Re:Bitcoin and Thoughts from Bill Gates
by dllthomas on Monday March 17, 2014 @04:58PM
(#7418045)
None of that changes the fact that there is substantially more need to ship around physical stores of value with USD than with BTC. It's not just banks, it's every merchant accepting cash.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
The inability for cryptocurrencies to do a transaction without an internet connection is a bug not a feature. Still, plenty of people go years without touching physical cash which makes up around 7% of the actual cash in the US. So it's not like Amazon.com or IBM have to use forklifts to move pallets of cash around. Better yet they can write a check for 100 million and the only transaction fee is the wait until the check clears.
PS: Sweden is down to 3% but we have a much larger underground economy which thrives on cash. Even more interesting MintChip is an example of a government backed anonymous digital currency system which supports USD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MintChip Which suggests cryptocurrencies may not actually make it.
"The inability for cryptocurrencies to do a transaction without an internet connection is a bug not a feature."
I agree, and never claimed otherwise. But the ability to complete any transfer electronically (even if you were given something physical) is a feature. I've never claimed that cryptocurrencies have no disadvantages - nor would I, that's crazy.