
Bitcoin and Ordinary People: This Is Gonna Be Hard Work - petethomas
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/71c73j/bitcoin_and_ordinary_people_this_is_gonna_be_hard/
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anigbrowl
It'll be harder when you keep projecting the shortcomings into the minds of
your listeners. This is a problem with evangelists.

I'm not as old as this person's Dad nor a professional economist, but I get
crypto just fine. I was arguing for Phil Zimmerman's right to distribute the
source code to PGP back in the day, so understanding blockchain concepts
wasn't especially difficult for me. But I'm not so convinced about the
desirability of having an ever-expanding wallet file or the long-term
viability of a currency that isn't formally backed with anything; scarcity
alone does not confer economic value. Fiat currencies issued by governments
are ultimately proxy ownership certificates for resources under said
government's control. Speculative money can flow in to inflate the value of
Bitcoin, but the problem is that it can just flow right out again too. If
people decide they like some other means of exchange better in the future,
doesn't the market for Bitcoin have only as much value as the total of futures
contracts that specify payment in that currency at the spot price?

 _I was able to explain to him that it 's like I took $20 out of my wallet,
passed it to him, and he put it in his wallet EXCEPT that Bitcoin instantly
"teleports" the money from my wallet to his. But also everyone can see that
happen. But also no one can see that it was me and him who did the
transaction._

Then why do mixers exist?

