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Hard to take this article seriously when the first few paragraphs are talking about the hyperinflation of the currency of Zimbabwe, then trying to rectify that
by res0nat0r 13y ago
Hard to take this article seriously when the first few paragraphs are talking about the hyperinflation of the currency of Zimbabwe, then trying to rectify that with bitcoin, which can fluctuate hundreds of USD in the span of a couple of hours.
It specifically mentions M-Pesa, which is already used by the majority of the continent, but trying to improve and go all-in on something established and accepted like that wouldn't be web 2.0 enough.
- ariannahsimpson 13y agoYou could actually use bitcoin essentially as the payment "rails" for a transaction, so that people don't hold bitcoin and immediately then convert back into local currency, and therefore get around the price changes. Companies like coinbase already allow merchants to do this. Also, bitcoin prices will stabilize over time & as more people use the currency.
- glitch003 13y agoYou just described Ripple.
- ericecook 13y agoI also found it a bit hard to swallow. The article mentions entire towns without access to electricity. Its hard to imagine a digital currency being preferable in those conditions.
- natrius 13y agoMy understanding is that M-Pesa is used in Kenya and Tanzania, which mathematically can't be the majority of the continent. M-Pesa uses local currencies, which frequently lose their value in non-OECD countries.
- res0nat0r 13y agoI should have qualified above with something like e-currency. > M-Pesa uses local currencies, which frequently lose their value in non-OECD countries. The outrageous swings of bitcoin hour by hour have the same issue. I don't see how using the USD, like Zimbabwe did to prevent inflation coupled with M-Pesa wouldn't be a better solution if you are suggesting the country move to a new system.
- wyager 13y ago>The outrageous swings of bitcoin hour by hour have the same issue. Bitcoin loses, at worst, maybe 50% of its value over the course of a few weeks. The Zimbabwe dollar lost 99.99% of its value over the course of a few weeks. Of course, on larger time scales, the volatility of Bitcoin has been in a distinctly upward direction. So yeah, I guess Bitcoin has kind of the opposite problem of the Zimbabwe Dollar (if you can call it a problem). And then, of course, Bitcoin will probably stabilize over time. New currencies are not historically stable.
- randomafrican 13y agoM-Pesa is one service by one telco operator. Almost every teco in Africa has implemented an equivalent. Now the penetration may not be as deep in the other countries as in Kenya but that will change.
- blushrt 13y agoShe lost me when she said Yugoslavia was a continent, also Yugoslavia doesn't exist anymore.
- lkbm 13y agoDid you also interpret her as saying Peru, Brazil, and Angola are continents? Because those aren't either. Maybe she should have said "Yugoslavia HAD sufferer", but that's a minor grammatical nitpick that would have made the phrasing much more clumsy.
- ariannahsimpson 13y agoYugoslavia did exist at the point in time when they had hyperinflation, which is what I was referencing. For the record, I certainly do not think Yugoslavia, Angola OR Peru or are continents. I just rephrased to make that more clear. Thanks for your input!
- eaurouge 13y agoYou list five countries, only two of which are in Africa, and yet you generalize your prescription to one continent. You do know there are some 52 other countries/economies in Africa?
- vacri 13y agoThe author didn't say those were continents, she said 'foo has occurred across continents', then gave examples of countries on different continents where it occurred. The sprinkbok is native only to South Africa, Botswana, and Angola - would you rail that it should not be described as an African animal because it doesn't cover a majority of the continent?
- mrb 13y agoIt is extremely short-sighted to look at the volatility of Bitcoin today and say "it can never work". Volatility IS DECREASING over time, as the economy and volume/market depth on exchanges are increasing. This has been explained many times on HN.
- sanswork 13y agoIf you look at the charts volatility has actually gone up quite a bit during the past year, then levelled out a bit then spiked this past month or so but it's not really started dropping at all.
- mrb 13y agoLook harder. Over the last 4-5 years volatility has gone down. And episodes of volatility spiking up are rarer. A linear regression on the volatility line is clearly going down: http://btcmag.9wizards.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/bitcoin-volatility-compared.png http://btcmag.9wizards.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/201...
- sanswork 13y agoWhat method of tracking volatility are you looking at because all the ones I've tried on http://bitcoincharts.com/ http://bitcoincharts.com/ at the all data length show an increase in volatility. (Tried Chaikin Volatility, Donchian Channel, ATR, and Bollinger Band)
- aaron695 13y agoWhen has bitcoin ever even gone close to sustained hyper inflation of 231,000,000% ? You can't just go because it dropped or rose 30% in one day that's it's inflation rate over a year, talk about cherry picking.