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> Bitcoin and crypto is only marketing. It’s only a story It's interesting when people make such blanket statements because then all you need is one counterexa

> Bitcoin and crypto is only marketing. It’s only a story It's interesting when people make such blanket statements because then all you need is one counterexample to prove them wrong. When I was a teeneager in a third world country with a pegged and tightly controlled currency, Bitcoin was the only way I could pay for books and servers online. It was thanks to Bitcoin that I truly felt connected to the rest of the world. To me Bitcoin was a currency and nothing can take that away from me. Whether or not that still holds today is arguable but to claim something is outright useless just because you haven't found a valid use for it is narrow-minded.

djbusby 3y ago
In USA many cannabis business settle deals with BTC (and others) so, I think it's still functioning as a currency.
- ggm 3y ago
  They have little or no choice, because the federal governments lack of pace changing the status of THC means financial institutions are reluctant to service the msrket. They pay higher marginal rates of exchange in effect, and are at risk of sudden valuation fluctuations. Seriously, do you think the storefronts would do this, if they could stick to fiat?
smt88 3y ago
You've described a valid use case for cryptocurrency, but you haven't described a valid reason people should invest in it. Useful currencies are inflationary and good investments are deflationary.
- kayamon 3y ago
  Inflation is an exploit used to grant more money to the bank admins any time they feel like it. A correctly functioning trading economy has zero net inflation.
FabHK 3y ago
You say the currency was tightly controlled? So, presumably, the fact that it was hard to obtain foreign exchange or pay for things abroad was a deliberate choice by your government, and not a technical problem? The use case of crypto is the circumvention of regulation. Your story seems to confirm it.
- matt-attack 3y ago
  Calling it circumvention presupposes that the government is the defacto controller of currency. The position is already heavily biased. The standard means of currency was historically just rare materials with natural scarcity. I could easily say that government backed currencies are themselves a “circumvention” of trading scarce elements.

djbusby 3y ago

In USA many cannabis business settle deals with BTC (and others) so, I think it's still functioning as a currency.

ggm 3y ago
They have little or no choice, because the federal governments lack of pace changing the status of THC means financial institutions are reluctant to service the msrket. They pay higher marginal rates of exchange in effect, and are at risk of sudden valuation fluctuations. Seriously, do you think the storefronts would do this, if they could stick to fiat?

smt88 3y ago

You've described a valid use case for cryptocurrency, but you haven't described a valid reason people should invest in it. Useful currencies are inflationary and good investments are deflationary.

kayamon 3y ago
Inflation is an exploit used to grant more money to the bank admins any time they feel like it. A correctly functioning trading economy has zero net inflation.

FabHK 3y ago

You say the currency was tightly controlled? So, presumably, the fact that it was hard to obtain foreign exchange or pay for things abroad was a deliberate choice by your government, and not a technical problem? The use case of crypto is the circumvention of regulation. Your story seems to confirm it.

matt-attack 3y ago
Calling it circumvention presupposes that the government is the defacto controller of currency. The position is already heavily biased. The standard means of currency was historically just rare materials with natural scarcity. I could easily say that government backed currencies are themselves a “circumvention” of trading scarce elements.