Re:Bitcoin hits 3-year peak, nears record high on U.S. ETF a...
by gozur88 on Thursday February 23, 2017 @08:53PM
(#13720145)
>The darknet markets certainly bring some demand, but it's high-velocity. You don't need to hold BTC, only transact in it.
Except that if you're doing something illegal you pretty much do need to hold onto it unless you have a way of laundering it to a national currency.
Re:Bitcoin hits 3-year peak, nears record high on U.S. ETF a...
by wmf on Friday February 24, 2017 @12:10AM
(#13721191)
It seems kind of pointless to engage in crime if you can never spend the profits.
Re:Bitcoin hits 3-year peak, nears record high on U.S. ETF a...
by gozur88 on Friday February 24, 2017 @02:55AM
(#13721858)
You can, but you have to spend them in bitcoins.
There might even be enough of a legitimate bitcoin economy you could mostly do it, assuming you weren't a really big time criminal. Those guys have ways to launder the profits anyway.
The darknet markets certainly bring some demand, but it's high-velocity. You don't need to hold BTC, only transact in it.
The remittance market does seem to be there, but it's still in its infancy. Maybe only a small fraction from this.
Similarly, actual e-commerce is quite limited. Bitcoin offers few advantages over PayPal and credit cards for the large majority of consumers. There's only a subset of international transactions and other fringe situations where it makes sense.
I think the other significant market, after the speculators, are those that are ideologically motivated to hold Bitcoin.