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by el_senor_duerpo 4814 days ago
Hi there. Actually, I did cover value of Bitcoin in use as a medium of exchange in footnote 2. Because there is no production in the bitcoin economy, or very little to be entirely accurate, the real exchange rate should basically be one. Why? Because most users of bitcoin live within very large production economies. Why would buyers pay more or sellers accept less, if they would be better of transacting in the domestic economy?

You might imagine a slight premium for bitcoins because they facilitate transactions that would be difficult in the domestic economies, such as money laundering or black market trade, but you could just as easily argue that the real exchange rate is less than one due to the relatively lower number of people to trade with, concerns regarding being hacked, and uncertainty regarding future government regulation of bitcoin. That's why I decided the most neutral approach would be to assume purchasing power parity across bitcoins. Admittedly, this assumption may not be great as speculation runs rampant and everyone runs for the exits, which would imply a heavy discount in the real exchange rate.

1 comments

money laundering or black market trade

Moving money across borders is an use for Bitcoin as well. If you're living in Iran (or North Korea or Syria or Palestine) Bitcoin could very well solve your liquidity problem, in the same way the TOR network helps to solve a government-imposed-firewall issue.

How many ways are there for the people accepting the currency in country to get their hands on bitcoins?

I guess they could also act as an intermediary for people that want to send money in. Might need some deep currency reserves to play at that though.