What's the use for Bitcoin?
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What's the use for Bitcoin?
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Re: What's the use for Bitcoin?
#2There really is no use for it. Banks have made transactions dirt simple and convenient (especially those outside the US), as well as safe.
The only real use for Bitcoin is for anonymous, difficult to trace transactions (ie. black markets), and speculation.
With my regular bank account and credit card, I can buy products from China to NA to Europe and just about anywhere, can change my funds into a myriad of currencies, and since I have an investment account, can also invest in 19(? have to check with my broker) different countries' stock markets.
The problems Bitcoin claims to be trying to solve were already solved by the banks a while back. Plus banks will insure a fairly large amount of cash (more than most of us will have at any given time).
Re: What's the use for Bitcoin?
#3I would tend to agree with the author here. I can't see Bitcoin ever emerging as something legal and useful to the average person.
>Bitcoin enthusiasts disagree, claiming illicit activity is practically non-existent. Instead, they preach decentralization, trustlessness and smart contracts - none of which are benefits but merely features.
Bitcoin enthusiasts preach an awful lot of things, particularly preaching about how others should adopt Bitcoin as a currency while they themselves sit on their stacks of it hoping to see its price rise and cash in.
Indeed, it is these Bitcoin "enthusiasts", or more accurately lay speculators, that are likely one of Bitcoin's largest issue. They've turned what was designed to be a currency into an investment/speculation instrument and it's not transcending beyond that because of it, with the exception of people using it for illegal purposes.
So you've two sides to Bitcoin in reality - speculators praying other people adopt it as a currency and those using it for nefarious purposes - both of which are off-putting to any normal person who'd consider using Bitcoin for purchases.
I see no real future for Bitcoin personally. Gambling, perhaps, but even Bitcoin poker at the moment is mainly already skilled, dedicated players using Bitcoin Poker to play since they can't in the US, and that's not going to attract many casual players in itself to create a sustainable ecosystem, nevermind the Bitcoin barriers to getting on to the site in the first place.
Re: What's the use for Bitcoin?
#4Useful but not on his list:
* Bitcoin is excellent as a charity funding mechanism. Often I may wish to give to a charity, but don't want to give out my credit card number. I give up my tax credit, but for small handouts that's quite alright.
* Micropayments. There is simply no other infrastructure that does this as well as Bitcoin does, because processing fees dominate.
Re: What's the use for Bitcoin?
#5[deleted]
Re: What's the use for Bitcoin?
#6I derided Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general until I seriously looked into it, and then I could hardly sleep for days because of the huge implications of it.
Bitcoin allows people who are unbanked, especially in developing countries, to hold and transmit money across the world at practically zero cost. Since bitcoin is decentralized, there are no middlemen like banks to take a cut or freeze your account.
Besides, there are a lot more crimes being perpetrated with fiat and credit cards by financial institutions and governments. And with new allegations that it was the US Feds that stole the money from Mt. GOX users (and not Mark Karpeles), I wonder if there isn't a nasty propaganda campaign against bitcoin going on.
This article is close to clueless. But then, for a time so was I.
Re: What's the use for Bitcoin?
#7The conclusion ("It’s incorrect to say Bitcoin doesn’t have a use case. It does. It’s just illegal in the US.") seems strange given that there is a big section of the article on semi-illegal things - basically things that are legal but traditional financial companies don't want to touch. The article says "mostly gambling, marijuana, and porn" but I'd also add politically controversial things, like when all the payment processors decided they didn't want to handle donations to Wikileaks after the US government asked them to make that change. These are real and legal use cases.
Re: What's the use for Bitcoin?
#8> Bitcoin is great for illegal goods/services
> Tax evasion and escaping capital controls are also possible with Bitcoin
Bitcoin is about as useful as lucky sunglasses for illegal transactions. Just ask Ross William Ulbricht.
I don't engage in illegal transactions. But if I did, I wouldn't use a mechanism that leaves a permanent, publicly available record just waiting to be de-anonymized.
> Bitcoin is powerful because it allows people to circumvent regulations, as it does not rely on the traditional banking system.
False. Regulations do not limit themselves to the traditional banking system. Bitcoin is about as useful as lucky sunglasses for avoiding regulation. Sure you can get away with it a few times,....
Re: What's the use for Bitcoin?
#9There really is no use for it. Banks have made transactions dirt simple and convenient (especially those outside the US), as well as safe. The only real use for Bitcoin is for anonymous, difficult to trace transactions (ie. black markets), and speculation. With my regular bank account and credit card, I can buy products from China to NA to Europe and just about anywhere, can change my funds into a myriad of currencie…
> The problems Bitcoin claims to be trying to solve were already solved by the banks a while back.
Bitcoin (according to its website) claims to provide instant P2P transactions and very low processing fees. International bank transactions take days or weeks and have very high fees.
But even more importantly, bitcoins do not require a bank account. All it requires is internet or text messaging access. This is very important for the developing world where many people do not have bank accounts.
Re: What's the use for Bitcoin?
#10Bitcoin's killer app is its function as a store of value. It's hard to see this when there are plenty of things that are storing value better at the moment, like traditional currencies and assets. But I don't think that will hold indefinitely (especially given our asset bubble), and that will lead people to look for ledgers with predictable supply, like gold and Bitcoin.
Then again, maybe I'm crazy.