I'm not saying it's stupid to prefer a stable currency, I'm all for price stability and making a consistent amount of money.
I'm saying it's disappointing everyone focuses on volatility, yet everyone dismisses the other advantages of Bitcoin.
I'm saying it's disappointing everyone focuses on volatility, yet everyone dismisses the other advantages of Bitcoin.
There are no advantages for the vast majority of people and the volatility disadvantage applies to anyone being paid in bitcoin. I'd consider accepting bitcoin for a single job or project if it was the preferred method of payment for the client, but I'd never accept a regular salary as bitcoin since I like to save part of my check each week and saving money in the form of bitcoin is a terrible idea.
Some people make a lot of assumptions, but I bet none of those people ever tried Bitcoin.
> I'm not saying it's stupid to prefer a stable currency, I'm all for price stability and making a consistent amount of money.
>I understand, but is the volatility really a problem as some people think it is?
You seem to be contradicting your own idea. Yes, volatility is a problem.
Why? Because your rent, utilities, and other living expense aren't based on the same volatility. The "money going out" has the potential to be valued very differently than the "money coming in".
Do you really want to be evicted because the money you were paid was valued differently than your rent? Completely possible with BTC.
Fiat currencies work because a large collection of people around you agree on & depend on their value. If my landlord disagreed about the value of a dollar, my getting paid in dollars would be just as useless as getting paid in BTC.
For a fiat currency to be worthless to everyone around you it would requires a failure of Government, or some other very large catastrophe. At that point, paying rent is the least of your problems.
Edit: and to reflect your edit, yes, I have tried BTC. I made a not-unsubstantial amount of money by essentially gambling with it's value. But had my timing been even slightly different, I would have lost money instead, and a lot of it. I bought it when it was priced around 50 dollars, and sold when it got to 680 dollars a while back. But what if had been the other way around?
Edit2: If you change it out immediately after getting paid, the risk is lower (you'd basically be operating like many Payment Processors who process transactions in different currencies). That would also eliminate any possible benefit, as it's being used purely as a transfer currency.