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Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador

coindesk.com

61–70 of 145 posts

Re: Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador

#61

Sigh. Bitcoin BTC, at 3 transactions per second, doesn't have the capacity to support El Salvador's economy. Even if Lightning worked (it doesn't), BTC doesn't have enough capacity to open channels for users at a reasonable cost. Salvadorians will end up forced to use proprietary payment networks denominated in BTC. BTC is not cash anymore, it won't work as such. There are other cryptos that could work, we'll have to…

Yes. Unfortunately Bitcoin is not the ideal solution here. What would be the ideal solution is something like nano.org, fast transaction settlement, no fees and good UX through their community wallets.

Alternatives like XLM, SOL, ATOM could also be an option.

Re: Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador

#62
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget Lightning— Did you know you can transfer Bitcoin from one user to another on Coinbase with zero transaction fees instantly? Any exchange can do the same. Centralized layer two scales just fine for many use cases and is working today.

This is the dumbest thing I've ever read. So you designed a system that sacrifices everything to achieve trustlessness, and then you immediately reintroduce a centralised trusted entity. You can't make this shit up. I'm so glad I left the crypto community in 2014, it's become completely deranged.

Yeah, great move to leave crypto in 2014!

Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night, buddy.

Re: Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador

#63
post #54
post #4

The strictly limited amount of BTC makes this into a land grab. First comers are entitled to the services of the real economy due to their virtue of being first(or lucky to be on the right place at the right tweet). Musk is right on this one: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1401251430015582209?s=21 Unlike fiat money, BTC is not an accounting tool for value exchange. Unlike actual land, it doesn’t have any intrins…

Isn't this the case for nearly all money-like assets? E.g. stock has very similar 'land grab' properties. This is almost entirely the businessmodel of VC and AI.

Yes, it's very problematic. The last time those screwed up, something called Bitcoin was created by someone who really hated the idea of bailing out that corrupt enterprise.

People play along when they benefit too. When they no longer benefit, they take action to take it down.

Re: Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador

#64

Sigh. Bitcoin BTC, at 3 transactions per second, doesn't have the capacity to support El Salvador's economy. Even if Lightning worked (it doesn't), BTC doesn't have enough capacity to open channels for users at a reasonable cost. Salvadorians will end up forced to use proprietary payment networks denominated in BTC. BTC is not cash anymore, it won't work as such. There are other cryptos that could work, we'll have to…

What a bald statement, claiming lightning does not work without anything backing up your statement.

For reference I'd like to refer to https://1ml.com/ There is currently > 1450 BTC network capacity on the lightning network, if it wouldn't work why would people provide network capacity exceeding 45 million USD.

edit Typo.

Re: Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador

#65
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the dumbest thing I've ever read. So you designed a system that sacrifices everything to achieve trustlessness, and then you immediately reintroduce a centralised trusted entity. You can't make this shit up. I'm so glad I left the crypto community in 2014, it's become completely deranged.

Yeah, great move to leave crypto in 2014! Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night, buddy.

So I'm supposed to be sad about not participating in a pyramid scheme? You're literally making my case for me.

Re: Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador

#66
post #43
post #4

The strictly limited amount of BTC makes this into a land grab. First comers are entitled to the services of the real economy due to their virtue of being first(or lucky to be on the right place at the right tweet). Musk is right on this one: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1401251430015582209?s=21 Unlike fiat money, BTC is not an accounting tool for value exchange. Unlike actual land, it doesn’t have any intrins…

The problem with BTC is not the accounting aspect. Some parts of the financial system (like option traders) have learned to do accounting in highly volatile situations. The problem is that BTC gained it's intangible value differently from a normal fiat currency and it can loose it again. See https://bitcoin.isnot.money

It bothers me to see so many spelling mistakes on an otherwise useful page with no way to notify the author.

Re: Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador

#67
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the dumbest thing I've ever read. So you designed a system that sacrifices everything to achieve trustlessness, and then you immediately reintroduce a centralised trusted entity. You can't make this shit up. I'm so glad I left the crypto community in 2014, it's become completely deranged.

Yeah, great move to leave crypto in 2014! Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night, buddy.

It's sad to see comments like this on hn. I thought this place was supposed to have meaningful discussions.

Re: Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador

#68
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then why use Bitcoin if you're going to use what is essentially a bank?

Once you have BTC you can choose to store it outside of a bank as a non-inflationary asset. No one can remove it from your wallet.

I can do that with gold.

Gold is less volatile, and the value of the volume of a €2 coin in gold is 9 months of El Salvador nominal GDP per capita.

Or the gold could be stored elsewhere and accessed via an app, with exactly the sort of database every bank already uses.

Either way, BTC adds nothing. Apps might, depending on the banking infrastructure, but BTC itself? Nada.

Re: Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador

#69
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ease of access to and exchange with global marketplaces. I can transfer/trade directly from/to El Salvador without any bank being involved in that transaction.

A bank by any other name is still a bank. Sure there is definitely a legal difference such as deposit insurance and access to their lender of last resort. For the customer however it doesn't matter they still need KYC, the cops can still see their transactions, they still have to ask where the money is from, they can still knock on your door and put your hands in handcuffs. Many of the advantages to people in El Salv…

Our currency is the USD since 2001. The SVC our former local currency has been pegged for 20+ years to the usd [1].

The SVC is no longer used day to day and is usually kept as a collectible item, it can still be exchanged at banks at 8.75 SVC per 1 USD.

[1] https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=...

Re: Bitcoin becomes Legal Tender in El Salvador

#70
post #4

The strictly limited amount of BTC makes this into a land grab. First comers are entitled to the services of the real economy due to their virtue of being first(or lucky to be on the right place at the right tweet). Musk is right on this one: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1401251430015582209?s=21 Unlike fiat money, BTC is not an accounting tool for value exchange. Unlike actual land, it doesn’t have any intrins…

And unlike land you can start BTC2, BTC3 and so forth if people are no longer content to pay the early adopters and want their own pyramid scheme.
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