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it gives ordinary people the ability to discipline their central bank and preserve their own personal holdings. there are other uses but this is the one i care
by nyolfen 2y ago
it gives ordinary people the ability to discipline their central bank and preserve their own personal holdings. there are other uses but this is the one i care about.
> I’d bet less than 0.1% of good and services are actually bought with it. (Optimistic estimates are 0.2%).
this also applies to nearly every 'normal' currency
- lottin 2y agoSorry, but you're delusional. Central banks are held accountable through a system of checks and balances and the rule of law.
- mrighele 2y agoPlenty of countries have neither checks and balances nor rule of law.
- lottin 2y agoOf course. And that is a problem that a cryptocurrency won't solve.
- nyolfen 2y agoi'm sure that is deep solace when you lose half of your savings to inflation. btw not sure which central banks you're thinking of, but this checks and balances stuff does not apply to the fed at least; it is explicitly defined as independent (ie unaccountable).
- lottin 2y agoIndependent doesn't mean unaccountable. The Fed is accountable to the Congress.
- nyolfen 2y agoaccountable in the sense that it approves appointees and receives reports, not in the sense that congress or voters have any say in monetary policy decisions. this is literally the point of the fed, to put it outside of electoral politics so it is not subject to democracy.
- lottin 2y agoThe Fed has a public mandate, and the Congress has the responsibility and the power to make sure that it fulfils such mandate. Therefore it is accountable and it is subject to democracy, and at the same time independent from the electoral cycle.
- mattmaroon 2y agoI mean, no. You could already just buy any other currency for that and you’d still be better off. Crypto, being a ponzi scheme, has price fluctuations that make it undesirable as a store of wealth. If somebody put all of their liquid assets in any major fiat currency and lost half of it in a couple months you’d be surprised. If that happened with a crypto currency you wouldn’t. Which goes back to my statement that any benefits beyond gambling are only theoretical and haven’t actually materialized in 15 years of being told it’s coming any day now.
- nyolfen 2y ago> You could already just buy any other currency for that and you’d still be better off. Crypto, being a ponzi scheme, has price fluctuations that make it undesirable as a store of wealth. this is in fact the majority use-case when i refer to people disciplining their central banks -- savings are converted to stablecoins pegged to the dollar etc. there is no alternative system that ordinary people have access to; buying dollars at a foreign exchange business is regulated and incurs punitive fees to prevent this from happening.