Hacker News Reader

Well if a guy on the internet says it, it has to be true.

I think we found the guy that regrets not buying any Bitcoin (the author - not manbearpigg)

I mean I don't think anyone can deny that it turned out to be great to speculate on so far, but is it actually a good means of exchange or store of value? It remains extremely volatile.

In many situations it is an excellent means of exchange of value. Convert your fiat to bitcoin, make a global bitcoin transaction (for a comparatively small transaction fee, and within 30 minutes), then convert the bitcoin to fiat on the other end.

That's WAY better than a bank wire, and even better than the increasingly effective service that Transferwise provides. It's also beneficial to at least one party because no bank can reverse the transaction.

It's relatively inefficient and it's hard to see why someone would choose that over wire transfer unless they were doing something illegal. I also don't get why "no banks can reverse the transaction" is touted as a benefit so often; what sane buyer prefers to do online purchases where they have no recourse if they never receive the goods?

What's the 30min volatility of BTCUSD vs. the cost of a bank wire?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com