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He totally skipped over the best argument for Bitcoin, the reliance on middle-men when exchanging money online. You either have Paypal or some other kind of cre

He totally skipped over the best argument for Bitcoin, the reliance on middle-men when exchanging money online. You either have Paypal or some other kind of credit card processor that takes %3 or more of every transaction. If only the value of BTC would settle down a bit, it would make a great way to facilitate micro-transactions.

lbarrow 14y ago
Why do you need an alternate currency to do that? Companies like Dwolla are hard at work trying to make credit card processing payment fees a thing of the past. Last time I checked, it cost only 25c to move money between bank accounts on Dwolla.
- damian2000 14y ago
  Are they international? If so you can bet someone (such as a bank) is taking a cut somewhere on the offered exchange rate. EDIT: I just looked and Dwolla is US only.
  - consz 14y ago
    I mean, there's a % taken from every bitcoin transaction as well, it's just a question of which fee is lower, BTC or dwolla.
    - damian2000 14y ago
      I think the bitcoin fee is optional? or at least doesn't apply in many cases?
      - accountoftheday 14y ago
        peers may offer to process bitcoin transactions for free, and the original paper posits there are always going to be participants who will.
- jonny_eh 14y ago
  What if I wanted to transact 25 cents?
  - argonaut 14y ago
    Transactions are free under $10.
- pencilcheck 14y ago
  From what I understand about bitcoin, it has a history of transactions hashed from previous transaction, therefore every transaction is tracable, and every bitcoin is identified throughout this process. I don't understand how the author got the information from, but it is definitely wrong
bitcartel 14y ago
> So do we need a new form of money? I guess you could make that case if the money we actually have were misbehaving. But it isn’t. We have huge economic problems, but green pieces of paper are doing fine — and we should let them alone. The point of the article was not to inform, but to denigrate Bitcoin (and Gold) in the reader's mind. Both Bitcoin and Gold are a means to measuring the value of paper money over time, as well as a potential store of value. Krugman is not going to write anything in support of Bitcoin because he likes the status quo and doesn't want things to change.
EGreg 14y ago
Aren't the miners in effect middlemen who take about 2% of the bitcoin economy? http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/13/the-cost-of-a-bitcoin/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/13/the-cost-of-a-bitcoin/ back of the envelope calculation: $2B market cap in its heyday a few months ago, and the $150k x 365 = $57M a year in "fees" which is about 2.8% of the entire bitcoin economy remember, the banks also spend the fees back into the economy, such as paying their employees :)

lbarrow 14y ago

Why do you need an alternate currency to do that? Companies like Dwolla are hard at work trying to make credit card processing payment fees a thing of the past. Last time I checked, it cost only 25c to move money between bank accounts on Dwolla.

damian2000 14y ago
Are they international? If so you can bet someone (such as a bank) is taking a cut somewhere on the offered exchange rate. EDIT: I just looked and Dwolla is US only.
- consz 14y ago
  I mean, there's a % taken from every bitcoin transaction as well, it's just a question of which fee is lower, BTC or dwolla.
  - damian2000 14y ago
    I think the bitcoin fee is optional? or at least doesn't apply in many cases?
    - accountoftheday 14y ago
      peers may offer to process bitcoin transactions for free, and the original paper posits there are always going to be participants who will.
jonny_eh 14y ago
What if I wanted to transact 25 cents?
- argonaut 14y ago
  Transactions are free under $10.
pencilcheck 14y ago
From what I understand about bitcoin, it has a history of transactions hashed from previous transaction, therefore every transaction is tracable, and every bitcoin is identified throughout this process. I don't understand how the author got the information from, but it is definitely wrong

bitcartel 14y ago

> So do we need a new form of money? I guess you could make that case if the money we actually have were misbehaving. But it isn’t. We have huge economic problems, but green pieces of paper are doing fine — and we should let them alone. The point of the article was not to inform, but to denigrate Bitcoin (and Gold) in the reader's mind. Both Bitcoin and Gold are a means to measuring the value of paper money over time, as well as a potential store of value. Krugman is not going to write anything in support of Bitcoin because he likes the status quo and doesn't want things to change.

EGreg 14y ago

Aren't the miners in effect middlemen who take about 2% of the bitcoin economy? http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/13/the-cost-of-a-bitcoin/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/13/the-cost-of-a-bitcoin/ back of the envelope calculation: $2B market cap in its heyday a few months ago, and the $150k x 365 = $57M a year in "fees" which is about 2.8% of the entire bitcoin economy remember, the banks also spend the fees back into the economy, such as paying their employees :)