6 ms·

Bitcoin maybe is the future of money because: - it's inflation safe - no corrupt bankers or politicians can manipulate it (easily) - there are no men in the

Bitcoin maybe is the future of money because: - it's inflation safe - no corrupt bankers or politicians can manipulate it (easily) - there are no men in the middle (edit: or only for a short time. Of course you should not save your bitcoins in a marketplace for a long time frame) - it's cheap for all sorts of transactions - it doesn't know borders (in democratic nations) When the next bigger inflation of Euro or Dollar will arrive bitcoin exchange rate will skyrocket. Though that only means you should invest in it maybe it will also become money with exchange character in future.

CJefferson 12y ago
Bitcoin only supports 7 transactions a second as I understand it. Surely that instantly kills any idea it could be the future of money?
- exo762 12y ago
  This is a temporary technical issue. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability
- dalore 12y ago
  Good way to stop high frequency trading then.
  - pathy 12y ago
    Or simply stop adaptation on a larger scale.
  - vertex-four 12y ago
    No, by transactions, they mean transactions on the block chain. That is, only 7 people in the entire world can buy things with Bitcoin every second. HFT markets would use off-chain transactions, like all current Bitcoin exchange markets, so wouldn't be affected by this in the slightest.
  - snitko 12y ago
    You have no idea what you're talking about. Trading on the blockchain is insane and no one is really attempting to do it.
nutjob2 12y ago
Except none of those things are true. Bitcoin is just a tinfoil hat combined with a prepper mentality, or libertarian wishful thinking. The first 3 things you list can happen to bitcoin since bitcoin is just another currency. The idea that it's intrinsically cheaper doesn't hold water compared to any other currency. Just because some transactions cost money on existing currencies doesn't preclude the exact same thing happening to bitcoin. Again, just another currency. The idea that it's somehow free of national regulation is patently false. The currency may be "virtual" but so are all other currencies, I can send you money without mailing you paper. But the point is that the holders of the currency exist in the real world, not as entities in cyberspace, and those bitcoin holders and dealers can be regulated just like other currencies, unless they want to go to jail.
- doczoidberg 12y ago
  Of course it's only another currency but as stated it differentiates from current currencies with some advantages. The effort to regulate it is very expensive. Of course everything is possible but you have always to ask for it's costs. I don't say that bitcoin is the future of money but it can be. There is no need for men in the middle in the connected internet world.
- pfisch 12y ago
  I don't know about the rest of this list, but how could there be inflation? There are a finite number of bitcoins that will ever exist.
  - kijin 12y ago
    Inflation just means that the value of a currency goes down. There are many reasons why the value of a currency might go down. Printing too much money (increasing the supply) is one of them, but it is not the only possibility. Decreasing the demand is just as effective. Imagine that someone just found a critical flaw in the algorithms used by bitcoin. Everyone wants to sell and move to dogecoin a.s.a.p. But nobody wants to buy those bitcoins anymore! Bang, that's inflation right there. As long as there are alternatives to bitcoin, the fact that the total number of bitcoins is limited cannot prevent inflation from happening.
FeloniousHam 12y ago
As a American consumer, Bitcoin doesn't have any value to me. In addition to the volatility, difficulty of actually spending it, and its vastly higher risk as a store of value (theft, "beta" implementation), the US Dollar is already a cross-border virtual currency. The increased transaction costs in current cards is transparent, and I get 1.5-5% cash back as a result of those fees. Anonymity is almost never a concern of mine, and if it is, there are simpler ways of moving dollars around, as either cash or one time debit cards. Inflation is not an unalloyed evil, and as clumsy as Fed manipulations might be, I just don't feel that a free market deflationary Bitcoin wouldn't have as many (but different) downsides. I can definitely see the value to countries unstable or hyper inflated currencies, but Bitcoin requires a substantial first world infrastructure undergirding it. And from my emotional perspective, I resent that the inventors will pocket millions from being at the top of the pyramid.
- nutjob2 12y ago
  Do you really think that the Feds "manipulations" have been clumsy? They've managed to consistently hit about 1% inflation in a strongly deflationary environment. They've done an outstanding job in that respect.
  - rsynnott 12y ago
    They're aiming for 2%, not 1%. That said, it's still impressive that they've managed to avoid deflation.
  - FeloniousHam 12y ago
    I was trying to be generous to the anti-Fed types--personally, however broken and corrupt the Federal Reserve systems are (again, being generous to the Zeitgeist), things are pretty good. Occasionally you get cheap money bubbles that are a direct result of Reserve Bank decisions, but on balance, IMO, it's an overwhelmingly positive system.
- aianus 12y ago
  You can use it to play poker. US players have been shut out of poker sites since Black Friday in 2011 and with bitcoin you can withdraw from the site daily to reduce your exposure if it goes bust a la Full Tilt. Also, you get 3% cashback on anything on Amazon by buying with bitcoin through gyft. That's better than any credit card I've seen even if it costs you 1% to buy the btc.
_wdh 12y ago
Doesn't bitcoin require you to download the whole blockchain before you can use it? What happens when new transactions are created faster than you can download them?
- pfisch 12y ago
  No, this is completely wrong.
  - _wdh 12y ago
    Ah, ok. My bad. How does it work then?
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
hnnewguy 12y ago
>it's inflation safe It isn't inflation "safe"; there's no inflation. And that isn't necessarily good. The money supply needs to grow as the demand for money grows (yes, the demand for money changes over time and circumstance). >no corrupt bankers or politicians can manipulate it (easily) They sure will, as will corrupt vendors, hackers, salesmen, etc. Corruption is a human trait, not confined to "bankers or politicians".
- VMG 12y ago
  > It isn't inflation "safe"; there's no inflation. And that isn't necessarily good. The money supply needs to grow as the demand for money grows (yes, the demand for money changes over time and circumstance). Let's just say it's completely transparent in it's inflation. That is an objective advantage. You can argue that the inflation model is bad, but it is at least completely deterministic. >> They sure will, as will corrupt vendors, hackers, salesmen, etc. Corruption is a human trait, not confined to "bankers or politicians". > They sure will, as will corrupt vendors, hackers, salesmen, etc. Corruption is a human trait, not confined to "bankers or politicians". Crypto-currency can at least remove one piece in the chain of corruption that was often exploited before. Just like cryptographic communication does not prevent against all attacks, it does prevent against some.
  - vojfox 12y ago
    its, not it's.
- gnaritas 12y ago
  > It isn't inflation "safe"; there's no inflation. Not actually true until all coins are mined in like 100 years; for now it's undergoing quite predictable inflation and will be for quite a while. > The money supply needs to grow as the demand for money grows (yes, the demand for money changes over time and circumstance). Divisibility solves the liquidity problem, the only real issue is deflation and there's other ways that could be stabilized as money supply manipulation is certainly off the table in this case.

CJefferson 12y ago

Bitcoin only supports 7 transactions a second as I understand it. Surely that instantly kills any idea it could be the future of money?

exo762 12y ago
This is a temporary technical issue. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Scalability
dalore 12y ago
Good way to stop high frequency trading then.
- pathy 12y ago
  Or simply stop adaptation on a larger scale.
- vertex-four 12y ago
  No, by transactions, they mean transactions on the block chain. That is, only 7 people in the entire world can buy things with Bitcoin every second. HFT markets would use off-chain transactions, like all current Bitcoin exchange markets, so wouldn't be affected by this in the slightest.
- snitko 12y ago
  You have no idea what you're talking about. Trading on the blockchain is insane and no one is really attempting to do it.

nutjob2 12y ago

Except none of those things are true. Bitcoin is just a tinfoil hat combined with a prepper mentality, or libertarian wishful thinking. The first 3 things you list can happen to bitcoin since bitcoin is just another currency. The idea that it's intrinsically cheaper doesn't hold water compared to any other currency. Just because some transactions cost money on existing currencies doesn't preclude the exact same thing happening to bitcoin. Again, just another currency. The idea that it's somehow free of national regulation is patently false. The currency may be "virtual" but so are all other currencies, I can send you money without mailing you paper. But the point is that the holders of the currency exist in the real world, not as entities in cyberspace, and those bitcoin holders and dealers can be regulated just like other currencies, unless they want to go to jail.

doczoidberg 12y ago
Of course it's only another currency but as stated it differentiates from current currencies with some advantages. The effort to regulate it is very expensive. Of course everything is possible but you have always to ask for it's costs. I don't say that bitcoin is the future of money but it can be. There is no need for men in the middle in the connected internet world.
pfisch 12y ago
I don't know about the rest of this list, but how could there be inflation? There are a finite number of bitcoins that will ever exist.
- kijin 12y ago
  Inflation just means that the value of a currency goes down. There are many reasons why the value of a currency might go down. Printing too much money (increasing the supply) is one of them, but it is not the only possibility. Decreasing the demand is just as effective. Imagine that someone just found a critical flaw in the algorithms used by bitcoin. Everyone wants to sell and move to dogecoin a.s.a.p. But nobody wants to buy those bitcoins anymore! Bang, that's inflation right there. As long as there are alternatives to bitcoin, the fact that the total number of bitcoins is limited cannot prevent inflation from happening.

FeloniousHam 12y ago

As a American consumer, Bitcoin doesn't have any value to me. In addition to the volatility, difficulty of actually spending it, and its vastly higher risk as a store of value (theft, "beta" implementation), the US Dollar is already a cross-border virtual currency. The increased transaction costs in current cards is transparent, and I get 1.5-5% cash back as a result of those fees. Anonymity is almost never a concern of mine, and if it is, there are simpler ways of moving dollars around, as either cash or one time debit cards. Inflation is not an unalloyed evil, and as clumsy as Fed manipulations might be, I just don't feel that a free market deflationary Bitcoin wouldn't have as many (but different) downsides. I can definitely see the value to countries unstable or hyper inflated currencies, but Bitcoin requires a substantial first world infrastructure undergirding it. And from my emotional perspective, I resent that the inventors will pocket millions from being at the top of the pyramid.

nutjob2 12y ago
Do you really think that the Feds "manipulations" have been clumsy? They've managed to consistently hit about 1% inflation in a strongly deflationary environment. They've done an outstanding job in that respect.
- rsynnott 12y ago
  They're aiming for 2%, not 1%. That said, it's still impressive that they've managed to avoid deflation.
- FeloniousHam 12y ago
  I was trying to be generous to the anti-Fed types--personally, however broken and corrupt the Federal Reserve systems are (again, being generous to the Zeitgeist), things are pretty good. Occasionally you get cheap money bubbles that are a direct result of Reserve Bank decisions, but on balance, IMO, it's an overwhelmingly positive system.
aianus 12y ago
You can use it to play poker. US players have been shut out of poker sites since Black Friday in 2011 and with bitcoin you can withdraw from the site daily to reduce your exposure if it goes bust a la Full Tilt. Also, you get 3% cashback on anything on Amazon by buying with bitcoin through gyft. That's better than any credit card I've seen even if it costs you 1% to buy the btc.

_wdh 12y ago

Doesn't bitcoin require you to download the whole blockchain before you can use it? What happens when new transactions are created faster than you can download them?

pfisch 12y ago
No, this is completely wrong.
- _wdh 12y ago
  Ah, ok. My bad. How does it work then?

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

hnnewguy 12y ago

>it's inflation safe It isn't inflation "safe"; there's no inflation. And that isn't necessarily good. The money supply needs to grow as the demand for money grows (yes, the demand for money changes over time and circumstance). >no corrupt bankers or politicians can manipulate it (easily) They sure will, as will corrupt vendors, hackers, salesmen, etc. Corruption is a human trait, not confined to "bankers or politicians".

VMG 12y ago
> It isn't inflation "safe"; there's no inflation. And that isn't necessarily good. The money supply needs to grow as the demand for money grows (yes, the demand for money changes over time and circumstance). Let's just say it's completely transparent in it's inflation. That is an objective advantage. You can argue that the inflation model is bad, but it is at least completely deterministic. >> They sure will, as will corrupt vendors, hackers, salesmen, etc. Corruption is a human trait, not confined to "bankers or politicians". > They sure will, as will corrupt vendors, hackers, salesmen, etc. Corruption is a human trait, not confined to "bankers or politicians". Crypto-currency can at least remove one piece in the chain of corruption that was often exploited before. Just like cryptographic communication does not prevent against all attacks, it does prevent against some.
- vojfox 12y ago
  its, not it's.
gnaritas 12y ago
> It isn't inflation "safe"; there's no inflation. Not actually true until all coins are mined in like 100 years; for now it's undergoing quite predictable inflation and will be for quite a while. > The money supply needs to grow as the demand for money grows (yes, the demand for money changes over time and circumstance). Divisibility solves the liquidity problem, the only real issue is deflation and there's other ways that could be stabilized as money supply manipulation is certainly off the table in this case.