

Ask HN: What's your perspective on BitCoin? - nej

Bitcoin is an experimental new digital currency that enables instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the world. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority: managing transactions and issuing money are carried out collectively by the network. Bitcoin is also the name of the open source software which enables the use of this currency.<p>bitcoin.org | mtgox.com
======
eduardordm
I wrote this some time ago:

"It is obvious that electronic money will replace paper bills in the future.
Not because they are better or worse than paper but simply because the methods
of payment simply killed the need for paper bills. Instead of storing tons of
paper and gold in their safes, banks will store the electronic money in their
databases. The public will never touch that electronic money, they will be
just a number in a bank statement. You won't have to install any bitcoin
client. The only thing you will ever need is a authentication tool. It could
be a card, it could be your cell phone, it will certainly be some sort of
portable token."

Yet, I'm still not sure how eletronic money can really be democratic, not
everyone has access to basic infrastructure.

[http://eduardo.intermeta.com.br/posts/2013/1/18/bitcoins-
and...](http://eduardo.intermeta.com.br/posts/2013/1/18/bitcoins-and-the-
future-of-electronic-money)

------
xauronx
I have a natural aversion to it because it seems lawless and ungovernable. For
many this is a good thing (buying drugs, freedom from tax, etc etc) but I'm
very much so a "by the books" kind of guy so none of that has any value to me.
I guess I COULD convert my money to a currency with no stability or
permanence, but there's really no benefit.

------
logn
Why would I want to spend something that is bound to increase in value? We
spend cash because we're inflating it every year and it's a bad decision to
hoard it. With no inflation (at least eventually) it makes no sense. I think
Bitcoin will have some utility as an investment or to convert currencies but
beyond that nothing.

~~~
malandrew
Correction. We spend cash because we need or want things. If the utility I get
from the thing I'm want to buy give me greater satisfaction today than the
value I gain in the future from inflation, then I will still spend the money.
It's all about marginal utility.

If bitcoins are deflating rapidly, those bitcoins have greater marginal
utility if you hold on to them. However if they are deflating very slowly (not
inertially) then people will spend them to get something that provides greater
marginal utility now.

Humans are capable of putting a price on time (determine the marginal utility
of time). Inflation is not the only economic circumstance that works for trade
to occur. Economics is very relative and reflexive. The only entity that truly
loses in a deflationary environment is the government, because they can't
steal from its constituents by printing money and devaluing the money its
constituents are holding.

More important than deflation or inflation is relative temporal constituency
in the value of money. So long as money stays are relatively the same value
for long stretches of time, i.e. it isn't volatile, then humans are _afforded_
circumstances in which they can make _rational_ judgements of value and
utility.

~~~
csense
To this I add: If all of your assets and income were denominated in bitcoins,
you'd still spend some of them. You probably need food, shelter, clothing, and
transportation right now, or at least pretty soon, and so you would give up
some of your bitcoins to get those things.

------
malandrew
Check out this question on Quora. Excellent answers:
[https://www.quora.com/Bitcoin/Is-the-cryptocurrency-
Bitcoin-...](https://www.quora.com/Bitcoin/Is-the-cryptocurrency-Bitcoin-a-
good-idea)

------
timmm
It's got a specific application where BTC is appropriate. I don't think the
main attraction of BTC is as an investment or alternative to real currency.

------
jasonlgrimes
I too am curious - are there speculators, cuz the price keeps a rising!

