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El Salvador’s Bitcoin law – the system doesn’t work and the public hates it

29 points by _Microft 5y ago

rfd4sgmk8u 5y ago
Shoutz goin out to mad lad Gerard, he hated bitcoin, he thought it was frau-aud. Countries started flipping, IMFies started pippin, Sats kept rainin' on the chivo parade.
errantmind 5y ago
It is too early to say the system doesn't work for remittances.
- davidgerard 5y ago
  Yes, first it would have to work.
Proven 5y ago
I'm not surprised. I did say this experiment in Salvador was nonsense and Bitcoin didn't make any sense for this use case. Why would a government that messed up one currency succeed with another? There's no skill required to make money "work". Silver worked as money before there were governments but it's not legal tender in Salvador. We don't need a government to be involved. When it is, the risk of corruption and failure dramatically increases.
imtringued 5y ago
Buy the rumor, sell the news? Isn't it ironic that investors dump Bitcoin exactly when people want to use it the most?
davidgerard 5y ago
archive: https://archive.is/kSfKL https://archive.is/kSfKL
yadaeno 5y ago
I'm not a fan of cryptocurrency in general. But why on earth would you chose Bitcoin? Don't you have to wait ~45mins per transaction and pay something like a $20 transaction fee on top of huge volitility? What an absolute disaster.
- 0x000000001 5y ago
  They're using the lightning network on top of Bitcoin for instant transactions and less than 1 cent fees. If Bitcoin equals cash, Lightning is Venmo The lightning basically network syncs to Bitcoin in large atomic updates to limit fees. Hope that helps
  - davidgerard 5y ago
    Chivo doesn't use Lightning internally - it's just a PayPal-like custodial payment system in itself. (It does talk Lightning, though reportedly unreliably.)
    - 0x000000001 5y ago
      You could argue the same for Strike -- sending $USD or BTC between users on Strike doesn't use lightning, but if you want to send to a user not on Strike it uses Lightning. Or Cash App by Square or Venmo by Paypal -- when you send Bitcoin to another user it's just moved internally in their accounting, not on the blockchain.

29 points by _Microft 5y ago

Shoutz goin out to mad lad Gerard, he hated bitcoin, he thought it was frau-aud. Countries started flipping, IMFies started pippin, Sats kept rainin' on the chivo parade.

errantmind 5y ago

It is too early to say the system doesn't work for remittances.

davidgerard 5y ago
Yes, first it would have to work.

Proven 5y ago

I'm not surprised. I did say this experiment in Salvador was nonsense and Bitcoin didn't make any sense for this use case. Why would a government that messed up one currency succeed with another? There's no skill required to make money "work". Silver worked as money before there were governments but it's not legal tender in Salvador. We don't need a government to be involved. When it is, the risk of corruption and failure dramatically increases.

imtringued 5y ago

Buy the rumor, sell the news? Isn't it ironic that investors dump Bitcoin exactly when people want to use it the most?

davidgerard 5y ago

archive: https://archive.is/kSfKL https://archive.is/kSfKL

yadaeno 5y ago

I'm not a fan of cryptocurrency in general. But why on earth would you chose Bitcoin? Don't you have to wait ~45mins per transaction and pay something like a $20 transaction fee on top of huge volitility? What an absolute disaster.

0x000000001 5y ago
They're using the lightning network on top of Bitcoin for instant transactions and less than 1 cent fees. If Bitcoin equals cash, Lightning is Venmo The lightning basically network syncs to Bitcoin in large atomic updates to limit fees. Hope that helps
- davidgerard 5y ago
  Chivo doesn't use Lightning internally - it's just a PayPal-like custodial payment system in itself. (It does talk Lightning, though reportedly unreliably.)
  - 0x000000001 5y ago
    You could argue the same for Strike -- sending $USD or BTC between users on Strike doesn't use lightning, but if you want to send to a user not on Strike it uses Lightning. Or Cash App by Square or Venmo by Paypal -- when you send Bitcoin to another user it's just moved internally in their accounting, not on the blockchain.