in currency.