4 ms·
It's outside government control and in Argentina government control is the problem. So it sounds like it would be a hell of a lot better than just rebooting th
by msandford 13y ago
It's outside government control and in Argentina government control is the problem. So it sounds like it would be a hell of a lot better than just rebooting the currency again and just hoping that the government doesn't screw it up this time.
- wslh 13y agoYour comment is answered in the posted link. Basically Argentinians love dollars and we are not rational. Also bitcoin fluctuations and the difficulty to buy and sell bitcoins with a local bank account makes the innitiative very limited.
- msandford 13y agoI think you're referring more to this link about the difficulty of Argentinians getting their hands on bitcoin. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7100504 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7100504 Even if that's true (there are ways, though) that doesn't somehow negate the idea that it would be better for the normal person on the street to be able to use a currency that -- while volatile -- retains its value better than the peso. The idea isn't that the US Government will step in there and say "Here's some bitcoins use these instead" but rather that the people will decide to end up using them on their own, irrespective of policy. Argentinians love dollars because compared to the peso they're a "safe" store of value that's not under the control of their government, and because so many people will accept them. Dollars are the de-facto secondary currency not because of policy but because of people. There's nothing that would prevent the people from deciding to use bitcoin or dogecoin or litecoin or argecoin if they so decided in the future.
- wslh 13y agoIn Argentina few people have some idea about basic finance so it would take a lot of time to change their minds. Specifically speaking about bitcoins, the fluctuation makes it crazy to use it as a currency, is currentl much more risky than the dollar.
- msandford 13y agoYou say it would take a long time and under normal circumstances I agree. But if there were another "reboot the peso" event the possibility of having a real alternative to simply losing your life savings could be very interesting to people. It's amazing how fast people learn when the impact is really large. Not everyone, of course, but many. Bitcoin could easily "go viral" in Argentina the same way cat videos do here in the US.
- wslh 13y agoSay you buy a bitcoin for $ 1000 one day and the next week is at $ 600. Would you prefer bitcoins or dollars?
- thisiswrong 13y agoYou tell me!? The USD is being deflated like crazy & prone to collapse anytime soon [1]. While Bitcoin has seen 1000% annual increases. [1] http://mises.ca/posts/blog/murdoch-tweets-about-money-printing-and-inflation-reality-wont-be-far-behind/ http://mises.ca/posts/blog/murdoch-tweets-about-money-printi...
- msandford 13y agoSay you earn pesos for 20 years and save your money. One day, they all disappear just because. Which would you prefer?