Why use bitcoins instead of USD or another currency? - page 2.

noregister

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Quote from: Foxpup on September 16, 2012, 09:28:45 AM

With Bitcoin, you can securely transfer money to anyone, anywhere in the world, anytime, day or night, even on weekends and holidays, have the funds "clear" in about 10 minutes on average, and all this for less than a penny in fees. No other means of transferring money even comes close.

I think this benefit is currently overshadowed by the problems that 1. It costs too much to convert to and from fiat currency, and 2. The bitcoin itself is too volatile in it's exchange rate. But if the currency ever stabilizes and is widely adopted, then fees will lower, and there will be less of a need to convert it to other currencies so a person could just keep so much of their net worth in bitcoins because it's simply economically advantagous and convenient.

Domrada

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Quote from: Foxpup on September 16, 2012, 09:28:45 AM

With Bitcoin, you can securely transfer money to anyone, anywhere in the world, anytime, day or night, even on weekends and holidays, have the funds "clear" in about 10 minutes on average, and all this for less than a penny in fees. No other means of transferring money even comes close.

This. But it depends on who you are talking to as to how you answer the "why" question.

If the person travels or deals internationally, you will want to focus on the international remittance aspect.

If the person desires privacy, you focus on that.

If the person is super intelligent or is a techno-phile, they will be drawn to bitcoin purely for its novelty.

But for the average person I encounter, the best answer is that, "you should have some, because the price is going up."

TangibleCryptography

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Tangible Cryptography LLC

Quote from: Foxpup on September 16, 2012, 09:28:45 AM

With Bitcoin, you can securely transfer money to anyone, anywhere in the world, anytime, day or night, even on weekends and holidays, have the funds "clear" in about 10 minutes on average, and all this for less than a penny in fees. No other means of transferring money even comes close.

This. That is the value of Bitcoin. As more people see it, use it (both sending and receiving) the value grows.

MtGoxTraderBot

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He has a good point, if you want to not stress about chargebacks like paypal helps people pull, then btc is the only way to go.

Foxpup

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Vile Vixen and Miss Bitcointalk 2021-2023

With Bitcoin, you can securely transfer money to anyone, anywhere in the world, anytime, day or night, even on weekends and holidays, have the funds "clear" in about 10 minutes on average, and all this for less than a penny in fees. No other means of transferring money even comes close.

MtGoxTraderBot

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The BTC is always going up, so if you post the 1k into the btc, then sell it when you need to process the purchase that 1k could be 1.5k by then.

Ivica

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Firstbits: 19e3fc

You could use other people's USD to charge up your own bitinstant card.
In reality, if you need someone to send you money they are going through banks and sender probably uses fiat, fees are greater there.
Technically if sender has bitcoins he could just send them to your card directly, so less money goes to third parties (bitinstant still takes 1-2%).

Just, hope that apple will accept bitcoins in future. Grin

shamoons

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But why? I'm playing Devils advocate for a minute now. If I have $1,000, I can use my debit card to buy a MacBook Air because Apple accepts cash. If I have the same $1,000, I COULD load up on bitcoin and THEN use a BitInstant debit card to buy the same MacBook Air.

But why would I go through that hurdle? I, for as a regular consumer, need to have some incentive to use bitcoin over traditional currency.

mal7798

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I think that as soon as Bitinstant comes out with its debit card, bitcoins will start a new life as a metacurrency, allowing people to maintain the value of their savings while being able to easily convert into dollars for everyday commerce. This will cause the price of bitcoins to rise as they will become more valued for this purpose. Eventually this may lead to just eliminating the fiat currency as vendors just start accepting bitcoins.

shamoons

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I've been in the Bitcoin world in some capacity or another for about 7 months now, and so I understand the ins and outs of the concept a bit better than the average noob. In trying to discuss the concept with others, the question comes up of "why", and it's difficult to answer. Getting into and out of bitcoin is a tad harder than cash so assuming I want to do nothing illicit and I'm not overly concerned with anonymity, why would I use it as a transaction currency? I can already use PayPal for transactions over the Internet. Let's not get into a flame war of how to PayPal Sucks because I'll be the first to agree.

For bitcoin to move beyond the niche market of the hoarders and investors, it must have real world applicability and that's what I'm trying to figure out.

Thoughts?

Topic: Why use bitcoins instead of USD or another currency? - page 2. (Read 4714 times)