
Global Demand for Bitcoin Shifts Wildly in Response to Regulation - fludlight
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-bitcoin-volume/
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seibelj
At this point everyone remotely interested in blockchain should buy $1-5k of
bitcoin and hold it forever. Much better odds than a roulette table, and
decent chance it's worth 100x by the time you retire. Or you lose it all. But
if you are a rich HN tech nerd then what do you care anyway?

~~~
QAPereo
My 70 year old, cant-even-use-a-Mac uncle wants in! I don’t know what to tell
him, paper wallet in a vault? How does a guy who can’t even use an iPad buy
bitcoins?!

~~~
sergers
Find a Bitcoin ATM. [https://coinatmradar.com](https://coinatmradar.com)

My friend who is all over Bitcoin, yet is technology inept, used one of these

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QAPereo
Smart, this is going to appeal to him, thanks. Thanks as well to the others
who offered lots of good advice.

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leereeves
Bitcoin seems like the latest in a long-line of "investments" whose primary
appeal is/was past price increases.

~~~
Beejeepa
Is the price increasing, or are their fiat currencies worth less?
Hyperinflation is real, bank runs are real, and Bitcoin never fails an audit.

~~~
Analemma_
> Hyperinflation is real

For all practical purposes, it really isn't. Hyperinflation is a boogeyman
used by deficit hawks and Bitcoin supporters to scare people into supporting
their way of thinking without providing real arguments.

Think about it: people talk as though hyperinflation is always just around the
corner, waiting to pounce at the slightest misstep. But in the last century,
through all the ups and downs of the economic cycle, amounting to thousands of
"country-years", how many instances of hyperinflation (other than countries
totally destroyed by war) have there been? The answer is: three. Weimar
Germany, Zimbabwe, and Yugoslavia. Don't you think it would be more frequent
if it was really such a serious threat?

And none of those three examples are even really relevant. Germany's
hyperinflation happened when we had a pre-modern grasp of monetary theory, and
Zanzibar and Yugoslavia were both ruled by ignorant despots. I'm just gonna
come out and say it: in a modern country with even a marginally competent
central bank (which we have, whether you want to admit it or not),
hyperinflation cannot happen; it is a myth.

> bank runs are real

Have there been any bank runs in the developed world in the last half-century
where people actually lost their deposits? Again, a government with even the
minimum amount of competence to institute deposit insurance makes it not an
issue.

> Bitcoin never fails an audit

Only for a uselessly narrow definition of "Bitcoin". The protocol itself,
sure, but for almost every company that actually does business in Bitcoin,
it's a different story. Every Bitcoin exchange either has gone bust or will,
most Bitcoin mining companies are scams that only ship once the difficulty has
increased to the point where the hardware is no longer useful, etc.

~~~
Beejeepa
The US Dollar lost half its value in my short lifetime. Most other currencies
have done worse. At a time when the US Dollar is falling in significance as a
global reserve currency, and a central bank holding ~$4.5 trillion in assets,
you have no doubts?

I understand SHA-256 and ECC; they are easy to trust and more trustworthy than
authority. Bitcoin is the most simple thing that could possibly work; and it
meets "worse is better" criteria.

What backs FDIC insurance? A haircut, or printed money?

~~~
Analemma_
> The US Dollar lost half its value in my short lifetime. Most other
> currencies have done worse.

You are describing ordinary inflation, and using the word "hyperinflation" to
make it sound scarier than it is. That is FUD. And "lost half its value"
completely ignores the fact that nominal wages have increased at the same
time. Please don't use this first-grade nonsense on Hacker News, you're
talking to intelligent people here.

> At a time when the US Dollar is falling in significance as a global reserve
> currency, and a central bank holding ~$4.5 trillion in assets, you have no
> doubts?

The US dollar is falling in significance as a global reserve currency, being
replaced by... the fiat currencies of other nations. How does this prove the
ascendancy of Bitcoin?

> I understand SHA-256 and ECC; they are easy to trust and more trustworthy
> than authority.

You did not read my previous post. Bitcoin itself it perfectly fine, but it is
too low-level to use for most practical transactions, you need to build layers
of abstraction (futures, exchanges, wallets) on top of it. These are mostly
run by companies that are either extremely shady, have terrible security, or
both.

> What backs FDIC insurance? A haircut, or printed money?

A large insurance fund paid for by bank taxes, as even a few minutes of
research would tell you.

There are good arguments in favor of Bitcoin, but I want you to understand
that when its defenders routinely trot out the same easily-disproven cookie-
cutter arguments repeated on autopilot, it becomes very easy for people not to
take you seriously.

~~~
Beejeepa
There is no such thing as a free lunch. FDIC insurance can and will fail in
the largest bank run ever.

Banking is a Prisoner's Dilemma, because the first ones to escape get their
cash, the middle ones deal with insurance, and the last ones lose everything.

Use always-audited Bitcoin. Readers here have an advantage of being able to
understand the underlying technology.

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senatorobama
The FOMO of Bitcoin is unbelievable :(

~~~
fragsworth
If it reaches $1 trillion, what happens? $10 trillion? If it turns out
everyone moves all their money over to Bitcoin because they're afraid of their
fiat currency becoming worthless, how is that going to be a good thing?

Inflation of the dollar will skyrocket and anyone who wasn't holding bitcoin
is going to get fucked. How is this going to end well?

Even for the bitcoin holders. If the economy is fucked from inflation and a
car costs 50 bitcoins or $50 million of Fiat dollars... that's not going to be
a good time for anyone.

~~~
Beejeepa
The Bitcoin price will asymptotically approach its maximum - and the last
people onboard will see the least amount of deflation.

It's certainly better money, and will have a lower monetary inflation rate
than any other national currency by 2024.

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vogon_laureate
This is hardly an earth-shattering revelation. Global demand for anything can
shift widely based on regulation. If China were to outlaw coal, guess what
would happen to demand for coal.

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Beejeepa
You know Bitcoin is worth it when so much cash is being dumped in Russia,
India, and Eglin AFB to faction the community. The legacy powers are being
turned over.

~~~
sergers
Lol what? All the people I know invested their hard earned(illicit) savings
into specifically Bitcoin.

They were also part of influential group pumping bitcoins, and before that
were in the penny/pink stocks pump and dump schemes.

Alot of them cashed out of Bitcoin forshadowing the potential demise as per
meetings in china regarding its future in the country.

Alot of them have moved on to next popular coins to move their funds, and
avoid taxes transfering money out of china

