Hacker News Reader

Comment by feanaro | Hacker News Reader

Not all commercial transactions involve debt.

As all commercial transactions are literally called either credits or debits and the definition for debit according to Webster's

debit noun Definition of debit (Entry 2 of 2) 1a : a record of an indebtedness specifically : an entry on the left-hand side of an account constituting an addition to an expense or asset account or a deduction from a revenue, net worth, or liability account

I would say yes all transactions involved debt.

See my response on a sibling comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18805017

Care to give any examples which aren't just examples of very short-lived debts? (i.e. when I buy something at the corner store, we immediately resolve the debt).

A fair enough terminological point, but in this case, I'm not sure it is much more than a play on words. The parent was clearly talking about longer-lived debt and debt financial instruments, where the debt changes hands so the debt-closing parties aren't necessarily the same as the parties that formed the debt.

To quote:

> Because no one can be compelled to accept Bitcoin to extinguish my debts to them (i.e. by the courts) and I can't pay my taxes in Bitcoin to my local government (no, "just-in-time currency exchange doesn't count).

In the edge cases of (almost) immediately resolved debt, this is a non-problem, given that we can simply agree not to complete a transaction in case one of the parties involved doesn't want to accept Bitcoin. Hence, the fact that you cannot be compelled to accept Bitcoin is irrelevant in this situation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com