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Then you would expect people in the EU to not be interested in crypto, yet it's the opposite. You can pull up search volume for "Bitcoin" across the world (usin

Then you would expect people in the EU to not be interested in crypto, yet it's the opposite. You can pull up search volume for "Bitcoin" across the world (using Google Trends), many European nations are at the top. As a matter of fact, their search volume is higher than US.

kmmlng 5y ago
> easy electronic transfers within 5 seconds for no charge This is certainly not the case everywhere in the EU. In Germany for example it usually takes days. Not sure about other countries.
- bildung 5y ago
  By law it must take at most a single day intra-country, and instant wire transfers are pretty common (though sometimes not free).
- aunty_helen 5y ago
  In Germany there's SOFORT, it takes litterally the time to click through the interface to transfer money. I can get money from Germany to Colombia in under a minute via n26 and transferwise. Maybe we're not talking about the same country.
  - koonsolo 5y ago
    Also amounts > 20000 in a weekend? How much fees do you pay on that?
    - aunty_helen 5y ago
      I've actually never woken up on a Saturday morning and thought shit, I could really use 20000 EUR right now, so I couldn't tell you what the limits are. I've never hit them. Fees however, are around 1EUR
      - koonsolo 5y ago
        Maybe on a Friday evening? Anyway, still seems inferior to nano.
  - kmmlng 5y ago
    Well sure, I can send money around using third-party services, but the official banking system is not that fast.
bildung 5y ago
The difference is that those people can honestly see and use crypto as speculative assets, which is fine (if we ignore externalities for a second), not making up use cases.
- rawtxapp 5y ago
  Once you accept that the future is unknown, you'll see that every asset is a speculative asset, no? For the longest time, real estate was assumed to be 100% safe until 2008, etc.
  - faeyanpiraat 5y ago
    Yes but real assets have a lower chance of their value completely evaporating in an instant. You can also use some of them, like live in a house asset.
  - mym1990 5y ago
    Just because the future is uncertain doesn't mean you can't do research to make a reasonable forecast. Typically speculation is specifically buying/selling without any reasoning other than 'I think someone will pay higher for this in the future'. Many assets don't even have to appreciate. A car is an asset if I have paid it off. I don't expect someone to pay me more than I paid for it unless it is a collectible or I live in the year 2021. On your last sentence, I don't know who thought real estate was 100%, because nothing is 100% safe as a store of value, but I guess they paid for it in the end.
    - rawtxapp 5y ago
      Then I can say that I've done my research and I think it's reasonable that USD won't remain global reserve currency forever and that it's replacement won't be a governmental currency, but a decentralized one and Bitcoin would be the only reasonable candidate. Does this mean that I'm not speculating all of a sudden because I've done research and came up with a reasonable forecast?
      - 5y ago

kmmlng 5y ago

> easy electronic transfers within 5 seconds for no charge This is certainly not the case everywhere in the EU. In Germany for example it usually takes days. Not sure about other countries.

bildung 5y ago
By law it must take at most a single day intra-country, and instant wire transfers are pretty common (though sometimes not free).
aunty_helen 5y ago
In Germany there's SOFORT, it takes litterally the time to click through the interface to transfer money. I can get money from Germany to Colombia in under a minute via n26 and transferwise. Maybe we're not talking about the same country.
- koonsolo 5y ago
  Also amounts > 20000 in a weekend? How much fees do you pay on that?
  - aunty_helen 5y ago
    I've actually never woken up on a Saturday morning and thought shit, I could really use 20000 EUR right now, so I couldn't tell you what the limits are. I've never hit them. Fees however, are around 1EUR
    - koonsolo 5y ago
      Maybe on a Friday evening? Anyway, still seems inferior to nano.
- kmmlng 5y ago
  Well sure, I can send money around using third-party services, but the official banking system is not that fast.

bildung 5y ago

The difference is that those people can honestly see and use crypto as speculative assets, which is fine (if we ignore externalities for a second), not making up use cases.

rawtxapp 5y ago
Once you accept that the future is unknown, you'll see that every asset is a speculative asset, no? For the longest time, real estate was assumed to be 100% safe until 2008, etc.
- faeyanpiraat 5y ago
  Yes but real assets have a lower chance of their value completely evaporating in an instant. You can also use some of them, like live in a house asset.
- mym1990 5y ago
  Just because the future is uncertain doesn't mean you can't do research to make a reasonable forecast. Typically speculation is specifically buying/selling without any reasoning other than 'I think someone will pay higher for this in the future'. Many assets don't even have to appreciate. A car is an asset if I have paid it off. I don't expect someone to pay me more than I paid for it unless it is a collectible or I live in the year 2021. On your last sentence, I don't know who thought real estate was 100%, because nothing is 100% safe as a store of value, but I guess they paid for it in the end.
  - rawtxapp 5y ago
    Then I can say that I've done my research and I think it's reasonable that USD won't remain global reserve currency forever and that it's replacement won't be a governmental currency, but a decentralized one and Bitcoin would be the only reasonable candidate. Does this mean that I'm not speculating all of a sudden because I've done research and came up with a reasonable forecast?
    - 5y ago