this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
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Stop using Economics terms. They're definitely made up and not at all a description of how people actually act. Seriously though. It's obvious that Bitcoin is just a Ponzi scheme. Otherwise, people would actually use it as currency instead of a speculative asset.
Notice how people who buy bitcoin get really happy when the price in USD goes up. That's because they don't value Bitcoin except as a way to get more USD. Do you get all excited when the dollar is worth more in foreign currency? Or if you're European, the Euro? Not really because you are not holding onto USD or EUR as a speculative asset.
Nothing is priced in Bitcoin just like nothing is priced in baseball cards or beanie babies. No one uses it as a currency because transactions take forever and there's nothing backing it. With USD or EUR you are guaranteed to be able to pay your taxes in it. Bitcoin is complicated Venmo and its backers want to hide that fact.
Its not even complicated Venmo because transactions are barely done in it. People just buy it hoping it will go up in value.
Well no, I've bought "a lot" with bitcoin. Through bitpay I could buy confuser parts, VPN. And I've bought a lot of games for btc too
Paid maybe 30-50 cents per transaction, which is nothing compared to traditional banking. If more had support for either btc or bitpay-like-services, it'd be easier to use.
You are an anecdote, but most people aren't you and most businesses that allow bitcoin transactions immediately sell it for a government backed currency. It is not stable enough for them to keep the wages of hundreds of families in it.
People outside of spaces where cryptocurrency is accepted have a really hard time understanding just how much cryptocurrency is used. Every year it becomes more pervasive and integrated but people keep spouting the same criticisms they have for years.
Most of the opinions here are pretty america-contric.
Btw the article does not reflect the headline and ya'll should really read it before posting about how NFTs are broken. I wonder if folks would have read the article if they disagreed with the headline.
So, what you're saying is countries with volatile, unstable currencies that typically try to get their hands on as much USD as possible are more willing to use a currency other than their own? Man, that's such a shocker. I cannot believe that someone would rather store their wealth in almost anything other than money printed by unstable governments that's worth as much as a square of toilet paper.
Integration isn't the same as substitution, it means I can pay a dev living in Indonesia in eth and they can deposit it to their bank without having to go through a third party, because it's a hell of a lot faster, safer and easier than trying to set up an international wire transfer between banks who don't speak the same language.
Furthermore, if cryptocurrency helps a population regain control of their finances in a failing economy, how is that a bad thing?
Didn't say it was a bad thing. Just think it's funny that being usable in an unstable third world economy is about the only good use case for the amazing currency of the future.
The whole first world-third world designation thing is about as outdated at your information.
You're right I'll go dump all my retirement savings into whatever crypto is the next big thing tomorrow. What was I thinking, new money is so much better than old money. Cuz it's worth more money than old money and money's better.
P.S. it's easy to tell where the third world starts, it's where they use crypto instead of a central bank currency.