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> I am open to government or industry backed crypto or digital currency Then you don't understand the point of Bitcoin. Any "government backed" crypto (also k

> I am open to government or industry backed crypto or digital currency Then you don't understand the point of Bitcoin. Any "government backed" crypto (also known as Central Bank Digital Currencies, or CBDCs) will be under the complete control of bureaucrats, much like how money currently is. That means they can create as much of that money as they like to fund whatever they want. That kind of monetary expansion is not possible with Bitcoin, which is entirely the point. "The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them not to let identity thieves drain our accounts." - Satoshi Nakamoto

naruvimama 5y ago
I understand that bitcoin is decentralised, but decentralised what? Currencies need to have an underlying useful asset or guarantee. Yes governments used to have gold backed currencies but our economic growth is exponential, so it is now the job of the state. Incase they act irresponsibly it does go into hyper inflation, so they are forced to act responsibly. In case they do print more, it does go into public good like roads & bridges which adds to the public assets and hence adds to the assets backing the currency.
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> That kind of monetary expansion is not possible with Bitcoin, which is entirely the point. Yes, which is (one reason) why all of these new projects and initiatives skip Bitcoin altogether and instead invent new tokens and coins for each new project. Bitcoin may not be expanding the Bitcoin supply, but the overall coin supply in the cryptocurrency world is absolutely exploding. New cryptocurrencies pop up every day and each new project mints new coins for arbitrary reasons (so their founders can keep most of them, usually). Why can’t I just pay for a Web3 service using existing Ethereum? Why must we first trade some coin for arbitrary tokens and then pay for the service? The answer is because the founders and early adopters want to cash out as much as possible as quickly as possible, and the fastest way to do that is by minting new coins.
newswasboring 5y ago
I think government backed is not government controlled, right? For example now in El Salvador bitcoin is government backed. You can pay your taxes in it and I think eventually you can settle contracts with it.

naruvimama 5y ago

I understand that bitcoin is decentralised, but decentralised what? Currencies need to have an underlying useful asset or guarantee. Yes governments used to have gold backed currencies but our economic growth is exponential, so it is now the job of the state. Incase they act irresponsibly it does go into hyper inflation, so they are forced to act responsibly. In case they do print more, it does go into public good like roads & bridges which adds to the public assets and hence adds to the assets backing the currency.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

> That kind of monetary expansion is not possible with Bitcoin, which is entirely the point. Yes, which is (one reason) why all of these new projects and initiatives skip Bitcoin altogether and instead invent new tokens and coins for each new project. Bitcoin may not be expanding the Bitcoin supply, but the overall coin supply in the cryptocurrency world is absolutely exploding. New cryptocurrencies pop up every day and each new project mints new coins for arbitrary reasons (so their founders can keep most of them, usually). Why can’t I just pay for a Web3 service using existing Ethereum? Why must we first trade some coin for arbitrary tokens and then pay for the service? The answer is because the founders and early adopters want to cash out as much as possible as quickly as possible, and the fastest way to do that is by minting new coins.

newswasboring 5y ago

I think government backed is not government controlled, right? For example now in El Salvador bitcoin is government backed. You can pay your taxes in it and I think eventually you can settle contracts with it.