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"Beanie Babies are collectibles, cryptocurrencies are money." It's been established over and over again that cryptocurrencies are not money. They are a collect

"Beanie Babies are collectibles, cryptocurrencies are money." It's been established over and over again that cryptocurrencies are not money. They are a collectible like Beanie Babies. Cryptocurrencies vary too much in value to be used as money. Would you go into a Starbucks and spend $4 USD dollars to buy a coffee, if there was a chance that the $4 might gain 10,000% in value over the next year? Of course not. There have been dozens of good articles over the last two years comparing money to cryptocurrencies and detailing all of the differences. If you still don't understand the differences, at the end of 2018, then you are keeping yourself willfully misinformed, and I suspect no comment on Hacker News will be able to change your mind.

decentralised 8y ago
>t's been established over and over again that cryptocurrencies are not money. Sorry but that's not true. You may be confusing "money" with "currency" though. There's at least one US state that allows paying taxes in cryptocurrencies and there are a few countries here in Europe where cryptos are legal tender.
- robin_reala 8y ago
  [citation needed]
  - decentralised 8y ago
    https://medium.com/ab-chain/market-news-germany-officially-recognized-bitcoin-as-a-legal-tender-5f1a45189a92 https://medium.com/ab-chain/market-news-germany-officially-r... https://cointelegraph.com/news/ohio-appears-to-be-first-us-state-to-accept-bitcoin-for-taxes-wsj-report https://cointelegraph.com/news/ohio-appears-to-be-first-us-s... https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-georgia-next-state-in-line-to-accept-crypto-for-taxes-licenses https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-georgia-next-state-in-line... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country_or_territory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country... Some reading required. ;-)
    - robin_reala 8y ago
      Thanks!
    - cromulent 8y ago
      Do you have any references to support the claim that bitcoin is legal tender? Legal tender must be accepted to extinguish a debt, by any party. Just because bitcoin is not illegal doesn't make it legal tender. It may be used if all parties agree. I understand the first link you gave says that Germany accepts Bitcoin as legal tender, but that is from a misunderstanding of what legal tender is. German vendors are within their rights to refuse it and insist upon real legal tender.
      - tialaramex 8y ago
        You're just going to run into loads of people who don't understand what "legal tender" is and, when you explain it, will insist that you must be wrong because they've heard that phrase and attached a different meaning (generally: a vaguely positive aura plus "it's money") For those reading along, a useful baseline to get you straight on legal tender is in countries where fiat currencies are just broadly assumed to be valuable any legal tender laws are basically just ornamentation. Scotland, for example, doesn't have any bank notes as legal tender, just some old coins. Nobody in Scotland doubts that the notes they have are valuable, but its laws don't bother explicitly privileging this as "legal tender". Nevertheless if you get on a bus in Edinburgh with a goose and some shiny rocks and try to barter, well, you'll be lucky if the other passengers let you back off in one piece, let alone to get an actual ride. "Exact cash fare only".
      - decentralised 8y ago
        >Do you have any references to support the claim that bitcoin is legal tender? Yes I have linked to it. edit: In German: https://www.scribd.com/document/372651554/2018-02-27-Umsatzsteuerliche-Behandlung-Von-Bitcoin-Und-Anderen-Sog-Virtuellen-Waehrungen https://www.scribd.com/document/372651554/2018-02-27-Umsatzs...
        cromulent 8y ago

decentralised 8y ago

>t's been established over and over again that cryptocurrencies are not money. Sorry but that's not true. You may be confusing "money" with "currency" though. There's at least one US state that allows paying taxes in cryptocurrencies and there are a few countries here in Europe where cryptos are legal tender.

robin_reala 8y ago
[citation needed]
- decentralised 8y ago
  https://medium.com/ab-chain/market-news-germany-officially-recognized-bitcoin-as-a-legal-tender-5f1a45189a92 https://medium.com/ab-chain/market-news-germany-officially-r... https://cointelegraph.com/news/ohio-appears-to-be-first-us-state-to-accept-bitcoin-for-taxes-wsj-report https://cointelegraph.com/news/ohio-appears-to-be-first-us-s... https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-georgia-next-state-in-line-to-accept-crypto-for-taxes-licenses https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-georgia-next-state-in-line... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country_or_territory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country... Some reading required. ;-)
  - robin_reala 8y ago
    Thanks!
  - cromulent 8y ago
    Do you have any references to support the claim that bitcoin is legal tender? Legal tender must be accepted to extinguish a debt, by any party. Just because bitcoin is not illegal doesn't make it legal tender. It may be used if all parties agree. I understand the first link you gave says that Germany accepts Bitcoin as legal tender, but that is from a misunderstanding of what legal tender is. German vendors are within their rights to refuse it and insist upon real legal tender.
    - tialaramex 8y ago
      You're just going to run into loads of people who don't understand what "legal tender" is and, when you explain it, will insist that you must be wrong because they've heard that phrase and attached a different meaning (generally: a vaguely positive aura plus "it's money") For those reading along, a useful baseline to get you straight on legal tender is in countries where fiat currencies are just broadly assumed to be valuable any legal tender laws are basically just ornamentation. Scotland, for example, doesn't have any bank notes as legal tender, just some old coins. Nobody in Scotland doubts that the notes they have are valuable, but its laws don't bother explicitly privileging this as "legal tender". Nevertheless if you get on a bus in Edinburgh with a goose and some shiny rocks and try to barter, well, you'll be lucky if the other passengers let you back off in one piece, let alone to get an actual ride. "Exact cash fare only".
    - decentralised 8y ago
      >Do you have any references to support the claim that bitcoin is legal tender? Yes I have linked to it. edit: In German: https://www.scribd.com/document/372651554/2018-02-27-Umsatzsteuerliche-Behandlung-Von-Bitcoin-Und-Anderen-Sog-Virtuellen-Waehrungen https://www.scribd.com/document/372651554/2018-02-27-Umsatzs...
      - cromulent 8y ago