I wasn't referring to using them as a store of value. That's a useful topic to consider but not the same one. Practically any asset can be used as a store of value though, but I'm not sure why bitcoins would be better as an investment than, say, the Wilshire 5000. The Wilshire doesn't jump around nearly as much, at any rate.

Since I was talking about the "medium of exchange" function of money and not the "store of value" part, the argument that it isn't inflationary is irrelevant to my question.

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it can be stored safely without the need of a bank

I'll take your word for it. I would venture to guess that you do need to be somewhat technically inclined - after all, most people don't even back up anything to start with. I will state more confidently that I don't know why any American would care unless you want to store stuff you want to hide from the government. If you live in a country with a shaky financial system I think your point is valid. Similar comments apply to some of your other points I'm omitting here.

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it can be transacted with extreme confidence anywhere in the world in approximately 1 hour* (don't traditional ACH's take about 4 days?)

No, it's generally one business day. Maybe some people care about that, I don't.

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-it is infinitely divisible

I don't worry about pennies, nor do most people. I see no advantage here.

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-there are no chargebacks in bitcoin

I've never had this problem but can see where some might care.

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-transaction fees are zero or near zero (typically less than a US penny)

I get cash back by using my credit card, fwiw.

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Because eventually it will be easier to just use bitcoin. Right now it isn't.

Fair enough, but it will need to be in order to compete. Right now I don't see the appeal unless you have reason (justified or not) to hide something from the government.

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Posted by WikiTiger

Member since Sep 2007

41055 posts

Posted on 3/8/13 at 1:39 pm to foshizzle

quote:
medium of exchange

fair enough. we'll concentrate on that

quote:
I don't know why any American would care unless you want to store stuff you want to hide from the government. If you live in a country with a shaky financial system I think your point is valid. Similar comments apply to some of your other points I'm omitting here.

I just don't like this argument and don't think it's productive for us to even go down this path. It's basically a "if you have nothing to hide then why are you worried" argument, and I just don't buy into that mentality. I think financial privacy is a legitimate concern for any person, not just people with stuff to hide. But I know that opinion is not shared by everyone.

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No, it's generally one business day. Maybe some people care about that, I don't.

Surely you can at least understand how transactional speed could be important to a lot of people, right?

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I've never had this problem but can see where some might care.

Merchants typically like this feature because then they don't have to deal with chargeback fraud, or even legitimate chargebacks when a stolen credit card was used on their site.

The onus is on the bitcoin consumer to ensure that the company they are interacting with is reputable.

quote:
I get cash back by using my credit card, fwiw.

Credit card processors typically charge the merchant between 2-3% plus a set fee like $0.10 per swipe. bitcoin transactions can be done for a penny or less.

As a consumer you may not care because you don't see the costs directly, but I assure you that merchants pass on transaction fees to their customers in the form of higher prices.