Re:Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Sa...
by cauthon on Sunday January 31, 2021 @05:32PM
(#25983262)
> Yes, is obviously currently extremely volatile, but it's not hard to imagine that volatility lessening over time.
I feel like I’ve heard this every year since 2015. I think it’s going to be hard to shake the majority perspective that it’s a speculative asset.
Re:Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Sa...
by MediumD on Sunday January 31, 2021 @05:37PM
(#25983317)
I think this is one of those things where people overestimated how much things would change in the short-term, but will grossly underestimate how much they will change in the longterm.
5 years is a pretty short window in the grand scheme of things when talking about the adoption of technologies.
Re:Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Sa...
by thekyle on Sunday January 31, 2021 @05:52PM
(#25983413)
Gold has been in use for hundreds of years and yet it's still very volatile. If Bitcoin is digital gold that doesn't really solve the volatility problem.
Re:Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Sa...
by hn_throwaway_99 on Sunday January 31, 2021 @06:00PM
(#25983468)
I don't think people are arguing bitcoin will be less volatile than gold, but BTC is currently still an order of magnitude more volatile than gold.
Point being that even with gold's volatility it is still seen by pretty much everyone as a viable store of value, and I think BTC will be similar.
Re:Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Sa...
by jackson1442 on Sunday January 31, 2021 @05:36PM
(#25983311)
An interesting thing you might do in an overinflationary state, however, is buy a large portion of something like the USDC, the USD Coin, which maps to exactly US$1 all the time. While you are tied to another country's fiat whims, you still have the value add of crypto mentioned above: provenance and distance from the hyperinflated currency of your home state.
Re:Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Sa...
by bendergarcia on Sunday January 31, 2021 @06:20PM
(#25983642)
What if a bunch of countries peg their currency to crypto like Bitcoin and it becomes so valuable that one day jobs return to America due labor being cheaper in the US because we were to stubborn to chain our policy? Lol is that a thing that could happen?
Re:Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Sa...
by ccortes on Sunday January 31, 2021 @05:36PM
(#25983298)
>They are (currently) slow, have high transaction fees
This is only true for bitcoin and ethereum.
Re:Visa May Add Cryptocurrencies to Its Payments Network, Sa...
by jordan_litko on Sunday January 31, 2021 @05:55PM
(#25983439)
Which ones are fast, with low transaction fees?
In terms of facilitating payments, cryptocurrencies are worse in almost every way I can think of compared to existing systems. They are (currently) slow, have high transaction fees, but most importantly the non-refundability of crypto transactions is a bug, not the feature crypto proponents suggest.
However, as a store of value (e.g. "digital gold"), I think crypto has real potential. There is a reason crypto is very popular in places with hyper-inflationary monetary systems like Venezuela and Iran. And compared to actual, physical gold, crypto is almost better in every way: it is much more easily transferred and stored, and the ledger means establishing "provenance" is not an issue. Yes, it's obviously currently extremely volatile, but it's not hard to imagine that volatility lessening over time.