[patryn20]

> Besides maybe a very risky (as in unpredictable value on delivery) method of money transfer.

Cherry picking is fun.

Did you transfer money last week? If it had been bitcoin and had been at the wrong time, you would have received less than you asked for.

Bitcoin is a speculative security like product, not currency.

The power of the bank transfer is that you can predict what you will receive.

[nikcub]

Currency pairs have the same counterparty and volatility risk - it is solved with hedges and other derivatives

There is nothing inherent in bitcoin to differentiate it from other currencies that doesn’t allow the same derivative infrastructure to be built out and offered (it already is)

[throwaway2048]

not many currency pairs swing in value by 50% any given week

[nikcub]

yet I can buy a hedge today with a consumer market account in two clicks for a dozen currencies

There are plenty of countries with volatile or straight out hyperflating currencies that still manage to trade with the world

Wall St and finance market is 8% of GDP - this is what they do

[tpallarino]

sounds like a problem with the Bitcoin markets and not a problem with Bitcoin.

[aianus]

I've done this all personally many times and it is the cheapest way to exchange a couple thousand dollars worth of fiat cross-border (I usually made a profit, even).

You have to hold bitcoin on the destination exchange and then buy and sell in the US and on the foreign exchange simultaneously. If you're worried about the price risk for the bitcoin you're holding, you can open a corresponding short position to hedge.

[wslh]

> Did you transfer money last week?

No, I can choose when I trade since I don't have any cashflow issue.