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Comment by bb88 | Hacker News Reader

So simply put, you're moving the goalposts.

It used to be the argument for Bitcoin was this vast thing that could fix US Centralized Banking once and for all. And now, your best argument appears to be fixing an inflationary economy run by a dictator.

While it may give people the ability to use a new currency without government approval, at some point a person has to convert a Bolivar to a Bitcoin and back. And a dictator can make most of those conversions illegal, if he so chooses.

So no. Your argument doesn't sway me. Particularly because Brazil went through something similar a few years ago as well and didn't require the use of bitcoin to fix it's inflationary spiral.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/12/02/458222801/epis...

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I don’t presume to know what the original intention of bitcoin was, I’m only interested in it’s current viability as an investment. My goalposts are - and have always been - is it likely I can sell this later for a healthy profit?

Sounds like you’ve got a bone to pick with some ideology I’m not privy to.

And to your point - bitcoin doesn’t need to solve a crisis to be useful! It just needs to be useful to be useful.

> I don’t presume to know what the original intention of bitcoin was, I’m only interested in it’s current viability as an investment.

Typically the people who shill bitcoin the hardest are the ones with an active stake in it. If this were the stock market, it would be a pump and dump.

> at some point a person has to convert a Bolivar to a Bitcoin and back

But most transactions can be done without Bolivars.

> And a dictator can make most of those conversions illegal, if he so chooses.

Dollar conversions in Venezuela (at black market rates) are already illegal, yet they exist.

How did Brazil fix its inflationary spiral, and how does this invalidate Venezuelans using cryptocurrency due to an intransigent government?

Edited to add: This quote below changed while I was replying. More goalpost moving.

> But not all transactions require Bolivars. That is the point.

Only if everyone agrees to not use the Bolivar anymore and say something that everyone has readily access to that can't be counterfeited. At which point you say, "BITCOIN IS THE ANSWER", except it's not because Bitcoin is not easy to obtain. It requires some technical skill, a bank that allows you to make bitcoin transactions, etc.

And even if most transactions no longer require the Bolivar, then using Bitcoin at all is mostly a moot point.

> Dollar conversions in Venezuela (at black market rates) are already illegal, yet they exist. I don’t see your point.

Right, and so if you want to not be thrown in prison you're going to use the Bolivar and not US Currency. The same would be true with Bitcoin if Bitcoin were made illegal.

> Edited to add: This quote below changed while I was replying. More goalpost moving.

Can you explain how editing "not all transactions require Bolivars" to "most transactions can be done without Bolivars" is goalpost moving?

> Only if everyone agrees to not use the Bolivar anymore

Not true. People can use the Bolivar for some transactions and not others.

> It requires... a bank that allows you to make bitcoin transactions

What do you mean?

> Right, and so if you want to not be thrown in prison you're going to use the Bolivar and not US Currency.

Not true. Many Venezuelans don't want to be thrown in prison and use US currency, because it's a matter of survival.

> The same would be true with Bitcoin if Bitcoin were made illegal.

What would be true if Bitcoin were made illegal? And where?

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