I think GP means that if you have $100 in your bank it'll still be there tomorrow, not randomly erradicated by volatile swings in the market or stolen with no way to get it back.

That said this is only true if you have faith in your government.

Right, but it can also be frozen due to the whims of the bank, garnished by the IRS, taken by wire fraud...

Obviously cryptocurrencies are sharp tools, but they're stronger financial primitives than what we have. We just need to use them to rebuild the consumer-facing components.

By which you mean, take everything provided by current currencies and monetary regulation and financial institutions assuming risk... then put a pretty fascia of your kinda UX on it, called crypto currencies.

It is a 3000 year old problem.

Trust. In short, is big business.

> but it can also be frozen due to the whims of the bank, garnished by the IRS, taken by wire fraud...

If given the choice between the whims of banks vs the whims of cryptocurrency speculators, and the potential for wire-fraud vs the potential for wholesale 'hackfraud', I think I'll take the whims of the banks please.

Obviously it's early. No reason there we can't have. Stable store of value as cryptocurrencies mature.

Regarding bank whims, if you're a properly banked person who's never had an issue, great. If you've never had trouble with the IRS or anyone else who can take your money by force- great. But that's not everyone.

You don't think the IRS can't seize your coins? They just have to demand your wallet or put you in jail. The fact that they can't drain your account isn't some magical cloak that keeps them locking you up. Or you could try and lie about the value of your wallet and perjure yourself.

Banks are not allowed to freeze your account arbitrarily. And don't pretend that the IRS won't figure out how to seize bitcoin. And, if you do get wire frauded (which crypto dorks all seem to be irrationally concerned about for some reason) you have insurance and recourse to quickly get it corrected (unlike buttcoin). So don't spread FUD.

But when has government betrayed that faith (in recent times, say after WWII)?

Like, whenever things get serious?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock

to give just 1 example.

No. Just ask anyone who had gone through monetary reforms, or savings account taxation, or limits on withdrawals, or stuff like that. And you may have some faith in the government, but it can still fuck you up. Many of these interventions had come out of the blue for most people throughout history.

Having hard limits on what governments can do is obviously beneficial especially for less informed people.

Tell that to your Venezuelan friends.

Meanwhile, a June 2017 ethereum is 2 etherium in July 2017 ethereum…

It's not. If you're trying to say it can be used as a unit of account, well.. okay, but same for the dollar. But it's inflationary on top of the obvious speculative swings, versus eg Bitcoin that's got a capped supplY.

EDIT: misread! Obviously ETH lost a lot of value.

I'm not sure what you mean by "it's not". Are you saying that ethereum was not twice as valuable a month ago? Or something else? I don't know how this would be connected with whether it can be used as a unit of account—obviously ethereum is only really used as a unit of account for ethereum contracts, due to its volatility.

Aha, I totally misread, sorry! I thought you said 2 were 2.

>What are you talking about? The dollar loses to inflation every year. A 1990 dollar is $1.87 in 2017 dollars.

Which is precisely why you don't leave money sitting in a 0% savings account. You invest it in equity, not a currency. Fiat is designed to lose value through inflation. Thats how the system works.

Expecting to hedge against inflation by dumping your money in another currency is insanity. The only way is through actual economic growth.

Erm, currency is the term, and it's a laudable goal, but we're not there yet. Most look at cryptocurrencies as a a hedge because of different monetary policy (eg Bitcoin), censorship resistance, or other features (Ethereum).

Bitcoin has been a great hedge for those who can access it in Venezuela.