Pension funds (and retirement savings in general) depend on low-risk investments returning significantly above inflation. These no longer exist, for a variety of reasons, demographics being one of many.
People have been assuming that negative interest rates are a temporary thing but people are beginning to think that this may actually be the natural state of affairs.
Historically, protecting your wealth cost real money: banks had to hire guards to protect the gold in their vault. Fractional reserve banking flipped this so that the banks started paying interest.
But now the world is awash in capital so low risk investments now return interest less than the inflation rate. Even the nominal rate is now sometimes below 0. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20696343)
There is no longer such a thing as a "safe investment". The only way to grow your money is to take risks with it, and the level of risk required to get returns significantly above inflation is growing.
Piketty would claim that wealth accumulation has reached a maxima. Return on investment is, after all, wealth being concentrated into fewer and fewer richer and richer individuals. If wealth can't be concentrated further then return on investment can't happen either. We might have reached such a state in which the rich, relatively speaking, can't get richer and the masses of poor, relatively speaking, can't get poorer. You can't squeeze water out of a stone.
The comment I replied to said "There is no longer such a thing as a "safe investment". The only way to grow your money is to take risks with it".
Bitcoin is seen as a risky investment by most people. To those of us that understand what it actually is and how it works, it's the best kind of money/store of value ever invented.
The only other options I see for storing wealth are things like precious metals, real estate, or stocks and bonds.
I think precious metals are kind of useless as money and over hyped as a store of value. Asteroid mining could flood the market in the future.
Real estate is a lame investment. People need homes. When people buy up real estate to park wealth, it drives up the cost of homes for new home buyers.
Stocks are a maybe, but I would only buy stocks like apple and tesla. I don't really like most corporations.
Bonds are a joke, with negative interest rates.
In the grand scheme of things, Bitcoin looks like the most sane place to store wealth.
> Bitcoin is seen as a risky investment by most people. To those of us that understand what it actually is and how it works, it's the best kind of money/store of value ever invented.
Why? Just because the other options have downsides, what makes Bitcoin good? There was a rush in 2018 - are you assuming it's going to happen again? Bitcoin seems to be super unstable, more so than anything else I'm aware of - why would I want my retirement savings to be able to fluctuate that much every year? What stops a new cypotcoin from coming along and being dubbed superior, removing the value of Bitcoin overnight?
Bitcoin is good because there is a fixed supply. The scarcity of it means basic supply and demand market mechanics are in play. It’s price is volatile because people with a lot of money can move the price easily by simply buying and selling large amounts of it. The value has steadily increased year over year though, and eventually there will be sufficient market depth which will help stabilize prices. It’s also good because banks can easily prevent you from accessing your own money. When your money is in bitcoin, no one can confiscate it, or charge you negative interest rates on it.
Lots of new coins claim to be the next bitcoin, but the truth is, bitcoin is the next bitcoin. Look up the user aantonop on YouTube for why this is the case.
People have been assuming that negative interest rates are a temporary thing but people are beginning to think that this may actually be the natural state of affairs.
Historically, protecting your wealth cost real money: banks had to hire guards to protect the gold in their vault. Fractional reserve banking flipped this so that the banks started paying interest.
But now the world is awash in capital so low risk investments now return interest less than the inflation rate. Even the nominal rate is now sometimes below 0. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20696343)
There is no longer such a thing as a "safe investment". The only way to grow your money is to take risks with it, and the level of risk required to get returns significantly above inflation is growing.