Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jcbrand 1486 days ago
In the least Bitcoin provides an option to opt-out, an alternative that puts some pressure on central banks to have sane monetary policy.

It allows people in Lebanon (~200% inflation), Zimbabwe (~700% inflation) and Turkey (70% inflation) to maintain the purchasing power of their wealth and to protect it from confiscation.

There are many other advantages of Bitcoin, but these are already significant.
2 comments
Seriomino 1486 days ago
They also can just buy euro or dollar.

Nothing new here.

And yes sanctions against north Korea or Russia are more important than the inflation of Lebanon, Zimbabwe or Turkey.

And I still bet that the people in Zimbabwe in avg have more from less co2 than from bitcoin

link
jcbrand 1486 days ago
> And yes sanctions against north Korea or Russia are more important than the inflation of Lebanon, Zimbabwe or Turkey.

Impoverishing entire nations by making sure they can't buy necessary goods and thereby putting them at risk of starvation is more important than other nations who are impoverished and at risk of starvation due to their currencies collapsing.

link
Seriomino 1486 days ago
They are not collapsing just for fun without a reason.

The normal people of that country are btw not able to just buy crypto. After all someone still needs to take their money to exchange it and they need hardware and knowledge.

You sound like crypto would just solve those issues just because it's there.

link
jcbrand 1486 days ago
> need hardware

You mean a cellphone? Which pretty much everyone in the world has?

link
Seriomino 1486 days ago
Zimbabwe apparently has 50% smartphones.

Btw. You should read up more on how well Bitcoin works in El Salvador.

And of course all the other points I brought up are still valid as well.

link
pjc50 1486 days ago
However it can't protect against real falls in the purchasing power of bitcoin vs the currency it's commonly transacted against, the dollar.

I'm starting to think there's a good argument for the US treasury trying to export financial stability by making USD holdable globally. Except that runs into the policy problems relating to who's using it.

link