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Bitcoin is a disaster

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Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#351

Post by tekkk »

jokethrowaway wrote: post #13

Completely agreeable, albeit it misses a point: Governments can't print more of it. That's it really, everything else is noise. I can sympathize with btc (I wish we still had a gold standard, or a standard based on the price of common goods) but I don't see much the other benefits. On top of this, governments could ban btc.

I have been reading about people pining for gold standard but doesn't anyone anymore remember the Great Depression where the gold standard actually made the matters a lot worse when the governments couldn't print more money? I get the ideological pathos but gold standard doesn't seem very realistic to me anymore. Whenever a negative feedback loop happens in economy you want to have very robust means to stop it if necessary.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#352

Post by wpietri »

cambalache wrote: post #304

I agree with most of the points raised by the author but as a Venezuelan Bitcoin is a godsend. If you live abroad and want to send remittances to your friends and family it can be pretty easy in a normal country , with wire transfers,western union and so on. If your family lives in Venezuela your options are extremely more limited. These are some of the options Venezuelans have had to use: 1. Ask the money to be sent…

Is this from personal experience? And is there any data available to show that it's doing significant volume in Venezuela versus other options?

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#353

Post by uep »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #245
ojhughes wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You also need a valid ID verification to buy BTC from the main platforms now

Yeah, Coinbase changed the other year, only for US citizens, where a passport is insufficient, you need to prove state residency (i.e. for most people, a driver's license). But one of my points here is that, while I'm sure some people here are chomping at the bit to nail me with a gleeful "see? ironic!", I simply don't have to use Coinbase. I can, for example, exchange Bitcoin locally the same way I can trade USD for…

Are you primarily engaged in illegal actions for your source of income? Your other comments in this thread seem to imply that is the case. No judgement, but if so, I think this is a pertinent piece of information.

It is not difficult for most citizens in first world nations to keep and maintain a bank account.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#354

Post by wcoenen »

howinator wrote: post #335
wcoenen wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We've injected trillions of dollars of fiat into the economy this year When the government issues debt and then uses the money to send out cheques, that money had to come from investors in the first place. So the money was reallocated, not created. (New assets did get created: someone is going to hold those bonds and count them as part of their assets. But they can't use these bonds directly to buy groceries.)

But recently, the U.S. Treasury has issued a ton of debt to the Federal Reserve. The Fed is creating dollars and handing them to the Treasury in exchange for T-notes. The recent debt increase has actually created U.S. Dollars out of thin air. Following this line of thought, those dollars have made their way into the "real" economy in the form of PPP loans and Covid checks. It was a similar story in 2008, but the amou…

The fed creates bank reserves, which is different from the commercial bank money in your account. It's quite confusing because both are called "dollars", but they can't be used in the same way.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#355

Post by scotty79 »

im_down_w_otp wrote: post #138
addicted wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one treats Bitcoin as a currency. It’s treated as an investment vehicle. And the reason behind that is obvious. Something whose value may double in a month or whose value may halve within weeks is a terrible currency. If I expect it’s value to increase then I would be a fool to spend it. If I expect it’s value to drop I would be a fool to accept it. Cryptocurrencies are anything but currencies.

Technically speaking, it's also a terrible investment vehicle for those same reasons. It's a fantastic parlor game of speculation though, where the point is the volatility.

Over period of 10 years behavior of Bitcoin price was extremely predictable.

https://miro.medium.com/max/1838/1*Ao2C0phpSfknHvorWl2a3Q.pn...

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#357

Post by thysultan »

analog31 wrote: post #63
jokethrowaway wrote: post #13

Completely agreeable, albeit it misses a point: Governments can't print more of it. That's it really, everything else is noise. I can sympathize with btc (I wish we still had a gold standard, or a standard based on the price of common goods) but I don't see much the other benefits. On top of this, governments could ban btc.

But governments can subsidize the electricity to create new Bitcoins. Isn't that the same as printing money?

>Isn't that the same as printing money

Yes, if electricity was FREE, at which point printing money is the best next logical step as you've achieved free energy with utopia just around the corner.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#358

Post by ur-whale »

yunesj wrote: post #160
addicted wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one treats Bitcoin as a currency. It’s treated as an investment vehicle. And the reason behind that is obvious. Something whose value may double in a month or whose value may halve within weeks is a terrible currency. If I expect it’s value to increase then I would be a fool to spend it. If I expect it’s value to drop I would be a fool to accept it. Cryptocurrencies are anything but currencies.

> No one treats Bitcoin as a currency. ... And the reason behind that is obvious. Something whose value may double in a month or whose value may halve within weeks is a terrible currency. Nope. I don't buy things in crypto only because of the reporting burden. Every cup of coffee bought with crypto has to be reported on a tax return.

> t buy things in crypto only because of the reporting burden.

You should.

And then report every cup of coffe on your tax return.

And file on actual physical paper, preferably printed with a font that's hard to machine-read.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#359

Post by zik »

xapata wrote: post #210
hombre_fatal wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the irony. The point is that Bitcoin has introduced an actual "digital cash" currency without institutional/governmental middlemen. That institutions can be built on top of that, and that some people want such institutions, doesn't change the novel utility of finally having a currency that functions like digital cash. It's like saying it's ironic that people use physical USD for anonymous p2p transactions…

Since Bitcoin transactions are enabled only by spending electricity, isn't the whole system dependent on utility companies, which are either in part or in whole extensions of the government?

If electricity became less available the mining rate of Bitcoin would automatically adjust to the scarcity of available computation - it's not like there's a specified amount of electricity that has to be used per transaction.

Re: Bitcoin is a disaster

#360

Post by oxymoran »

Unless it’s a long term hedge for a new global reserve currency. Then this is exactly what you would want.

And anonymity is never going to be a feature for financial transactions, that’s just kinda naive TBH.

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