Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Shopify accepts Bitcoin

ecommerce.shopify.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 124 posts

Re: Shopify accepts Bitcoin

#91

Post by lectrick »

atmosx wrote: post #36
negamax wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gold is inflationary. There's infinite amount of that on asteroids and other planets. Bitcoin is totally an asset. It will probably have far wider usage than currency.

I wrote a 30+ words comment, but to make it shorter: * The nature of BitCoin could make it from an asset worth 350 USD to 0 USD overnight. * Gold has been there for centuries. I won't even comment on the asteroid thing.

> * The nature of BitCoin could make it from an asset worth 350 USD to 0 USD overnight

No. Not unless it stops being traded for anything. Read this:

http://bitcoinsurvey.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/what-is-the-re...

It makes sense if you think about it. As long as 2 parties will accept Bitcoin as a trade medium, it literally MUST have a value in order to carry that exchange value. Whether it's 10,000 coins for 1 pizza or 1 coin for a gold bar.

So no, it will never go to zero anymore unless something as useful and unique comes out which is at least twice as good (due to network effects).

That doesn't mean a portion of the current value isn't speculative. But the speculative value is NOT "all" the value.

Re: Shopify accepts Bitcoin

#92

Post by SilasX »

lectrick wrote: post #91
atmosx wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote a 30+ words comment, but to make it shorter: * The nature of BitCoin could make it from an asset worth 350 USD to 0 USD overnight. * Gold has been there for centuries. I won't even comment on the asteroid thing.

> * The nature of BitCoin could make it from an asset worth 350 USD to 0 USD overnight No. Not unless it stops being traded for anything . Read this: http://bitcoinsurvey.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/what-is-the-re... It makes sense if you think about it. As long as 2 parties will accept Bitcoin as a trade medium, it literally MUST have a value in order to carry that exchange value. Whether it's 10,000 coins for 1 pizza…

Grandparent: Bitcoin could fall to 0 USD overnight.

You: Not true, it would only fall arbitrarily close to 0 USD.

Me: Not reassured.

Re: Shopify accepts Bitcoin

#93

Post by ceol »

antonios wrote: post #20
pbreit wrote: post #4

Will be interesting to see if Shopify (or anyone in general ecommerce) ever reports on the popularity of Bitcoin as a payment method considering there is no sense at all to use Bitcoins to purchase legal items in the vast majority of countries.

> ...no sense at all to use Bitcoins to purchase legal items in the vast majority of countries I'm speechless.

If someone holding an opposing view to you leaves you speechless, it generally means you are indoctrinated in your belief and should reevaluate it.

Re: Shopify accepts Bitcoin

#94

Post by ceol »

pbreit wrote: post #4

Will be interesting to see if Shopify (or anyone in general ecommerce) ever reports on the popularity of Bitcoin as a payment method considering there is no sense at all to use Bitcoins to purchase legal items in the vast majority of countries.

You made the BTC-zealots angry. Be careful; most of them have nothing to lose.

Get it?

Re: Shopify accepts Bitcoin

#95

Post by pdog »

petercooper wrote: post #70
rmc wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no fundamental reason why Bitcoin is rising so fast Sure there is. The goal of BitCoin is to be as popular as USD and EUR. There are maximum of 21,000,000 bitcoin. Imagine owning 1/21,000,000th of all the USD!

Imagine owning 1/21,000,000th of all the USD! Based on M0, you'd have about $148,090.

It probably makes more sense to compare it to the broader M2 and M3 money supply.

Re: Shopify accepts Bitcoin

#96

Post by atmosx »

snitko wrote: post #66
atmosx wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My argument is about currencies not inflation or deflation. The primary service provided by a currency is facilitating the exchange of goods. Being inflationary is imperative for the population to use it. It is true that currencies are forced upon population by governments (or any form of governance) and it's true that anyone would rather be holding an asset that will not lose value over time compared to one that wil…

>Inflation is an indirect motive to spend money today and not hoard. Why is spending good? If I spend money on the things I don't really need because I'm afraid I'm gonna lose otherwise, why do you think it's good for the economy? Some spending is good, some spending is bad. If everyone spends money on cars while they don't really need that many cars, why is it good? Inflation might create some jobs, but those jobs w…

In your hypothetic world, would I be able to pay taxes in BTC?

Re: Shopify accepts Bitcoin

#97

Post by snitko »

atmosx wrote: post #96
snitko wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Inflation is an indirect motive to spend money today and not hoard. Why is spending good? If I spend money on the things I don't really need because I'm afraid I'm gonna lose otherwise, why do you think it's good for the economy? Some spending is good, some spending is bad. If everyone spends money on cars while they don't really need that many cars, why is it good? Inflation might create some jobs, but those jobs w…

In your hypothetic world, would I be able to pay taxes in BTC?

Why do you want to pay taxes?

Re: Shopify accepts Bitcoin

#98

Post by oleganza »

snitko wrote: post #97
atmosx wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In your hypothetic world, would I be able to pay taxes in BTC?

Why do you want to pay taxes?

You want people to eat each other in a complete anarchy? We need some minor group of accountable well-educated lawyers and bankers to decide the laws and issues of life and death. That'd be more civilised. And this requires people to fork off a part of their income. It's a social contract, man.

Re: Shopify accepts Bitcoin

#99

Post by grey-area »

gibybo wrote: post #82
grey-area wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are maximum of 21,000,000 bitcoin. I find this limit a really interesting part of the bitcoin experiment. What sets the limit though? Is it technically possible for the developers to revise this limit at a later date, thus causing a drop in value for existing holders?

This limit is set by miners and the reference client (and the various clients that copy the reference client's limit). I'm not sure of the exact minimums necessary to change the limit, but roughly speaking if you could convince more than half of active bitcoin users and enough miners to control more than half of the network hash rate, you could change the limit. However even this wouldn't necessarily change the limit…

Thanks, that's fascinating - this idea of a currency by consensus is one of the most interesting features.

Re: Shopify accepts Bitcoin

#100

Post by atmosx »

oleganza wrote: post #59
atmosx wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My argument is about currencies not inflation or deflation. The primary service provided by a currency is facilitating the exchange of goods. Being inflationary is imperative for the population to use it. It is true that currencies are forced upon population by governments (or any form of governance) and it's true that anyone would rather be holding an asset that will not lose value over time compared to one that wil…

Do you realise that for something to be money or currency (e.g. medium of exchange), it must have value ? How do people know what is the value of 1 BTC or 1 dollar or 1 ounce of gold? They look at how much other people are willing to pay to hold it. Why would people hold gold, dollars or bitcoins? Not only in speculation that they will be worth more tomorrow. But also because they are more marketable than groceries a…

Currencies are not chosen by the population. They are forced upon them via specific organizations.

The USD Gov allows to you to pay taxes in USD, not in BTC. Even if BTC get taxed you still will have to pay your taxes in USD.

If and when the US gov will start accepting taxes in BTC all this reasoning might have a solid ground. Until then, it's a utopia.

ps. The above, will never going to happen though. It's insane/stupid/unthinkable for a state to give such power to unknown people (%98 of BTC are located in 2% of portfolios) instead of controlling it's own currency by a central authority (FED, ECB, ...).

Post reply on HN