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Comment by vntok | Hacker News Reader

Yes it has, anyone in the world can open their own "current account"/"deposit account" for free, right now. Barring hacking you, no government or authority can access it without your consent. None can prevent you from receiving money in it from someone else, or from transferring money out of it to someone else.

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I can receive bitcoins but I cant buy food with bitcoins or pay my staff with bitcoins. At some point I need to convert these coins to fiat and that's subject to the same controls that GP noted.

That's why it's so important that Tesla may make it possible to buy cars with Bitcoin.

Are you sure you can't spend Bitcoin directly for goods and services? Have you tried? When was the last time you searched for physical shops near you [1] that accept it?

[1] https://coinmap.org/

The fees are too high and at least in the US, every transaction is taxable.

No one should be using on-chain Bitcoin transactions for in-person exchange. Partly due to the high fees, but mostly because of double-spending and lack of privacy. Lightning Network solves all of these problems. Fees are much lower, settlement is instant and clear to even unsophisticated users, and the recipient cannot see from where the funds originated.

Taxes are a different issue and that's up to each jurisdiction to solve via better legislation.

Don't you still have to pay the tx fee to open a lightning network channel? Anyway the whole thing lost me with the block size debate (always been a big blocker). Where are we at with lightning network adoption anyway?

Yes, an on-chain transaction is required to open a channel. But once open you can continue to use it forever, or until you (or your counter-party) decide to close it.

Lightning Network adoption is slow and steady. There are several newbie-friendly mobile wallet apps available [1][2][3]. Some nice improvements have been developed and pushed live in the last 18 months (e.g watchtowers [4] and atomic multi-path payments (AMP) [5]). There are now five Lightning Network node implementations (lnd, eclair, c-lightning, rust lightning, Electrum). And there are hardware projects working to bring LN into the physical space - one of which is my own project, a Lightning-only Bitcoin ATM named "Bleskomat" [6].

[1] https://phoenix.acinq.co/

[2] https://www.walletofsatoshi.com/ (!!) <-- custodial

[3] https://breez.technology/

[4] https://github.com/lnbook/lnbook/blob/8d2582e51eb615c850b24e...

[5] https://lists.linuxfoundation.org/pipermail/lightning-dev/20...

[6] https://www.bleskomat.com/

Thanks for the references!

I am sure. The nearest listed physical shop that accepts Bitcoin is 160 km away from me and it sells custom-made mugs.

I can buy mining equipment or stay at an hourly love hotel located in the red light district in my city according to the map. I guess some of my needs could be met.

Not bad. I have a dentist one town over, and "Bitcoin Fabio" who has spammed the map in every major city nearby and buys and sells Bitcoin, and seems very trustworthy, because he says it is "100% safe !"

I think I prefer your options...

I looked for restaurants, groceries and cafes around Silicon Valley (which I'd think would have a higher than average density of crypto holders).

There were 2, and both appear to be out of business.

There are two restaurants like 60 miles from my location that accept btc, according to that website.

Coinbase is about to release a debit card [1] that you'll be able to use everywhere.

[1] https://www.coinbase.com/card

If they do that, they’ll need to follow the same regulations any other bank does.

At least it'll be able to scale... because it uses the VISA network :-)

"Coinbase will automatically convert all cryptocurrency to US Dollars for use in purchases and ATM withdrawals".

This removes a little friction, but the vendors are not taking crypto. Its not really any different than using a US credit card in a foreign country - the vendor isn't taking USD, even if thats what I end up being billed in (along with the associated fees).

Send me your bitcoins and I’ll buy food and have it sent to you.

I’m sure you’ll find many others willing to take your bitcoin in exchange for helping you buy what you need or provide the services you require.

Bitcoin is supposed to be trustless but now I have to not only trust the merchant but a stranger on the internet to purchase those items using their fiat.

Bitcoin is a leaf node in the network, like "dollar". Bank account is at a higher level. A bank is a business that provides lending ,transfer, and custody services, the currency can be anything, including bitcoin.

>> Has bitcoin actually solved that problem though?

> Yes it has, anyone in the world can open their own "current account"/"deposit account" for free, right now.

Maybe, but it simultaneously un-solves many problems around fraud and theft, because it's (for instance) impossible to reverse a transaction.

I.e. Bitcoin: The best way to run a sex-trafficing ring.

Most likely the people running sex-trafficking rings are not stupid enough to use something like Bitcoin as you don't want to have a public ledger with all your transactions fully visible on the internet if you're doing stuff like that.

Probably Zcash is a more likely contender for that, as it is the only cryptocurrency offering fully anonymous transfers together with normal, public transfers in the same wallet.

In what way would having all your transactions publicly accessible to everyone on the planet be the best way to run an illegal business?

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