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Comment by streptomycin | Hacker News Reader

The conclusion ("It’s incorrect to say Bitcoin doesn’t have a use case. It does. It’s just illegal in the US.") seems strange given that there is a big section of the article on semi-illegal things - basically things that are legal but traditional financial companies don't want to touch. The article says "mostly gambling, marijuana, and porn" but I'd also add politically controversial things, like when all the payment processors decided they didn't want to handle donations to Wikileaks after the US government asked them to make that change. These are real and legal use cases.

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> when all the payment processors decided they didn't want to handle donations to Wikileaks after the US government asked them to make that change.

On the face of it, this seems like the one legal use of Bitcoin, to circumvent situations where the government uses influence to block certain economic activity through words (a request to payment processors) instead of the threat of force (new laws).

However, the only reason that Bitcoin has any value to Wikileaks is because it can be exchanged for dollars to fund Wikileaks activity, and the only reason Bitcoin can be exchanged for dollars is because it is a medium of exchange for drugs. Without the drug market, Bitcoin would have little value, making it pointless to donate to Wikileaks.

If I want to, I can buy my next motherboard from Newegg using Bitcoin.

There are TONS of websites that accept Bitcoin, and a growing number of brick and mortar stores accept it also.

You assert that black markets are the only factor that drive value in Cryptocurrencies, how about you back up that assertion with some evidence.

> If I want to, I can buy my next motherboard from Newegg using Bitcoin.

Close. You can pay for your motherboard in bitcoin, which is then converted to dollars and remitted to Newegg. Newegg eats the conversion costs as a transaction fee, and handles the transaction like any other dollar-denominated sale.

However, you aren't going to pay for your next motherboard with bitcoin. You're going to pay for web hosting for your drug sales or copyright infringement site with bitcoin, which is then sold for dollars by the shady web hosting company to people who want to buy drugs.

Just because Coinbase paid Newegg a marketing fee to run a bunch of promotions doesn't mean people execute everyday transactions in bitcoin. Bitcoin is still (statistically) only for criminal activity and speculation.

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