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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

#91

Post by dragonwriter »

freeloop3 wrote: post #88
Retric wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to ban mining in a country when you control the backbone infrastructure. At which point there is no difference between cryptocurrencies and any other foreign currency.

Foreign currency can be confiscated. A brain wallet cannot

A brain wallet can be confiscated by rubber-hose cryptanalysis.

It is more resistant, perhaps, to detection than cash on hand in foreign currency (though not necessarily particularly more than a foreign currency account where access information is memorized, depending on the threat profile of concern.)

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#92

Post by bdcravens »

solaarphunk wrote: post #28
kown223 wrote: 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?

No it doesn't. It has been several years since that was true. Big jumps these days are 5-10%. The recent drop during the BCH pump and dump didn't even get to 25% in day. I would encourage you to consult charts, as most of those memes are out of date.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#93

Post by exelius »

FRex wrote: post #72
yen223 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: WhatsApp and WeChat are huge despite not having much of an American presence.

That's not a counterpoint but a confirmation of the first part of the original argument. You just listed two examples of such apps that fail to influence America despite being huge in other countries. To make a counterpoint you need to find something popular in USA with no uptake outside of it or something that influenced USA but came from outside.

Honestly, the iPhone is a perfect "counterpoint" if you're looking for one. Dominant in the US, but relatively marginal worldwide.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#94

Post by pmezard »

AJRF wrote: post #70
daptaq wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>4. Citizens not revolting against that (including people using and accepting currency, so buy and sell side) I' extremely sceptical that people would do this. I most certainly wouldn't want to risk my life over one kind of (obscure) currency vs another.

You’re commenting in the comment section of an article where this is happening.

People in Zimbabwe are not revolting over one kind of (obscure) currency vs another.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#95

Post by [deleted] »

justboxing wrote: post #9
AJRF wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would require the government being able to coordinate controlling; 1. Internet access 2. Sales of computers 3. Imports 4. Citizens not revolting against that (including people using and accepting currency, so buy and sell side) All of which are possible but not trivial. I actually think it becomes orders of magnitude more difficult to do this with a decentralised system like BitCoin than it is with fiat currency…

> All of which are possible but not trivial Isn't China doing #1 - #4 to about 25% of the world's population already?

[deleted]

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#96

Post by uncoder0 »

SilasX wrote: post #69
bduerst wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You definitely do want it to be instant, but this isn't quite an apples-to-apples comparison. That two-hour figure is the amount to get the transaction to the point of irreversibility so it can be re-spent without worry. The equivalent figure for credit cards is ~45 days and checks can take a week to clear. But you're right, making transactions on chain is not going to be practical in an untrusted environment and it…

What you're describing sounds like zero confirmation transactions which bitcoin used to support before RBF. You can't reliably take zero-conf in btc anymore though. So you have to wait for settlement to turn over goods or services.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#97

Post by taejo »

nerdponx wrote: post #33
solaarphunk wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That still beats hyperinflation or the currency collapsing outright. Also, what other investment options do you have? I have no idea how easy or hard it is to buy Vanguard shares on short notice in Zimbabwe.

There hasn't been hyperinflation in Zimbabwe for years. The main currency is USD, with some parallel use of South African Rand, Botswana Pula and Zambian Kwatsha.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#98

Post by narrator »

rnhmjoj wrote: 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/

People in these countries don't use Bitcoin for daily purposes. The poor don't use Bitcoin. The middle upper class business owners who can't get access to large amounts of U.S dollars use Bitcoin.

They can have offshore bank accounts but getting the physical cash into and out of the country is tied up in mountains of bureaucracy and corruption. I met a guy in Panama who had to spend half his money getting the other half out of Venezuela. With Bitcoin it is actually possible to save and transfer Bitcoin to cash as needed. Carrying suitcases of hundred dollar bills around is not practical and getting cash in and out of a country like that is almost impossible.

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#99

Post by paulmd »

freeloop3 wrote: post #78
paulmd wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is little reason to prefer Bitcoin to US Dollars or Euros for those looking to avoid the effects of inflation. There is nothing uniquely difficult about getting hard currencies on the black market in such places, it's simply that most people cannot afford it - and will not be able to afford Bitcoin either. It's a dumb suggestion from breathless fanboys who didn't really think about the actual problem before pus…

You can't confiscate a brain wallet

This $5 wrench says otherwise.

https://xkcd.com/538/

Re: Bitcoin surges in Zimbabwe after military seize power

#100

Post by sillysaurus3 »

bdcravens wrote: post #92
solaarphunk wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No it doesn't. It has been several years since that was true. Big jumps these days are 5-10%. The recent drop during the BCH pump and dump didn't even get to 25% in day. I would encourage you to consult charts, as most of those memes are out of date.

3 days ago till now was a 25% jump in price. I was on record saying it was a good idea to buy in at $5800: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15679776 it's currently $7200.

And 60 days ago I said to buy in at $3k: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15259134

After Bitcoin crashes, it's always a good idea to buy.

A 25% fluctuation is still the norm. Sure, it takes 3 days rather than 1 day, but it's not mistaken.

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