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Virgin Galactic to accept Bitcoin [video]

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Re: Virgin Galactic to accept Bitcoin [video]

#5

When businesses actually price products or services in a digital currency as opposed to accepting it, we'll know it has arrived and is ready to rival national currencies.

Agree. All these companies "accepting" bitcoin are actually just accepting USD and "converting" bitcoin.

Re: Virgin Galactic to accept Bitcoin [video]

#6
"she paid in bitcoin, which was transferred into actual dollars "so there's a fixed price ... [and] we can actually pay her money back, if she changes her mind"

Seems no different than if the buyer had sold her Bitcoin and paid Virgin Galactic in cash. The real trick will be when they can accept Bitcoin, keep the Bitcoin, and make any refunds and adjustments in Bitcoin.

Re: Virgin Galactic to accept Bitcoin [video]

#7

When businesses actually price products or services in a digital currency as opposed to accepting it, we'll know it has arrived and is ready to rival national currencies.

It almost goes without saying that such a transition would require the price of Bitcoin relative to a basket of other currencies to remain more stable by a couple orders of magnitude than it does today.

Re: Virgin Galactic to accept Bitcoin [video]

#8

When businesses actually price products or services in a digital currency as opposed to accepting it, we'll know it has arrived and is ready to rival national currencies.

When this happens the price of 1 BTC will be over 1 million of today's dollars and national currencies will seize to exist.

Re: Virgin Galactic to accept Bitcoin [video]

#9
It seems that with every passing day, another prominent institution or business starts accepting Bitcoin for payment, Virgin Galactic being the latest example. In just a few years, Bitcoin has gone from experiment to global phenomenon.

I wouldn't be surprised if in coming years at least some bitcoin users start measuring their wealth in bitcoins, and therefore also evaluating exchange rates, not in terms of how many US dollars, euros, etc. they can buy with a bitcoin, but the other way around: what is the cost, in bitcoins, of a single dollar, euro, etc.?

Looking at exchange rates in this manner changes people's perspective on volatility, which is always a relative measure. For example, since the beginning of this year, the price of a US dollar has declined by more than 98%, from BTC 0.074 to just over BTC 0.001, which makes the dollar look extremely volatile!

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PS. I'm NOT saying the dollar is extremely volatile! I'm also NOT saying that Bitcoin is more stable! What I'm saying is that if and as Bitcoin adopters start measuring their wealth in bitcoins, their perspective on what is and isn't volatile will change, as demonstrated by my example.

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Edits: expanded second and third paragraphs; added PS.

Re: Virgin Galactic to accept Bitcoin [video]

#10

"she paid in bitcoin, which was transferred into actual dollars "so there's a fixed price ... [and] we can actually pay her money back, if she changes her mind" Seems no different than if the buyer had sold her Bitcoin and paid Virgin Galactic in cash. The real trick will be when they can accept Bitcoin, keep the Bitcoin, and make any refunds and adjustments in Bitcoin.

True, but they were able to process a single quarter-million dollar transaction and easily turn that into 'real' cash. That's still a pretty decent accomplishment for magic internet money.
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