Why have Bitcoin instead of cash?

[lorylore]

I think we can't live without cash, not a large amount but not without it. Bitcoin is a good opurtunity if its price will be stable.

[turvarya]

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

cash can also be faked pretty easily, and you will not even notice it, bitcoin do not have this problem

sometime when i pay with cash at the supermarket i fear that i'm giving false money, because maybe part of those belongs to a rest of another supermarket or another shop that was holding faked money without knowing it

*lol* I bought something against that some years ago. Maybe you need something like it too then: Safescan 155i

It works great and feels safe if you need to check money.

The problem with faked money is that, when you have such, they will take it from you and you get nothing in return. Hearns plans for tainting coins could have a similar effect when he gets his will.

100 euro for that thing, better to spend in a trezonr i guess 

yeah but the big problem is not the seized aspect of it, but the fact that they will ask you from where you found those faked money

and if you can't give them a suitable and convincing answer you can go to jail for having counterfeit money, so it's a very problematic and dangerous thing

Yes... though its something you really would want when you receive cash sometimes. Which is somewhat unavoidable when handling bitcoins. A trezor cant help there. You dont want to get cash that turns out to be not much more than paper at the end. I bought mine used on ebay and it works great and fast.

You should make a copy of the ID of someone you exchange money with. Then, in case you got coins that were scammed, or money that is tainted, you can show who you dealt with. It would be for your own safety to stay out of anything illegal.

I don't think, much people would do business with you, when you ask for an ID, especially when you even want to copy it.
I certainly wouldn't do that.

Its not needed for escrow. But when you are a money exchanger, i met some of those through local bitcoins, then you want to have a copy of the ID. I was told police can knock on the door and ask what they did with the coins they received. Then you really want to have an ID that you can show them. Otherwise the money exchanger is in trouble. And im sure that money exchangers would not do business with someone who doesnt want to give a copy. I mean they see him in person so there is  no reason to not give it besides they are likely scammers. Then not trading would be better.

Though the risk might be not so big and a copy not needed when its about small amounts.

That is exactly my problem. If you give every random guy you met over localbitcoins a copy of my ID, you can be sure, someone will use it for identity theft.
I am even worried, about the copies I gave to MtGox, even thought it seemed serious at that time.

[pigzone]

Bitcoin is really rare to possess

[everaja]

Some more points i would like to add:

1. It is really fast (When you pay a cheque from another bank into your bank, the bank will often hold that money for several days, because it can’t trust that the funds are really available. ) , unlike today transactions are pending for 2-7 days for confirmation.
2. No government can take it away from me , if i use it wisely they cant even track me 

[kyhacajo]

BTC is preferable to holding fiat but Gold is king I think. Don't think BTC is Gold 2.0 as some famous person claimed.

[mearylll]

Some more points i would like to add:

1. It is really fast (When you pay a cheque from another bank into your bank, the bank will often hold that money for several days, because it can’t trust that the funds are really available. ) , unlike today transactions are pending for 2-7 days for confirmation.
2. No government can take it away from me , if i use it wisely they cant even track me 

Yeah no one can track how much bitcoins you hold if you act smartly and that is the best thing that govt. cannot track you and bitcoin payment is getting more popular as it doesn't take that long time for online shopping or sending money online.

[HarHarHar9965]

Some more points i would like to add:

1. It is really fast (When you pay a cheque from another bank into your bank, the bank will often hold that money for several days, because it can’t trust that the funds are really available. ) , unlike today transactions are pending for 2-7 days for confirmation.
2. No government can take it away from me , if i use it wisely they cant even track me 

Yeah no one can track how much bitcoins you hold if you act smartly and that is the best thing that govt. cannot track you and bitcoin payment is getting more popular as it doesn't take that long time for online shopping or sending money online.

Yeah, we don't need them to track us. It won't be too far when they take our number when ordering pizza and have all our details stored like finance, health, personal things, etc so they advise us which pizza we shouldn't have and give us only a particular one. They send diet coke instead of normal one because they read we have diabetes. Nobody deserves to get a peek inside your personal files like that, man.

[SebastianJu]

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

cash can also be faked pretty easily, and you will not even notice it, bitcoin do not have this problem

sometime when i pay with cash at the supermarket i fear that i'm giving false money, because maybe part of those belongs to a rest of another supermarket or another shop that was holding faked money without knowing it

*lol* I bought something against that some years ago. Maybe you need something like it too then: Safescan 155i

It works great and feels safe if you need to check money.

The problem with faked money is that, when you have such, they will take it from you and you get nothing in return. Hearns plans for tainting coins could have a similar effect when he gets his will.

100 euro for that thing, better to spend in a trezonr i guess 

yeah but the big problem is not the seized aspect of it, but the fact that they will ask you from where you found those faked money

and if you can't give them a suitable and convincing answer you can go to jail for having counterfeit money, so it's a very problematic and dangerous thing

Yes... though its something you really would want when you receive cash sometimes. Which is somewhat unavoidable when handling bitcoins. A trezor cant help there. You dont want to get cash that turns out to be not much more than paper at the end. I bought mine used on ebay and it works great and fast.

You should make a copy of the ID of someone you exchange money with. Then, in case you got coins that were scammed, or money that is tainted, you can show who you dealt with. It would be for your own safety to stay out of anything illegal.

I don't think, much people would do business with you, when you ask for an ID, especially when you even want to copy it.
I certainly wouldn't do that.

Its not needed for escrow. But when you are a money exchanger, i met some of those through local bitcoins, then you want to have a copy of the ID. I was told police can knock on the door and ask what they did with the coins they received. Then you really want to have an ID that you can show them. Otherwise the money exchanger is in trouble. And im sure that money exchangers would not do business with someone who doesnt want to give a copy. I mean they see him in person so there is  no reason to not give it besides they are likely scammers. Then not trading would be better.

Though the risk might be not so big and a copy not needed when its about small amounts.

That is exactly my problem. If you give every random guy you met over localbitcoins a copy of my ID, you can be sure, someone will use it for identity theft.
I am even worried, about the copies I gave to MtGox, even thought it seemed serious at that time.

I see what you mean and i try to avoid that too if possible but sometimes you cant avoid it. At least exchanges often ask for you holding the id in order to not have it faked.

But you need to see the risk for exchanges and localbitcoin exchanger. When the police comes and you cant tell for sure who you traded with then you have a real problem. Why should an exchanger take that risk for a slight profit of 10%? Thats in no correlation.

[maku]

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

If you are careful the security of bitcoin and fiat alike should not be a problem. But if you are dumb you can lose your money and bitcoin alike. Not really upgrade here.

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.

That is valid point. In theory bitcoins are resistant to inflation.

3) Fast, worldwide transactions at your fingertips.

Yes, but only with people who owns bitcoins. I have friends in many countries but they don't have any bitcoins (despite me telling them how great this technology is).

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.

You don't need  currency conversion if you deal with bitcoin users. Again in theory it is great - but only when everyone is using bitcoin.

Moral of the story? We need total adoption to be able to use bitcoins with no problems, globally.

[greBit]

Bitcoin is really rare to possess

Bitcoin is actually not so rare, more than 2.5/3 million people own bitcoin at the moment, and are supposed to surpass the 5 million mark by 2019. It is not a really rare thing to possess, and neither is Gold. Antiques and classic vintage cars are really rare to possess, bitcoin is just a crypto currency which can easily be exchanged, all done over the internet in a couple minutes.

[SebastianJu]

Bitcoin is really rare to possess

Bitcoin is actually not so rare, more than 2.5/3 million people own bitcoin at the moment, and are supposed to surpass the 5 million mark by 2019. It is not a really rare thing to possess, and neither is Gold. Antiques and classic vintage cars are really rare to possess, bitcoin is just a crypto currency which can easily be exchanged, all done over the internet in a couple minutes.

I believe he meant that its rare to meet a random person outside of bitcoin community and he possess already bitcoins. Or just that he knows about bitcoin is relatively rare.

[Amph]

Bitcoin is really rare to possess

Bitcoin is actually not so rare, more than 2.5/3 million people own bitcoin at the moment, and are supposed to surpass the 5 million mark by 2019. It is not a really rare thing to possess, and neither is Gold. Antiques and classic vintage cars are really rare to possess, bitcoin is just a crypto currency which can easily be exchanged, all done over the internet in a couple minutes.

only 5M by the end of 2019, not certainly lookng good enough, after two more halving we are yet to touch even 10M? what is your source for this

also i'm sure he was referring to a whole bitcoin and not few bits, how many among tthose 3M hold even 1 btc, not many seeing how the top 10 own 100k each and more

[greBit]

only 5M by the end of 2019, not certainly lookng good enough, after two more halving we are yet to touch even 10M? what is your source for this

Yes, the numbers aren't looking good enough. I can't even see people engaging in creative ways to find a solution to spread the word about btc.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-users-approach-5-million-mark-2019-juniper-research-reports/

also i'm sure he was referring to a whole bitcoin and not few bits, how many among tthose 3M hold even 1 btc, not many seeing how the top 10 own 100k each and more

Also here's a list of top 100 richest bitcoin holders, or bitcoin transactions/addresses, the numbers are really exciting to look at, you should check them out. Might interest ya. 167,784.81160667 btc is the highest bitcoin transfer which took place, and if converted in US dollars, it is $ 46,687,801.68. Also notice how the 3 biggest transfers happened on the same date, same time, same second. Just different addresses. Exact time is Apr 2, 2015 11:22:36 PM

http://bitcoinrichlist.com/top100

[freeyourmind]

BTC is preferable to holding fiat but Gold is king I think. Don't think BTC is Gold 2.0 as some famous person claimed.

Gold is alright, but the physical gold price is dictated by the paper gold price, which is no good.

I personally think real estate is the best, depending on location.  It has income generating potential, or can be used to live in, and also has the potential for capital appreciation.

[knowhow]

e money and counted and handled by banks, invested , loaned , among others, charge maintenance fees money and they bill on top of your money, you were supposed to receive a % of profit they get , instead of that they devalue your money , try to leave 5000 dollars in the bank for 1 year, with bitcoins there is a guarantee that the value 20.4btc will be in your account without discounts or fees , but its value may be different.

[lorylore]

Some more points i would like to add:

1. It is really fast (When you pay a cheque from another bank into your bank, the bank will often hold that money for several days, because it can’t trust that the funds are really available. ) , unlike today transactions are pending for 2-7 days for confirmation.
2. No government can take it away from me , if i use it wisely they cant even track me 

To add one more think to the first point, there are many countries that to get the money from their cheque from their bank it can takes more than a month sometimes.(google adsense check)

[mrhelpful]

The problem is the whole popularity still going back vsing with whats being already used.

And despite bitcoin being awesome and the only chance for fighting fiat money, we have to still face mini transactions that need to be easy and fast like buying a stick of gum.

Not by waiting for a transaction to go through by confirmations.

[Clint]

It can't be physically stolen I guess, maybe that's a good thing. So less thieves in the world. But hackers don't count.

[techgeek]

Some more points i would like to add:

1. It is really fast (When you pay a cheque from another bank into your bank, the bank will often hold that money for several days, because it can’t trust that the funds are really available. ) , unlike today transactions are pending for 2-7 days for confirmation.
2. No government can take it away from me , if i use it wisely they cant even track me 

This is probably the only few reasons why I`d stick with bitcoin.

But, my worry would be what happens when those transactions take like 2 days max and gets longer since more forks or not enough.

If we had no problems with forks bitcoin would be really flawless.

[lissandra]

It can't be physically stolen I guess, maybe that's a good thing. So less thieves in the world. But hackers don't count.

It cant be physically stolen you say?

What about when you transfer to a cold storage like a paper wallet? And they have the paper wallets pin and all the stuff lol.

Thats physical last time i checked.