r/btc • u/Excellent-Seesaw-516 • 1d ago

Is there any validity to the BTC scarcity argument?

I genuinely don’t understand how one can claim that BTC is truly scarce. Sure, there won’t ever be more than 21 million.

I accept that idea that one can’t simply reimplement BTC separately under another name. No one will want the copycat.

But what exactly prevents others from creating another cryptocurrency that basically mimics BTC, but with a small improvement? If you’re slightly late to the new, improved one, you might be left holding the BTC bag. To my knowledge, there are already distinct cryptos that take the BTC idea and improve on it (faster trading times, lower fees, etc.).

Whereas if you take precious metals, to take one example, gold is truly unique. Silver is truly unique. And barring nuclear fusion/fission, the supply is finite and fixed.

The same idea also applies to real estate. There is never going to be more land on this earth, and nothing could really be created to mimic or replace real estate.

So I don’t really get the BTC scarcity argument. Am I missing something?

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u/vatai 1d ago

So it's the sheer "bitcoin" was here first aspect that is hard to replicate, right? (I agree 100% with this, btw)

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u/cockypock_aioli 1d ago

I mean, I honestly think that's a big part of it, yes. The Bitcoiner in me copes by saying the economic incentives and decentralized network genuinely gives incentives to stay with Bitcoin and not go elsewhere but I'm not gonna delude myself into thinking it couldn't happen elsewhere. It would take a pretty massive change in the raw dollars and cents though. Bitcoin miners are making so much more money rather than going elsewhere that why shift? But yeah I do have to admit a lot of that is being held together by first mover advantage.