Volatile means that in the short term, some may win, and some may lose.
The multi-year trend though, still beats inflation hands down.
Comment on Proton Now Has a Bitcoin Wallet
corbin@infosec.pub 4 months agoBitcoin’s value is significantly more volatile than the US Dollar.
jarfil@beehaw.org 4 months ago
corbin@infosec.pub 4 months ago
If you want to beat inflation, dump the money in a high-yield savings account, or a 401k, or a stock index, or any of the other options that have something resembling banking protection/regulation. There are so many better options than a speculative investment that you lose entirely with a social engineering attack or a SIM swap.
jarfil@beehaw.org 4 months ago
Lower risk, lower reward. Keep in mind that 401k is not 100% guaranteed either.
lose entirely with a social engineering attack or a SIM swap.
SIM swap? You mean like SMS 2FA? (don’t use SMS 2FA, BTW).
Anyway, if your risk scenario includes a “wallet inspector”, you definitely shouldn’t buy Bitcoin, or carry money around.
prole@beehaw.org 4 months ago
Nobody is going to SIM swap you unless you have a shitload of crypto and let everyone know about it. It’s not an easy attack, so it would have to be targeted. Pretty easy to not be a target (not having millions of dollars of crypto on a wallet helps).
dgriffith@aussie.zone 4 months ago
What if I want to buy a cheese sandwich today with BTC?
A cheese sandwich can remain the same fixed price in dollars for years, with only the relatively slow change in actual value due to inflation.
I’ve seen BTC swing 10% in 24 hours. Does the cheese-sandwich-maker have to look up the rate this instant and calculate a spot price for me?
Will they have more or less dollars at the end of the day, when they need to pay their bills and buy more cheese from their suppliers?
“Just buy cheese from someone who takes BTC”, doesn’t help, it just kicks the can further down the road.
“Just add a bit of a buffer in the price to take fluctuations into account”, means that I go buy a cheese sandwich with dollars from next door because it’s 50 cents cheaper for the same thing.
As an investment vehicle, BTC is doing hot laps of the track, but until its volatility issues are sorted and it becomes “boring”, it’s not going anywhere as an actual currency.
jarfil@beehaw.org 4 months ago
Welcome to currency exchanges.
If you want to buy a sandwich in Indian Rupees… you either find someone selling sandwiches for Indian Rupees, or you have to exchange them to whatever the seller will accept (USD? CAD? AUD? EUR?..)
Yes, FOREX has some swings, it’s not for everyone. Bitcoin may swing more ore less than other currencies, depending on the day.
Does the cheese-sandwich-maker have to look up the rate this instant and calculate a spot price for me?
If you travel around, you’ll find countries where sellers do exactly that: they pull out a smartphone, check the spot price, add some margin, and tell your the price in USD for whatever you’re trying to buy.
Alternatively, you can swipe a credit card that will do all of that automatically. BTW, there are BTC backed credit cards too.
buy cheese from someone who takes BTC […] just kicks the can further down the road.
That’s how money works: you kick it all the way around the street, over and over, changing from can, to stone, to ball, to… etc. Those who manage to start with a can and end up with a Lambo, win. Those who end up with a single grain of sand, lose.
knokelmaat@beehaw.org 4 months ago
Your last paragraph is not how money should work at all. Money should represent value that ideally doesn’t change, so that the money I receive for selling a can is worth a can, not a Lambo an not a grain of sand. What your describing is closer to speculation and pyramid schemes (NFTs for example).
Either try and explain to me how BTC could be an ideal currency that fixes the problems in existing currency, or try to explain me how it’s really cool as an investment thing to siphon money from others, but don’t try and do both at the same time.
LukeZaz@beehaw.org 4 months ago
Not to mention the obscene fees with using it. Crypto is rife with issues.