Hacker News Reader

Comment by 35amxn35 | Hacker News Reader

Am I the only one that uses Bitcoin strictly to remove the middleman? Get paid in USD -> convert to BTC -> sell to someone in cash, using local currency.

Bitcoin was _never_ about speculation, and it was never intended as a store of value. However, it was designed to be deflationary in nature due to having a maximum of coins ever mined, or, more strictly, cutting down the rewards to half every 210k blocks mined).

And if I had to choose (which I don't, as I save in USD), I'd still prefer saving in BTC than in my local currency.

People living in thirld-world countries understand this.

View on HN

BTC chose the "digital gold" use case over "digital cash", a phrase present in the title of the Bitcoin whitepaper.

Because of this, we'll all be stuck with POS Ethereum. Be sure to thank your favorite Maximalist for that.

BTC chose the "digital gold" use case over "digital cash", a phrase present in the title of the Bitcoin whitepaper.

Because of this, we'll all be stuck with POS Ethereum. Be sure to thank your favorite Maximalist for that.

How are you converting to BTC without a middleman?

There's a few ways to do it here: https://kycnot.me/

Hodlhodl for example, you can find someone locally to swap cash with bitcoin.

So... a middleman?

Matchmaker, not middleman.

It does not participate in the trade, just finds you someone to trade with.

But that person you're trading with is a middleman, between your USD and the BTC you want. Whether their name is Coinbase, LLC or Coinbase McGee.

That's not what a middleman means. When you buy eggs from your local farmer, is your farmer a middleman between your dollars and the eggs?

No. They're a seller and you are a buyer.

With a usd/btc trade, you are either the seller or buyer, depending on your perspective.

I use hodlhold to sell unwanted dollars.

> When you buy eggs from your local farmer, is your farmer a middleman between your dollars and the eggs?

The eggs? No. The chicken, maybe.

> With a usd/btc trade, you are either the seller or buyer, depending on your perspective.

OK, so again; the person upthread "that uses Bitcoin strictly to remove the middleman" is removing what middleman? Whether you're buying from a local or Coinbase, there's the same setup of buyer/seller.

Stone cold fact. Same setup.

Maybe not removing. I'd rephrase it like this:

Replacing the middleman I definetly do not want (the govt and local banks) for the ones I want.

Bitcoin is the only tool that lets me do that.

Good question. I know a few people that sell Bitcoin for USD. I either transfer the money from PayPal or some other service and then they deposit the BTC to my wallet.

The only problem is that you have to trust them (both the sellers and the buyers) or you can get scammed. But, that's never happened in 10 years of doing this, and my own corrupt government is guaranteed to scam me no matter what.

Those are just different middlemen.

Exactly, that's the beauty of it. You get to choose them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com