We've been going back and forth about Bitcoin's price for years. But the real takeaway here is that Bitcoin is unique. It's the only asset where you can actually keep control of your hard work without having to trust any middleman to hold onto it for you.
Yes, but many people are not hodling bitcoin the way it should be hodl, they are leaving their bitcoin on centralized exchanges and centralized wallet. The new one has been the bitcoin exchange traded funds called the ETFs which are another centralized means. Those that hodl bitcoin in the way they have the necessary seed phrase or the keys that they will use to spend it are the people that are hodling bitcoin in the right way of no third party.
At least, bitcoin gives them the option of freedom but they choose to trade the freedom. It's human nature, we love intermediary.
Self custody is freedom but it comes with price. You're responsible for your own sovereignty. People see this as heavy task on them so they chose exchange for conveniency.
It's heavy. It sounds simple in theory but heavy in practical.
Bitcoin is not just about removing third parties. Its about giving people a choice. Some will choose convenience, others will choose full control. Neither is surprising but if you are holding for the long term, understanding self custody is worth the effort because thats where Bitcoins unique value really shows.
We see the same thing outside Bitcoin too. People trust banks, cloud storage and social media because they are easy to use even if it means giving up some control.
Bitcoin's philosophy is not just about removing banks but removing unnecessary trust.
Most people came to invest in Bitcoin because of price and on the process, learnt the big importance of self-custody. Before Bitcoin came to existence, we were made to believe that it's okay to leave our money with a third party. Bitcoin came and gave us the option of having full control of our money but with this option came with responsibility and not everyone is ready for that.
The good thing is that Bitcoiners are aware of the risk of using a third party while using them, not like they assume that exchanges and self-custody are the same.
Of course you don't get to chose who to trust your funds with on other financial systems thus giving them the power to use your hard earned money at will. With Bitcoin, you are given the privilege to choose how you wish to control your funds.
People don't consider this a problem and honestly it is. With the spike in the purchase of Bitcoin by institutional bodies, investors no longer seem to be interested in learning about Bitcoin or why it was created. The major reason for Bitcoin creation was to give freedom to those who wants it.
I wouldnt say we are arguing about Bitcoins price for years, we generally are though speculating
and then complaining about the market followed by wishing and hoping it will do one thing or another.
No there are definitely plenty of people out there who still trust centralised exchanges and platforms
with their money, just the same as they give google all their personal information when using gmail,
they are blind to the need to keep your personal info private and to be in control of your finances.
There are literally thousands of investments like that. You can buy some rare diamonds and hide them in your house, or buy some bars or gold or buy some land. For that matter, you can buy any sort of tangible good and simply guard it with your own shotgun and you are not "forced to trust a third party".
Of course, 99% of people don't want to physically guard their life savings with one or more weapons (and even fewer are truly qualified to do so--and about zero can do it consistently). Most want to pay somebody else who is an expert at guarding stuff to guard their stuff. One type of institution that does this is called a "bank". Others are called, "brokers" or "financial institutions" and also "governments" who guard things like public records of ownership.
As for Bitcoin, most people invest in Bitcoin the same way they do other investments like stocks. It's just a name on a screen that they buy in hopes that its number goes up in the future so they can sell it and buy nicer things or live more comfortably.
Most people don't know that Coca Cola started as a cough syrup, and most people don't know (or care) about what started Bitcoin either.
Poor us that we have been arguing a whole lot on the price of Bitcoin for years, leaving behind what Bitcoin has taught us to be doing, not to freely trusting centralized exchange to have our Bitcoin kept under their care no matter how trustworthy they seems to be. We will prefer to have Bitcoin under our control. That shows real ownership that we want to be in charge of our wealth.
What makes Bitcoin different from others crypto currency and even different from our everyday banking systems is it's decentralized nature, the ability of Bitcoin not to be controlled by anyone or any institution. The Idea behind Bitcoin is that everyone has control of their finances, taking ownership away from the government. This type of things are actually has not been seen before that, is why government is doing everything possible to make sure that Bitcoin doesn't see the light of the day, and take away it decentralized nature via policies such as KYC. It's all a calculated attempt to regulate the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin have given us a choice. It has brought an idea of freedom down to us which many have copied, and we have an option to choose how we want our money to be and how we want to spend it only a few out of the total population spend and making use of money actually fully use it the way it should some are in bitcoin for the reason you have outlined while some are deceiving themselves by holding bitcoin through centralised service provider which eliminates the through purpose of Bitcoin usage.