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by smoldesu 1299 days ago
> It boils down to three reasons:

All three of your reasons boil include the word "money", which shouldn't exist in the same sentence as "cryptocurrency" unless your wallet is totally liquid (it is not).

I'd like to believe in next-generation tech like this, but misconceptions like 'crypto == money' will bring this industry crashing down time and time again.
1 comments
amadeo_warden 1299 days ago
I get you. However, I think you're overthinking it.

Crypto is not money, it's a technology that makes it easy to track and transfer units out of account in a trustless way.

Most would confidently argue that stablecoins are money. I would argue Bitcoin and Ethereum are also nascent forms of money, but that's outside the wider tech/platform point.

How would you word it?

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smoldesu 1299 days ago
Cryptocurrency is a token like Chuck E Cheese coins or Beer Garden tickets - they are only fungible in certain venues that explicitly support them. Obviously, even if 4x Beer Garden tickets are equal to a dollar, their purchasing power is not the same. Beer tokens buy one thing, and to be meaningfully fungible in other contexts they need to be liquid first. Cryptocurrency (even stablecoins) operate on the same principles. They will always be inferior to the dollar purely on the virtue that they rely on the value of $USD to exist.

Even the peer-to-peer usage is primarily driven by enthusiasts and spot-traders. Cryptocurrency's only future is being treated like ERC-20 Pokemon cards.

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amadeo_warden 1299 days ago
I agree with your statements on fungibility/liquidity, but what's curious is that Bitcoin is actually more liquid than most assets on the planet.

> They will always be inferior to the dollar purely on the virtue that they rely on the value of $USD to exist

As long as you can access / cash out from dollars, yes. Most people don't have this privilege or access to first class financial services.

Usage: I agree that usage is currently being driven primarily by enthusiasts and speculators, but in the last 3 years its changing fast... Here are some links. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33723425

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