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Ask HN: Hypothetically, would you take your salary in Bitcoin?

4 points by ed 12y ago

I'm not proposing a product or service to do this, just curious whether HN folk are sensitive to BTC's volatility as a medium-term store of value.

patio11 12y ago
Apropos of nothing, the word salary comes from the Latin for salt. The Romans used to pay their armies in it. It has use value and can be traded for other things that you want. Would you accept your salary in salt in 2014? Well, that would be suboptimal. If you want salt, just take your salary in dollars and buy salt. If a company proposes to pay you in salt, run.
- baxter001 12y ago
  There's no evidence this was ever true, the whole salary/salarius thing is basically an offhanded potential backronym mentioned by Pliny. It's particularly unlikely as 'payment' to the Roman fighting forces in the time he was referring to was almost exclusively in spoils.
chovy 12y ago
I would take a portion of it in Bitcoin, like 5%. Infact, there is a company that does this, you give HR an additional routing number + account number, and they buy Bitcoin and send it to your deposit address. (I have not actually done this yet)...
wlkr 12y ago
No, I would not take my entire salary in Bitcoin; even disregarding the current inability to use it in everyday expenditures, it's simply too volatile. Would I take a portion of my salary in BTC? I don't think so either, simply because I would want it to be such a small percentage that it wouldn't be worth it. There's an interesting article on the matter over at CoinDesk: http://www.coindesk.com/getting-paid-in-bitcoins/ http://www.coindesk.com/getting-paid-in-bitcoins/
elviejo 12y ago
I would definitively do It... Something like 30%... The part that I want to save medium-long term.
- Rainymood 12y ago
  1) There are a finite amount of ways to spell inde-finite-ly 2) Why don't you invest 30% of your savings in Bitcoin right now then?
  - simonmales 12y ago
    Re 2. Takes extra effort. People are lazy.
2D 12y ago
Yes. As long as there was a hedge type clause saying if it dropped below a certain threshold it would revert to USD. Sounds a bit like working in Argentina or Zim but those would be my terms.
munimkazia 12y ago
It is too volatile right now.. I have seen it drop from 1k to 400 in a relatively very short period of time. Plus, it has issues in India. There aren't any good exchanges (any more) here.
Mimu 12y ago
If I want to gamble I would do it with my own money.
thelogos 12y ago
I think the buy-sell spread would definitely be a problem, unless the company has money in bitcoin already and you don't plan on selling it immediately. It's just not viable until bitcoin usage is more widespread and selling btc for cash becomes a thing of the past.

4 points by ed 12y ago

I'm not proposing a product or service to do this, just curious whether HN folk are sensitive to BTC's volatility as a medium-term store of value.

patio11 12y ago

Apropos of nothing, the word salary comes from the Latin for salt. The Romans used to pay their armies in it. It has use value and can be traded for other things that you want. Would you accept your salary in salt in 2014? Well, that would be suboptimal. If you want salt, just take your salary in dollars and buy salt. If a company proposes to pay you in salt, run.

baxter001 12y ago
There's no evidence this was ever true, the whole salary/salarius thing is basically an offhanded potential backronym mentioned by Pliny. It's particularly unlikely as 'payment' to the Roman fighting forces in the time he was referring to was almost exclusively in spoils.

chovy 12y ago

I would take a portion of it in Bitcoin, like 5%. Infact, there is a company that does this, you give HR an additional routing number + account number, and they buy Bitcoin and send it to your deposit address. (I have not actually done this yet)...

wlkr 12y ago

No, I would not take my entire salary in Bitcoin; even disregarding the current inability to use it in everyday expenditures, it's simply too volatile. Would I take a portion of my salary in BTC? I don't think so either, simply because I would want it to be such a small percentage that it wouldn't be worth it. There's an interesting article on the matter over at CoinDesk: http://www.coindesk.com/getting-paid-in-bitcoins/ http://www.coindesk.com/getting-paid-in-bitcoins/

elviejo 12y ago

I would definitively do It... Something like 30%... The part that I want to save medium-long term.

Rainymood 12y ago
1) There are a finite amount of ways to spell inde-finite-ly 2) Why don't you invest 30% of your savings in Bitcoin right now then?
- simonmales 12y ago
  Re 2. Takes extra effort. People are lazy.

2D 12y ago

Yes. As long as there was a hedge type clause saying if it dropped below a certain threshold it would revert to USD. Sounds a bit like working in Argentina or Zim but those would be my terms.

munimkazia 12y ago

It is too volatile right now.. I have seen it drop from 1k to 400 in a relatively very short period of time. Plus, it has issues in India. There aren't any good exchanges (any more) here.

Mimu 12y ago

If I want to gamble I would do it with my own money.

thelogos 12y ago

I think the buy-sell spread would definitely be a problem, unless the company has money in bitcoin already and you don't plan on selling it immediately. It's just not viable until bitcoin usage is more widespread and selling btc for cash becomes a thing of the past.