4 ms·

Salaries paid in Bitcoin a growing trend in Canada

32 points by fraqed 12y ago

freakonom 12y ago
I wonder who's manning this submarine [1]. [1] http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- blazespin 12y ago
  Not necessarily. Bitcoin makes useful click bait.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
mikeryan 12y ago
Are the salaries set in bitcoin? Or Canadian Dollars and then exchanged for bitcoin on payday at market rates? Either way, It seems I'd rather be paid in dollars for the stability then have the ability to trade these for bitcoin with dips in the market. Unless my salary is set in bitcoin and I'm counting on Bitcoin inflation to outpace dollar inflation.
ryanseys 12y ago
I've never once purchased a Bitcoin and it will probably be quite a while before I consider ever purchasing Bitcoins, but it seems to me the Bitcoin craze has settled down and it's value has somewhat stabilized (for now) making this sort of thing "possible", though I'm still surprised it's even happening. This I believe will be a fad that will be phased out once people start requesting their wages paid in euros, pounds, or other forms of legitimate worldwide currency, using this as precedent. I don't particularly agree with the offering, but it's neat to read about at least.
- imaginenore 12y ago
  You don't get it. People do want to get paid in Bitcoin, because it's easy to deal with it. It's easy to send and receive payments, they can't be frozen, you don't need to call your bank to authorize a large payment, etc. Euros, pounds, etc don't solve the problems that attract Bitcoin users. Not to mention nobody accepts euros and pounds in the US, so there's no real point in getting paid in them, but Bitcoins get more and more widespread every day. Also I don't care if Bitcoin price is going down at the moment, I still want to get paid in Bitcoin. Unfortunately the people I bill don't have that option.
  - MichaelGG 12y ago
    >you don't need to call your bank to authorize a large payment Also known as fraud prevention.
    - imaginenore 12y ago
      Bitcoin has security controls, it's not magically exclusive to the banks. Multisig, paper wallets, multiple wallets, insured storage, etc.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    > Unfortunately the people I bill don't have that option. Well, that's ok, you get paid in your local currency and then you go buy more bitcoins! As for paying with euros and pounds in the US, that mostly applies to cash transactions. I'm having about a 100% success rate paying in Euros when I buy stuff from/in the US and Canada using credit cards tied to European bank accounts. All the exchanges happen fully automatic at some (relatively transparent) percentage, not unlike the fee a bitcoin exchange takes (assuming you get your money back at all...).
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
tiku 12y ago
lol, you get your salary, the next day, down 4 percent...
- mateuszf 12y ago
  or 30 up
- imaginenore 12y ago
  If you get paid in USD, it's guaranteed to slowly lose value. Unlike Bitcoin.
  - res0nat0r 12y ago
    I'll bank on the stability of the USD backed by the US government over Bitcoin anytime.
    - imaginenore 12y ago
      It sure is stable, at losing value: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mAg6FMpNGpM/Ta9ICcEMonI/AAAAAAAABBM/UoQG8vxtBX0/s1600/U.S.%2BDollar%2BPurchasing%2BPower.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mAg6FMpNGpM/Ta9ICcEMonI/AAAAAAAABB...
      - res0nat0r 12y ago
        And the best part is I know roughly how much of my income I'm going to part ways with tomorrow and next month when I want to buy a gallon of gas, grocery items, or a car. That graph really has no bearing on day to day swings of the USD vs. the insane volatility of bitcoin that seems to get glossed over by all of its rabid proponents.
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
        imaginenore 12y ago
        It goes up more than it goes down so far. Long term it doesn't matter. What rabid opponents don't understand is that volatility will subside with the adoption.
dongcoin 12y ago
could it be because of the large Chinese population?
- tigereyeTO 12y ago
  I get paid my living in Bitcoin. I'm not Chinese.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    Where do you live and how do you pay your rent? Also in bitcoin?
    - tigereyeTO 12y ago
      I live in Ontario. I pay for my condo via direct debit from my chequing account like everyone else.
  - guiomie 12y ago
    why?
    - tigereyeTO 12y ago
      Because my company accepts Bitcoin for their services. They pay me with that Bitcoin. It's up to me to exchange it for cash (if I need it) or pay for my things directly in Bitcoin if possible. It's not difficult. There was a time when people would ask "What can you buy with Bitcoin?" Today it's the opposite question. "What CAN'T you buy with Bitcoin?"
CoolGuySteve 12y ago
Not too surprising, during my life the Canadian dollar has drifted between 0.65 USD and 1.07 USD, and prices for certain goods like books and electronics barely ever keep up. Bitcoin may currently be a lot more volatile, but the CAD isn't that great either. https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=Linear&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1194649200000&chddm=2489791&q=CURRENCY:CADUSD&ntsp=0&ei=N8gEVMC6K8SY9AbTkoCwAw https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&...
- jacquesm 12y ago
  During my lifetime bitcoin went from being worth fractions of cents to more than $1000 and back down again to $400 or so. The $CAD may not be the most stable currency in the world - when compared to the US$ - but bitcoin is doing a lot worse, orders of magnitude worse. If you compared the Canadian dollar to other currencies than the US$ then it starts to look a lot better, bitcoin on the other hand still looks far worse.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - imaginenore 12y ago
    It's not doing worse. It's doing orders of magnitude better unless you bought in at the last peak. Not many bitcoin owners will complain that bitcoin went up 10% or 1000% or 100000%.
- MichaelGG 12y ago
  A cube earth may be an imprecise model, but a perfectly spherical model isn't that accurate either.

32 points by fraqed 12y ago

I wonder who's manning this submarine [1]. [1] http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html

blazespin 12y ago
Not necessarily. Bitcoin makes useful click bait.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

mikeryan 12y ago

Are the salaries set in bitcoin? Or Canadian Dollars and then exchanged for bitcoin on payday at market rates? Either way, It seems I'd rather be paid in dollars for the stability then have the ability to trade these for bitcoin with dips in the market. Unless my salary is set in bitcoin and I'm counting on Bitcoin inflation to outpace dollar inflation.

ryanseys 12y ago

I've never once purchased a Bitcoin and it will probably be quite a while before I consider ever purchasing Bitcoins, but it seems to me the Bitcoin craze has settled down and it's value has somewhat stabilized (for now) making this sort of thing "possible", though I'm still surprised it's even happening. This I believe will be a fad that will be phased out once people start requesting their wages paid in euros, pounds, or other forms of legitimate worldwide currency, using this as precedent. I don't particularly agree with the offering, but it's neat to read about at least.

imaginenore 12y ago
You don't get it. People do want to get paid in Bitcoin, because it's easy to deal with it. It's easy to send and receive payments, they can't be frozen, you don't need to call your bank to authorize a large payment, etc. Euros, pounds, etc don't solve the problems that attract Bitcoin users. Not to mention nobody accepts euros and pounds in the US, so there's no real point in getting paid in them, but Bitcoins get more and more widespread every day. Also I don't care if Bitcoin price is going down at the moment, I still want to get paid in Bitcoin. Unfortunately the people I bill don't have that option.
- MichaelGG 12y ago
  >you don't need to call your bank to authorize a large payment Also known as fraud prevention.
  - imaginenore 12y ago
    Bitcoin has security controls, it's not magically exclusive to the banks. Multisig, paper wallets, multiple wallets, insured storage, etc.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  > Unfortunately the people I bill don't have that option. Well, that's ok, you get paid in your local currency and then you go buy more bitcoins! As for paying with euros and pounds in the US, that mostly applies to cash transactions. I'm having about a 100% success rate paying in Euros when I buy stuff from/in the US and Canada using credit cards tied to European bank accounts. All the exchanges happen fully automatic at some (relatively transparent) percentage, not unlike the fee a bitcoin exchange takes (assuming you get your money back at all...).
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

tiku 12y ago

lol, you get your salary, the next day, down 4 percent...

mateuszf 12y ago
or 30 up
imaginenore 12y ago
If you get paid in USD, it's guaranteed to slowly lose value. Unlike Bitcoin.
- res0nat0r 12y ago
  I'll bank on the stability of the USD backed by the US government over Bitcoin anytime.
  - imaginenore 12y ago
    It sure is stable, at losing value: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mAg6FMpNGpM/Ta9ICcEMonI/AAAAAAAABBM/UoQG8vxtBX0/s1600/U.S.%2BDollar%2BPurchasing%2BPower.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mAg6FMpNGpM/Ta9ICcEMonI/AAAAAAAABB...
    - res0nat0r 12y ago
      And the best part is I know roughly how much of my income I'm going to part ways with tomorrow and next month when I want to buy a gallon of gas, grocery items, or a car. That graph really has no bearing on day to day swings of the USD vs. the insane volatility of bitcoin that seems to get glossed over by all of its rabid proponents.
      - deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
      - imaginenore 12y ago
        It goes up more than it goes down so far. Long term it doesn't matter. What rabid opponents don't understand is that volatility will subside with the adoption.

dongcoin 12y ago

could it be because of the large Chinese population?

tigereyeTO 12y ago
I get paid my living in Bitcoin. I'm not Chinese.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  Where do you live and how do you pay your rent? Also in bitcoin?
  - tigereyeTO 12y ago
    I live in Ontario. I pay for my condo via direct debit from my chequing account like everyone else.
- guiomie 12y ago
  why?
  - tigereyeTO 12y ago
    Because my company accepts Bitcoin for their services. They pay me with that Bitcoin. It's up to me to exchange it for cash (if I need it) or pay for my things directly in Bitcoin if possible. It's not difficult. There was a time when people would ask "What can you buy with Bitcoin?" Today it's the opposite question. "What CAN'T you buy with Bitcoin?"

CoolGuySteve 12y ago

Not too surprising, during my life the Canadian dollar has drifted between 0.65 USD and 1.07 USD, and prices for certain goods like books and electronics barely ever keep up. Bitcoin may currently be a lot more volatile, but the CAD isn't that great either. https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=Linear&chdeh=0&chfdeh=0&chdet=1194649200000&chddm=2489791&q=CURRENCY:CADUSD&ntsp=0&ei=N8gEVMC6K8SY9AbTkoCwAw https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&...

jacquesm 12y ago
During my lifetime bitcoin went from being worth fractions of cents to more than $1000 and back down again to $400 or so. The $CAD may not be the most stable currency in the world - when compared to the US$ - but bitcoin is doing a lot worse, orders of magnitude worse. If you compared the Canadian dollar to other currencies than the US$ then it starts to look a lot better, bitcoin on the other hand still looks far worse.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- imaginenore 12y ago
  It's not doing worse. It's doing orders of magnitude better unless you bought in at the last peak. Not many bitcoin owners will complain that bitcoin went up 10% or 1000% or 100000%.
MichaelGG 12y ago
A cube earth may be an imprecise model, but a perfectly spherical model isn't that accurate either.