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I am a big skeptic of a lot of things but not Bitcoin. Because even if you take away the bitcoin to dollar conversion, you still have a huge number of people w

by ck2 13y ago

I am a big skeptic of a lot of things but not Bitcoin. Because even if you take away the bitcoin to dollar conversion, you still have a huge number of people who would be willing to trade bitcoin for goods and services because they have a huge investment in the hardware and power it took to make their bitcoins. I was curious if Bitcoin would become a good solution to the quest for a micropayment system but it has been a victim of its own success and has become too valuable. However if its value dropped but still held some value, it would then return to a valid micropayment system.

notahacker 13y ago
> Because even if you take away the bitcoin to dollar conversion, you still have a huge number of people who would be willing to trade bitcoin for goods and services because they have a huge investment in the hardware and power it took to make their bitcoins. Just because people made a huge investment in hardware or power to make Bitcoins doesn't mean anyone else has the remotest bit of interest in accepting Bitcoins for goods and services they provided. The average Zimbabwean worked a lot harder for their Zimbabwean dollars before being forced to switch to other currencies that other people would actually accept. Right now, some people will accept Bitcoins for real goods and services because they believe the chances of currency appreciation in future are greater than the lack of liquidity and threat of price crashes. Since Bitcoin isn't reliably convertible into anything else, people's willingness to accept it depends on it remaining that way in future (here, it's "deflationary" tendencies are actually a big advantage). People need dollars to meet certain financial obligations, whereas they merely want Bitcoins because they seem like an investment. Take away that anticipated growth in value and suddenly the risk to accepting BTC seems like far more of a downside than the transaction costs of conventional currency.

by ck2 13y ago

notahacker 13y ago

> Because even if you take away the bitcoin to dollar conversion, you still have a huge number of people who would be willing to trade bitcoin for goods and services because they have a huge investment in the hardware and power it took to make their bitcoins. Just because people made a huge investment in hardware or power to make Bitcoins doesn't mean anyone else has the remotest bit of interest in accepting Bitcoins for goods and services they provided. The average Zimbabwean worked a lot harder for their Zimbabwean dollars before being forced to switch to other currencies that other people would actually accept. Right now, some people will accept Bitcoins for real goods and services because they believe the chances of currency appreciation in future are greater than the lack of liquidity and threat of price crashes. Since Bitcoin isn't reliably convertible into anything else, people's willingness to accept it depends on it remaining that way in future (here, it's "deflationary" tendencies are actually a big advantage). People need dollars to meet certain financial obligations, whereas they merely want Bitcoins because they seem like an investment. Take away that anticipated growth in value and suddenly the risk to accepting BTC seems like far more of a downside than the transaction costs of conventional currency.