I'm surprised at how much the comments are defending Bitcoin. Maybe the author is being a bit harsh to defend his past article, but I agree with him overall. I have exactly 1 use for Bitcoin. Putting dollars into it, and hoping I get more dollars out. That's it. I'm never going to use it for anything besides that. Why would I? I'm not buying drugs, or fleeing authoritarian regimes.
I think many Westerners assume that government-enacted regulations on currency are broadly a good thing, and thus don't see this as a valid use case. They might even be correct wrt their own country - but this is often not the case elsewhere.
That's a political problem that needs to be solved via political means. Trying to amend this by, essentially, making illegal transactions does not seem like a good use case to me.
Working around oppressive laws is politics. If by "political" means you mean elections etc, this completely ignores the fact that some countries don't have any, and in many they're basically just for show.
And if you're advocating for violent overthrow of the governments that do those kinds of things, that in and of itself is illegal (and much more so) than any skirting of financial regulations; not to mention that most people sensibly aren't willing to stick their neck out unless things get really bad.
The main use case in El Salvador is having instant payments better than credit cards without needing a bank account (which few non-corporate merchants can get)
But the main use worldwide is remittances without paying %30 fees.
> The main use case in El Salvador is having instant payments
What's the average time for a bitcoin transaction these days?
Ten minutes, ok.
So those people in El Salvador actually aren't transacting in BitCoin, they're doing transactions by having a number change in a centralized database somewhere that someone owns, and then claims that all transactions are backed by bitcoin, whatever that means.
And the difference between that, and having your bank update their centralized database as a result of a transaction going through the VISA network is... what, exactly?
The difference is VISA doesn't get a dime from you. Also if you use something like SWIFT and want to transfer money on the weekend you are stuck till Monday. It's also not unusual that oversea transfers take days to complete. Volatility for Bitcoin over 10 minutes is negligible.
So it's a) faster for most people, b) you don't pay big corporations for the transfer itself, c) it works 24/7, d) doesn't track "well" as of now. Those reasons are enough for some people to prefer it over traditional remittance.
> El Salvador actually aren't transacting in BitCoin, they're doing transactions by having a number change in a centralized database somewhere that someone owns
Wrong, people in El Salvador are using Lightning Network.
We live in mostly great times in the first world countries. Peace, and compared to previous times, almost no one is starving and almost everyone has a roof or could get one.
It's always easy to take things for granted, but the real power of Bitcoin shows when things go sidewards. One could say that governments printing a lot of money is already the beginning. Bitcoin (as well as other stuff such as Gold or even global competition) are acting as a certain counterweight against control by other people.
Maybe without these counterweights, we would already be in a much worse situation right now.
> It's always easy to take things for granted, but the real power of Bitcoin shows when things go sidewards.
Yes because the one thing that works best when things go sideways is a giant network of electricity wasting computers you access over the internet. Definitely nothing taken for granted here.
> Maybe without these counterweights, we would already be in a much worse situation right now.
I have plans for a real SHTF scenario. Things to eat, things to barter, things to defend myself with. I really don't think in time of instability I'll be thinking "damn, wish I had some bitcoin right now."
Bitcoin is not for these times directly, but for after.
With gold, historically governments have tried to get a hold of it with draconic punishments if they found someone tried to hide it.
With gold you are more in danger and you can't easily move it. Bitcoin is better, but certainly not optimal. Still, if you were to flee from your country, you might not be able to take gold or money with you, but for bitcoin it's much easier. So someone in government will think twice before putting heavy restrictions if they can easily be circumvented.
No, he means asset price speculation. The inflation argument that is so often brought up seems ridiculous to me. Inflation ensures sufficient demand. Modern economy will collapse if the global rate goes negative.
Gold is also one of 118 boxes on the periodic table. It pre-existed humans and has been something people valued for millennia.
Bitcoin is an imaginary thing someone made up ten years ago that we all just collectively decided to value. Or at least, some of us did, in the hopes that the rest of us would come aboard and they’d be rich.
The cool thing about a bubble is we can all be rich on paper, for a bit. If you cashed out and bought stuff, though, good for you for finishing on top.
Of course it can fail! It's all about chances and risks, no?
For me, there is only a small chance that cryptocurrency will truly break through. But when it does, it will be HUGE.
So a small chance X total game changer = a lot of potential return.
If you invest 1% of your portfolio, you can only lose 1%. However, there was (and still is) a small chance it goes x100, which means a total 100% return on your portfolio. So now you have 200 instead of 100.
I was proven right, and so it's easy for me to say I took the right decision. But when it would have gone to 0, it would have still been a smart move to invest 1%.
For me, the stupid people are the ones who are sure about the outcome. While at this point, nobody knows. You can only see the potential or not.
Realizing gains in a shockingly volatile speculative investment just seems like common sense. Particularly so if you can take out your original investment and be "playing with house money" so to speak.
The fervent defenders are either trying to convince others, or mostly themselves, that crypto will be king. Why? Well, they've put their money in it, and if they weren't convinced before they should be convinced after that. And since it's a pyramid scheme, they, consciously or not, are trying to convince others to join in that scheme so their own investment grow.
Secondly, no one likes to admit they've been foolish, and so far the value of BTC has not made fools of anyone. Well except if some people borrowed to buy at 20K and it stayed around at 2-3K for a long time. And those burned "losers" mostly stay quiet, out of embarassment.
