who is buying crypto and not expecting to make a profit from it?
Me. I put my savings in Bitcoin because I dislike the tradfi system.
All I want is to be in control of my savings and to be able to freely transact with anyone anywhere in the world.
I am still affected by the exchange rates to USD and EUR. But the hope is that in the future I will be able to use BTC directly more often and not even have to touch USD or EUR.
Perhaps one day even my country will get with the times and allow me to pay my taxes in BTC directly instead of having to exchange it to government funnymoney first.
Something tells me your government cares more about their funnymoney than yours.
I can't imagine a government wanting to take on the volatility of bitcoin for a tax payment. What possible compelling argument is there for them to do that?
I can certainly imagine why a country with a history of poorly managing their own currency (and that for whatever reason doesn't want to be aligned to USD) might choose to use a more "neutral" fixed supply currency.
(edit: nations that peg their currency to the euro or the dollar are clearly exceptions to what i'm describing here)
this is literally money 101 type stuff, wars have been fought over this stuff, and it's insane that crypto folks don't seem to understand any of it
this is suicidal for any nation with even a nominal amount of financial autonomy
maybe it's something that failed states like venezuela or somolia would consider, but it's a complete non-starter for anyone else
the idea that "the people" can force countries to accept tax receipts in BTC is absolute unhinged nonsense, read a fucking book
Government money will worth shit if people stop putting their savings in it. Unless you think the US government will make it ilegal to possess BTC, then it is just a matter of time for people to migrate to a better store of value.
also, the instant there is a non-trivial amount of commerce conducted in US jurisdictions via BTC, you will immediately see aggressive counter-measures (lawsuits, criminal charges, etc.) from the federal government
germany's minister of finance said it succinctly when there was this facebook libra thing going around
> One of the core activities of a sovereign State is to issue a currency. We will not cede this task to private companies.
https://gpil.jura.uni-bonn.de/2019/10/germany-opposes-facebo...
I mean, if I follow the same logic I should advocate for collapsing the economy with tight money policies because I can then work on financial innovations that undo the government intervention.
Is it a barrel of oil / unit of BTC? Commodity/Currency.
BTC would fall under the crypto asset class. I don't think financial institutions see it a currency in terms of asset class.
In practice, most of the interaction with smart contracts consists of locking up your money in one and expecting yield.