Greetings Central PA Bitcoiners!
Our next meetup is taking place at 1pm on Saturday, Dec 28th, at Denim Coffee in Mechanicsburg. Although our coffee meetups typically take place on the fourth Sunday of each month, end of year commitments necessitated we chose Saturday the 28th for this month.
@Business Cat has graciously agreed to host on the 28th in my absence...I'll catch you at the Jan 26th meetup.
Meetup
December Bitcoin Meetup, Sat, Dec 28, 2024, 1:00 PM | Meetup
Join the Central PA Bitcoiners for our December hangout!
No solid agenda, we usually just sit and talk about various bitcoin related topics. Begin...
2025 is looking bright for Central PA Bitcoiners! We're in the process of putting together coffee meetups on the fourth Sunday of each month, and then have our quarterly educational meetup in February or March.
Some news items:
Big milestones...BTCUSD finally broke $100k this month. Although its all-time high (ATH) had been breached in nominal terms in March, as written about in the October 31st newsletter, we were still a long way from attaining new highs when considering inflation-adjusted USD terms, gold terms, real estate terms, or in terms of the stock market (S&P 500). The exchange rate at 100k BTCUSD not only added another zero in our base-10 focused psychology around price levels, it surpassed its ATH when priced in assets harder than the dollar as well. Also, 100k BTCUSD corresponds to a market cap of $2T, another round number that garners attention. A word about unit bias: people can have a bias if things are framed a certain way. There are lots of people who think "well, I would like to invest in bitcoin, but I don't have $100k, so no dice...oh well", or "$100k is so expensive! Normal people aren't going to be able to get any." Anyone can buy $5 of bitcoin, which would net them about 5,000 sats. Making sats the standard is what some propose. Like there are 1,000 meters in one kilometer, there are 100 million sats in one whole bitcoin. $100k BTCUSD means you can get 1,000 sats for your dollar. I like to think of it in terms of global assets. There are $900T of global assets, and BTC now at $2T makes up 0.22% of that. Is it a stretch to think that it'll eventually be 0.5%, or 1%, or 2%? What sounds more expensive to you...gold's market cap, 2% of the world's assets, or $900k BTCUSD? They're all the same thing, however the framing of the last one makes it sound least realistic to most people's ears.
Putin declares "no one can ban Bitcoin." This is a big change of stance from what his words and actions said in the past. Bitcoin is strongest when there are many different participants, with different incentives, and that don't/won't coordinate with each other. The US has become a hub for development and mining activity in the past years, and other countries, especially ones that the US isn't on good terms with, bringing development and mining hash power to the table makes for the best network conditions possible. I'll paraphrase Jeff Booth, great thinker in the space and author of "The Price of Tomorrow". He was asked "what's the worst thing about bitcoin?", and his response was "the worst thing about bitcoin is that you have to be ok with the idea not only that your enemy can use it...your enemy being able to use it makes it stronger and better for yourself".
Putin:
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Bitcoin and digital assets will thrive, calling them unstoppable and vital to advancing technology.
Microsoft shareholders reject bitcoin treasury proposal. Microsoft, the fourth largest company in the US by market cap, has $79B of cash on its books. A proposal was on the table to convert 5% of that into bitcoin. Michael Saylor gave a presentation at their board meeting making a great case for why keeping all of their treasury in dollars is doing their shareholders an injustice, as inflation eats away at it constantly. Even at 2% inflation, that's a $1.6B loss every year. Nevertheless, this proposal was rejected by the shareholders, as was expected by most apparently. More proof of how early we are, friends.
Microsoft Shareholders Reject Bitcoin Treasury Proposal – Bitbo
Microsoft shareholders voted against a proposal to adopt a Bitcoin treasury strategy during the company's annual meeting, following the board's rec...
ETHBTC drops to lowest level since March 2021. I view talking about altcoins, AKA shitcoins, as a frustrating waste of time generally. However, this article reminded me of something important about them: over the long run, they all trend to zero in bitcoin terms. Yo-yo coin and XYZcoin might draw attention for their short lived pumps here and there, but chart them against bitcoin on a timescale of months/years, and they're all headed the same direction...zero. Many people get drawn in to the hype, and have to touch the stove themselves to learn that they shouldn't. Take this bitcoiner's word for it...avoid the noise. Stay humble & stack sats.
Bitcoin Hits $98,370 as ETH-to-BTC Ratio Falls to 3-Year Low – Bitbo
Bitcoin's price surges to $97,700, setting new all-time highs, as the ETH-to-BTC ratio drops to its lowest level since March 2021.
That's all for now, folks. Remember, December coffee meetup is 1pm on Saturday the 28th at Denim Coffee in Mechanicsburg. Happy holidays!
@Lonelypumpkins
Central PA Bitcoiners
