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> prevents exactly what's happening right now with inflation Seems like a funny time to be making the inflation hedge argument. Say what you will about USD inf

by paulgb 5y ago

> prevents exactly what's happening right now with inflation Seems like a funny time to be making the inflation hedge argument. Say what you will about USD inflation, but it's never lost ~30% of its buying power in a month, as Bitcoin has in the past month.

NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
Of course, if goods and services were priced in bitcoin then that would be part of a good argument that bitcoin is actually a currency.
- reginold 5y ago
  Whenever Bitcoin is an option I pay in Bitcoin. Standard Notes for example, allows you to pay in Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. Check out the Lightning network, it's much more about currency/goods/services as a Bitcoin service.
  - NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
    Buying something with BTC doesn't mean it's priced in BTC. With the possible exception of dark web drugs/gun/murder-for-hire/WHY every case I've seen of BTC being used for goods and services involves dynamic currency conversion. i.e. the price is in, say, USD and the amount it costs in BTC is derived from the USD spot price of BTC. It's like I swipe my credit card in Japan; the price is in JPY but I pay in USD. I would be interested to see any counterexamples.
    - ac29 5y ago
      Right, and Standard Notes doesnt appear to be a counterexample: https://standardnotes.com/plans https://standardnotes.com/plans (all prices are in dollars). They appear to use coinpayments.net, which does the exact sort of dynamic pricing you're talking about - it costs significantly more today to purchase in Bitcoin than it did 24 hours ago.
      - reginold 5y ago
        Agreed! OpenSea is a good example of native crypto pricing -- replied above about that.
    - reginold 5y ago
      Oh good point, I see what you mean. Where are things priced natively in Bitcoin or Ethereum, no matter the USD value? Standard Notes is not an example in that case, it just converts BTC to USD. Everything on OpenSea is priced in cryptocurrencies natively: https://opensea.io/ https://opensea.io/ By USD OpenSea's contract transacted an estimated 8% of Amazon's revenues.
reginold 5y ago
To flip it around, yes, the USD has lost 30% of its buying power in a month before. To Bitcoin. When you define the USD as stability, then yes, USD is stable. It seems like circular logic.
- NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
  It only makes sense to talk about "buying power" when you can actually exchange a thing for goods and services which are priced in that thing. That doesn't apply to bitcoin, but it does to the dollar. This isn't arbitrary.
kjksf 5y ago
The part you're not talking about: USD inflation is permanent and accumulative over long term (year+). Simply stated, purchasing power of $dollar has been going down, consistently, over the last 200 years. Bitcoin is a more volatile asset but over long term (year+) it's going up. By a lot. Hugely. This might change in the future but the historical performance of bitcoin crushes historical performance of a $dollar.

by paulgb 5y ago

NovemberWhiskey 5y ago

Of course, if goods and services were priced in bitcoin then that would be part of a good argument that bitcoin is actually a currency.

reginold 5y ago
Whenever Bitcoin is an option I pay in Bitcoin. Standard Notes for example, allows you to pay in Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. Check out the Lightning network, it's much more about currency/goods/services as a Bitcoin service.
- NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
  Buying something with BTC doesn't mean it's priced in BTC. With the possible exception of dark web drugs/gun/murder-for-hire/WHY every case I've seen of BTC being used for goods and services involves dynamic currency conversion. i.e. the price is in, say, USD and the amount it costs in BTC is derived from the USD spot price of BTC. It's like I swipe my credit card in Japan; the price is in JPY but I pay in USD. I would be interested to see any counterexamples.
  - ac29 5y ago
    Right, and Standard Notes doesnt appear to be a counterexample: https://standardnotes.com/plans https://standardnotes.com/plans (all prices are in dollars). They appear to use coinpayments.net, which does the exact sort of dynamic pricing you're talking about - it costs significantly more today to purchase in Bitcoin than it did 24 hours ago.
    - reginold 5y ago
      Agreed! OpenSea is a good example of native crypto pricing -- replied above about that.
  - reginold 5y ago
    Oh good point, I see what you mean. Where are things priced natively in Bitcoin or Ethereum, no matter the USD value? Standard Notes is not an example in that case, it just converts BTC to USD. Everything on OpenSea is priced in cryptocurrencies natively: https://opensea.io/ https://opensea.io/ By USD OpenSea's contract transacted an estimated 8% of Amazon's revenues.

reginold 5y ago

To flip it around, yes, the USD has lost 30% of its buying power in a month before. To Bitcoin. When you define the USD as stability, then yes, USD is stable. It seems like circular logic.

NovemberWhiskey 5y ago
It only makes sense to talk about "buying power" when you can actually exchange a thing for goods and services which are priced in that thing. That doesn't apply to bitcoin, but it does to the dollar. This isn't arbitrary.

kjksf 5y ago

The part you're not talking about: USD inflation is permanent and accumulative over long term (year+). Simply stated, purchasing power of $dollar has been going down, consistently, over the last 200 years. Bitcoin is a more volatile asset but over long term (year+) it's going up. By a lot. Hugely. This might change in the future but the historical performance of bitcoin crushes historical performance of a $dollar.