7 ms·
Ask HN: Would you guys work for Bitcoin?
As in receive your salary in BTC.
- ramon 11y agoI would. Just need to re-quote every 3-6 months due to floating quotation, but ok.
- MarkCole 11y agoI would definitely not. For many reasons, but the volatility alone is enough to put me off of it. Losing a months income to a flash crash? Not only that, but I'd have to convert it to fiat anyway to pay for 99% of the things I spend my salary on. With the fees involved in the exchange and fluctuations, I'd end up with less money in the end most likely. Bitcoin is a fun toy, and spending some of my disposable income on it sounds ok. But my whole salary? not on my life. I sincerely hope there is no one around that is so blindly invested in the idea of Bitcoin they are converting their whole salary to Bitcoin.
- grover_hartmann 11y agoBitcoin is not a toy, it's a very useful tool for transferring value across borders and very good at that, especially when banks and companies such as Western Union impose unreasonable fees on their users. Also, Bitcoin is not as volatile as it was once anymore, have you checked the price in the last few months? It has stayed around 200-300-ish USD. It's fine if you don't want to use Bitcoin, but please stop spreading FUD.
- MarkCole 11y agoI have looked at the price lately. In fact using the Coindesk chart[0], over the last 3 months it has swung between 200 and 300 USD you are correct. But a drop from 300 to 200 USD is still volatile as hell. It means that my Salary could lose one third of it's value in the space of a month. The one year chart is worse. Of course it could swing the other way too, but I like a little more safety in my income. As for it not being a toy, that's a matter of how we each use it. You use it as a more serious financial instrument evidently. Personally I prefer services such as TransferWise, for reducing those bank fees, but if that's how you use Bitcoin then good for you! [0] http://www.coindesk.com/price/ http://www.coindesk.com/price/
- grover_hartmann 11y ago3 months? More like since Mt.Gox went out of business in 2013 or so.
- irl_zebra 11y agoLiterally in the link he posted, if you look at the 3 month pricing chart, the low point is $209 and the high point is $309. This isn't speculation or guessing, those are some pretty huge swings in such a short amount of time the data quantitatively shows. I wouldn't want my salary to have that kind of volatility.
- grover_hartmann 11y agoIt's really disappointing everyone focuses on the volatility yet everyone dismisses the advantages of Bitcoin.
- rnovak 11y agoIt's disappointing that people want to make a consistent amount of money? Yeah....that's just stupid </sarcasm>
- grover_hartmann 11y agoI'm not saying it's stupid to prefer a stable currency, I'm all for price stability and making a consistent amount of money. I'm saying it's disappointing everyone focuses on volatility, yet everyone dismisses the other advantages of Bitcoin.
- rnovak 11y agoThey're not saying that. They're saying that those advantages don't directly apply to them, but volatility does. They aren't dismissing it, just saying that for them the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages, which is perfectly acceptable.
- grover_hartmann 11y agoDownvoting me for making a comment about Bitcoin, just goes to show how close minded some people are on Hacker News.
- Avalaxy 11y agoI love Bitcoin, but why would I work for Bitcoin? It provides no single benefit. In fact, it only provides risks and more hassle (have to convert it to EUR to be able to use it). Burned my fingers on freelancing for Bitcoin a couple of times already.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- nyddle 11y ago"Burned my fingers on freelancing for Bitcoin" - can you please elaborate? was the problem with bitcoin or with the counteragent?
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoAbsolutely not. Real money for real work.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- grover_hartmann 11y agoWhat's so real about fiat currency? There's nothing fake about Bitcoin.
- patmcc 11y agoEvery store in my country accepts fiat currency. I can pay taxes and fines in it, or pay for government services. It's legal tender for all my debts. If I could do all that with bitcoin, it might be real enough.
- grover_hartmann 11y agoThat does not make your currency any more "real" than Bitcoin.
- vectorpush 11y agoI'm guessing that by "real" he means "useful", as in it can be "used" to pay for things like medical bills, insurance, student loans, taxes, rent, utilities, groceries etc. Bitcoin is definitely "real" in some sense of the word, but for most situations it functions similarly to money that is not real (like monopoly money) in that it won't be accepted in exchange for tangible goods and services. Even the relatively few establishments that accept bitcoin as payment don't really regard bitcoin as real enough to accept directly and instead hire a middle man to convert bitcoin into "real" money on their behalf.
- dragonwriter 11y ago> What's so real about fiat currency? In most places, probably the fact that the local fiat currency is vastly more likely to be treated as real currency by the counterparties you need to deal with in real transactions; bitcoin has some direct acceptance, and a some additional reach from entities that have arrangement with other parties who will exchange it into more widely accepted currency for them. > There's nothing fake about Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a real thing, sure, that's clear. Whether it is real money -- and particularly whether it is something that effectively performs the medium of exchange function of money in common circumstances for which people need that function performed -- is a little less obviously true.
- MalcolmDiggs 11y agoI've heard of some FinTech startups that are offering forward-contracts (think futures, or put-options) on Bitcoin. If I can get my hands on those kind of contracts, I'd totally accept my salary in bitcoin. It seems like that would eliminate any potential downside, as long as those contracts are relatively cheap to buy.
- rahimnathwani 11y agoI can't imagine options would be cheap to buy, as the seller is taking on all the risk, and they will take into account the volatility of the underlying asset when determining the price they would be willing to accept. Forward contracts are different from options. But what's the point of being paid in BTC every month, if you enter into a set of forward contracts to convert that BTC into USD? It's equivalent to being paid in USD.
- J_Darnley 11y agoYes. It would at least be something I can trade for a pittance of real money. That being said I would also work for food and housing.
- jordsmi 11y agoSure, but I would transfer most of it out to USD. I enjoy BTC for sending/receiving payments as it is very easy, but I don't see it as a safe 'investment'.
- grover_hartmann 11y agoYes, I've just tried bitcoin for the first time for receiving money and I couldn't believe how easy it was. What options do you suggest for converting to local currency, USD in your case?
- patmcc 11y agoSure - if I can specify the exchange rate.
- grover_hartmann 11y agoThis forum needs to be renamed to lamer news.