300
submitted 1 year ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Bonehead@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

So they did actually make a legitimate currency, but the value doesn’t come from belief. It comes from blackmail.

Kinda sorta, but not really. Cryptocurrency's real value comes from people willing to trade it in exchange for real items. Unfortunately these items tended to be drugs in the beginning. Once someone was able to buy that first pizza with Bitcoin is when it became legitimized. As long as people are willing to exchange it for real items, it's a legitimate currency.

[-] kibiz0r@midwest.social 5 points 1 year ago

Once someone was able to buy that first pizza with Bitcoin is when it became legitimized. As long as people are willing to exchange it for real items, it’s a legitimate currency.

He paid someone else in Bitcoin, but that person bought the pizza in USD. Even today, no major business is accepting direct crypto payments for anything besides publicity stunts. There are, however, plenty of services which automate what happened in the "crypto pizza" case: they'll convert it to USD for you so that you can say the transaction was kinda sorta done via crypto.

[-] Bonehead@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

That doesn't negate all of the real stuff you can buy today with cryptocurrency. It may not be legal stuff, but it's still physical and still commerce. And the fact that there are people willing to convert cryptocurrency to USD and exchange that for stuff means that cryptocurrency is considered a legitimate currency. As soon as no one is willing to trade real dollars for crypto is when crypto will die. Of course this is cryptocurrency's strength, and it's fatal weakness. It's only worth something as long as someone will willing to accept it, and that can change in a heartbeat.

[-] TwilightVulpine@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Buying drugs with Bitcoin is more of a legitimate use than NFTs at least

this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
300 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

37805 readers
179 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:


This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS