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Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

timeslive.co.za

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Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#41
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can outlaw exchanges and then cryptocurrencies would "simply" become a black market or "shadow" economy. But they can't stop it.

But at that point wouldn’t people just use cash?

Cash doesn't work over the internet and is not immune to central bank meddling.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#42
post #20

I feel like there are whales that simply manipulate the price based on news. There's little evidence to suggest bitcoin has any usage in zimbabwe in practical day to day usage. Therelies the problem with bitcoin, why would someone in zimbabwe pay 1 week of their salary to move 3 weeks of pay and still not be sure if the money will still be there tomorrow?

Yeah I hate these "Bitcoin is happening in (Insert African/Latin Country here)" type of remarks. For Bitcoin to succeed, it needs to conquer the US market adoption and it is not even close to doing that. All price gains are just speculation and market manipulation.

> For Bitcoin to succeed, it needs to conquer the US market adoption

Genuinely: Why is that axiomatic?

Why is there no path that is, reductively, in parts of the world where electronic payments are already normal, bitcoin becomes the instrument?

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#43
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you didn't dealt with this you can't understand, but simply put, 1 week of pay could be toilet paper next week(s), as it happened in Venezuela. In my country some years ago, in a time of crisis for example the government locked all foreign currency in banks, and auto exchanged it for the national currency, at a rate set by them, it was robbery basically, prices would jump up like 25% day to day, so the national cu…

.... but bitcoin frequently jumps 25% a day on NON-domestic news.... how is it a better store of value?

bitcoin = fluctuation = jumps up and down

prices = inflation = jumps up and up

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#44
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.... but bitcoin frequently jumps 25% a day on NON-domestic news.... how is it a better store of value?

bitcoin = fluctuation = jumps up and down prices = inflation = jumps up and up

if you need bitcoin to buy toilet paper, why not just buy toilet paper

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#45
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I hate these "Bitcoin is happening in (Insert African/Latin Country here)" type of remarks. For Bitcoin to succeed, it needs to conquer the US market adoption and it is not even close to doing that. All price gains are just speculation and market manipulation.

> For Bitcoin to succeed, it needs to conquer the US market adoption Genuinely: Why is that axiomatic? Why is there no path that is, reductively, in parts of the world where electronic payments are already normal, bitcoin becomes the instrument?

Because Zimbabwean consumer doesn't influence USA; but USA consumer influences rest of the world.

I can't think of any technology besides micro-finance that has trickled-up to USA.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#46
post #34
post #31

I don't want to start the usual bitcoin scaling debate, but aren't the fees extremely high now? Using [1] an average transaction costs about 10$, this is particularly bad in a poor country. I wonder if using a cryptocurrency is really the best option in this case. [1]: https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/

The 137,000 satoshi price quoted isn't an average - it's the price to have your transaction almost guaranteed to be accepted in the next block It also shows 30 satoshi a byte gets you transaction accepted in 3-80 blocks, which based on experience is usually 3-12 blocks - and that works out to be 50c for the average transaction

For POS transactions though don't you want it to be instant?

3-12 blocks is half a hour to two hours wait. The chart shows 30 satoshis/byte to take 40 minutes to a 19 hours total wait.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#47
post #31

I don't want to start the usual bitcoin scaling debate, but aren't the fees extremely high now? Using [1] an average transaction costs about 10$, this is particularly bad in a poor country. I wonder if using a cryptocurrency is really the best option in this case. [1]: https://bitcoinfees.earn.com/

Average transaction cost has been shown to be a bad metric, context:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7b7jj1/john_newber...

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#48
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you didn't dealt with this you can't understand, but simply put, 1 week of pay could be toilet paper next week(s), as it happened in Venezuela. In my country some years ago, in a time of crisis for example the government locked all foreign currency in banks, and auto exchanged it for the national currency, at a rate set by them, it was robbery basically, prices would jump up like 25% day to day, so the national cu…

.... but bitcoin frequently jumps 25% a day on NON-domestic news.... how is it a better store of value?

Historically, Bitcoin has had high short-run volatility but also strong longer-term appreciation trend. That means it's been a good store of value, but not one you want, ideally, to rely on in situations where you might want money on short notice with little control of timing.

(Whether it's reasonable to project that past behavior into the future is another discussion, of course.)

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#49
post #46
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 137,000 satoshi price quoted isn't an average - it's the price to have your transaction almost guaranteed to be accepted in the next block It also shows 30 satoshi a byte gets you transaction accepted in 3-80 blocks, which based on experience is usually 3-12 blocks - and that works out to be 50c for the average transaction

For POS transactions though don't you want it to be instant? 3-12 blocks is half a hour to two hours wait. The chart shows 30 satoshis/byte to take 40 minutes to a 19 hours total wait.

i think that's strawman at this point. even if bitcoin had 1GB block sizes, bringing the wait time to 1 block (10 minutes), it's still not going to be acceptable for POS. it's either going to be on-chain with no confirmations, or through layer2 protocols.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#50
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you didn't dealt with this you can't understand, but simply put, 1 week of pay could be toilet paper next week(s), as it happened in Venezuela. In my country some years ago, in a time of crisis for example the government locked all foreign currency in banks, and auto exchanged it for the national currency, at a rate set by them, it was robbery basically, prices would jump up like 25% day to day, so the national cu…

.... but bitcoin frequently jumps 25% a day on NON-domestic news.... how is it a better store of value?

I love when my store of value jumps 25% in a day.
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