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Many Years Ago, Someone Gave Me a Whole Bitcoin...then I lost it.

2018-01-19 · explainer · Hank · 3:46 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Economics (also: Personal life, Global development) · mode: Explainer · tags: self promotion

After John finds the nearly whole Bitcoin a viewer named Sean sent them in 2014, worth $15,000 and donated to Partners In Health, Hank explains that market value is set only by the latest purchase: Google stock rests on Google's ability to make money, while Bitcoin rests on an uncertain bet that people will use it as currency, which he can't advocate.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — John's hunt for the Bitcoin Sean sent in 2014; $15,000 donated to Partners In Health

  • ★★★ When a Bitcoin reached thousands of dollars, John kept emailing Hank that someone had once sent them a Bitcoin; Hank called it ridiculous and told him to stop having weird dreams. — 00:00:00 · John Green
  • ★★ When Bitcoin hit $10,000 and John emailed again, Hank said he was wrong and that if anything someone had sent them a Dogecoin, which isn't worth much. (playful) — 00:00:14
  • ★★★ At $15,000 a Bitcoin, John searched every email since Bitcoin began and found that a nice person named Sean had sent them almost an entire Bitcoin in 2014. — 00:00:28
  • ★★ They had to recreate an old email address; at the end Hank logged into Coinbase and found $15,000 they didn't know they had. — 00:00:46
  • ★★★ The brothers sold the Bitcoin immediately and donated the proceeds to Partners In Health; Hank thanks Sean. — 00:01:00 · Partners In Health

00:01:04 — Where the value came from: the last trade sets every price; Google stock versus Bitcoin's bet on the future

  • ★ Hank calls Bitcoin's technology super amazing and notes SciShow made a video about it. — 00:01:07 · SciShow
  • ★★ The Bitcoin cost Sean $100 and became worth $15,000; Hank asks where that value, that actual money, came from. — 00:01:14
  • ★★ We imagine financial markets as magic or invisible-hand forces, but saying Bitcoin became worth more because its value increased is gibberish, like saying it rained because water fell. — 00:01:26
  • ★★★ Hank's Bitcoin, and everyone's, became worth $15,000 the moment someone else bought one on the open market for that price; each buyer sets the price of every Bitcoin. — 00:01:43
  • ★★ The same works on the way down: when sellers outnumber buyers, prices drop and every existing Bitcoin is worth less. — 00:02:04
  • ★★ Only the most recent purchase decides what a Google share is worth; if no one would pay more than a dollar, it would be worth a dollar: just humans buying and selling. — 00:02:12 · Google
  • ★★ Google stock's value rests on Google's fairly consistent ability to make money, and to some extent on belief that it will make more in future. — 00:02:30 · Google
  • ★★★ A Bitcoin's value rests mostly on an uncertain prediction that many people will one day use Bitcoins as currency, a bet on an unpredictable future that Hank can't really advocate for. — 00:02:41

00:02:53 — Partners In Health adds value; the linked article John shared; thanks to John; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank knows Partners In Health adds value to the world, doing amazing work with passion and intelligence, so he would rather they have his Bitcoin. — 00:02:53 · Partners In Health
  • ★★ Hank recommends the article about Partners In Health linked in the description, a wonderful half hour; John shared it and it changed how Hank thinks about a lot. — 00:03:02 · Partners In Health, John Green
  • ★ Hank thanks John for finding their Bitcoin and still cannot believe John was right. (playful) — 00:03:10 · John Green

00:03:15 — Census analysis on Hank's channel; DFTBA Pin Pals pin subscription

  • ★★ Hank has done the Nerdfighteria Census analysis; it is on Hank's channel, long and very interesting. — 00:03:17 · hankschannel
  • ★★ Until the end of January viewers can join DFTBA Pin Pals, DFTBA's new pin subscription, with free shipping worldwide; the third pin will be Mars Pathfinder. — 00:03:22 · DFTBA Pin Pals, Mars
  • ★★ Hank calls Mars Pathfinder, the first rover on Mars, an extremely important object in his life. — 00:03:35 · Mars
  • ★★ The pin club has limited openings so DFTBA doesn't make too many or too few pins, so Hank tells viewers to go sign up. — 00:03:39 · DFTBA Pin Pals

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank says he can't actually endorse Bitcoin because he sees in it a shadow of much familiar foolishness, though existing financial systems' flaws are easy to see. — video description
  • ★★ Hank says existing financial systems' flaws are easy to see: it's too hard to move money around, big institutions take undeserved cuts, and governments get too much control over what people do with their money. — video description
  • ★★ Hank says it's easy to misunderstand, or be completely ignorant of, the problems new systems will create. — video description
  • ★★ Hank says Bitcoin has proven very easy to steal, and its privacy makes such theft impossible to investigate. — video description
  • ★★ Hank says Bitcoin transaction fees have started to rise, and governments are already placing the same restrictions on it as on other money because people use it to buy illegal things, avoid taxes and launder money. — video description
  • ★★ Whether or not Bitcoin is a good currency or store of value, Hank would not want to be involved with any of that. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Bitcoin · Financial market · Partners In Health

Also: People: Sean (viewer, mentioned from 2018)

Projects: DFTBA Pin Pals · hankschannel · Nerdfighteria Census · SciShow

Works: Article about Partners In Health (linked)

Organizations: Coinbase · Google

Concepts: Invisible hand · stock market

Places: Mars

Products: Dogecoin · Mars Pathfinder

Later videos replying to this one

  • 2018-01-23 · On Emergencies (John) — continues — “In your video last week, you mentioned this New Yorker profile” (00:00:01)