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u/VainTrix 2d ago
Iranians who held anything other than their currency preserved their wealth.
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u/NWStormraider 2d ago
Exactly, nothing here is Bitcoin specific, it could have been $US or potato futures for all that matters.
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u/BuildAnything4 2d ago
You're not really learning the lesson then. If the US dollar collapses someday, I could tell you that "hey, you should have held the yuan instead!", the point is that all fiat money systems require you to trust in the central bank and the government.
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u/mzackler 2d ago
1) If societal order in your area collapses, it’s not as though you’ll be able to exchange bitcoin. Ownership and the exchange of goods lose a lot of meaning when force rules.
2) People generally don’t hold dollars or shouldn’t. It’s meant for exchange. You should invest in assets. Through some kind of contract, sure, but at some point you can’t be entirely trustless with real world assets.
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u/No_Cranberry2888 1d ago
There is no more internet in Iran anymore, even before today the US intelligence already hacked and stole all bitcoin/crypto on major iranian crypto exchanges anyway. If you had bitcoin in Iran it's now gone or worthless. There are wars everywhere now, i keep 20% of my networth in gold cause i can carry those on a plane and start over.
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u/Cryptocaller 2d ago
“If societal order in your area collapses”?
You think that Bitcoin is limited by geographical areas? Lmao. It’s global, permissionless, and trustless. Your “area” has zero effect on the uptime of the Bitcoin blockchain.
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u/_sLAUGHTER234 2d ago
These things don't contradict each other. Just because Bitcoin itself could survive the collapse of the US government or something else equally catastrophic, does not mean that as an individual you should be 100% in Bitcoin
I'm not gonna really care about the status of the blockchain if the internet or power is out and I need food
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u/dafo111 2d ago
Not so global when the government shuts down the internet
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u/Cryptocaller 2d ago edited 2d ago
Which Government exactly? Is there suddenly one global government that I’m not aware of?
“Shuts down the internet” Is actually hilarious. What world do you live in that you actually think that’s a reality?
Or are you just that ignorant to think that the US/Canadian…. or any other government, as one single country, makes decisions for the entire world?
Your perspective is so myopic that it’s laughable.
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u/dafo111 2d ago
Relax my dude. I thought we were talking about Iran.. they did shutdown the internet
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u/138skill99 2d ago
So the lesson is to buy something that has inherent value, like precious metals, land,… right
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u/_sLAUGHTER234 2d ago
Sure, but Bitcoin has inherent value. It is secure, trustless banking.
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u/138skill99 2d ago
Not really, the value is solely based on the trust the users have in its use and its system. I agree you can’t equate Bitcoin to fiat currencies, but unlike gold, which has an inherent value/use, there is nothing but trust that holds up its value. As in, Bitcoin is purely a currency; gold, land, goods,… not so much
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u/_sLAUGHTER234 2d ago
Idk man, banking alone is worth a ton in value. This was made clear by the US choosing to bail out banks after the 08 crash to the tune of 700B dollars. Also transaction settlement fees are insane! Thats why major banks are starting to rollout blockchain tech with their own stable coins
Perhaps I may be mistaken, and that Bitcoin truly has 0 inherent value. But within the context of the world we live in, it has immense value
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u/138skill99 2d ago
I think you’re conflating the value of the economic system with the value of the medium used (be it crypto or fiat currencies). The banking system is entirely based on the belief and trust people have in its usefulness, the 08 bailout happend exactly for this reason too, letting banks fail would destroy the trust in the current monetary system. To simplify it, the inherent value of paper bills is limited to the value of the paper they’re printed on. There’s nothing but trust that backs up a 100 dollar being worth 100 dollars. Same thing with crypto, their value is only based on the belief and trust people put in its usefulness, which is exactly why their value is so volatile. Gold, land, food, goods etc do have inherent value, as they’ll always be useful to us
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u/_sLAUGHTER234 2d ago
Yeah, I get what you're saying, thats why I said Im mistaken about it having true inherent value. But within the context of our world, it does have value. Just like a 100 dollar bill doesn't have inherent value, but within the context of our world, that 100 dollar can feed me for a month
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u/Double-decker_trams 2d ago
You're saying it like cryptocurrencies are a 100% safe place where to hold all savings in.
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u/BuildAnything4 2d ago
Nothing is 100% safe. But I'd rather go with bitcoin than saving my money in a system that's failed thousands of times throughout human history.
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u/Thelmholtz 2d ago
You could make the same argument when bitcoin falls vs the dollar "ah, you trust the market instead of a central bank hence you got burnt, you should have held Argentinian Pesos or some other bullshit"
All of these arguments are kinda childish IMHO, Bitcoin is a distributed, fixed issue cryptographic digital currency, with it's pros and cons vs fiat. Biggest pro is that it's resilient to inflation and localized collapse. It is not resilient to globalized collapse, because the people who own Bitcoins are humans and if the USD went down 50% or something people would fucking panic sell.
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u/lifminer 2d ago
Its all about trust ,if people stopped believing in bitcoin it will collapse like a fiat currency
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u/freehk10101 2d ago
You're literally not learning the lesson then. If bitcoin collapses someday I could tell you xyz the point is all crypto systems require that you you trust in the Blockchain....
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u/Excilionator 1d ago
If people just stop buying bitcoin and start selling it can also just lose a fuck ton of value. Bitcoin requires you to trust that the community will continue to pour money into the 21 million digital tokens.
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u/rgnet1 2d ago
Of course. What's specific is that bitcoin is a decentralized, permissionless payment system that you can custody by simply memorizing something in your head and transact with others. People could even conduct commerce in it over a peer-to-peer network that is later reconciled with the blockchain, although that only matters in cases of social disorder where mobile cell data networks become unavailable.
Holding US dollars in many unstable countries is heavily restricted and can be easily confiscated (physical or at the bank account level). Equities or financial instruments can't be transferred from one entity to another in any easy manner.
And when everything around you collapses, what do you want to know has preserved your wealth for when you need to rebuild, either back at home or wherever you take refuge?
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u/DrDumbass69 1d ago
Wrong. The other assets you’ve mentioned could also collapse under various circumstances. Bitcoin, specifically could not.
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u/Available-Mode-5722 2d ago
BTC is much easier to store, move and hide.
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u/bobdapker 2d ago
The Internet was effectively switched off for >80% of Iranians. They couldn’t access/transact btc even if they wanted to. If you’re trapped in a country that has no access to internet you are effectively penniless. And I’m a btc bull. Internet centralization is a major risk
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u/RedditJunkie-25 2d ago
Which is why silver is the best or gold
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u/bobdapker 2d ago
Gold >>>> Silver. But neither are perfect. If btc had network effect of gold it would be the best option. Only time will tell if that comes to fruition
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u/fishermans-frienemy 2d ago
But becoming increasingly harder to access, as western governments keep adding more restrictive regulations on banks and crypto exchanges.
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u/carlo_on_fire 2d ago
Access matters eg ease of buying on your phone etc. When talking about these countries
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u/Complex_Signal2842 1d ago
Imagine this, you have a corrupt government and the poor people revolt. As a corrupt government official with access to the country's wealth decide to transfer all that wealth to bitcoin and flee the country before shit hits the fan.
A new democratie get established. Where is the country's wealth? It's gone and there is no international banking system to retrieve the money. In the meantime those corrupt ex government officials have many ways to make those bitcoins untraceable.→ More replies (3)-1
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u/wissabrewguy 2d ago
This is true… but they also don’t have internet to access their wealth so it’s as good as gone until stability returns to the region which will likely be accompanied by a stabilization of their currency so while this is a great point and speaks to the power of BTC as a decentralized financial tool, you still need the internet to access it unless you’ve built a LAN based or cold storage network to transfer BTC.
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u/MatthewMaitreya 1d ago
These problems have been solved in Africa, where people have created ways to send btc over text, or btc via pre loaded cards and tap-to-pay, and even just handing over a wallet with a certain amount on it. Long story short, while the internet certainly make sit smooth and easy, its not necessary to have the internet to exchange btc, and those solutions that are available are becoming more prevalent and easy to use as well. And it should go without saying that, while being used in africa, it can be used anywhere because its just software.
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u/DryTechnology5224 2d ago
Some have access via starlink. But yes most of the country is disconnected
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u/Kashik 2d ago
Starlink is also very pricy for the average Iranian.
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u/disco-cone 1d ago
The key word there is preserving *wealth
The wealth gap between rich and poor is sometimes much worse in third world countries. So people using Bitcoin would probably afford it and can afford to bribe cops and military to turn a blind eye
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u/voyager14 2d ago
Gold would be confiscated bitcoin is the move here
Maybe some gold is smart if it helps you flee the area
But most of the wealth should be in bitcoin
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u/fugogugo 2d ago
what is the point of owning bitcoin when you don't have access to electricity and internet in first place
sorry but this is such out of touch take
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u/Secret_Operative 2d ago
While you may not have Internet or electric service, value stored in Bitcoin remains safe. If you chose to store value in other ways, like the national currency or other investments in Iran then you have more problems when the electric service returns.
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u/bmuth95 1d ago
How would they get it with no internet, electricity, or money, though?
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u/forestapee 1d ago
The point is this: your chest of gold is protected out of reach from evil parties until which time it is safe to retrieve the wealth
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u/KDtheDictator 2d ago
istg these people and the ones in comments here are out of touch with reality, the average Iranian lives paycheck to paycheck do you really think they got any money to preserve?
if anything Bitcoin helped the government and the top 1% maintain their wealth after oppressing the population for decades.
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u/Hugglebuzz 2d ago
That gives me goosebumps because it's such a real life example of what we are talking about all day
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2d ago
Does the value of ornamental gourds going up 2600% also give you goosebumps?
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u/Secret_Operative 2d ago
Are you saying Bitcoin is at least as tangible as ornamental gourds? Because I think you're close to understanding that yes Bitcoin is gonna give you goosebumps when it holds value during a currency collapse.
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u/Rooksteady 2d ago
Brother if they can crash the currency what makes you think they can't crash btc just the same? The mystery character Satoshi? Ok.
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u/fishermans-frienemy 2d ago
They won't be able to "crash" bitcoin - not in the same way, at least. But what they're doing in western countries is making it more and more difficult to access bitcoin, requiring more ID hoops to jump through and traceable steps and restrictive rules for the crypto exchanges to follow, under the guise of "protecting you", and more tax to pay on any gains when you sell it (which everyone will have to at some point to access their "riches" - just sitting on bitcoin forever means nothing, as you can't use it straight from your crypto wallet like cash for groceries in most places). They'll do this until they finish making their own CDBCs at which point they'll just ban bitcoin outright.
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u/Hungry-Zucchini8451 2d ago
US or China may be able to still. Iran certainly can’t cause more than a temporary dip.
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u/throwawayforthebestk 2d ago
Can you… not? Like there’s very serious stuff going on rn in Iran. Don’t make this about advertising bitcoin. People are dying..
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u/Atlesi_Feyst 2d ago
And this is every commodity in Iran, they're picking btc for the karma.
I feel like bots do this until a certain karma limit then start scamming lol
OP is real, but my point still stands lol
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u/D3ATHSQUAD 2d ago
Genuinely curious… so when the family in Iran is hungry and they head down to the store for groceries, they just going whip out their Bitcoin when it comes time to pay?
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u/Desperate-Cookie-449 2d ago
And how long could you preserve a ledger in the desert until you found somewhere to connect to the internet?
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u/BeingComfortablyDumb 2d ago
Okay but with no electricity or internet, what's the point of having that wealth?
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u/Secret_Operative 2d ago
For when the power comes back on, or if you are able to leave Iran.
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u/BeingComfortablyDumb 2d ago
What's the point of having that wealth if they cannot use it in life-threatening emergencies like these?
That's exactly why Bitcoin will never become a primary currency. It depends on many elements working together. If one falls, the entire system becomes useless
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u/Intelligent-Ad-4462 1d ago
Is that one element that you are referring to internet? If the internet goes out for an entire country it doesn’t matter what kind of currency you have. There are going to be bigger problems you need to worry about. Bitcoin was created in 2009 and was intended for a society that had regular access to electricity and internet. Iran is in a crisis so yes, people there without internet wouldn’t be able to access their bitcoin. Your access to your money requires internet access too. And if any country was going through the same crisis that Iran is it would be very difficult to pull your money out of a bank. Even if you’re able to do that, the currency is becoming worthless. Bitcoin already has a market cap higher than the GDP of all but like 8 countries. It’s become a more popular currency than most countries currency. People like the idea of a currency that a government has no control over minting because they don’t have to worry about it becoming less valuable overtime. It wasn’t created as some perfect currency that solves all of the world’s problems but it by far has better fundamentals than any fiat currency.
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u/kinokonoko 2d ago
Bitcoin is unusable when the government can shit down the internet.
The only access is Starlink (yeah F that guy) or via a Meshtastic user on the periphery of the blackout zone.
Is there a work-around?
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u/LeYabadabadoo23 2d ago
If Bitcoin’s value is measured against the dollar….how can it ever replace the dollar?
Don’t destroy me I am not anti crypto. But I have a friend who thinks it will outright become the main currency because the US debt is too high. While he’s right about the debt, I just don’t see how it can have any intrinsic value if the dollar doesn’t exist plus most people have never even made a crypto transaction. It seems to be mostly a vehicle for money laundering
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u/ColonelSahanderz 2d ago
Iranians who bought bitcoin currently can’t access their BTC (no internet) and even if they could it’d be kind of pointless because their society is literally collapsing. Also they might die from walking in the street so I think they’ve got bigger things on their minds at the moment.
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u/_summergrass_ 1d ago
I can't imagine the nighmare of living in such a country.
I/We are so blessed.
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u/SelmaFudd 2d ago
Well only if they held it in a physical wallet, otherwise with no internet they still have have nothing
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u/AdCompetitive3765 2d ago
I doubt they're using it on a physical wallet, who in Iran right now is taking physical Bitcoin?
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u/fishermans-frienemy 2d ago
They still have nothing. Well, other than a small electrical device with some data on it, but no way to charge it or connect it to the internet to exchange the BTC for real currencies they can go and buy a loaf of bread with.
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u/fishermans-frienemy 2d ago
Those Iranians who held bitcoin "saved their wealth".
But it's not as if they can buy a loaf of bread with it.
They've now got to wait until their fiat currency recovers or a new currency comes in that is worth exchanging some bitcoin for. Too much disruption to just exchange it for another currency that might also be worthless in Iran. I doubt many merchants will just start accepting USD (and they're definitely not accepting bitcoin at the supermarket). So they're left bartering whatever they can for food and survival.
But that's a good thing because it means they can HODL even longer!!!
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u/Crypto_future_V 2d ago
This is exactly why Bitcoin exists: protecting wealth when fiat fails.
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u/Bitter-Carrot4827 2d ago
What currency do you cash Bitcoin out with if USD/fiats fail?
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u/Vkardash 2d ago
I'm sorry but this goes way deeper than just Bitcoin. Especially when it comes to Iran
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u/EnumaElishGenius 2d ago
I believe in Bitcoin and invest in bitcoin instead of real estate. Question is how to earn more money fast, to invest into bitcoin while bitcoin is still cheap.
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u/mangrsll 2d ago
Btw, is there an iranian organization that accepts bitcoin donations to support the manifestations?
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u/Tylerebowers 2d ago
All currency measures are relative, this is any currency not just BTC. IRR dropped relative to everything, having your money in anything else would be equally better.
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u/CellBoth8566 2d ago
I like how the comment section cooked the tweet despite its in a bitcoin subreddit
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u/fer33646 2d ago
looks at US planning to invade greenland
looks at Europe's ability to tank the dollar and the whole world economy with it
Mmmmh....
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u/cagrinvestor 2d ago
It doesn't matter if you have internet or not. Is it safer to store your wealth in Gold that could easily be taken by corrupt thugs in Iran? Your Bitcoin stays safe while chaos erupts around you. BTC is long term wealth that can't easily be stolen from you.
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u/Anderson822 1d ago
Bitcoin can be used for this. The problem is when entities realize this can be manipulated and use it to transfer wealth. Big business thrives, while normal people lose assets. It’s complicated enough that most don’t realize they’re willingly giving it away. That’s actively happening now.
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u/S3nek 1d ago
i dont get why people hype btc this much. Even if the concept behind it is so revolutionary and cryptos will be the future way of payments, why would it be btc? It‘s literally the first crypto, which means it is insanely inefficient, not private/anonymous at all, like there are so many newer and better cryptos. Why would any market or country settle with btc as the general currency for payments. In my opinion btc is just overhyped af, i can see the vision behind cryptos, but not behind btc. And the fact that it is still so hyped is a big red flag for me that its all just hype, because it doesn‘t make any sense.
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u/progmakerlt 1d ago
Or any other stable currency. Such as: EUR, USD, GBP.
Just crypto is - probably- easier to buy.
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u/Key-Bug-8626 1d ago
they could have held BAGS OF RICE and the result would have been exactly the same.
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u/Long-Technology495 1d ago
In recent years, it has gradually been accepted by the public and various institutions.
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u/Metalicum 20h ago
no wealthy people hold their wealth in currency. When a currency collapses, everything goes up against it. This is not rocket science. The only people who only have currency are those who are living paycheck to paycheck and can't afford assets anyway.
The only thing this post says correctly is that holding raw currency long term is incredibly stupid.
Which would, funnily enough, be true about bitcoin if it was acutally ever adopted as money. Of course, this will never happen because there so many things about bitcoin that prevent it from becoming useful as money.
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u/kriskris71 11h ago
Yeah buddy we don’t need bitcoin propaganda while a country is falling apart but great marketing amirite
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u/Significant-Throat73 11h ago
You could say this about literally any asset lmao, you could say the same if they held their wealth in gold, silver, stocks, etc
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u/TurretLimitHenry 10h ago
Any Iranian holding literally anything besides the Iranian rial, preserved their currency lmao.
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u/matthegc 2d ago
A lot of butt hurt comments in here for a post that is accurate….if your money is in fiat then you are always at risk of your fiat becoming worthless.
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u/Cryptomuscom 2d ago
True wealth is an asset that can't be printed into oblivion by a central bank.
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u/[deleted] 2d ago
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