Why have Bitcoin instead of cash?

[Zorrocoin]

I recently paid for some local tacos using Bitcoin. My friend who was unfamilar with Bitcoin thought it was strange, like I technically didn't pay for them or something. We got into discussing Bitcoin and one of the questions he asked me was:
"Why would you want Bitcoins instead of cash?". For a second I didn't know what to say; then I thought about it and here is what I came up with. Feel free to contribute to this.

1) More security (especially if you are careful).

2) Bitcoins are a potential investment, cash is not. Paper currency only really goes down in value, Bitcoins have a lot of potential to be worth more as time goes on.

3) Fast, worldwide transactions at your fingertips.

4) Similar to #3, but it's a universal currency. It's legal in most countries of the world and you don't need any kind of currency conversion to send money to people in a different country than your own.

Those are some really good answers. I wanted to explain the same thing to my friend who was unfamiliar with this and I was wondering about the same question as to how I can give the best answer to her. The best thing about bitcoin is that it is faster, better , smarter and literally more efficient and profitable than everything else.

[manselr]

Bitcoin is objectively superior to cash in many ways, you can carry millions overseas (if you had that kind of money), you can use it overseas as long as the merchant accepts it, it's way harder to lose your smartphone than coins and bills.. the only thing that good ol cash does better right now is anonymity and fungibility, which im sure Bitcoin will improve in the future.

[lorylore]

Because you can have the bitcoin in your pocket (on the phone), or in your hardware. different ways. better than cash

[Argwai96]

I wanna see some of this cash lover carry a 50,000 usd stack across countries with no problem, is fine that cash could be the state of currency for every possible transaction but at some points its restricted to a volume by the governments.

[Sourgummies]

Cryptocurrentcy is the future. Fiat is going to be like gold coins, collectible pieces of days long past that nobody uses for the exchange of goods and services.

[funkenstein]

1) Bitcoin -is- cash

2) USD is counterfeitable (and counterfeit)

[Miracal]

cash are not that easy to use in different countries, you need to exchange them everytime, a pain in the ass, bitcoin is a global currency, and very easy too move also

and cannot be faked like cash so easily, add on top of this, the less fees required...

I can use my mastercard in a lot of contries without even knowing what currency they have.

we are talking about cash not electronic money, also you another issue is the withdrawal limit on basically any atm, you know that with your master card you cannot withdrawn more than a certain amount, with bitcoin there are no restriction of any sort

yes you can use your mastercard but they will charge you a great fee for conversion, with bitcoin you don't need to convert in the local currency because bitcoin works globally

And with major adoption taking place and so many people using it, it would be much easier for people to buy things rather than taking money out of atm and paying and all that drama shit. And if you already use a credit card, you will enjoy better security. And if you want to send money to somebody, you don't need to pay high transaction, conversion fees!

[HarHarHar9965]

I am not so sure about some people's claims (I just read the first page of replies, so I am not sure if someone already said this), but you cannot use bitcoin so freely in non-mainstream countries. Here in Colombia would be difficult to find places accepting BTC as payment, so you most likely will have to exchange your BTC to COP...

Off course with the increasing acceptance, that is not going to be a problem in the future, but as of now, it is.

What I like about BTC is the low transaction fee, I have a bank account and I hate having to withdraw money, transactions are so damn expensive... using the (debit) card is not a solution either, it is even worse. That is a problem specially if you do not move a lot of money... suppose I need 10k COP (~4 USD), I will be charged an aditional 5.5K COP (~2 USD) for the transaction! (and if you withdraw in bulk, well, that is risky).

That is not just an issue in colombia but many, many countries as using bitcoin as a payment gateway is not in complete motion yet, very few places have been accepting bitcoin as a payment. There is a lot of struggle right now only because of low adoption, very soon much much more people are going to adopt bitcoin and people will be forced to accept btc rather than just prefer it.

[Zorrocoin]

Bitcoin is objectively superior to cash in many ways, you can carry millions overseas (if you had that kind of money), you can use it overseas as long as the merchant accepts it, it's way harder to lose your smartphone than coins and bills.. the only thing that good ol cash does better right now is anonymity and fungibility, which im sure Bitcoin will improve in the future.

Yes, and you can also possess bitcoins safely without the risk or the efforts of actually carrying them around like cash. Plus it makes world transactions so fast. It is also accepted in major countries as a payment method, so no need for currency conversion which is the best part.

[pitham1]

I wanna see some of this cash lover carry a 50,000 usd stack across countries with no problem, is fine that cash could be the state of currency for every possible transaction but at some points its restricted to a volume by the governments.

As a counterargument, drug-lords probably carry millions of dollars in cash across borders.
If you try buying and selling bitcoins in large numbers, you would probably move the market.

[Miracal]

Bitcoin is objectively superior to cash in many ways, you can carry millions overseas (if you had that kind of money), you can use it overseas as long as the merchant accepts it, it's way harder to lose your smartphone than coins and bills.. the only thing that good ol cash does better right now is anonymity and fungibility, which im sure Bitcoin will improve in the future.

Yes, and you can also possess bitcoins safely without the risk or the efforts of actually carrying them around like cash. Plus it makes world transactions so fast. It is also accepted in major countries as a payment method, so no need for currency conversion which is the best part.

All the comments here made somehow seem to assume that these features would be very attractive once the bitcoin is completely the dominant currency with max adoption. If that is the case then we should rather not worry about carrying bitcoins as those are basic features. The secondary features will hold more importance like instant trading. As all will be digital, t might affect the servers some way. And in regards of less conversion fees, one day you wouldn't even need to convert your money to buy

[AtheistAKASaneBrain]

I wanna see some of this cash lover carry a 50,000 usd stack across countries with no problem, is fine that cash could be the state of currency for every possible transaction but at some points its restricted to a volume by the governments.

There is literally no way to carry that amount of money without raising alarms, you just can't carry that much money around and expect nothing happen, except now we have Bitcoin so it's perfectly possible. It's crazy to think about how you could carry billions inside a USB stick or carrying literally nothing (just remembering your brain wallet seed).

[Amph]

I wanna see some of this cash lover carry a 50,000 usd stack across countries with no problem, is fine that cash could be the state of currency for every possible transaction but at some points its restricted to a volume by the governments.

As a counterargument, drug-lords probably carry millions of dollars in cash across borders.
If you try buying and selling bitcoins in large numbers, you would probably move the market.

not you do it off market, like someone intelligent would do, so even in this case cash isn't superior to bitcoin

everything you can do with cash i can do it better with bitcoin, the only downside would be the volatility

[arallmuus]

As a counterargument, drug-lords probably carry millions of dollars in cash across borders.

On the contrary there is a lot about security issue to consider when you are moving a big amount of money across the border. No one will be moving big amount of money without any security precautions and that would be alot of work to do however if you are to move your big amount of money in form of BTC, you can do it alone with a single click and you can be sure that it will arrive at the recipient address ( unless you inputted a wrong address )
If you are intended to move $50,000 in form of BTC in your wallet by carrying it across the borders , you can even do it secretly without anyone to know how much that you have and all you need for that is a simple phone to access your wallet and internet connection

All the comments here made somehow seem to assume that these features would be very attractive once the bitcoin is completely the dominant currency with max adoption.

Absolutely no, BTC was created that way along with all the feature to disminish cash , to make FIAT looks like an ancient currency and even without mass adoption BTC will always have the feature .

[CEG5952]

I wanna see some of this cash lover carry a 50,000 usd stack across countries with no problem, is fine that cash could be the state of currency for every possible transaction but at some points its restricted to a volume by the governments.

There is literally no way to carry that amount of money without raising alarms, you just can't carry that much money around and expect nothing happen, except now we have Bitcoin so it's perfectly possible. It's crazy to think about how you could carry billions inside a USB stick or carrying literally nothing (just remembering your brain wallet seed).

Yeah you could act like a bum and wear slippers without people knowing that you have billions in your pocket.

[greBit]

I wanna see some of this cash lover carry a 50,000 usd stack across countries with no problem, is fine that cash could be the state of currency for every possible transaction but at some points its restricted to a volume by the governments.

There is literally no way to carry that amount of money without raising alarms, you just can't carry that much money around and expect nothing happen, except now we have Bitcoin so it's perfectly possible. It's crazy to think about how you could carry billions inside a USB stick or carrying literally nothing (just remembering your brain wallet seed).

Yeah you could act like a bum and wear slippers without people knowing that you have billions in your pocket.

Its a nice advantage for misers who could pretend they are so poor all their life while they are actually very rich xD Nice way to fool the kids that you don't have any money on you too. Never thought bitcoin would advantage like that too Regardless of that, I have always ended up losing my wallet, an electronic wallet would definitely be such a great shift to better technology and money management.

[Terabot]

Because you have control over it and not someone else... simple and easy.

[SebastianJu]

I only now thought about that all the currency controls at airports are completely useless when it comes to bitcoin. Till now people tried to hide cash in clothes, use diamonds or something, now they have a usbstick with an image that has a tiny encrypted file inside that contains a private key. Its so absolutely hideable that its funny when they would try to search someone. I mean all these controls would go to waste. You can hide a small file or even some signs everywhere.

In a sense bitcoin is awesome.

[orsotheysaid]

Cash is dirty and full of bacteria, bitcoin is digital clean and doesn't rot.

[freeyourmind]

cash are not that easy to use in different countries, you need to exchange them everytime, a pain in the ass, bitcoin is a global currency, and very easy too move also

and cannot be faked like cash so easily, add on top of this, the less fees required...

I can use my mastercard in a lot of contries without even knowing what currency they have.

we are talking about cash not electronic money, also your other issue is the withdrawal limit on basically any atm, you know that with your master card you cannot withdrawn more than a certain amount, with bitcoin there are no restriction of any sort

yes you can use your mastercard but they will charge you a great fee for conversion, with bitcoin you don't need to convert in the local currency because bitcoin works globally

Ideally Mastercard and Visa should be convenient to use when traveling, and being charged a fee for currency exchange without having to do it yourself.  It has been hit or miss though from my traveling experience.  Sometimes it's been seamless, and other times, I got into situations where I couldn't use my credit card or debit card because it was locked down by loss prevention, even though I alerted the bank and CC company of my travel plans.  Would be great to use bitcoin for travel when it's more widely accepted.