• I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org
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    5 hours ago

    The value of a unit of currency is based on someone else’s willingness to accept it. If you’re willing to accept two clam shells in exchange for one widget, then our clam shell currency has value between us.

    Almost anyone in the world is (currently) willing to accept a US dollar. There will be some exchange rate and transaction fee, so maybe I demand three dollars instead of two. I know that I can convert those three US dollars into my local currency that others are willing to accept.

    The whole premise of bitcoin is that the line will continue going up and someone will always be willing to pay more for it than what you paid. If you agree to sell your car for one bitcoin, and tomorrow it crashes, you just lost the entire value of your car. The chances of a sovereign currency crashing is never 0, but it’s much more stable than bitcoin.

    • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 hours ago

      Almost anyone in the world is (currently) willing to accept a US dollar. There will be some exchange rate and transaction fee, so maybe I demand three dollars instead of two.

      This is exactly the same with crypto. You might argue there are technological barriers to using bitcoin but many of those barriers apply to petrol-dollars as well.

      The whole premise of bitcoin is that the line will continue going up

      The whole premise of fiat currency is that the line will go down so rich people constantly need a ROI and poor people are constantly pushed deeper into poverty. This is not a superior system.