Episode 82

full
Published on:

13th May 2024

Bitcoin Halving

In this week's talk, Amit and Rinat dive deep into the phenomenon known as Bitcoin Halving. Join them as they unravel the mysteries behind this pivotal event in the world of digital currency.

From its history to its impact on the market, we leave no stone unturned in exploring the significance of Bitcoin Halving.

Whether you're a seasoned crypto investor or just getting started, this episode is packed with valuable insights to help you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of blockchain technology. Tune in now and stay ahead of the curve!

Transcript
Rinat:

You've made it.

Rinat:

Congratulations.

Rinat:

You made it to our podcast.

Rinat:

Tech Talk with Amit and Rinat.

Rinat:

A podcast where Amit and I talk about all things tech.

Rinat:

Today we're going to talk about Bitcoin.

Rinat:

Specifically, Bitcoin halving and we're going to talk about what it is, how

Rinat:

does it impact the market, the society and the cryptocurrency landscape.

Rinat:

So very excited to talk about cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

Rinat:

and Bitcoin halving today.

Rinat:

Thanks Amit for coming up with this.

Rinat:

It's a very fitting topic.

Rinat:

Everyone's going to be talking about it.

Rinat:

And actually the way prices are going, everyone's already been talking about

Rinat:

it and anticipating what will happen.

Rinat:

And we're going to probably talk about our two cents on it as well.

Rinat:

Yeah, hang tight.

Rinat:

Let's let's explore Bitcoin halving.

Amit:

Thanks Rinat for that introduction.

Amit:

I wanted to pick up this topic because this is the most trending

Amit:

topic at the moment because of the surge in the Bitcoin pricing.

Amit:

A lot of our listeners who are not into Bitcoin.

Amit:

They should know that Bitcoin prices have suddenly shot up in

Amit:

the last couple of months, and it has been rising consistently.

Amit:

For people who already know about Bitcoin and who hold Bitcoins,

Amit:

they must know what's happening.

Amit:

The rally is happening.

Amit:

And it's in the anticipation of the Bitcoin halving event.

Amit:

So let's get into what the halving means,

Rinat:

there are a lot of people who doesn't know what Bitcoin or

Rinat:

cryptocurrency or alt coins are.

Rinat:

But I feel like after 2020 and 2021, when we've seen the last

Rinat:

surge in cryptocurrency pricing.

Rinat:

At that time, most of the world heard the name.

Rinat:

Even if they didn't know the inner technical workings of it but they did hear

Rinat:

the name bitcoin in one way or another.

Rinat:

It's always good to know about this technology because whether or not bitcoin

Rinat:

stays , the technology underlying it is definitely here to stay because that adds

Rinat:

a lot of value intrinsic or otherwise.

Rinat:

Before we talk about Bitcoin halving, maybe it's worthwhile to just

Rinat:

talk about what is cryptocurrency.

Rinat:

We had a Bitcoin.

Rinat:

episode a long time ago when it was popular and trending back in 2020

Rinat:

or 2021, but we've gathered more subscribers and regular listeners.

Rinat:

And there's always, possibility that you've not known about it.

Rinat:

So , let me just give a brief outline of what it is.

Rinat:

So I suppose the first question I'll start with a very basic question.

Rinat:

So the first thing to think about is if it resides within computer , why can't

Rinat:

I just copy and paste and make more bitcoins ? we'll start with answering

Rinat:

that question is that we can't do that.

Rinat:

No one can do that.

Rinat:

And if it was possible, then there won't be any value of any currency

Rinat:

because everyone would be doing it and it would be like a million percent

Rinat:

inflation overnight or over an hour.

Rinat:

So for a coin or a currency to work, it has to have that kind of

Rinat:

regulated circulation in the market.

Rinat:

Otherwise everyone would have as many as they like.

Rinat:

And that doesn't work.

Rinat:

Okay.

Rinat:

What is crypto currency the name crypto currency.

Rinat:

It, you can guess it's a currency of a sort, and it is protected by

Rinat:

cryptography which is widely used in many other things in cyber security.

Rinat:

You have many ways of securing data and any kind of

Rinat:

transactions using cryptography.

Rinat:

It's, using an underlying technology called blockchain technology.

Rinat:

Blockchain technology is basically many people or many organizations around the

Rinat:

world validate how much currency everyone in the world has at all times and because

Rinat:

it's validated by many people around many different countries, there is no

Rinat:

central authority who can manipulate it.

Rinat:

As a result, it's a fully independent of any government or any kind of government.

Rinat:

Third party organization, which is what the main attraction

Rinat:

is for cryptocurrencies.

Rinat:

Uh, Bitcoin one of the first currency that uses this technology

Rinat:

and then became popular.

Rinat:

There are many other cryptocurrencies as well.

Rinat:

Second popular, is Ethereum.

Rinat:

And then there are many hundreds and thousands of Currencies that are

Rinat:

in circulation in the market today, and there are exchanges where you

Rinat:

can, transfer each of these things between each other and also buy them.

Rinat:

So I guess that's a very brief introduction of

Rinat:

cryptocurrency and Bitcoin.

Rinat:

, Amit: uh, one of the things that you mentioned is that

Rinat:

it's maintained by many people.

Rinat:

So that's why it's called a decentralized currency because

Rinat:

it's decentralized in nature.

Rinat:

Most of the currencies in the world are maintained by central banks.

Rinat:

The pound is maintained by the central bank of UK, which is the bank of England.

Rinat:

And the the U S dollar is maintained by the federal reserve.

Rinat:

So the circulation and the demand and everything is maintained by a

Rinat:

central body, but with Bitcoin that's not the case because many different

Rinat:

entities can download the blockchain and They can maintain the ledger.

Rinat:

So it has a decentralized nature.

Rinat:

You can go to the Bitcoin website or the blockchain website and download

Rinat:

the entire Bitcoin blockchain and you can see the transactions.

Rinat:

Of course, everything is encrypted, so you will not be

Rinat:

able to identify people by names.

Rinat:

But you, if you can get a string of their digital wallet, then, and if you can track

Rinat:

the currency and if you know someone's digital wallet ID, then you can trace all

Rinat:

the transactions that they have ever done or from one person to another person.

Rinat:

And to maintain a blockchain, you basically have miners and

Rinat:

Bitcoin halving is actually related to this mining activity.

Rinat:

Bitcoin, when it was invented by Satoshi nakamoto, and it was the first

Rinat:

cryptocurrency, it's a digital currency.

Rinat:

And the main problem that they were trying to solve is how do you prevent

Rinat:

cut copy paste in a digital world?

Rinat:

And the way he came up the solution with which he came up

Rinat:

with was basically blockchain.

Rinat:

And blockchain means, there are different blocks.

Rinat:

Each block has different number of transactions, say five to 10 transactions.

Rinat:

And these blocks get added in a chain.

Rinat:

So you can add a set of transactions in a block and that block can

Rinat:

be added to the previous block.

Rinat:

So suppose there are 10 blocks and you want to add the 11th block will

Rinat:

have say 10 transactions and then it has to be added to the 10th block.

Rinat:

Now the part in which you have to add it, that is the part where you have

Rinat:

to solve a cryptographic problem.

Rinat:

Basically, you have to identify certain number of zeros in

Rinat:

a certain string of numbers.

Rinat:

So you have a 13 or say 20 digit number.

Rinat:

And in that you have to identify the first 10 digits, which are zero

Rinat:

through a cryptographic algorithm.

Rinat:

which Satoshi Nakamoto created.

Rinat:

If you are able to solve that problem you will be able to attach the block,

Rinat:

the 11th block to the 10th block, and you will get some bitcoins in return.

Rinat:

So that's called mining.

Rinat:

So you are basically solving a mathematical problem.

Rinat:

through computation and getting rewarded for your work.

Rinat:

So that's why Bitcoin is basically the blockchain is based on proof of work.

Rinat:

Ethereum is based on proof of stake.

Rinat:

So that's the main concept.

Rinat:

And once the mining is done, the miners, are the people who

Rinat:

actually attach the transactions.

Rinat:

So not everyone can attach a transaction.

Rinat:

You can mine a Bitcoin but mining takes a lot of processing power.

Rinat:

And initially when the Bitcoin was invented the mining was pretty simple,

Rinat:

but as the blockchain increases in size because We are talking about

Rinat:

100 say 10 years of transactions or 20 years of transactions, and

Rinat:

there are millions of transactions.

Rinat:

So you can imagine the size of the blockchain.

Rinat:

So it's, it must be about a million blocks or maybe more.

Rinat:

So if and the challenge and why it is so efficient is that when you want to

Rinat:

add Say a particular transaction because the ledger decides who has what coins at

Rinat:

any given point in time and that ledger decides Okay, you have these many coins.

Rinat:

You have that many coins you have paid this much to this person So now you

Rinat:

have only this much and not that much.

Rinat:

The way they make sure that no person can put a fraud transaction in the blockchain

Rinat:

is suppose you want to add a transaction in the middle of the blockchain.

Rinat:

The problem is you'll have to calculate the cryptographic algorithm

Rinat:

for each of the previous blocks.

Rinat:

So suppose you want to add a block after 1 million blocks.

Rinat:

So that is 1 million and 1.

Rinat:

So in order to put that 1 million and 1 block, you'll have to calculate the

Rinat:

cryptographic, the algorithm or the value for each of the previous blocks, because

Rinat:

you don't know it and you're modifying it.

Rinat:

And any of the blocks after that have to be recalculated as well.

Rinat:

So basically your ledger will be different from someone else's ledger.

Rinat:

And all these ledgers are then tabulated to make sure they're all in sync.

Rinat:

If one is not in sync, then it means some fraudulent activity has occurred.

Rinat:

And that is the basis of this blockchain and that's why the decentralized

Rinat:

nature prevents fraudulent activities.

Rinat:

yeah, that's a, it's a really intriguing sort of technology, the way

Rinat:

to think about the whole monetary system.

Rinat:

And this is completely different than all the other traditional ways money was

Rinat:

handled because the traditional money is what we're calling Fiat currency now.

Rinat:

So the way Fiat currency has been for centuries is that, you

Rinat:

never knew exact amount of how much money is in circulation.

Rinat:

, there was an estimate, of course, but there was no guaranteed

Rinat:

that this is exactly it.

Rinat:

Now the this whole technology, blockchain technology, imagine this, that, in

Rinat:

a country, there is only one bank.

Rinat:

And that bank is giving out, cash money to everyone to survive

Rinat:

and, to go about their days.

Rinat:

But what is happening is we don't know the transaction the

Rinat:

bank is making with everyone.

Rinat:

And we also don't know the transaction people are making with each other.

Rinat:

What if all of those transactions were public?

Rinat:

So that's what's, that's what the case is for all the cryptocurrency.

Rinat:

Every user has a wallet and all the transaction ever has taken place

Rinat:

historically from the very start of Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency

Rinat:

until now up to this very second.

Rinat:

Every transaction to every wallet between wallets to exchanges outside

Rinat:

exchange Everything is recorded and is public so you're able to download the

Rinat:

whole history right now Although you have to have a serious amount of hard

Rinat:

drive space for it, but it is available right now for you to see even online

Rinat:

you can just literally type your wallet address and see all the transactions

Rinat:

they've made historically ever.

Rinat:

Now what that makes sure is that Everyone is in agreement with what wallet has

Rinat:

how much currency and what wallet had how much currency on a given date and

Rinat:

time, which makes it impossible to copy Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency

Rinat:

or any kind of fraudulent activity . Obviously, humans have found other

Rinat:

ways to be fraudulent, but this whole monetary system is fully protected from

Rinat:

fake notes , in real cash situation.

Rinat:

If you have fake notes in circulation, You have other sort of government

Rinat:

policies that public don't always support the, that government interventions.

Rinat:

Bitcoin and all other , cryptocurrencies are protected from all of that

Rinat:

because it's decentralized.

Rinat:

No one has control over it.

Rinat:

And everyone knows all the wallets and how much each wallet has and all the

Rinat:

transactions and they will continue to know until Bitcoin is available and alive.

Rinat:

So that's like the sort of the new way of thinking off of a

Rinat:

monetary system, where this works.

Rinat:

And that's the whole blockchain as Amit you just explained.

Rinat:

So that's a cryptocurrency in not just briefly, but we went into quite

Rinat:

a bit of detail, but it can only help to understand what happens.

Rinat:

So Amit, you were mentioning the miners validate, it needs to be validated by

Rinat:

poeple and you can become a miner today.

Rinat:

Although you need, you would need serious level of computing power now that it is

Rinat:

really popular, but in all honesty and no one's stopping you from becoming a miner

Rinat:

today and validating becoming one of those end points or one of those nodes, which

Rinat:

who says that, yes, I agree that, all of these wallets have these amounts and if

Rinat:

you're in agreement with everyone, that means you're contributing to the network.

Rinat:

Now, obviously miners need some sort of, um, return for their investment.

Rinat:

They're having to spend time, money and effort into it.

Rinat:

And one of the ways they get return is.

Rinat:

As long as they're giving the correct answer to the algorithm

Rinat:

questions they are rewarded I

Amit:

so to let's go back again.

Amit:

So in, in total Satoshi, when he created the Bitcoin, he made sure that you can

Amit:

only mine, , 21 million bitcoins ever.

Amit:

So he put a limit and that limit meant that you'll have only finite currency.

Amit:

Now, the beauty of a digital currency is that it can be divided

Amit:

into decimal points as well.

Amit:

So when you say one pound, one pound can be divided into 100 pence or one penny.

Amit:

One penny is the smallest unit of currency in the British pound.

Amit:

But what if you could have 0.

Amit:

00001 to the eighth place of decimal pence and that is the

Amit:

beauty of a digital currency.

Amit:

So you can go up to the eighth place of decimal.

Amit:

So you can actually own 0.

Amit:

001 Bitcoin.

Amit:

And that has a specific value in terms of dollar or pounds.

Amit:

So firstly, you have total number of coins , that can be mined is finite.

Amit:

Then, because it's a digital currency, it can be broken down

Amit:

into up to eighth place of decimal.

Amit:

And now what the network does is that the network increases or

Amit:

decreases the difficulty of the challenge that needs to be solved.

Amit:

So the network has to generate a Bitcoin every 10 minutes.

Amit:

That's the whole thing.

Amit:

So it generates bitcoins every 10 minutes.

Amit:

So every 10 minute you add a block, you get some bitcoins.

Amit:

And based on that 10 minute analysis the bitcoin halving is now every four years.

Amit:

Now, why every four years?

Amit:

So Satoshi said that after, or he designed it in the in his white paper that the

Amit:

amount of bitcoins that you get for adding every block reduces by half.

Amit:

So suppose you were getting say 20 bitcoins for every block you're adding.

Amit:

Now you will get only 10 bitcoins for every block you're adding.

Amit:

So the miner now has to figure out how do I remain profitable?

Amit:

Because say when you were getting 20 bitcoins, the value

Amit:

of the bitcoin was say 1, 000.

Amit:

But now you're getting 10 bitcoins, the value of bitcoin might have shot up.

Amit:

So you're fine.

Amit:

You're covered because the value has gone up.

Amit:

So you can bear your cost or you add transaction costs.

Amit:

So every time a block has to be added, there is a fee attached

Amit:

and you increase the fees.

Amit:

But normally the Bitcoin price appreciates during the halving event.

Amit:

So and then the network adjusts.

Amit:

And so suppose the, so the network behaves in a way that suppose there are a lot

Amit:

of miners, so the difficulty increases to keep the 10 per minute number stable.

Amit:

Now, suppose, there are not enough miners, the difficulty drops so that

Amit:

it can still generate every 10 minutes.

Amit:

And this ensures that there is a constant flow of bitcoins up to a certain number

Amit:

of years after which it is halved.

Amit:

And this halving occurs every four years.

Amit:

So this is today's trailer.

Amit:

We are in 2024.

Amit:

The last halving was in 2020.

Amit:

And then the one before 2016 and the one before was 2012.

Amit:

And if you have been following Bitcoin, I got onto Bitcoin

Amit:

somewhere around 2016, 2017.

Amit:

And that's when the price shot up.

Amit:

Quite a lot.

Amit:

So 2016, 17, 18, the price went very high.

Amit:

Then it came down and then it got stable.

Amit:

2020, it again went a bit high, came down, went stable, and now it has again come up.

Amit:

So people are anticipating that because of this, in the network,

Amit:

Now you will generate less bitcoins.

Amit:

So whatever bitcoins are already there in the network becomes more precious.

Amit:

And that's what they are thinking that, okay, maybe it should be of more value.

Amit:

Now, no one knows what happens once the 21st million bitcoin is generated.

Amit:

Everything drop will people just cash out and then no one is

Amit:

there to maintain the network.

Amit:

What happens after the 21st million Bitcoin generation?

Amit:

No one knows because we have never been in a scenario where this event can occur.

Amit:

But.

Amit:

We know that it won't be mined for I don't know the exact number of

Amit:

years, but it won't be mined for the, for many foreseeable years.

Amit:

So this event Bitcoin halving is important.

Rinat:

Yeah, so it will be mined, but right now they get

Rinat:

rewarded with six bitcoins and it will become three, because it

Amit:

Whatever is the number.

Amit:

Yeah.

Amit:

It'll half.

Amit:

Yes.

Rinat:

Yeah, I don't know the number off the top of my head either.

Rinat:

But yeah, so the number of Bitcoins generated during after that

Rinat:

duration of time will be halved.

Rinat:

If it was six, if it is six now, after the Bitcoin halving event, it will be three.

Rinat:

And then obviously, the successful validators are

Rinat:

rewarded with that three Bitcoins.

Rinat:

So they can maintain profitability of their investment and

Rinat:

everything that they're doing.

Rinat:

Now, after the 21 million Bitcoin is already in circulation and

Rinat:

everything is created, then, as you said, we don't know what to expect.

Rinat:

What will be the price?

Rinat:

Whether everyone's just going to leave it or will correct itself

Amit:

Someone will still have to keep adding the transactions and now there is

Amit:

no more reward for generating the Bitcoin.

Amit:

So we don't know how the network will behave.

Amit:

Maybe we can cover it in a new podcast.

Rinat:

Well, there won't be this massive reward of three bitcoins, which is really

Rinat:

pricey at the moment, but there will still be incentive to continue mining.

Rinat:

It's just going to be a lot less.

Rinat:

Right now the incentive is that if you continue mining and if you

Rinat:

keep validating, , you could get three bit coins or you're going to

Rinat:

get a a small smidgen of division of that three bit coins, which is

Rinat:

a significant amount for you to be incentivized and continue mining.

Rinat:

But after 21 million Bitcoin is , in circulation, then there won't be any new

Rinat:

Bitcoins that will be generated for you, even if you mine, but there is transaction

Rinat:

fees of each transaction that is made.

Rinat:

So all of the transactions that are validated by miners,

Rinat:

they're going to distribute the transaction fee among themselves.

Rinat:

Which may not be as a attractive, lucrative as it is now, but

Rinat:

it will still generate money.

Rinat:

And as a result of not being lucrative enough, a lot of miners will stop their

Rinat:

business stop putting effort into it.

Rinat:

As a result, what will happen is there is going to be less

Rinat:

miners in the in, in the world.

Rinat:

And that would make it a lot less difficult to mine.

Rinat:

So it would be a lot easier to mine.

Amit:

Yeah.

Amit:

But the mining is to get Bitcoins.

Amit:

Now it won't be called mining.

Amit:

It will be called something else because now you're no longer mining the Bitcoins.

Amit:

You're just adding the transactions.

Rinat:

Ah, yeah.

Rinat:

validating the transaction.

Rinat:

People who validates the transaction and will continue to validate the

Rinat:

transaction, they will get reward.

Rinat:

They will get the transaction fee as their return on investment of their effort.

Rinat:

It's just not going to be as lucrative

Rinat:

. Amit: Another thing we have to think about is like what will

Rinat:

happen to the computational problem.

Rinat:

So in order to attach a block, the computational power sometimes increases

Rinat:

or decreases depending upon how many miners are there in the network.

Rinat:

If the number of miners reduces, the computational power becomes

Rinat:

easier so that you , still validate about one block every 10 minutes.

Rinat:

Now because there are less miners, the problem becomes easy and the computational

Rinat:

power over a period of time increases.

Rinat:

So now you have a three gigahertz processor, maybe in 10 years time

Rinat:

you'll have a five gigahertz processor and maybe GPUs with 10, 000 cores.

Rinat:

So you'll be able to calculate problems much faster, figure out the solutions

Rinat:

and be able to calculate or add a block to say, 10 million or 1 billion

Rinat:

transactions and you'll be able to calculate all the 1 billion parameters

Rinat:

or they might be a quantum supercomputer.

Rinat:

The whole thing is that now fraudulent activities might become simpler if there

Rinat:

are less miners and the cryptographic problems are becoming less hard.

Rinat:

The pace of computer development or the chip speeds are increasing and

Rinat:

it increases exponentially then we might see fraudulent transactions.

Rinat:

I have to completely disagree you on that

Amit:

in my head.

Amit:

I'm just thinking out

Rinat:

basically, the way blockchain and the decentralized

Rinat:

network is protected, you can't, be fraudulent on that level ever.

Rinat:

No matter if you're the only one with a supercomputer with

Amit:

because everyone else in the network also has to agree.

Amit:

Fair enough.

Rinat:

Yes, and there is, there are everyone are in different

Rinat:

countries and of different beliefs.

Rinat:

Some are probably,

Amit:

More ethical.

Rinat:

Everyone together is validating the network.

Rinat:

As it's just impossible for one person or an organization, no

Rinat:

matter how powerful their computing power is to break the, this system.

Rinat:

So that's the, basically the main strength of this decentralized network.

Rinat:

But again, yeah, no one knows how popular it will remain, but my anticipation

Rinat:

is because it's going to be the hype over it is going to be finished, then

Rinat:

there's going to be a real possibility of it being used as a currency.

Rinat:

Right now, it's just a sort of a racehorse whether, people are investing to make

Rinat:

money because the price will increase and this is not how you buy pounds or dollars.

Rinat:

You could potentially compare it to gold.

Rinat:

But yeah, if it's a cryptocurrency, if it's a currency for future that you

Rinat:

want to use to buy your daily grocery shopping, you can't do that now.

Rinat:

It's just impractical for the businesses to accept it and for you to pay with

Rinat:

it either is completely impractical, but it might become practical when

Rinat:

the whole market corrects itself.

Rinat:

There is not much of a reward of three bitcoins every hour or whatever.

Rinat:

And then, the validators are getting transaction fees as their sort of return

Rinat:

on investment and people just use it on a daily basis to pay for stuff.

Rinat:

So that could happen.

Rinat:

That's one possibility, or it could just be abandoned by everyone.

Rinat:

That also happen.

Rinat:

We've talked about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency and the technology in

Rinat:

multiple episodes actually in the past.

Rinat:

Obviously overall, now we're a little bit more mature in terms of knowledge.

Rinat:

We know how it is , as you mentioned from 2016, 17, I've came

Rinat:

to know about Bitcoin from 2018.

Rinat:

But however, the price increased since then, I've unfortunately not become a

Rinat:

millionaire because obviously I bought a very small amount, a hundred pounds

Rinat:

worth of Bitcoin at that time as early adopter as just, to know, but that was it.

Rinat:

And , while I did make a decent profit more than if I had

Rinat:

invested in S and P 500, but.

Rinat:

It's still not life changing at all.

Rinat:

What it is because of being with it and growing the knowledge all throughout, as

Rinat:

well as having the time to think about it.

Rinat:

My opinion on Bitcoin, which I was a, like a blind fan before

Rinat:

now it's a little bit more matured outlook , on this whole thing.

Rinat:

There is obviously two sides to the coin and we should know about both sides.

Rinat:

The main argument of buying Bitcoin are two.

Rinat:

One is, Oh, it's going to be the currency of the future.

Rinat:

It's going to replace the traditional currency, . So you can pay for

Rinat:

stuff and live your life with it.

Rinat:

And the other sort of convincing argument is, Oh, this is going to the moon.

Rinat:

And if you invest now, you're going to make a lot of money.

Rinat:

Even though the prices shot up now, It could go even higher, double

Rinat:

or triple , in value , in this year, now, these two things, these

Rinat:

two reasons are self contradictory.

Rinat:

It can't be both the currency that can shot up three times its value can't

Rinat:

be a currency that can be used as a payment in Uber, because would you part

Rinat:

yourself with your Bitcoin because it could be three times the value tomorrow.

Rinat:

And the way it's volatile a business wouldn't also take the risk of accepting

Rinat:

it, or even if they accept it, why would they give it away ? These two

Rinat:

sort of arguments are completely self contradictory, and that's

Rinat:

one of the reason to be aware of.

Rinat:

That it can be either one of these.

Rinat:

It can't be both.

Rinat:

So if you are thinking of buying and if you are thinking of

Rinat:

investing a significant chunk of your portfolio, do think about it.

Rinat:

What do you want as an outcome?

Rinat:

Are you buying it so after all of these hype is finished, do

Rinat:

you want to buy a coffee with it?

Rinat:

Pay for Uber with it?

Rinat:

Is that why you're buying it now?

Rinat:

Because the price would be higher.

Rinat:

So you could get more in however many years when it becomes all

Rinat:

normalized, or are you buying it in hopes that the price will go up and

Rinat:

you're going to make a decent profit.

Rinat:

Whichever one you want to go for is fine, but it can't be both.

Rinat:

It can only be either one of them.

Rinat:

And obviously if you're investing for profit and , nothing we're saying is

Rinat:

financial advice we would also say that, the whole of your capital is at risk and

Rinat:

you could lose all of your money, not most of your money, but all of your money

Rinat:

while doing this and if you're investing you're already aware of it anyway.

Rinat:

The other thing I also wanted to talk about is a lot of people compare Bitcoin

Rinat:

is the future replacement of gold.

Rinat:

And one of the reason why this 21 million the limit of Bitcoin

Rinat:

is that it's comparable to gold.

Rinat:

Basically there is a finite amount of gold.

Rinat:

21.

Rinat:

million . And that is the limit.

Rinat:

And that is all there will ever be.

Rinat:

And Bitcoin is also, there will ever be 21 million Bitcoins.

Rinat:

And that is all there will ever be.

Rinat:

And it intentionally chosen this number to correlate with gold.

Rinat:

And because it's a limited resource, the price can only ever increase.

Rinat:

Now, if it's a limited resource, and you also have to think about, it can't

Rinat:

be practically worldwide used as a currency because inflation, as bad as

Rinat:

it is, 1 percent or 2 percent inflation is necessary for growth in society.

Rinat:

Inflation 2 percent is actually healthy for an economic system.

Rinat:

And if Bitcoin circulation overall is limited forever , That part is like

Rinat:

gold can't be increased and, gold is not a worldwide currency for a reason.

Rinat:

Obviously it was at one point, but all of these things that, Governments do

Rinat:

to maintain the 2 percent inflation is actually useful in many ways.

Rinat:

And also this is a recent, couple of decades worth of outlook is that we

Rinat:

don't like when government intervenes.

Rinat:

But actually, a democratic government not always works as we would like.

Rinat:

But, usually they are doing the best they can for the betterment

Rinat:

of the most of the people.

Rinat:

So they're not always intentionally doing bad things.

Rinat:

They may be they're failing, but they are trying their best to keep it to

Rinat:

2%, which is a healthy inflation rate.

Rinat:

So I would say that if it is going to be limited, can't increase, that's also a

Rinat:

negative point for it to ever be used as a daily currency, it could be something

Rinat:

a store of value like you store gold as an investment, which will eventually

Rinat:

always increase in value, et cetera.

Rinat:

You could store it like that but to use it on a daily payment method might not

Rinat:

be feasible in that respect as well.

Rinat:

The other thing is, and this is something Warren Buffett mentioned quite a few

Rinat:

years ago, last time bitcoin was popular and I've bought into that idea that

Rinat:

it doesn't have any intrinsic value.

Rinat:

It's digital currency.

Rinat:

So people who are fans of Bitcoin and the technology would basically counter

Rinat:

argue that nothing has store of value.

Rinat:

A cash money is just a piece of paper until government, a central government

Rinat:

of a country says that, okay, this piece of paper 50 pounds or whatever.

Rinat:

And that's what gives it value.

Rinat:

Otherwise it's just an object.

Rinat:

Now.

Rinat:

That may be true.

Rinat:

But a national organization, a national government and what they

Rinat:

say is a lot more reliable source of information than any, anything, really.

Rinat:

If a whole country, a government is deciding something, Everyone in that

Rinat:

country is already bought into that piece of paper as store of value.

Rinat:

So that's one thing.

Rinat:

The other thing is gold, regardless of giving any piece of any sort of

Rinat:

store of value or not by government or anyone, gold has intrinsic value.

Rinat:

It is a metal which doesn't react very often.

Rinat:

And The reason, thousands and thousands of years ago, gold became popular, gold

Rinat:

and silver became something is because of its, various intrinsic values, which we

Rinat:

probably don't care about very much today.

Rinat:

Like it's shininess, it's non reactive property and its property to make it

Rinat:

into jewelry and a representation of luxury that has been for thousands

Rinat:

of years and Is still today.

Rinat:

So gold has intrinsic value and maybe a cash paper doesn't or it does

Rinat:

only because the government said so.

Rinat:

And you don't want to accept that.

Rinat:

That's fine.

Rinat:

But gold, regardless of governments, regardless of anything for its chemical

Rinat:

properties, has intrinsic value.

Rinat:

So limited amount of this material is going to be in short supply eventually

Rinat:

when all of it is mined and dug up, but Bitcoin is only a has store of value

Rinat:

because everyone said so, which is a good enough argument , and it will continue to

Rinat:

be valuable as long as everyone says so.

Rinat:

And it can continue forever for with this argument.

Rinat:

And I agree and subscribe to it as well, but just apples for apples and oranges

Rinat:

for oranges, gold does have an intrinsic value, which no one can take away from

Rinat:

it because of its chemical properties.

Rinat:

Now, am I saying all of these to move you away from a Bitcoin and cryptocurrency?

Rinat:

Absolutely not.

Rinat:

I am a fan, still a fan.

Rinat:

Bitcoin have own Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and will continue to

Rinat:

tell and promote it because it is a really good piece of technology, which

Rinat:

can enable so many things in future.

Rinat:

From art NFT and other various cybersecurity protocols with blockchain

Rinat:

technology, these, all of these things are really good pieces of technology.

Rinat:

So, if you don't know about it already, do be aware, do more research, get to

Rinat:

know about it and by some, obviously based on your affordability buy very

Rinat:

little as Amit you were saying earlier that it can be divided into, 0.

Rinat:

000, eight, seven zeros and one Bitcoin, which is actually

Rinat:

very much affordable, which is,

Amit:

You can buy for a hundred you don't have to specify how

Amit:

many Bitcoins you want to buy.

Amit:

So yeah.

Rinat:

Yeah.

Rinat:

So definitely support it still, and it's really good underlying technology

Rinat:

and worth knowing about, worth owning.

Rinat:

But I don't, we don't want to say when to own, when to buy, when to sell, no

Rinat:

financial advice, but, encourage to know about the technology and be involved.

Rinat:

It's my two cents that I wanted to get out.

Amit:

It is interesting.

Amit:

You raised a valid point about like store of value.

Amit:

Gold has some value in it and people use it not as a currency, but to store value.

Amit:

Like a lot of people in India, they give each other gifts of gold and it's

Amit:

very common in weddings and in When someone, when you have a very important

Amit:

ceremony, people give gifts of gold.

Amit:

And Bitcoin is being treated as that, not as a currency itself, because

Amit:

you can't actually use it to buy anything in the physical world, but

Amit:

it is being used as a store of value.

Amit:

And the only reason it has this much value is because it was

Amit:

the first digital currency.

Amit:

There are many other currencies that followed and they have their own ledgers,

Amit:

which are maintained in their own

Amit:

blockchain.

Amit:

. One of the things that might happen is how do we trade in

Amit:

different digital currencies?

Amit:

How do we trade between Bitcoin and dollar?

Amit:

How do we trade in that?

Amit:

So that's another interesting aspect, but it's not scope of this podcast.

Amit:

But from an investment point of view or for buying point of view, Treat of

Amit:

it as an investment for now, it won't be used as a currency, at least not

Amit:

now because it's very volatile and no volatile currencies , will ever be

Amit:

used for any transaction for goods.

Amit:

Whenever a currency inflates quite significantly, they try to be a

Amit:

base it against a dollar value so that you know that the dollar

Amit:

value is normally very stable.

Amit:

So most of the countries that have a very high inflation they try to base

Amit:

it to a dollar value so that they can still do transactions meaningfully.

Amit:

Otherwise it gets out of hand very quickly.

Amit:

And a lot of people can get bankrupt.

Amit:

They can lose all their assets and they can be homeless.

Rinat:

People have lost their life savings in the last bull run.

Rinat:

So definitely be cautious.

Rinat:

Don't completely be panicked that, Oh, the price have already shot up.

Rinat:

What did I do?

Rinat:

Did I miss it?

Rinat:

is there any more?

Rinat:

So that remains speculation and we'll leave you guys to do your own research

Rinat:

and speculation, but yeah definitely don't panic invest, do well thought

Rinat:

out decisions on this, is the only advice we can probably give you.

Rinat:

And also when you hear on social media and everywhere, okay, this

Rinat:

person ordered pizza with 10, 000 bitcoins and lost money or someone

Rinat:

became an overnight millionaire.

Rinat:

That's not even 1%.

Rinat:

That's 0.

Rinat:

01 percent or even less.

Rinat:

It is also because it's in short supply and not worldwide

Rinat:

adopted as a, regular currency.

Rinat:

It also is prone to being manipulated.

Rinat:

So someone who owns a lot of Bitcoin could just suddenly go to one exchange

Rinat:

and sell a significant amount and his or her friends are going to be waiting.

Rinat:

Soon as this one person sells a lot of Bitcoin.

Rinat:

The Bitcoin price suddenly drops in one exchange and friends who are waiting

Rinat:

to buy buys, and then it, what happens is regular people loses money in these

Rinat:

while the rich are getting richer.

Rinat:

So definitely be very when you do this, I would still encourage you to be involved.

Rinat:

But very carefully.

Amit:

I think That's all we wanted to cover for this podcasts and

Amit:

thanks Rinat for going into so much depth and covering so many scenarios

Amit:

for the Bitcoin and the halving.

Amit:

So hopefully the audience have gained some knowledge with our conversation

Amit:

today and they would go on to pursue their own journeys into acquiring

Amit:

Bitcoins or just doing their own research.

Amit:

Till then have a great weekend.

Amit:

And we'll see you for the next episode.

Amit:

Thanks so much for tuning in.

Amit:

Bye.

Amit:

Thank you, everyone.

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About the Podcast

Tech Talk with Amit & Rinat
Talks about technical topics for non-technical people
The world of technology is fascinating! But it's not accessible to a lot of people.

In this podcast, Amit Sarkar & Rinat Malik talk about the various technologies, their features, practical applications and a lot more.

Please follow us to hear about a popular or upcoming technology every week.

#Tech #Technology #Podcast

Find us at
Amit Sarkar - https://linktr.ee/amit.sarkar007
Rinat Malik - https://linktr.ee/rinat.malik

Contact us at - https://forms.gle/AauF6eic2CQv2Lvn9

Review us at - https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/tech-talk-with-amit-rinat-1556283

About your hosts

Amit Sarkar

Profile picture for Amit Sarkar
Amit Sarkar is an experienced software professional with over 15 years of industry experience in technology and consulting across telecom, security, transportation, executive search, digital media, customs, government, and retail sectors. He loves open-source
technologies and is a keen user.

Passionate about systems thinking and helping others in learning technology. He believes in learning concepts over tools and collaborating with people over managing them.

In his free time, he co-hosts this podcast on technology, writes a weekly newsletter and learns about various aspects of software testing.

Rinat Malik

Profile picture for Rinat Malik
Rinat Malik has been in the automation and digital transformation industry for most of his career.

Starting as a mechanical engineer, he quickly found his true passion in automation and implementation of most advanced technologies into places where they can be utilized the most. He started with automating engineering design processes and moved onto Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence.

He has implemented digital transformation through robotics in various global organisations. His experience is built by working at some of the demanding industries – starting with Finance industry and moving onto Human Resources, Legal sector, Government sector, Energy sector and Automotive sector. He is a seasoned professional in Robotic Process Automation along with a vested interest in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and use of Big Data.

He is also an author of a published book titled “Guide to Building a Scalable RPA CoE”