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I personally find Bitcoin much easier to send to family than a chunk of gold, and Bitcoin’s block reward results in a far more favorable inflation rate than man

by tnel77 4y ago

I personally find Bitcoin much easier to send to family than a chunk of gold, and Bitcoin’s block reward results in a far more favorable inflation rate than many currencies. There’s more to money than these two aspects, but they are IMO solid positives for Bitcoin.

xwdv 4y ago
What would a family even do with bitcoin or a chunk of gold?
- strangattractor 4y ago
  Chunk of gold - go down to the local gold broker pay a fee to get dollars. Bitcoin - pay a fee to get it exchanged for dollars so that you can buy something before it loses it's value ($60K -> $17K). Or just use dollars.
  - tnel77 4y ago
    What if they were on the other side of the bull run where it went $3.5k -> $65k? Why only focus on the maximum loss scenario?
    - phs318u 4y ago
      That would arguably feel worse for the sender. "I did what?!" No thanks :)
    - jevgeni 4y ago
      Yes, let's focus on the *positive* returns of Enron, you guys.
    - strangattractor 4y ago
      They likely saw the $65K and listened to all the people that said it was going to $100K and never sold - watching it plummet. The "what if" scenario is pretty useless considering the entire point of any currency is to maintain value - which allows the predictable purchase of things creating an efficient market. One of the original arguments for BitCoin was that it would maintain it's value during inflationary periods - clearly something it has not achieved. The justification for BitCoin seems to be a moving target - depending on whatever the perceived problems are - Dr BitCoin's economic cure all.
      - tnel77 4y ago
        Would you trust any asset to hold its value if it goes 20x in a short period? I feel like Bitcoin will be less volatile down the road when adoption has picked up. Aka it’s less of a crazy speculative investment and more of an actual currency.
        strangattractor 4y ago
        The problem is that BitCoin is treated in a speculative manor which is generally not a good thing for currencies. Currencies are also traded but the fluctuations are generally small - when they start to get big (think Argentina) the country has a problem. An please don't say Dr BitCoin's magic elixir will fix all that because it has already demonstrated it can be forked (creating new bitcoin out of nothing) and lose value in an inflationary period. Both things touted as reasons to support it. Currencies serve a purpose - primarily to allow the exchange of goods and services. As far as I know I cannot purchase much of either with BitCoin without first converting to $$$. So it is not really a currency now or likely ever will be.
- tnel77 4y ago
  In the USA? Not much. Bitcoin is a decent choice for sending your money across borders though! It could also be a gift if you think holding it long-term would be valuable. I remember my grandma buying me bank bonds as a kid for the same reason.
  - eli 4y ago
    I usually send money across borders using Wise.com or wire transfers. What am I missing out on with bitcoin?
    - okokwhatever 4y ago
      Fees
    - tnel77 4y ago
      What are the associated costs with those services?
      - xigoi 4y ago
        Probably lower than with Bitcoin.
        tnel77 4y ago
        Really? I wasn’t aware you could send $1k for Pennie’s like you can with Bitcoin. Very cool!
        eli 4y ago
        You mean the equivalent of $1k based on the spot price of bitcoin? But I don't have bitcoin and my recipient doesn't want bitcoin. If I send $1000 USD to my friend in Australia using bitcoin how much AUD do they receive? And what does that process look like?
      - eli 4y ago
        A fraction of a percent.
- bawolff 4y ago
  If you have some spare unwanted chunks of gold i'll happily take them off your hands.
kybernetikos 4y ago
You're obviously talking about supply inflation there, because price inflation (the more usual definition of inflation) measured in bitcoin has been about 250% over the last year.

by tnel77 4y ago

xwdv 4y ago

What would a family even do with bitcoin or a chunk of gold?

strangattractor 4y ago
Chunk of gold - go down to the local gold broker pay a fee to get dollars. Bitcoin - pay a fee to get it exchanged for dollars so that you can buy something before it loses it's value ($60K -> $17K). Or just use dollars.
- tnel77 4y ago
  What if they were on the other side of the bull run where it went $3.5k -> $65k? Why only focus on the maximum loss scenario?
  - phs318u 4y ago
    That would arguably feel worse for the sender. "I did what?!" No thanks :)
  - jevgeni 4y ago
    Yes, let's focus on the *positive* returns of Enron, you guys.
  - strangattractor 4y ago
    They likely saw the $65K and listened to all the people that said it was going to $100K and never sold - watching it plummet. The "what if" scenario is pretty useless considering the entire point of any currency is to maintain value - which allows the predictable purchase of things creating an efficient market. One of the original arguments for BitCoin was that it would maintain it's value during inflationary periods - clearly something it has not achieved. The justification for BitCoin seems to be a moving target - depending on whatever the perceived problems are - Dr BitCoin's economic cure all.
    - tnel77 4y ago
      Would you trust any asset to hold its value if it goes 20x in a short period? I feel like Bitcoin will be less volatile down the road when adoption has picked up. Aka it’s less of a crazy speculative investment and more of an actual currency.
      - strangattractor 4y ago
        The problem is that BitCoin is treated in a speculative manor which is generally not a good thing for currencies. Currencies are also traded but the fluctuations are generally small - when they start to get big (think Argentina) the country has a problem. An please don't say Dr BitCoin's magic elixir will fix all that because it has already demonstrated it can be forked (creating new bitcoin out of nothing) and lose value in an inflationary period. Both things touted as reasons to support it. Currencies serve a purpose - primarily to allow the exchange of goods and services. As far as I know I cannot purchase much of either with BitCoin without first converting to $$$. So it is not really a currency now or likely ever will be.
tnel77 4y ago
In the USA? Not much. Bitcoin is a decent choice for sending your money across borders though! It could also be a gift if you think holding it long-term would be valuable. I remember my grandma buying me bank bonds as a kid for the same reason.
- eli 4y ago
  I usually send money across borders using Wise.com or wire transfers. What am I missing out on with bitcoin?
  - okokwhatever 4y ago
    Fees
  - tnel77 4y ago
    What are the associated costs with those services?
    - xigoi 4y ago
      Probably lower than with Bitcoin.
      - tnel77 4y ago
        Really? I wasn’t aware you could send $1k for Pennie’s like you can with Bitcoin. Very cool!
        eli 4y ago
        You mean the equivalent of $1k based on the spot price of bitcoin? But I don't have bitcoin and my recipient doesn't want bitcoin. If I send $1000 USD to my friend in Australia using bitcoin how much AUD do they receive? And what does that process look like?
    - eli 4y ago
      A fraction of a percent.
bawolff 4y ago
If you have some spare unwanted chunks of gold i'll happily take them off your hands.

kybernetikos 4y ago

You're obviously talking about supply inflation there, because price inflation (the more usual definition of inflation) measured in bitcoin has been about 250% over the last year.