3 ms·

Scepticism grows in El Salvador over pioneering Bitcoin gamble

13 points by CaptainZapp 5y ago

lowkey 5y ago
Shockingly content free article filled with FUD. The Guardian can do much better.
- sMarsIntruder 5y ago
  That’s exactly what I thought. Citing some random economist calling for an economic disaster without any datapoint. Classic The Guardian. Apparently future scares.
- bob229 5y ago
  You say they can do better as if you’ve never read the trash guardian before
Proven 5y ago
You don't need to read the Guardian to know the idea is silly. They don't want to permit gold and silver mining, which would give them the ability to employ people and back their national currency with something. Instead, they're thinking "Screw that, all I need is 100 BTC ATMs". Sure, let's see how that works!
imtringued 5y ago
Milton Friedman wanted a computer conduct monetary policy. Now that people have created thousands of cryptocurrencies why did that not happen? It's funny how cryptocurrencies are a class of their own. There are hundreds of regional complementary currencies in use and almost none of them are cryptocurrencies. My expectation is that either nothing special happens because people treat it like gold and never use it for payments or it is so successful Salvador ends up a society centered around speculation and Bitcoin mining, basically an absurd version of the resource curse. Here is a paper: https://www.bruegel.org/2018/06/cryptocurrencies-and-monetary-policy/ https://www.bruegel.org/2018/06/cryptocurrencies-and-monetar...
- jfengel 5y ago
  Perhaps it makes more sense in context, but a computer conducting monetary policy sounds like an idiotic idea. It sounds like something you say when you've got a trivial model of economics, and have convinced yourself that it's everything you could ever possibly need to know. That is, it sounds like something you say halfway through your first semester of Econ 101... and shouldn't be allowed to take the second semester until you've figured out why it doesn't work. Certainly not yet.
bob229 5y ago
No one has ever needed crypto. It is pure trash

13 points by CaptainZapp 5y ago

lowkey 5y ago

Shockingly content free article filled with FUD. The Guardian can do much better.

sMarsIntruder 5y ago
That’s exactly what I thought. Citing some random economist calling for an economic disaster without any datapoint. Classic The Guardian. Apparently future scares.
bob229 5y ago
You say they can do better as if you’ve never read the trash guardian before

Proven 5y ago

You don't need to read the Guardian to know the idea is silly. They don't want to permit gold and silver mining, which would give them the ability to employ people and back their national currency with something. Instead, they're thinking "Screw that, all I need is 100 BTC ATMs". Sure, let's see how that works!

imtringued 5y ago

Milton Friedman wanted a computer conduct monetary policy. Now that people have created thousands of cryptocurrencies why did that not happen? It's funny how cryptocurrencies are a class of their own. There are hundreds of regional complementary currencies in use and almost none of them are cryptocurrencies. My expectation is that either nothing special happens because people treat it like gold and never use it for payments or it is so successful Salvador ends up a society centered around speculation and Bitcoin mining, basically an absurd version of the resource curse. Here is a paper: https://www.bruegel.org/2018/06/cryptocurrencies-and-monetary-policy/ https://www.bruegel.org/2018/06/cryptocurrencies-and-monetar...

jfengel 5y ago
Perhaps it makes more sense in context, but a computer conducting monetary policy sounds like an idiotic idea. It sounds like something you say when you've got a trivial model of economics, and have convinced yourself that it's everything you could ever possibly need to know. That is, it sounds like something you say halfway through your first semester of Econ 101... and shouldn't be allowed to take the second semester until you've figured out why it doesn't work. Certainly not yet.

bob229 5y ago

No one has ever needed crypto. It is pure trash