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Comment by ex3ndr | Hacker News Reader

I can close a deal via email, exchange love letters with my fiance and this will be probably easiest way to do. What can i do with bitcoin or ethereum? I am following cryptocurrencies since second year of bitcoin and still can't see real world applications that can't be solved in more predictive way. For example, once some virus stolen my bitcoins and how i can get them back?

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You can transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in minutes, with very low costs. For example, [1]

[1] https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-largest-Bitcoin-transaction-...

No you cannot. You can transfer blockchain tokens ostensibly valued at millions, but you can't actually spend that money without cashing it out, which is extremely difficult with sums that large.

There is lots of things you can purchase directly with bitcoin.

Very few of them are both legal and tangible.

You can purchase anything on Newegg with bitcoin directly

Bitcoin isn't liquid like cash.

True. A lot of governments are working on fixing that... by making cash a lot less liquid.

Once you send a scammer hundreds of dollars, how do you get them back? You don't. You're pointing out a problem that exists with the current monetary system.

One use case of bitcoin, that is very similar to emails actually is being able to transfer value 24/7 rather than 9-5 on weekdays.

> Once you send a scammer hundreds of dollars, how do you get them back? You don't.

One of the main points of bitcoin is that it makes transactions irreversible. In the current financial system, many transactions can be reversed, which is a feature, not a bug.

Only 1 side of a reversed transaction thinks it's a feature

Similarily email is irreversible. Sure some providers will stall your email so you have a period of time to cancel/edit the email...

Nothing prevents a crypto client from similarily stalling a payment until you are sure you want to pay...

> Nothing prevents a crypto client from similarily stalling a payment until you are sure you want to pay...

...and then all you need is fraud protection, monthly billing and airline miles and you've invented the credit card.

You can buy things that are illegal in your jurisdiction.

Remember that the point if cryptocurrency is to enable finance in the absence of good government. It's useless if you like your government.

> Remember that the point if cryptocurrency

Nobody knows what the "point" of cryptocurrency is, and every enthusiast has a different opinion on that topic.

Yeah, that's exactly what the Church said about atheists.

"as an atheist what is the meaning of life? What is then the meaning of society? What is the meaning of ... ? "

It would be a lot simpler if we all simply served the commercial bankers, or perhaps the central bank or ... because then we wouldn't have to carry "the burden of having to ponder the meaning of our lives"

edit: slightly modified

That's a very strange analogy. Honestly I'm not really sure what you're trying to say but your sarcastic quip about serving central bakers tells me all I need to know.

I can buy things that are illegal in my jurisdiction with my Chase card, and the USPS delivers it.

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