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>Bitcoin can save 1-3% in fees on any transaction. Cash has no fees and debit has negligible fees (a few cents plus up to 0.05% in the US). Most B2B transactio

by ac29 12y ago

>Bitcoin can save 1-3% in fees on any transaction. Cash has no fees and debit has negligible fees (a few cents plus up to 0.05% in the US). Most B2B transactions aren't done with credit cards either.

jerguismi 12y ago
Physical cash has actually quite high handling costs. It is not cheap form of money. Ask your nearest cash-handling merchant about it.
zanny 12y ago
In addition to other points, you can consider the arbitrary inflation of fiat as a sort of fee. When you get fiat from anyone, you can not assume the availability of the same currency tomorrow. The state controlling it can arbitrarily create more whenever they please. That is the dominant source of inflation in fiat currencies, whereas in btc and other cryptocurrencies the velocity of funds becomes the influencer in that same regard. That happens in fiat too, but is overwhelmed by the prevalence of unpredictable money printing. The point is that with a sufficiently entrenched cryptocurrency, that volatility due to money entering or leaving the market (ie, buy some btc as an investment and sit on it) is drastically reduced (and the volatile availability of funds combined with the speculation gives bitcoin its unpredictable exchange rates) you eliminate the most prevalent forms of unpredictability from your money - since with crytocurrencies, the algorithm makes the monetary base very predictable, and if you had a currency at a "good" inflation rate generating a lot of monetary velocity the frequency of funds leaving the system for an extended time (besides lost wallets) would be even more negligible. That inherent overhead of unpredictability in fiat is a natural "fee" that everyone has to subconsciously consider what evaluating transactions using such currencies.
joeyspn 12y ago
BitShares + Ethereum are two great teams that are undoubtedly pushing the cryptocurrency ecosystem forward. DAC's and DAO's will bring another wave of cool tech. I think the next big economic bubble/cycle in cryptoland could come thanks to advancements in these two projects. The fact that both teams get along really well is also awesome... http://bitshares.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Dan-Vitalik-Golf.png http://bitshares.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Dan-Vitalik-...
IkmoIkmo 12y ago
Accepting $10 from a buddy has no fees, no. But a supermarket taking in tens of thousands on a daily basis, has quite high costs of handling cash, usually at least 1%. And cash is definitely slowly being phased out because it has all kinds of issues, security being a key one. (cash-based businesses have higher ordinary robbery risks than card-based businesses for example)

by ac29 12y ago

>Bitcoin can save 1-3% in fees on any transaction. Cash has no fees and debit has negligible fees (a few cents plus up to 0.05% in the US). Most B2B transactions aren't done with credit cards either.

jerguismi 12y ago

Physical cash has actually quite high handling costs. It is not cheap form of money. Ask your nearest cash-handling merchant about it.

zanny 12y ago

In addition to other points, you can consider the arbitrary inflation of fiat as a sort of fee. When you get fiat from anyone, you can not assume the availability of the same currency tomorrow. The state controlling it can arbitrarily create more whenever they please. That is the dominant source of inflation in fiat currencies, whereas in btc and other cryptocurrencies the velocity of funds becomes the influencer in that same regard. That happens in fiat too, but is overwhelmed by the prevalence of unpredictable money printing. The point is that with a sufficiently entrenched cryptocurrency, that volatility due to money entering or leaving the market (ie, buy some btc as an investment and sit on it) is drastically reduced (and the volatile availability of funds combined with the speculation gives bitcoin its unpredictable exchange rates) you eliminate the most prevalent forms of unpredictability from your money - since with crytocurrencies, the algorithm makes the monetary base very predictable, and if you had a currency at a "good" inflation rate generating a lot of monetary velocity the frequency of funds leaving the system for an extended time (besides lost wallets) would be even more negligible. That inherent overhead of unpredictability in fiat is a natural "fee" that everyone has to subconsciously consider what evaluating transactions using such currencies.

joeyspn 12y ago

BitShares + Ethereum are two great teams that are undoubtedly pushing the cryptocurrency ecosystem forward. DAC's and DAO's will bring another wave of cool tech. I think the next big economic bubble/cycle in cryptoland could come thanks to advancements in these two projects. The fact that both teams get along really well is also awesome... http://bitshares.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Dan-Vitalik-Golf.png http://bitshares.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Dan-Vitalik-...

IkmoIkmo 12y ago

Accepting $10 from a buddy has no fees, no. But a supermarket taking in tens of thousands on a daily basis, has quite high costs of handling cash, usually at least 1%. And cash is definitely slowly being phased out because it has all kinds of issues, security being a key one. (cash-based businesses have higher ordinary robbery risks than card-based businesses for example)