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1  Economy / Trading Discussion / Re: Is it illegal to purchase and use the Gift Cards, ie Starbucks, Steam? on: March 22, 2018, 10:36:05 PM
I'm also interested on this?

Can I be held responsible legally for using discounted gift cards if it turns out they were stolen?
2  Economy / Economics / Will Bitcoin volatility prevent adoption? on: February 11, 2018, 09:32:54 PM
BTC main value proposition is to be a decentralized currency and/or value store. 1. The BTC community desires it to be widely adopted by the population. But price volatility prevents so. A significant amount of people cannot afford the cost of volatility.

A big argument against inflation is that it raises the cost of business. The same argument can be used to criticize BTC. BTC volatility raises the cost of doing business if BTC is your only capital. If we desire BTC adoption to rise we must take care of BTC price fluctuation. BTC demand is highly unpredictable while supply is predictable, resulting in unpredictable prices. That means volatility can't change unless demand stabilizes.

Common counter-arguments:
3 "BTC is volatile but it always rises in the long-term so it doesn't matter". Is it does, it increases the cost of business. I can't start a bakery with only BTC capital because in the first dip I will have to take loans to pay wages.
3.1 "Oh, but you can't see that happening because you can't see far enough." This sounds like a highly utopian view. Pragmatically, we need a path from here to there, I turn to you and ask, how can we get there?
3.2 "Okay, it doesn't matter for some people and that's all". Okay, then BTC will be a niche store of value, contradicting #1.
4 "Demand will stabilize in the long term." How?
5 "Price stability is a myth, market demands always change them" Sure, it's a myth. Yet it is desirable. If we are designing the system, shouldn't we take that in account? "No, we shouldn't, if you want to do that go and create your own coin." Okay, then BTC will be a niche store of value, contradicting #1.

What incentives do savers have to buy-in on a inflationary money supply? The incentive of stability? That's one reason people agree being exposed to the USD. Am I defending inflation tax? No. I'm asking could there be benefits to having a transparent voluntary contract with varying money supply rate. And I'm leaning towards a yes to this question.

If the supply of a coin could be influenced by price then we would have a more stable coin, the cost we pay is inflation. The issue then becomes an optimization issue, on what would be a proper trade-off.

What are your thoughts?
3  Economy / Economics / Re: Inflation and Deflation of Price and Money Supply on: February 11, 2018, 04:29:13 AM
What incentives do savers have to buy-in on a inflationary money supply?

Excellent job for a first post Flavio!  Wink

Call me stupid but, if the money in my wallet would inflate in value between the time I put it in and the time I spend it (widely shared view of BTC over the long term), that would be a pretty good incentive!

Note that I'm looking at the long term, say 2 to 5 years, so perhaps more of a savings wallet than one for the weekly groceries!



You actually misunderstood me a little bit. When I say inflationary money supply, I mean the opposite of bitcoin. Inflationary money supply causes your money to be worth less and less with time. The question I want to raise is. Is there no incentive for people to have money on an inflationary supply?

Given that price volatility increases cost of business then it's reasonable to say this cost can be measured. Inflation raises cost of business too. "When does inflation cost trumps volatility and vice-versa?" That's the question I really wanna raise.
4  Economy / Economics / Re: Inflation and Deflation of Price and Money Supply on: February 07, 2018, 06:19:00 PM
To my mind BTC is very volatile, which means unpredictable risk of inflation/deflation. So mostly it is an investing and saving too. I.e. some alternative currencies should be used to run a business

Thanks for the answer corall. I really just want to know if that's a consensus because that means there's an unattended demand for stable crypto currency.
5  Economy / Economics / Re: Inflation and Deflation of Price and Money Supply on: February 05, 2018, 09:24:00 PM
Hello, this is my first post on this thread I couldn't read 50 pages of internet discussion so kindly correct me if anything I'm assuming is obviously wrong.

BTC main value proposition is to be a decentralized currency and/or value store.

I understand price inflation is considered bad because it unfairly damages savers vs consumers. On the other side, some people can handle inflation reasonably well by re-indexing contracts every so often. This is common behavior in countries with high inflation, and again I understand it still damages savers but the damage can be reasonably controlled. Additionally, some would argue that inflation is bad even for those prepared for it because it raises the cost of doing business.

The point that I want to discuss is, isn't bitcoin's price fluctuation equally bad to inflation in the fact it raises the cost of doing business?

If we all accept BTC as a volatile store of value, does it imply it can't be the decentralized currency most would use?

Now let me try to explain some of my assumptions: 1. BTC price will always be volatile.

The BTC supply increasing rate is positive, that rate is fixed looking in the short term (30-90 days). On the other side, demand is highly unpredictable. Fixed supply and highly unpredictable demands cause unpredictable prices.

Common counter arguments:
1 "BTC is volatile but it always rises in the long-term so it doesn't matter". Is it does, it increases the cost of business. I can't start a bakery with only BTC capital because in the first dip I will have to take loans to pay wages.
1.1 "Oh, but you can't see that happening because you can't see far enough." This sounds like a highly utopian view. Pragmatically, we need a path from here to there, I turn to you and ask, how can we get there?
1.2 "Okay, it doesn't matter for some people and that's all". Okay, then BTC will be a niche store of value.
2 "Demand will stabilize in the long term." How?
3 "Price stability is a myth, market demands always change them" Sure, it's a myth. Yet it is desirable. If we are designing the system, shouldn't we take that in account? "No, we shouldn't, if you want to do that go and create your own coin." Okay, then BTC will be a niche store of value.

Right now it looks to me that price instability prevents BTC wide adoption.

What incentives do savers have to buy-in on a inflationary money supply? The incentive of stability? That's one reason people agree being exposed to the USD. Am I defending inflation tax? No. I'm asking could there be benefits to having a transparent voluntary contract with varying money supply rate. And I'm leaning towards a yes to this question.

If the supply of a coin could be influenced by price then we would have a more stable coin, the cost we pay is inflation. The issue then becomes an optimization issue, on what would be a proper trade-off.

What are your thoughts?

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