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> Bitcoin has no inherent value, it is a string of characters. Dollar bills have no inherent value either. It's just that people believe they have value. This

• mensetmanusman 6y ago
  Dollars have the backing of the US military.
  • conanbatt 6y ago
    And bitcoin has a distributed machine army. Both pretty useless for the end user.
  • ttt0 6y ago
    But does that matter? Would bitcoin being backed by the US military change the fact that it's just a string of characters? Just because dollar is backed doesn't mean that it can't lose its value or crash. Unless you use the same military to force everyone at gunpoint to do what you want and even then it's probably still not guaranteed.
    • andresp 6y ago
      It kind of does. In case you haven't noticed yet, the guys that create and enforce laws have a lot of power. Power that can be used against bitcoin if they want for example.
    • imtringued 6y ago
      >Just because dollar is backed doesn't mean that it can't lose its value or crash. Yes but as I said earlier the value of your dollars is backed by the existence of an economy that accepts dollars. If the value of the dollar goes down then that would directly imply that the economy that is backing the dollar is much smaller than the number of dollars in circulation. What many people confuse is that hyperinflation isn't caused by central banks and governments printing an excessive amount of money. It's caused by economic collapse and the often resulting inability to service obligations denoted in foreign currencies. Hyperinflation is the result of your government being bankrupt and the solution is to build an economy that can support itself. That's pretty difficult to do if you have lost a war and surrendered and are now on the hook for reparations or being put under economic sanctions. Is this the case for Europe and the US? Hell no.
      • ttt0 6y ago
        I'm not quite sure what are you getting at. Would you say the same about gold or silver? Gold is not backed by anything, in itself it has absolutely no use for me, I can't really buy a piece of bread with it, but it's still valuable. > Is this the case for Europe and the US? Hell no. You've basically described Post-WW1 Germany and similar is true of Eastern Europe under Soviets, so it's recent stuff.
  • viklove 6y ago
    Dollars are also under control of the Fed. More than 20% of all USD that have ever existed were printed in the last year. Next year they could double or triple the money supply, and that decision is up to a tiny group of individuals. How does that make you feel? At least with cryptos, you have an opportunity to participate in the decision making, and it's not just 5 rich people with political connections who decide to make your bank account worthless.
• insert_coin 6y ago
  > Dollar bills have no inherent value either. It's just that people believe they have value. This is basic economics. Hence why the dollar is not referred to as a store of value.
• imtringued 6y ago
  Dollar bills are backed by the existence of an economy that exchanges dollar bills for physical goods and services. Right now anyone who uses Bitcoin converts it back to dollars and then uses the dollars to buy stuff. If Bitcoin were accepted directly you might have a point but the low transaction rate kind of prevents such a usage and existing holders of Bitcoin like it that way even though adoption of Bitcoin as a currency would drive its value up even further.
  • ttt0 6y ago
    People also keep their money in stocks, real estate and precious metals. Precious metals specifically were used at some point as a currency, but that's no longer the case. Bitcoin, like the dollar, it's just another "layer of indirection".