Why do people trust fiat money?

[johnyj]

This is a very interesting quesion since when people sell bitcoin for USD, it means they trust USD more than bitcoin

So why do people trust in fiat money, which is created out of nothing by the central banks?

Is it because they have no knowledge about money creation, or because their ignorance about the financial, or their respect/fear about the government enforcement?

One accept fiat money is because all the other merchant also accept fiat money as a payment medium, once this tradition established, it seldom changes

But this is only one reason, another reason might be that they regard fiat money as a safenet, backed by the government. Look at the FDIC rules, it just want to calm people from withdrawing their savings from banks and it worked very well

I think some kind of insurance should be built around bitcoin, to give people more confidence to handle the bitcoin. Saying this is backed by mathematics and network just scared most of them

[asically]

Because ripple is BETA?

[BitcoinBarrel]

Because you can go to grocery store right now and buy food with it.

[Welsh]

I think the main reason for this is you can do a lot more with it. There is a very limited choice in buying property/land with Bitcoin. In fact no stores around me accept Bitcoin. Plus, the other issue is trust. The modern world is known for having trust issues. Where it's very hard to trade Bitcoin in person because most people are wary about identity it's very hard to exchange Bitcoin into goods/services. Most of the business done with Bitcoin is done behind you're computer screen with nothing to secure you're money.

Most major websites which most people trust do not accept Bitcoin. The ones that normally accept Bitcoin are small businesses which have just opened and have no reputation. Which raises a few red flags. Normally sites try to offer a escrow service, but I HAVE seen websites selling their own product with escrow enabled, but it's their own escrow which is very bad.

So I think the main problem with Bitcoin is the lack of goods/services to purchase. Even though to this day I have not exchanged ANY Bitcoin into USD/GBP etc.

[BitChick]

Because you can go to grocery store right now and buy food with it.

Yes.  Right now it works.  As soon as people start having problems with fiat, or they risk losing it, then they no longer trust it.  Until they suffer first hand they will have no reason to look for other options.

[johnyj]

Utility is not necessary the trust, if you bring a gold bar or silver ingot into a supermarket you could not buy anything with it, even on internet it does not work

[porcupine87]

This is a very interesting quesion since when people sell bitcoin for USD, it means they trust USD more than bitcoin

So why do people trust in fiat money, which is created out of nothing by the central banks?

Because when you have $500 in cash, you know, that you can buy in one year a better notebook with that money than today. With 5BTC you don't know. People want to plan. They want stability.

Is it because they have no knowledge about money creation, or because their ignorance about the financial, or their respect/fear about the government enforcement?

No. Most people don't know, how the internet works. Do they have to know to use it? When you want to use USD or EUR, you just need to know, who wants them (everyone) and what can you buy with this money in the future. Nothing else matters. Even if in reality some midgets creates the dollars. It doesn't matter!

I'm a big fan of Bitcoin. I am on a university, I do not really have much money. But I bought 6BTC 1,5 month ago. I thought, I just have to risk something. I would shot me, if the price rises to many hundrets of EUR, and I did not buy some of them, when they were under 100 EUR.
I bought them for 70EUR/BTC. I sold them yesterday for 62. This is nearly a new notebook for me, when I have euros. When I have Bitcoins? Who knows what they worth in one year. 10REUR? 1000EUR?

Price is fallen since weeks. When the price just rises again for 10EUR or something, I will buy again.

[Auspician]

This is a very interesting quesion since when people sell bitcoin for USD, it means they trust USD more than bitcoin

So why do people trust in fiat money, which is created out of nothing by the central banks?

Because when you have $500 in cash, you know, that you can buy in one year a better notebook with that money than today. With 5BTC you don't know. People want to plan. They want stability.

The only reason the price of a notebook computer goes down year over year is because of advances in industrial production - be it efficiency or merely economy of scale.  Also, there is a tremendous amount of competition in technology, which means that the company able to manufacture a quality component for the lowest cost is going to be preferred.  So basically, the reason the cost of a notebook keeps going down is a direct benefit of a competitive free market situation.

That said, the purchasing power of the USD overall is going DOWN year over year, DESPITE increases in efficiency and industrial capacity.  This is because the dollar is not backed by anything of tangible value, and thus can be printed out of nothing.  There is absolutely no security in the value of the USD, but because it is associated with a country (and thus to the pride, nationalism and civic pride that goes along with it) people believe that the USD couldn't fail unless the US itself could fail (which of course it can't, so they believe). 

So in short, there are two sides to the price question when it comes to economics: the first is the cost to produce a given product.  The second is the value of money used to purchase that product.  Since cost is stable (at any moment in time, the same amount of wealth is needed to purchase the same thing) the variable here is the value of money.  Do you need $500 or 5BTC?  Next year it will likely be $400 or 2BTC, based upon the fundamentals of the currency.  But the truth remains - the purchasing power of the USD is very stable, and is decreasing at a very stable rate.  The purchasing power of the BTC is much less stable, but is constantly increasing overall.

Hope that helps.

[Moogle]

Probably because you can pay your bills with legal tendee. Also your $10 idnt suddenly going to devalue by 10% EVERY DAY! :-P

[porcupine87]

This is a very interesting quesion since when people sell bitcoin for USD, it means they trust USD more than bitcoin

So why do people trust in fiat money, which is created out of nothing by the central banks?

Because when you have $500 in cash, you know, that you can buy in one year a better notebook with that money than today. With 5BTC you don't know. People want to plan. They want stability.

The only reason the price of a notebook computer goes down year over year is because of advances in industrial production - be it efficiency or merely economy of scale.  Also, there is a tremendous amount of competition in technology, which means that the company able to manufacture a quality component for the lowest cost is going to be preferred.  So basically, the reason the cost of a notebook keeps going down is a direct benefit of a competitive free market situation.

I'm aware of that. That does not change my statement.

That said, the purchasing power of the USD overall is going DOWN year over year, DESPITE increases in efficiency and industrial capacity.

I disagree. You can't say that. In my opinion we have a light deflation, when the central bank wants to achieve a 2% price inflation level. That is, because of the calculation of the inflation level. How much costs a VW Golf 2 of the year 1990? 5 average month wages? And the VW Golf 7 in 2013? 7,5 average month wages? So the price for "cars" went up by 2% every year. I don't think so. You can't compare both cars. The newer car is simply another class of car. Much more comfortability, savety, power, efficiency and so on. So quantity went down, but quality rose. So want? Are cars cheaper or not. You can't say. How much money is the higher savety worth in €?

But the truth remains - the purchasing power of the USD is very stable, and is decreasing at a very stable rate.  The purchasing power of the BTC is much less stable, but is constantly increasing overall.

Yes, the USD is stable. Decreasing in value or not. It is relative stable. Whether you can buy 2% less or 2% more in one year, we could disagree. But that BTC is more worth in one year? Even for that guys, which bought at 250$/BTC? You don't know. Maybe one bitcoins sell for one $ in one year. You can't know.

I'm with my heart into the austrians economics. Really. But I'm still waiting for the prophesied apocalypse   (hyper inflation)

Hope that helps.

PS: Edit: I have a few over 1000€ on an giro account, so no interests and the 2% price inflation. I want to buy lenses for my camera or even a new camera. But I wait. Why do I wait, when every euro on my account is decreasing in value? Because it isn't. If I wait, prices of lenses or bodies will go down, or newer better devices will appear. So for that particular need, my euros are definetly increasing in value over time.

[tokeweed]

This is a very interesting quesion since when people sell bitcoin for USD, it means they trust USD more than bitcoin

So why do people trust in fiat money, which is created out of nothing by the central banks?

Is it because they have no knowledge about money creation, or because their ignorance about the financial, or their respect/fear about the government enforcement?

One accept fiat money is because all the other merchant also accept fiat money as a payment medium, once this tradition established, it seldom changes

But this is only one reason, another reason might be that they regard fiat money as a safenet, backed by the government. Look at the FDIC rules, it just want to calm people from withdrawing their savings from banks and it worked very well

I think some kind of insurance should be built around bitcoin, to give people more confidence to handle the bitcoin. Saying this is backed by mathematics and network just scared most of them

i cant buy a burger with btc where i'm from. so fiat it is.

[readonlyaccess]

I use BTC to buy gift cards for everything from shoes and burgers to amazon and fandango via gyft.com.

https://www.gyft.com/bitcoin.html

[byronbb]

What has shocked me is my, until recently, utter faith in fiat money. We are born into a world where there are pre-defined facts we take to be axioms. Money issued by our government is one of those facts, but which is also TOTALLY HOLLOW. The more I think about fiat money the more utterly ridiculous it is. Of course it's primary value stems from the fact 99.99999999999% of the population believes in it. I would define ultimate power to be getting a population to believe that pieces of paper that represent its future labour with diminishing returns is the ultimate store of value.

[niothor]

Because you can go and buy a computer let's say for 1000 usd.

You can go and buy the same computer for 10 BTC. But tommorow you might pay 95 or 105 BTC , but still 1000 USD.

Currently bitcoins acts just like another set of paper bills with different value (77,130,125) , nothing else.
Much needs to change before people will think in btc not usd.

[johnyj]

PS: Edit: I have a few over 1000€ on an giro account, so no interests and the 2% price inflation. I want to buy lenses for my camera or even a new camera. But I wait. Why do I wait, when every euro on my account is decreasing in value? Because it isn't. If I wait, prices of lenses or bodies will go down, or newer better devices will appear. So for that particular need, my euros are definetly increasing in value over time.

So people will have better life being a euro maker, not a lens maker

A few people sitting there making money without doing any real work, and let the others slaughter each other(competition) to chase for those money, is there any good reason for that?

[johnyj]

What has shocked me is my, until recently, utter faith in fiat money. We are born into a world where there are pre-defined facts we take to be axioms. Money issued by our government is one of those facts, but which is also TOTALLY HOLLOW. The more I think about fiat money the more utterly ridiculous it is. Of course it's primary value stems from the fact 99.99999999999% of the population believes in it. I would define ultimate power to be getting a population to believe that pieces of paper that represent its future labour with diminishing returns is the ultimate store of value.

Exactly, but this trust is established by the law enforcement of government, that's also one of the reason that people can not barely trust the math and network behind bitcoin, since there are no powerful entity behind it

[tokeweed]

This is a very interesting quesion since when people sell bitcoin for USD, it means they trust USD more than bitcoin

So why do people trust in fiat money, which is created out of nothing by the central banks?

Is it because they have no knowledge about money creation, or because their ignorance about the financial, or their respect/fear about the government enforcement?

One accept fiat money is because all the other merchant also accept fiat money as a payment medium, once this tradition established, it seldom changes

But this is only one reason, another reason might be that they regard fiat money as a safenet, backed by the government. Look at the FDIC rules, it just want to calm people from withdrawing their savings from banks and it worked very well

I think some kind of insurance should be built around bitcoin, to give people more confidence to handle the bitcoin. Saying this is backed by mathematics and network just scared most of them

are you an idiot?  its not a matter of trust. we need fiat to buy stuff...  like hookers. i cant get a hooker to suck me with btc.

oh, and what did you use to buy your house, your car, that burger you ate?  btc?  wtf are you?  jesus?!?

[tokeweed]

oh and since you think you and your btc can make it without the 'system' why dont you give up all the stuff you bought with fiat, give up your job that pays you fiat and try living on your btc.

let's see if you're not sucking men for fiat in a couple of months.

[bitfromit]

What has shocked me is my, until recently, utter faith in fiat money. We are born into a world where there are pre-defined facts we take to be axioms. Money issued by our government is one of those facts, but which is also TOTALLY HOLLOW. The more I think about fiat money the more utterly ridiculous it is. Of course it's primary value stems from the fact 99.99999999999% of the population believes in it. I would define ultimate power to be getting a population to believe that pieces of paper that represent its future labour with diminishing returns is the ultimate store of value.

Here here.

[johnyj]

oh and since you think you and your btc can make it without the 'system' why dont you give up all the stuff you bought with fiat, give up your job that pays you fiat and try living on your btc.

let's see if you're not sucking men for fiat in a couple of months.

So, if you can buy anything with bitcoin you will give up the fiat? Look at bitmit.net and see what you can buy there

I don't think the option of consumption is the deciding factor, in fact many merchants accept bitcoin, but people still don't use them, maybe they are afraid that one day government will invervene and shut it down (although technically it is not possible)