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Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

nytimes.com

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Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#101

Post by jogjayr »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #95
legulere wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> International payments When was the last time you made an international payment? I never made a payment outside of the EU and inside the EU I already have free wire transfers. For most people this is not interesting. > unbanked/underbanked You have the right to a bank account in the EU. > Allowing merchants to save 2% in credit card fees Currently Bitcoin is more expensive for typical transactions. And there's dire…

> When was the last time you made an international payment? About an hour ago. I'm on holiday ftw. But even not on holiday ... Quite often. With an extortionate credit card fee.

You can get credit card with no foreign transaction fees quite easily. It's possible they make it up in the exchange rate spread though; I honestly don't know.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#102

Post by kowdermeister »

solomatov wrote: post #53
Gigablah wrote: post #45

I feel like it's already mainstream, in Singapore at least. I was getting a haircut at the neighbourhood barbershop and I overhead the shop owner talking about cryptocurrency with a female customer -- stuff like regulatory issues, Satoshi's identity, altcoins, and so on. They probably had more knowledge of Bitcoin than I did.

It sounds like a sign of a bubble to me.

Sounds like cyberpunk to me.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#103

Post by 0x006A »

alexandersingh wrote: post #90
legulere wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> International payments When was the last time you made an international payment? I never made a payment outside of the EU and inside the EU I already have free wire transfers. For most people this is not interesting. > unbanked/underbanked You have the right to a bank account in the EU. > Allowing merchants to save 2% in credit card fees Currently Bitcoin is more expensive for typical transactions. And there's dire…

According to Wikipedia, remittances were in excess of $560 billion last year, faciliated by 250 million migrant workers[1]. You and I are not the user demographic ;) 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remittance

That's his point though, the early internet had many useful applications that where appealing to the mainstream. International money transfers are not a mainstream activity.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#105

Post by rubatuga »

I believe that crypto currencies will not affect most people’s lives (<10%), and therefore it will never go “mainstream”. The applications for BTC are quite limited, and are mostly edge cases such as evading detection, and easy international transfers. The value of a BTC is currently based on the price of mining one BTC, plus mass speculation. If you consider the immense inefficiency and resources required to mine a BTC, you realize that in most cases using your state’s currency is a better option. The trust and safety provided by BTC is subject to the law of diminishing returns, meaning that most will be content with the money system currently being used today.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#106

Post by jondubois »

Money has been getting increasingly less tangible over the past few thousand years.

Initially, the value of money was in the materials that made it up; e.g gold, silver coins.

Then people started paying with paper backed by gold; so although the paper itself had no value, it could be used to redeem gold.

... People got used to paper.

Then people started paying with paper fiat currencies not backed by anything.

Then people started paying with electronic numbers on computer screens in their bank accounts backed by the fiat paper money.

... People got used to digital numbers in their bank accounts.

Now we have cryptocurrencies which are backed by the electronic numbers in our bank accounts.

It does seem like a logical progression.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#107

Post by omarchowdhury »

honestlyreally wrote: post #80
wingerlang wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means they are holding $2000 of your money. And if you send it to another bank then it means they send it to them and now the other bank is holding your $2000. Nothing hard about that. Bitcoin might be easy if you're a techie and interested in it. I am not interested in it and I barely even know where to start. What does it mean to mine stuff? Blockchain? What.. There is no way my parents would remotely get starte…

If everyone wants to take their $2000 out at once, can they? In most countries that's highly unlikely, so is it really $2000? Or something entirely different?

What happens to Bitcoin if everyone decides to cash in?

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#108

Post by golergka »

CPLX wrote: post #22
dcw303 wrote: post #7

We're a long way off mainstream. Take the Web as an example: When my university lab computer got trumpet winsock and Netscape installed, it wasn't mainstream. When Hotbot was launched and could actually search with some degree of efficiency it wasn't mainstream. When I learned html and javascript from reading Webmonkey posts it wasn't mainstream. When I switched to this new upstart called Google it wasn't mainstream.…

But with Google your Mom can find out when the store is open and where it is. Facebook lets grandparents see photos of grandchildren. Reading a blog replaces reading the gossip column in the daily paper. You could finally buy plane tickets without driving somewhere. And so on. The early web was really fucking useful as it started to mature. It solved a lot of real problems. What is cryptocurrency going to help these…

Buying drugs.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#109

Post by qbrass »

honestlyreally wrote: post #80
wingerlang wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means they are holding $2000 of your money. And if you send it to another bank then it means they send it to them and now the other bank is holding your $2000. Nothing hard about that. Bitcoin might be easy if you're a techie and interested in it. I am not interested in it and I barely even know where to start. What does it mean to mine stuff? Blockchain? What.. There is no way my parents would remotely get starte…

If everyone wants to take their $2000 out at once, can they? In most countries that's highly unlikely, so is it really $2000? Or something entirely different?

It's debt, they're not storing money for you unless you get a safe deposit box and leave it in that.

Deposits are loans you make to the bank. The interest rate is crap because you want the ability to call in that debt whenever you feel like. But like loaning anyone else money, they might not have it on them when you come to collect.

Re: Digital coins may be on the verge of going mainstream

#110

Post by mrb »

legulere wrote: post #88
mrb wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" What is cryptocurrency going to help these people do that they can't do already today? " International payments confirmed and spendable in minutes not days. Escaping inflation in Venezuela/Argentina/whoeverisnext. Sending remittance to family overseas without 10% wasted in fees. Receiving monetary donations for organizations that might be victim of oppressive censorship. Participating in modern e-commerce for the u…

> International payments When was the last time you made an international payment? I never made a payment outside of the EU and inside the EU I already have free wire transfers. For most people this is not interesting. > unbanked/underbanked You have the right to a bank account in the EU. > Allowing merchants to save 2% in credit card fees Currently Bitcoin is more expensive for typical transactions. And there's dire…

"When was the last time you made an international payment?"

I love that you asked this question! The very reason it doesn't happen often is because of friction inherent to legacy payment systems. Cryptocurrencies remove this friction in cross-border trade, hence are making such transactions more commonplace.

It's like you saying in 1890 "Why buy cars? People don't travel that much." But the invention of cars is precisely what increased the desire to travel.

"You have the right to a bank account in the EU"

What about the rest of the world? 6.6B humans?

"Currently Bitcoin is more expensive"

Not for transactions above approximately $100.

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