An analogy for Coinbase from the 90s

Pekelo

Pekelo

Found this excellent analogy on Reddit:

"Imagine if, in 1999, someone made a website for trading Beanie Babies. Its user base surged and they got a staggering valuation of $10B. They hired hundreds of engineers and designers and managers. They IPO at a $40B market cap. Amazing!

What do you think would happen to them? How would history remember them?

That’s Coinbase.

But they don't just trade beanie babies, they also trade knock off versions and alternate beanies. So Beanie Babies and Pet Rocks and Tazos and Pogs.

And you create Tazos out of thin air to pump the others up! Like magic!"
 
I agree with you if you compare Beanie Babies with low-quality altcoins. But Bitcoin and Ethereum are different from Beanie Babies.

A few differences between Beanie Babies and Bitcoin.
- Bitcoin has a history of bouncing back from deep bear markets and exceeded the previous high.
Bubbles like beanie babies do not.
- Bitcoin is increasingly adopted by traditional, big financial institutions that used to be skeptical of it. I don't think Beanie Babies enjoyed such adoption.

Ethereum has real utility value as a platform to host smart contracts. Smart contracts have useful real-world applications. Can't say the same thing for Beanie Babies except that they are cute toys.

Crypto exchanges allow useful stuff like Bitcoin and Ethereum to be traded. Not all are Beanie Babies.
 
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Pekelo said:
Found this excellent analogy on Reddit:

"Imagine if, in 1999, someone made a website for trading Beanie Babies. Its user base surged and they got a staggering valuation of $10B. They hired hundreds of engineers and designers and managers. They IPO at a $40B market cap. Amazing!

What do you think would happen to them? How would history remember them?

That’s Coinbase.

But they don't just trade beanie babies, they also trade knock off versions and alternate beanies. So Beanie Babies and Pet Rocks and Tazos and Pogs.

And you create Tazos out of thin air to pump the others up! Like magic!"
More...
What an incredibly stupid analogy
 
I like to try to have good faith discussions. STARTING by comparing bitcoin to beanie babies is so far to one side, there is no point.

your so off base here. Just no respect at all for bitcoins invention. Get lost

come back in 10 years and this comparison will look laughable. Actually if you had a little bit of an open mind you’d see it’s laughable now
 
And before you respond that there is no meat to that response, I have given you a lot of examples as to why I think bitcoin special in the past. I even try to tee up legit negatives about bitcoin that we can discuss (hint it’s not that they are beanie babies). You don’t even think about it.

What confuses me is the anti-bitcoin people basically talk like they’re taking victory lap. But what are you taking a victory lap about? Missing the greatest trade of all time? Congrats.
 
ryancy said:
I think people who lived through the Beanie Babies mania understand the analogy. People who were not around then do not .
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one is the first way to do trustless transactions instantly and at extremely low cost anywhere in the world with no 3rd party involvement. Allows for a beater asset that can’t be confiscated giving billions property rights they currently don’t have.

one is a stuffed animal.

help me out here
 
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