if a 2010 Toyota Camry is $6,000 and a Bitcoin is $87,000 then it is .069 Bitcoin (nice) per Toyota Camry. .069 BTC/Camry look ma! I eliminated US dollars and am on a Bitcoin standard! no you dumbass **USD is how you got that proportion** that number (.069 BTC/Camry) is USD DENOMINATED there are NO Bitcoin denominated prices. ALL prices and price charts are USD denominated as long as USD is the unit of account. bitcoiners do not understand unit of account. it does NOT change because you do division. #bitcoin

Replies (42)

Agree you can't escape USD for now, in most trades. Thats what UoA sorta means, no? It's simply that one can swap between the USD price to whatever else they may ultimately want nearly instantaneously (no slippage and accepted everywhere), thus ignoring this is giving free money away to someone that can arb. It is what it is. It's some sort of phase shift that won't happen overnight, or be obvious until after the fact, when we'll be able to live in this non-usd denominated world you describe.
I'm not suggesting that some sort of quantum leap is possible. Just pointing out that bitcoiners do not acknowledge the simple fact that the US dollar distortions they complain about affect *all pricing* if there's some fiat structural reason that USD cantillionaires ape into 2010 Toyota Camrys then that distorts the proportion that we're talking about. same with gold, silver, real estate whatever we have to look at what the UOA is and structural reasons why it might prefer one asset to another. there is no accurate pricing possible under a fiat standard. to put it another way, all pricing is distorted by the nature of the underlying UOA.
precisely. these are all USD denominated. and when we see graphs that look different, we should ask ourselves WHY us dollars are flowing into one asset instead of the other one.
I don’t think I understand entirely. Like, it all comes back to how much food you can put on my table for .069 BTC/Camry’s. It varies from place to place. You mean all these countries are on the war-dollar standard?
except for extremely remote markets all prices come back to USD its not that those USD prices of euros or whatever don't change of course but that remembering they are USD prices is important. so if its USD/EUR or JPY/GBP or Gold/Bitcoin or whatever and that proportion changes in favor of gold (all fractions are proportions) its because *the underlying US dollars preferred gold over Bitcoin for some reason* the same for JPY/GBP or whatever you like. its a simple thing with profound implications.
without looking at the fiat valuation?
Hanshan's avatar Hanshan
if you do this purely, without ever looking at the USD valuation of those sats, then it's a true Bitcoin standard. but if we're always dividing the USD valuation of a thing, by the USD valuation of those stats, then it's not really a Bitcoin standard. its still a fiat standard. I'm not saying don't do it. definitely, trade in sats as much as possible. I'm just saying don't fool yourself into thinking that you're off a Fiat standard. but we need is communities that can get self-sufficient to the point where they can price their needs directly in sats without looking US dollars.
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I thought this might be explanatory too
Hanshan's avatar Hanshan
except for extremely remote markets all prices come back to USD its not that those USD prices of euros or whatever don't change of course but that remembering they are USD prices is important. so if its USD/EUR or JPY/GBP or Gold/Bitcoin or whatever and that proportion changes in favor of gold (all fractions are proportions) its because *the underlying US dollars preferred gold over Bitcoin for some reason* the same for JPY/GBP or whatever you like. its a simple thing with profound implications.
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I think we're in agreement on usd being more tied to real world messiness than the pure theoretical "it cancels out" math view. It's all just trading pair bartering at end of day. But the knee jerk cancel out reasoning is close to reality _because_ USD is so liquid and deep across all trading pairs. That's the point of UoA/money, breaking all trades into a simple linear ordering of one denomination. That you say it's a manipulated or bad yardstick is true, but it's consistently flawed across trading pairs, as liquidity and arb ensure it adapts quickly. That's what they teach you in Econ anyway, I'm sure there are examples where this doesn't hold so well, but my little bit of studying told me arb never last long in modern economies, as there are vultures and bots who make sure of it. In abnormal times, when capital controls (if that's right term) may take place, then we get to see some action.
lol sorry I forgot how many days were in a year. I think with a USD unit of account this is the best we can hope to do right now
If I want to sell my farm products, a piece of art, or charge a service I offer, I wouldn't look at no fiat like USD. I simply would look at the value of the product/service I offer - looking at the time, energy and resources spent. Then happily price that in Bitcoin. That's what I think is when Bitcoin becomes my unit of account.
it doesn't really change point I'm making, the vast majority of the market behaves like this. and misunderstands like this. but that's great and we need more of it.
The vast majority of the market adjusts to the current spot price. they don't just take a snapshot at a particular point and use that as the valuation going forward. exactly because of volatility *denominated in the unit of account*
the point is about HOW you arrive at value of the product/service as denominated in Bitcoin. its extremely difficult (and possibly fiscally irresponsible) to intentionally NOT look at the purchasing power in the local UoA. but what you're talking about is exactly how we win. people themselves, and their local communities, transacting directly with each other and denominating what they need directly in Bitcoin. without touching USD.
Oh sure, but if you buy a Toyota Camry today for 0.069 BTC and you drive it for three years, then you know you're not going to get 0.069 BTC for it. So you'll have to sell it for a lower price.
if I understand your point correctly, you feel that because of liquidity there are no structural, social or memetic reasons for US dollars to prefer one of these markets over the other?
ODELL's avatar ODELL
i expect bitcoin to hit new all time highs in gold, silver, and dollars in 2026. lets come back to this note next year. stay humble and stack sats 🫡 image
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we're not talking about the *same Toyota Camry though. we're just talking about the market price of 2010 Toyota Camrys. if there's reason for fiat cantillionaires to ape into 2010 Toyota Camrys, then obviously the valuation vis-a-vis other assets increases. but the point is that there might be structural reasons for that that are unique to the underlying unit of account.
no trap, just clarifying 😁 I think there are reasons for US dollars to prefer one asset over another. reasons that are *unique to US dollars* and may not translate if we were denominating prices in a different UOA. but I think this is probably the crux of what we disagree on 👍
If you could make point more concrete, that'd help. Cuz yeah, from just a trading perspective I don't get what you mean by "USD favors" something. If what I want is buying some good or service right now, then scooping some extra dollars up quickly with arb is the move. If I'm trying to do that over a prolonged holding period (storing wealth across time), then holding onto gold might make sense... If resistance to gov seizure/censorship, then maybe BTC. Feel like I'm stating the obvious, so once again not sure you're point. I wanna understand, but I don't
I mean, the obvious answer is regulatory. if a market is highly regulated and it's difficult for US dollars to move in and out then the friction will naturally cause those dollars to seek a different market. theres available supply etc. maturation, do you need to lock up US dollars for a specific time period? information asymmetry, certain assets are understood better and therefore favored by USD investors. and there are definitely memetic drives where recent successes are favored regardless of underlying value prop All markets are different. I don't think treating them as universally equivalent is accurate. these issues are mostly, but not necessarily, unique to the fact that it's US dollars moving around. if they were priced in something else and it was a different asset moving, then there would be a *different structural context.* anyway that's what i mean by "USD favors" thanks for helping me think it through. and it's related but actually a different conversation, not only are the markets different vis-a-vis USD but I think that treating US dollars once they enter a market as if they were fungible with US dollars in another market is probably a misunderstanding. they may still be called "USD," but they actually behave as a different asset and I'm not sure comparing them to each other is accurate. but let's just leave that there for now okay? 😅
Rereading I see more what you mean. Simple example, USD dislikes crypto. It takes some doing to buy crypto, you can't just click a button on bank, nor buy it on E*Trade. You have to make a new account on a crypto exchange, yada yada, and then your bank is likely to interfere when they detect "suspicious activity" or the like. So that friction is enough for a lot of people who might dabble to steer clear. At least that was the case prior to ETFs. And back further you had to go to send money to shady Japanese exchange to buy BTC on mtgox (huge friction, and partly why I am not swimming in bitcoins today, as I saw that back in the day and was like "ooohh, that looks shady, no thank you"). The clip I posted minutes ago should interest you. Highlights how currencies and property rights are all smooth and background oiled machines...until they're not.
yeah exactly. I suspect the markets are all much more complicated and difficult to evaluate then we can imagine without directly getting involved in them. it certainly isn't as simple as they're all equal and access is open
I hope the clip from podcast is real. Have doubts now. Guess I'll tag @Adam Curry . Could not find source of clip for Yanis Varoufakis snippets you played on latest pod. Went to your site but source not listed, just the clip recording, unless I missed something
Can only speculate. Most likely a hot topic so gets clicks/money. Could also be, and this was a theory on more recent No Agenda shown where they admitted they messed up, Russia pushing out a message since apparently a lot of this stuff did in fact happen over a year ago (under reported by msm). Who knows :/ Saw Compte St Germain post earlier that he was having trouble with deep fakes of old lectures from Feynman...