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by j15t 3696 days ago
> and see your money oscillate 20% per day

I get that you're not a fan, but exaggerations don't enhance your argument. Over the last 60 days the XBT/USD pair has an average volatility of 1.23 % [1] which is obviously higher than most major currency pairs, but comparable to a many stock markets. That is, many people invest money in securities with similar or greater volatility profiles.

> easily stolen by some hacker

Whilst Bitcoin is obviously less user friendly than fiat currency, an experienced user like OP can make store their Bitcoin in a way that makes it much more difficult to steal than conventional payment systems.

Firstly, using a hardware wallet (with offline backup) will make your Bitcoin almost invulnerable to 'hackers', plus the use of multi-sig can allow one to dial up physical security to very high levels.

Compare that to conventional payment systems like a credit card - all your credentials are on your card! Anyone who handles your card (waiters, cashiers) gets access to all of your credentials, for the life of the card! (Bitcoin's use of public key cryptography is far more sane in my opinion). And any malware on your computer that could steal Bitcoin could also steal your CC information etc. The only reason that this isnt more of a problem is because by using a bank you are paying insurance for your money and the Bank will generally reimburse you for small amounts - this doesn't make the conventional payment system more secure, just more insured.

2 comments

You tacitly disregarded the points that don't suit your narrative.

1st. It's not the average volatility that matters it's the maximum volatility that you can normally have. This year it only happen once to have 20% it's true. But you have plenty of days where it oscillates more than 5%.

2nd. Bitcoin is much easier to steal than conventional payment systems like reality tells us, not only because of it's lack of security but also because of accountability. It's hacker free reign, you just steal bitcoin and send it anywhere you want and you have no more trouble. In traditional payment systems this doesn't happen like you try to imply, not because it's insured but because we are talking about real money and that money is connected to a name and an address and sooner or later the police will knock on your door or the door of the person that received the goods purchased with the stolen money or card.

3rd. "Firstly, using a hardware wallet (with offline backup) will make your Bitcoin almost invulnerable to 'hackers'": In a site like this dedicated to people that actually understand a bit about computer security. this sentence is just funny.