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What's so real about fiat currency? There's nothing fake about Bitcoin.

patmcc 11y ago
Every 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 ago
  That does not make your currency any more "real" than Bitcoin.
  - vectorpush 11y ago
    I'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.
giaour 11y ago
You can exchange it for food and housing and pay your taxes and bills. Try doing that in a city with any value store other than a fiat currency. The original question is fundamentally similar than asking if you'd like to be paid in gold bars, grain futures, stock certificates, or live cattle. Would you want your salary to be given to you in a volatile commodity that you would be responsible for converting to currency? If you really really really want some bitcoin, it would be more prudent to get paid in currency and then immediately convert some portion of it to bitcoin.

Every 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 ago
That does not make your currency any more "real" than Bitcoin.
- vectorpush 11y ago
  I'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.

giaour 11y ago

You can exchange it for food and housing and pay your taxes and bills. Try doing that in a city with any value store other than a fiat currency. The original question is fundamentally similar than asking if you'd like to be paid in gold bars, grain futures, stock certificates, or live cattle. Would you want your salary to be given to you in a volatile commodity that you would be responsible for converting to currency? If you really really really want some bitcoin, it would be more prudent to get paid in currency and then immediately convert some portion of it to bitcoin.