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A "financial institution" is just an entity that is legally allowed to engage in sending money from one party to another. So the vision is just "let's make some

A "financial institution" is just an entity that is legally allowed to engage in sending money from one party to another. So the vision is just "let's make something illegal"?

olalonde 3y ago
No, it's not. Bitcoin payments are legal in most jurisdictions.
- telepathy 3y ago
  Bitcoin isn't money, and adoption by merchants has never been lower. I was talking about the original vision.
  - olalonde 3y ago
    That's historically wrong. When Bitcoin was initially launched, it took a long time before it started being used in economic transactions (see the famous 10,000 BTC pizza). It took an even longer time for some merchants to start accepting it directly or through a payment processor. Adoption by merchants was close to zero for a very long time. Today, you can not only easily trade BTC against other currencies but also spend them at many merchants. There's even a country (El Salvador) that has adopted it as legal tender. These days, the daily transaction volume is in the multibillion dollar range (and that's just counting transactions that are settled "on-chain"). Is your objection that since it is less commonly adopted than USD, it therefore has lower utility than USD? Or that its utility was higher in the past? I am not quite sure I understand your question or argument.
    - telepathy 3y ago
      Everyone seems to hate bitcoin in el salvador: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bitcoin+el+salvador https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bitcoin+el+salv... Billions per day is basically wash trading by quants. What % of that is actual merchant transactions for goods or services?? Almost 0%
      - olalonde 3y ago
        Both assertions are incorrect. > Billions per day is basically wash trading by quants. Trading is done on centralized exchanges and doesn't show up in the figure I mentioned ("on chain" transactions). So close to 100% are for goods, services or value transfers. > Everyone seems to hate bitcoin in el salvador It's obviously not true that everyone hates Bitcoin in El Salvador. Perhaps some percentage of the population? But I've just seen several videos on the URL you linked that were quite positive. The president, Nayib Bukele, obviously doesn't hate Bitcoin and is still hugely popular in El Salvador[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Nayib_Bukele_presidency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Nayib_B...
        telepathy 3y ago
        Oh well then you're just talking about drug revenue (and worse). lol @ 90% approval lol yeah me too It seems you've reached a conclusion based on a gut feeling, and are constructing arguments to back your viewpoint. This hints that you might not be interacting with this topic with the necessary objectivity and investigative spirit to truly understand it.
        olalonde 3y ago
        You quickly shifted your attribution of the transaction volume from wash trading to drug revenue. It seems you've reached a conclusion based on a gut feeling, and are constructing arguments to back your viewpoint. This hints that you might not be interacting with this topic with the necessary objectivity and investigative spirit to truly understand it.

A "financial institution" is just an entity that is legally allowed to engage in sending money from one party to another. So the vision is just "let's make something illegal"?

olalonde 3y ago

No, it's not. Bitcoin payments are legal in most jurisdictions.

telepathy 3y ago
Bitcoin isn't money, and adoption by merchants has never been lower. I was talking about the original vision.
- olalonde 3y ago
  That's historically wrong. When Bitcoin was initially launched, it took a long time before it started being used in economic transactions (see the famous 10,000 BTC pizza). It took an even longer time for some merchants to start accepting it directly or through a payment processor. Adoption by merchants was close to zero for a very long time. Today, you can not only easily trade BTC against other currencies but also spend them at many merchants. There's even a country (El Salvador) that has adopted it as legal tender. These days, the daily transaction volume is in the multibillion dollar range (and that's just counting transactions that are settled "on-chain"). Is your objection that since it is less commonly adopted than USD, it therefore has lower utility than USD? Or that its utility was higher in the past? I am not quite sure I understand your question or argument.
  - telepathy 3y ago
    Everyone seems to hate bitcoin in el salvador: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bitcoin+el+salvador https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bitcoin+el+salv... Billions per day is basically wash trading by quants. What % of that is actual merchant transactions for goods or services?? Almost 0%
    - olalonde 3y ago
      Both assertions are incorrect. > Billions per day is basically wash trading by quants. Trading is done on centralized exchanges and doesn't show up in the figure I mentioned ("on chain" transactions). So close to 100% are for goods, services or value transfers. > Everyone seems to hate bitcoin in el salvador It's obviously not true that everyone hates Bitcoin in El Salvador. Perhaps some percentage of the population? But I've just seen several videos on the URL you linked that were quite positive. The president, Nayib Bukele, obviously doesn't hate Bitcoin and is still hugely popular in El Salvador[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Nayib_Bukele_presidency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_on_the_Nayib_B...
      - telepathy 3y ago
        Oh well then you're just talking about drug revenue (and worse). lol @ 90% approval lol yeah me too It seems you've reached a conclusion based on a gut feeling, and are constructing arguments to back your viewpoint. This hints that you might not be interacting with this topic with the necessary objectivity and investigative spirit to truly understand it.
        olalonde 3y ago
        You quickly shifted your attribution of the transaction volume from wash trading to drug revenue. It seems you've reached a conclusion based on a gut feeling, and are constructing arguments to back your viewpoint. This hints that you might not be interacting with this topic with the necessary objectivity and investigative spirit to truly understand it.