4 ms·
Not sure “banking the unbanked” is really the goal of Bitcoin. Think instead because of it’s scarcity, Bitcoin could be used to back currencies. Much like the
by westoque 9y ago
Not sure “banking the unbanked” is really the goal of Bitcoin.
Think instead because of it’s scarcity, Bitcoin could be used to back currencies. Much like the gold standard before. Transaction fees in this scenario (even with it’s high transaction fees for us normies) would be considered negligible when moving large amounts of money.
In this scenario, we can even have other cryptos which are better for daily use be backed by bitcoin.
- zik 9y agoThe original purpose of Bitcoin was disintermediating transactions. So "unbanking the banked" would probably best describe it. It doesn't work for that use case any more unfortunately due to its high fees.
- chii 9y ago> Bitcoin could be used to back currencies but why does currency need a 'backing' like this (of which was the purpose of gold originally)?
- DSingularity 9y agoBecause it needs to have value everyone agrees on.
- mulmen 9y agoBut we don't all agree on the price of bitcoin and I don't see why we would just because it's rare.
- westoque 9y agoI don’t think it’s just the rarity. It’s also trustless, secure and easy to transfer. For ex, with gold, you’d have to carry blocks of it to move it around. And even then, you’d still don’t exactly trust it’s source 100% unlike bitcoin, where everything is in the ledger.
- mulmen 9y agoPretty sure gold scales better than bitcoin as far as transactions over time.
- chii 9y agoyou'd be hard-pressed to try and transport gold across borders in any significant amount.
- brucephillips 9y agoThe vast majority of people own derivatives, not physical gold.
- mulmen 9y agoMy understanding of gold as a currency is that it naturally occurs with about the right frequency to be used as a money supply. It's rare enough you can't just make more but its plentiful enough to be in wide circulation.
- Mikeb85 9y agoOnly 2 things can back currency: hard assets/commodities, and a guarantor (like a government). Right now Bitcoin is more like a security as all its worth is speculative and based on trading, it's not backed by anything tangible.
- dmichulke 9y agoWho guaranteed gold before 68? Does or did that make Gold a currency?