[toenail]

I use a decentralized global ledger and can make instantaneous peer to peer payments to anyone on the planet. I'm not just my own bank, I participate in a system that replaces central banks and provides a money that isn't constantly devalued. It's called bitcoin.

[zaik]

I don't receive my salary in Bitcoin and I can't pay my groceries, rent or taxes with it. People own Bitcoin because they expect prices to rise further, not for its utility.

[toenail]

Lol, I was paid in bitcoin and have paid for all kinds of stuff in bitcoin. That you don't is meaningless to me. People own Bitcoin because they know that fiat money is guaranteed to lose value. If you don't see the utility of having a money that can't be printed out of thin air, I congratulate you for being financially privileged.

[tossandthrow]

There are some huge misunderstanding here:

You might have been paid in bit coins, but the value of these bitcoins has to be declared at the day of transfer so you can pay taxes in your local fiat currency.

Nobody are disputing that it is a really bad idea to hold cash above an emergency fund. Everyone is highly discouraging you from doing it. Buy ETFs, stocks, houses, cars, cyrpto whatever you need - just don't hold large amounts of cash.

All in all, it makes a very little difference what you are paid in - just that you have extra hoops to pay your taxes now that you are paid in bitcoins.

[toenail]

I pay zero taxes on bitcoin, legally.

> Nobody are disputing that it is a really bad idea to hold cash above an emergency fund. Everyone is highly discouraging you from doing it.

So you know that modern money doesn't fulfill one of the central uses of money that was known since the antiquity: store of value. And you know that people have to waste time to learn about investments instead of working their jobs and enjoying their time off. But you still think fiat money is great?

[tossandthrow]

> I pay zero taxes on bitcoin, legally.

This explains your excitement! Great that you can leach on other people.

> But you still think fiat money is great?

Seriously, where did you get that from? I never argued for fiat money. I just said that bitcoins is not a currency by the ordinary understanding of a currency.

[WJW]

So the miners safeguard your money (hopefully), they are also responsible for actually transmitting your money (hopefully), and you don't take any deposits or make loans to customers.

You don't hold your own money, you don't manage transferring your own money, you basically don't do any of the things a bank does. How does that make you your own bank exactly?

[toenail]

Miners are not "responsible" for transmitting my money, that's on me, and I incentivize them. I'm also a miner btw. As I'm my own bank, and nobody elses, I obviously don't take deposits or make loans. I couldn't make "loans" as banks do anyway, as bank loans generate new money, and that's the main reason why I bitcoin. What's coming next, I don't wash cartel money, so I'm not a bank?

[CamouflagedKiwi]

Being able to send a commodity to other people is not what people or regulators mean when they talk about something being a bank.

[tossandthrow]

Bitcoin can not yet be deemed currency by commonly understood principles for a currency: You can not pay your taxes, it is not a store of value (it is volatile), and it can not generally be used to transact (Good luck getting trader joe accepting bit coins).

So that would not really constitute a bank that stores currency.

(I have nothing on crypto currencies, btw., and if it gives a feeling of agency to use them I applaud it)

[toenail]

> commonly understood principles for a currency

If you start from there, you'll never understand bitcoin. I own bitcoin precisely because it is not what economists, bankers and politicians want me to own.

[tossandthrow]

I don't really know what the goal of this comment is?

This thread was not about understanding bitcoins - but banking.

> I own bitcoin precisely because it is not what economists, bankers and politicians want me to own.

It doesn't really make sense to own something just because someone else are saying you should not own it - but whatever floats your boat and as long as your own the consequences of your own actions.

[Kenji]

Bitcoin is a better store of value than USD. Change my mind.

[ranger207]

Bitcoin's high volatility means that it's impossible to predict exactly how much value one Bitcoin will have tomorrow, next month, next year, or next decade. USD has comparatively low volatility. It's possible, but very unlikely, for USD to go to zero tomorrow, and while the uncertainty around exactly how likely USD is to collapse increases as you look further towards the future, most people would consider it less likely for USD to collapse than Bitcoin. Since markets are made up of "most people", most people are more willing to accept USD to exchange value than they are Bitcoin. Therefore, USD is a better store of value than Bitcoin

[andirk]

Prediction that has been right 100% of the time (so far): Bitcoin's value will be more in the future.

Now that stonk people are in to BTC and it's worth is much higher, it's volatility is far less. It's still a speculative asset and with plenty of risk, but it's definitely a store of value for at least some % of one's savings.