Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard precisely these claims 1000 times. BTC is not stored energy because it cannot be converted back to energy and its creation does not increase the amount of usable raw materials available to humanity. And a future where mining is constrained by geography and friendly states absolutely obliterates any decentralization - ruining the only benefit obtained by the outrageous energy cost. Renewables are obviously…
If one converts unused 15MW hydroelectric power in Canada to bitcoin, and sends the bitcoin elsewhere, say Japan, couldn't one then buy ~ 15MW of energy? I think that's the sense people mean when they say its a store of energy. However, I'm not sure that's any different than saying that money (in general, not just bitcoin) is a store of energy. The difference here may be that the remote hydroelectric in Canada may no…
El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
701–710 of 732 posts
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#702Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, read through this 1001st version of the argument, and finally you'll understand why it's not bogus! It's really terrible that you've been arguing with such stupid people, because it's not really that complicated to explain why bitcoin mining is a renewable energy subsidy. It's really very simple, although it involves a lot of facts you aren't acquainted with. > But that's true for renewable energy too. Nothing…
This is a nice response. Thank you for sharing.
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#703Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's important to note that El Salvador's currency is the US dollar. WU doesn't even need to convert currency. They are simply taking up to 10% from a low-earning demographic group in the US just because they can. Even if bitcoinization itself "fails", if it forces WU to lower its fees it'll do net good. Among U.S. Hispanics and Salvadorans, the median annual personal earnings for those ages 16 and older was $25,000.…
Interestingly Bitcoin can’t really “fail” in the conventional sense. It won’t go bankrupt and isn’t beholden to profits. It will be an interesting experiment
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#704Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope, although the fake currency transfer rates that are the big obstacle here are structurally similar in their economic impact to prohibitively-high export tariffs, they aren't actually taxes; they don't go to the Treasury but to the Central Bank, and so they don't pay for social services but rather to subsidize imports, further hollowing out the Argentine economy and destroying our competitiveness. But the evidenc…
If I understand your situation correctly, you are working in Argentina, but not paying income tax because you are a non-resident, and the source of your income is outside Argentina. In that situation, I would look into setting up an offshore corporation with a bank account to hold the income, and then get a debit card that could be used in Argentina. This would be a hedge against the volatility of bitcoin (but maybe…
Very nearly—I'm working in Argentina, and the source of my income is outside Argentina, but I am not paying income tax because AFIP refused to issue me a CUIT without a work visa, but I'm not a non-resident; I'm an illegal immigrant.
> In that situation, I would look into setting up an offshore corporation with a bank account to hold the income, and then get a debit card that could be used in Argentina.
I have no idea how to do this, particularly without being able to leave Argentina. Also I don't think it's really a practical solution for the vast majority of people in either Argentina or El Salvador. (Also, most people bridle at taking the 38% haircut from the fake exchange rate, which at times has gone as high as 50%. In Venezuela it's sometimes been over 90%.)
> get cash from strangers, which I personally would be a little hesitant about, since there is a non-zero chance you are accepting dirty money and/or helping people circumvent currency controls
Any time you handle money, whether from a bank or anywhere else, you are accepting dirty money and/or helping people circumvent currency controls. The nature of money is that it is dirty and circumvents currency controls. That's the advantage money has over a gift economy: I don't have to worry whether the person I'm selling my car to, writing software for, or selling Bitcoin to is a good person or a bad person, whether when they return the favor it will be in spades or stintingly, or whether they will die or leave town before returning the favor. Of course I would like my money to fund good activities like education, family remittances to Venezuela, and abortion rights†, rather than bad activities like factory farming of livestock, constructing nuclear weapons, or exploitative garment sweatshop labor; but the nature of money is that it grants each individual the autonomy to make their own moral choices about how to direct their resources, rather than submitting each innovation for community assent. Sometimes they make the wrong choices, but that is better than not having the choice at all.
Similarly, the ice cream shop down the street has no duty to inquire whether the young woman buying ice cream earned that money from masturbating in front of a webcam for strangers on the internet, which I think is an occupation in which bitcoin is now very popular. Indeed, it would be unacceptable for them to make such inquiries.
I'm hesitant about getting cash from strangers for a different reason, which is what I thought you were going to say: they might shoot me or rob my house and take the cash back. With banks and Western Union this is a much larger risk.
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† Abortion was illegal in Argentina until December. One of the things I did with my money in the past was to buy abortion manuals and give them away in the park. (It turns out there were legal drugs in Argentina which could produce safe first-trimester abortions.) Probably many people considered that money "dirty", but because we live in a money economy, the people who printed the books didn't have to worry about being turned out of their homes or going hungry as a result. Free abortion took a really long time to gain community assent.
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#705Earlier quoted context omitted.
nano to name one
Why? Are you saying that countries should start adopting a crypto with a market cap of barely 1B$, that's been around for a less amount of time, that's significantly less battle tested and that never recovered to it's all time high value? Do you think that the only thing that matters for crypto is speed and fees? You don't think trust/security/decentralization have any value? Bitcoin chooses trust and security above…
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#706Earlier quoted context omitted.
My question to you is have you used it to buy anything real with it?
Not only I have used it many times, I've even built a lightning network wallet (link in my profile). You just have to look around and you'll see that millions of people are using it on a regular basis. Pure speculation can't make something become worth as much as Bitcoin is worth right now.
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#707Earlier quoted context omitted.
In order for bitcoin to be used as valid currency it needs to be pegged to the local government issued fiat currency. If BTC fluctuates so much would you like a coffee or groceries with it knowing its value can be half or double tomorrow. Real question to ask yourself is have you used it to buy anything in the real world with it.
I have yeah, that was a long time ago when I believed in Bitcoin as a currency and it's use in payments. I don't particularly believe in bitcoin anymore, but that's only relative to other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum.
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#708Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does it work that they have the ability to help you recover your funds, but they can't do that "recovery" unilaterally?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_Secret_Sharing
1. There is never one single key with full control. This is a huge vulnerability with SSS.
2. More flexibility, by allowing differing k-of-n subsets in combination with timelocks and other Bitcoin script features.
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#709Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t particularly want my dollars to “hold value”. I want currency to be useful as currency; I want my investments to hold value. The two things serve different functions, and I don't want investments compromised to be useful as currency or vice versa.
> I don’t particularly want my dollars to “hold value” Sure, but would you really rather your dollars "lose value" as in they can purchase less and less goods and services over time? How does that benefit you personally?
Yes. Mostly, because of systemic effects on the broader economy I need to have functioning to earn a living, but also because of more direct personal benefits.
> How does that benefit you personally?
Because other than a small share in cash and the bank for liquidity, my assets aren’t dollar denominated, but my debts — which, while smaller than my total assets, are much larger than my dollar-denominated assets — are almost entirely dollar-denominated.
Re: El Salvador makes Bitcoin legal tender
#710Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which is completely fine, because the Fed is willing to step in as the lender of last resort.
Where does the Fed get the money to be a lender of last resort - by printing the money and generating inflation? If so, then how does this inflation impact the purchasing power of these last resort dollars? I often like to take things to a logical extreme. Since the Fed can simply print all this money into existence, is there a limit to their ability to print? I mean couldn't they simply print their way out of any ec…