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> What Bitcoin really needs is a central bank to stabilize its value. The whole point of Bitcoin is that there is no central governing authority. I'm not sure
by en4bz 13y ago
> What Bitcoin really needs is a central bank to stabilize its value.
The whole point of Bitcoin is that there is no central governing authority. I'm not sure if this statement is meant to be funny, but if it isn't the author clearly has no understanding of how Bitcoin works or what it aims to achieve. I think given this statement its fair to ignore this piece all together.
- Nursie 13y agoWhat does bitcoin aim to achieve? I've heard so many different things, and as soon as one gets challenged someone will pop up and say "well it was never meant for that, it does these other five things". Frankly if it was to be a currency, yes, a central bank would be a feature. But it's not a currency, its economic presets would make it a really bad one and its lack of central control makes it very prone to instability. It's not really a very good payment method either, because it takes time to confirm and there's no chargeback facility, something that has given consumers the confidence to shop online and really helped along the boom in internet retail.
- gahahaha 13y agoThe author obviously understands that Bitcoin has no central bank - his point is that if it ever were to be used as a currency it would need one. Would you like your salary paid in bitcoins? You wouldn't know from one month to the next what you could afford to buy since prices would be so volatile. Bitcoin might have other uses like easy electronic payments - but the author points out that if you want to buy something legally it is quite convenient already today with the currencies we have.
- jpttsn 13y ago> it is quite convenient already today with the currencies we have. That's ridiculous. The friction or transferring money is a huge problem across the world. Developing nations are left out, governments shut down payments on a whim, etc.
- coinbase-craig 13y agoI get my salary paid in bitcoin and I think it's pretty awesome.
- maxerickson 13y agoHow flexible is that arrangement? If Bitcoin undergoes a sudden downturn, can you ask for dollars next month?
- coinbase-craig 13y agoI get paid a USD equivalent. So if bitcoin went down next month, I'd just get a greater amount of bitcoin. I could change to being paid in USD instead, but I choose to be paid in bitcoin.
- gnaritas 13y agoIf your salary is priced in USD, you're really just being paid in USD, not Bitcoin. When you're ready to accept a fixed amount of Bitcoin every pay period, then you're paid in Bitcoin.
- coinbase-craig 13y agoAt the end of the day I end up with bitcoin in my account, not dollars. So what you're saying does not seem correct to me. The conversion is just a way of determining how much bitcoin I should be paid.
- gnaritas 13y agoYour dollars are being delivered to you via Bitcoin, but your salary is designated in dollars, thus you are paid in dollars.
- coinbase-craig 13y agoBut dollars are not being delivered to me, that's the point. Bitcoin isn't acting as a middleman here-it's the end. If I were your employer and decided to price your bi-weekly paycheck in terms of segways (each paycheck would be the dollar equivalent of one segway), does that mean you'd be "paid in segways"? No, you're paid in dollars. You can't really claim someone is paid in dollars unless (1) they receive actual dollars, or (2) the thing they receive instead is guaranteed to be exchangeable for that dollar amount at any point into the future. Neither of these is true of a salary that is delivered in bitcoin, regardless of how it's priced.