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Bitcoin wants to be money, but it really isn't. It fails the traditional account (originally from Jevons); see Kubát 2015 [1]; Mandjee 2015 [2]. More obviously,
by quinndupont 9y ago
Bitcoin wants to be money, but it really isn't. It fails the traditional account (originally from Jevons); see Kubát 2015 [1]; Mandjee 2015 [2]. More obviously, it is far too volatile to function like money in a normal sense, see Golumbia 2017 [3]
[1] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212567115013088 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212567115...
[2] https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&doctype=cite&docid=15+J.+Bus.+%26+Sec.+L.+157&srctype=smi&srcid=3B15&key=30d19a33ff786371af2c0e05d70354dc https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?actio...
[3] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xwwv83/cryptocurrencies-arent-currencies-they-arent-stocks-either https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xwwv83/cryptocurr...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- mrb 9y agoAnd yet some people, like me, use Bitcoin to buy products and services. Your articles merely explain that Bitcoin legally is not money. But in practice it is used as money, it is seen as money, so it is money. Practice trumps theory. Also these articles fail to mention that volatility is quickly decreasing, thanks to increasing market depths: https://mobile.twitter.com/lsukernik/status/864920873718951937 https://mobile.twitter.com/lsukernik/status/8649208737189519...
- nunyabuizness 9y agoWell it's pretty easy to spend an asset that's consistently increasing in value... the real test of it's utility as money is how many businesses and people have started accepting Bitcoin recently.
- mrb 9y ago160k merchants, 3-6 million users. https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/research/centres/alternative-finance/downloads/2017-global-cryptocurrency-benchmarking-study.pdf https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/research/cen...
- grwthckrmstr 9y agoYou should also look at this as % of merchants and users in the world. Is it 10%,50%,or 0.001%?
- oh_sigh 9y agoWhat percentage of merchants and users accept HKD?
- TomK32 9y ago100% in Hongkong, which is also where the most HKD are circulated.
- oh_sigh 9y agoOP asked "in the world"
- vsl 9y agoIf BTC was circulated in only a Hongkong-sized area, that would be a fair comment. It isn't, the area of its circulation is the world.
- mrb 9y agoPointless comment. Bitcoin is a borderless technology. There will never be, by design, a "Hong Kong-sized" area with BTC accepted everywhere. That is, unless BTC achieves world domination :-)
- whateverman2 9y agoOr hamburgers? After all, you can trade them for the local currency. Hamburgers must be a currency!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ForHackernews 9y agoWhy would you ever want to spend an asset that's increasing in value? Seems like a useful currency should be mildly inflationary.
- Buge 9y agoWhy not dump your entire life savings into it right now? Because there's risk, it fluctuates, there's no guarantee it will always go up. People need to decide to what degree do they want to invest and be exposed to the risk and reward. Say someone decides they want 1BTC of exposure, and are contemplating buying an item of 0.01BTC. Would that really be a big deal? Small changes in the degree of exposure shouldn't be a financial problem to worry about.
- ForHackernews 9y ago> Why not dump your entire life savings into it right now? Plenty of the bitcoin true believers have. Everything you're talking about makes sense for investing in a commodity, not for a currency.
- mrb 9y agoThe answer is very simple: no one is absolutely sure BTC will always gain value.