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I don't think cryptocurrencies long term value is in their USD amount. It's in their other features like being able to send money across the world with minimal

I don't think cryptocurrencies long term value is in their USD amount. It's in their other features like being able to send money across the world with minimal transaction fees and certianity the transaction will not be interrupted.

shittyanalogy 12y ago
If the value of bitcoin is so low that you can't buy enough of them to pay for your purchase without drastically changing the value of the currency then they're not particularly useful as a method of payment.
- jarfil 12y ago
  At the moment of this writing, there are 13725450 Bitcoins in existence [1], with a value of $195.30 each [2]. That makes a grand total of $2,680,580,385 (2.6 billion). How low would they have to fall for there not being enough of them to perform a transaction? [1] https://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc https://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc [2] https://www.coinbase.com/charts https://www.coinbase.com/charts
  - shittyanalogy 12y ago
    2.7 billion market cap, not available to you. Say you needed to make a $10,000+ purchase. If you can't buy or sell that much bitcoin without considerably altering it's price it becomes a hassle of a currency.
quonn 12y ago
Well, it's good enough already. First, international transactions just don't matter that much for most people. Second, for small amounts of money use a Credit Card. The extra cost is negligible. Or if this is not possible, something like Western Union. This will cost 5%, but it doesn't really matter for amounts < $1000 and people do it all the time. For larger amounts (> $10.000), you can send a cheque or for > $100.000 do a stock trade on two markets. Note that the existing systems have fraud protection and convenience as features which are worth something. If bitcoin would threaten any of the existing systems, banks will simply lower the fees. At that point Bitcoin would be only slightly cheaper but less convenient and secure.

shittyanalogy 12y ago

If the value of bitcoin is so low that you can't buy enough of them to pay for your purchase without drastically changing the value of the currency then they're not particularly useful as a method of payment.

jarfil 12y ago
At the moment of this writing, there are 13725450 Bitcoins in existence [1], with a value of $195.30 each [2]. That makes a grand total of $2,680,580,385 (2.6 billion). How low would they have to fall for there not being enough of them to perform a transaction? [1] https://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc https://blockexplorer.com/q/totalbc [2] https://www.coinbase.com/charts https://www.coinbase.com/charts
- shittyanalogy 12y ago
  2.7 billion market cap, not available to you. Say you needed to make a $10,000+ purchase. If you can't buy or sell that much bitcoin without considerably altering it's price it becomes a hassle of a currency.

quonn 12y ago

Well, it's good enough already. First, international transactions just don't matter that much for most people. Second, for small amounts of money use a Credit Card. The extra cost is negligible. Or if this is not possible, something like Western Union. This will cost 5%, but it doesn't really matter for amounts < $1000 and people do it all the time. For larger amounts (> $10.000), you can send a cheque or for > $100.000 do a stock trade on two markets. Note that the existing systems have fraud protection and convenience as features which are worth something. If bitcoin would threaten any of the existing systems, banks will simply lower the fees. At that point Bitcoin would be only slightly cheaper but less convenient and secure.