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Comment by codex | Hacker News Reader

I don't see Bitcoin as an alternative currency. I see it more as a bank account held in a foreign currency. These exist today.

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Only if that foreign currency is absolutely never inflated by that government, and allowed to thus increase in relative value to all the other fiat currencies.

And also that bank account does not flow through the existing US controlled international financial system.

And that bank account does not require an ID, residency address, or even your name to open.

Oh, and that bank never lends your money out. They keep a 100% reserve on all deposits.

I suppose this bank also has no bank fees, no wire transfer fees, no wire department transfer latencies, no bank holidays etc.

I should also point out that if you are a US citizen, it's nearly impossible to open a foreign bank account without either 1) foreign citizenship 2) connections 3) a very large minimum balance.

Then, you are correct, it's like a foreign bank account.

I'm considering it only from a currency regulation standpoint, as per the article. But it's easy enough to make sure that you may deposit or withdraw money only from a local bank account, in the local currency, which you must have opened using valid non-anonymous credentials. Existing banks are highly regulated, as you point out.

BTW, EverBank offers foreign currency denominated money market accounts in the US.

And you are 100% correct that you can speculate in the forex style, however that misses the point if what bitcoin really is. It's like someone in the past saying "I don't view cars as an alternative transportation method. I see them more like a horse and buggy. These exist today."

I think the criticism to be read in that is that there really isn't that much economy in bitcoin, and it needs that to survive. The value of bitcoin currently is almost fully speculative, and all articles about it focus on the speculative aspect.

We need a "foreign country" (or something vaguely like it) to actually use bitcoin. Of course it has the problems of all other byzantine protocols : it's not fast, which would be an impediment, and it requires global connectivity. Also, I think the tracking is a mistake. It allows people to see the obvious problems with the distribution of bitcoin.

Imho, bitcoin is a large step forward, and it's close. Very close. But it's centralized dependencies mean it can't resist governments.

It has a lot more in common with gold than it does with currency. Its ultimate role may be to act as a basis for more usable cryptocurrencies.

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