“Rosenstreich at online trading firm Swissquote said bitcoin’s surge harks to the surprises of the U.K. referendum on European Union membership and President Trump’s election. “We have underestimated the populist movements,” he said. “There is growing unease on how central banks and governments are managing fiat currencies. Ordinary people globally understand why a decentralized asset is the ultimate safe haven.”” Th…
Bitcoin hits $10,000
171–180 of 389 posts
Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000
#1727 years ago: The first bitcoin article on HN with comments! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532670 One of the posters says the feds will shut it down. I also thought this too. This remains one of the most enduring mysteries of Bitcoin to me. Why has the government taken such a hands off approach?
Why would the US government want to ban Bitcoin anyway?
Bitcoin isn't particularly useful for laundering money because converting to/from fiat in any significant quantity usually requires a Bitcoin exchange and they follow proper AML/KYC procedures (those who don't get shut down.)
Bitcoin is not particularly associated to illicit activities any more so than cash: http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-economy-black-market-sin-rep...
Bitcoin helps the economy: $1+ billion has been invested in Bitcoin/cryptocurrency companies, creating thousands of jobs.
I would say many officials in the government understand Bitcoin is a technology with a lot of potential, and it would be stupid to outlaw it from the start. Watch the November 2013 US Senate hearing on Bitcoin if you want to get a sense of how some officials perceive it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2013/11/18...
Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let me try to make the case for why Bitcoin could be a useful beyond greed. I can't really think of many reasons why you would use crypto to pay for a coffee or a sandwich if you live in the West (or frankly, even most developing nations). On the other hand, I can definitely see the utility in a censorship-resistant digital medium to store wealth. To me, this latter use case has much, much more potential to serve the…
There is absolutely nothing that would prevent a government outlawing and criminalizing bitcoin at any point in time. With one stroke of a pen government can outlaw owning bitcoins or performing any transactions in bitcoins. I'd say this is bound to happen eventually with certainty because no government would be willing to lose control on currency (especially ability to pull it out of thin air) and thereby the power…
I've never heard of such laws. You have a source on this?
Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Bitcoin is a fiat currency Please expand. Which state is forcing people to pay their taxes in Bitcoin, and/or authorizing it as legal tender?
The key quality of a fiat currency is that it is spun out of air without intrinsic value.
Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Bitcoin is a fiat currency Please expand. Which state is forcing people to pay their taxes in Bitcoin, and/or authorizing it as legal tender?
The key quality of a fiat currency is that it is spun out of air without intrinsic value.
... as imposed (that is, "by fiat") by some governmental organization.
Bitcoin's "true" value may be dubious, but it's most definitely not a fiat currency.
Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000
#176Besides BTC has serious flaws in order to attract a critical mass. It is extremely unsustainable - for example buying a sandwich with BTC requires more energy than a house for an entire week. This is alone is just horrible, especially in times when we should be trying to save our planet and not waste energy for shits like this. Secondly with it's current volatility the people who own BTC are much much less likely to spend it somewhere, because of the hope of gaining more value. However if nobody is willing to spend their BTC then adoption will lack and eventually counter act on it's value.
Thirdly you can't really convert the value of BTC into hard cash and even if you could, before you'd finish converting a large amount of BTC into cash you'd have halved the price of the BTC as part of the exercise.
Overall the technology behind it is interesting, but BTC I honestly think will massively flop and the current hype comes from pure greed. Investors trying to convince the populus to buy into BTC so they can finally cash out, but the reality is that for the normal person BTC is literally too cryptic to jump on the train and tech savvy people know better that it's too late now. It's too volatile and anything can happen. You don't buy expensive assets which are so widely known that they are in the news every day. This is too late.. we just watch and wait for the burst.
Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Ordinary people globally understand why a decentralized asset is the ultimate safe haven." Ordinary people have never heard of bitcoin. I have relatives working in finance who don't understand bitcoin.
Ordinary people (48.3% of them) aren't on the internet, either. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
I think on a surface level, they'd say sure, digital money, why wouldn't that be the future but they assume it comes from an "authoritative" source such as the UN or a government.
Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
A long time ago, when Aluminium was more precious than gold, people made what was considered good looking jewelry out of it: http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/05/aluminium-co... "Its shininess combined with its almost ghostly lightness compared to other metals made it an ideal metal for jewellery and it wasn’t long until the French elite were wearing broaches and buttons made of the aluminium." Aluminium a…
Yes, but scarcity of bitcoin is not time tested. Most people seem to downplay this requirement for being "time tested" along with "scarce". However this is the requirement that drives your decision about how much % of your assets would be in certain form over long run. Would bitcoin still be scarce 20 years down the line? Not sure. Gold? Almost certainly. Also bitcoin is at mercy of technology. Few people knows how s…
It's easy to tell if the Bitcoin that you just received is real or not. (Definitely much easier and cheaper than with gold).
Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000
#179Honest question: Is Bitcoin used in significant quantities for "legitimate"/legal transactions? I don't know a single person who has bought anything with a Bitcoin, or received payment. From my non-economic POV, it sure seems like /pure speculation/.
Re: Bitcoin hits $10,000
#1807 years ago: The first bitcoin article on HN with comments! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532670 One of the posters says the feds will shut it down. I also thought this too. This remains one of the most enduring mysteries of Bitcoin to me. Why has the government taken such a hands off approach?
Allow me to don my tinfoil hat... Could be that Bitcoin is a technology developed and promoted by international central banks, cloaked with a cyberpunk aura via Satoshi. Bitcoin could be an ideal global currency, so long as the central banks could control enough computing power and coin holdings.