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by nutschig 4145 days ago
Bitcoin.
6 comments

Not an effective store of value, too volatile.

Plus, somebody has to trade the cash they get for bitcoin, and then they're responsible for the stack of cash they can't do anything with.

It's a bit too soon, but at some point, one of the large banks(probably coinbase or circle) will be issueing USD on the Bitcoin chain. At that time, the pot-shop will accept BTC, which will immediately convert into COINBASEUSD. Problem solved. Junseth articulated this pretty well: http://junseth.com/post/109579766177/the-blockchain-isnt-goi...
I'm unclear how you got from someone's blog post to "one of the large banks will be issuing..."?
Bitcoin is an amazing Payment Mechanism. But it's not a good unit of account, and possibly not a great store of value. As such, the solution to the problems posted in the parent will likely involve transmission of USD over the Bitcoin network. Banks will be the ones to do this.
When you say, "one of the large banks" I think of Chase, BofA, Wells Fargo, etc. And, my experience with these entities is that it takes 3 days for them to do ACH transfers (well, the originating account is debited ~immediately, but the destination account doesn't see the $ for 3 days). YMMV.
There are easy to use solutions on the market for accepting bitcoin payments and converting instantly to USD. Bitpay and Coinbaes both do this. On Bitpay it goes straight to your bank, on Coinbase you can do the same thing or even leave it on the site as USD to be withdrawn later. You can change the bank you're withdrawing to at any time.
Yes, laundering money through Bitcoin is surely the way to get the Federal Gov't to look on them fondly.
Too volatile and does not really solve the problem. You need to establish credit, be able to write checks etc. Bitcoin is not going to fix that.
BitShares does solve, or try to solve the volatility problem (with BitUSD) but that Blockchain is not big enougth yet, and credit is also not happening at the moment.
Bitshares does not solve the volatility problem: http://prestonbyrne.com/2014/08/17/dont-walk-away-run/
I dont really think the arguments in that blogpost are very good. BitUSD will give you a lot of stability compared to any other blockchain.
Maybe if the early adopters actually spent them into circulation, rather than treating them as an "investment", waiting for the "mainstream" to buy them at higher prices.
Most early adopters I know spend their Bitcoin at a reasonable rate (although they may purchase more to keep their reserves up).
Because the blockchain is the pinnacle of plausibly deniable liquidity.
Tumbling and trading through other blockchains seems like it should be pretty robust.
At least you have to be physically present to steal or lose cash.