1:1 cryptocurrency, is it true?

[guaranito93]

Hi all,
I've heard from a friend of mine that there's a cryptocurrency that is bought and sold always at 1:1 in Canada. Is it true? Can you give me some informations?

[1715623500]

1715623500

[1715623500]

1715623500

[1715623500]

1715623500

[bitsmichel]

I've never heard of such a cryptocurrency, the market price usually fluctuates.
You may want to look at http://coinmarketcap.com/ to see an overview. I think he may be misinformed.

[herzmeister]

sounds like mintchip

[guaranito93]

Correct, i's MintChip. What do you know/think about it?

[gentlemand]

They've quietly shelved it as far as I know.

http://blogs.wsj.com/canadarealtime/2014/04/04/canada-puts-halt-to-mintchip-plans-could-sell-digital-currency-program/

[herzmeister]

and here you have the difference, no one could "quietly shelve" Bitcoin

[guaranito93]

But do you think that a 1:1 coin would help to spread the digital coins in the real economy or it's not possible to realize this format of coin?

[gentlemand]

I think it was effectively a redeemable token for the Canadian Dollar. I guess it would've piqued awareness of the alternatives out there. Perhaps we'll never know. 

[herzmeister]

But do you think that a 1:1 coin would help to spread the digital coins in the real economy or it's not possible to realize this format of coin?

not possible for a decentralized crypto-currency because it would require a central entity, like a central bank, to manage and guarantee 1:1 exchange.

[guaranito93]

So do you think that a centralized cryptocurrency like the one they made in Canada it's not a good idea?

[herzmeister]

Well then, what brought you to Bitcoin, if I may ask politely?

[guaranito93]

I'm just collecting informations around. You see, I live in Italy where Bitcoin is not used at all in the real economy, there are just few users making speculation. I'm doing a research for the university to understand all the reason why in Italy the cryptocurrency are not used in the real economy and if a 1:1 currency could fix the problem.

If you have any suggestion for my research please feel free to share you're thinking.

[herzmeister]

There were centrally managed 1:1 digital currencies like Liberty Reserve or e-gold (backed against gold), but they have been sacked. You may look them up.

The Dollar or the Euro today are already digital currencies mostly. You may ask governments and banks why they don't manage to implement a cheap and fast payment system themselves, with Dollars and Euros. Probably because all the regulatory hurdles this would have to jump through (that's why Western Union and PayPal charge a lot of fees because of all the bureaucracy required).

Because Bitcoin is independent and without a central authority, it bypasses all that. When you don't have a backer, all you can do is to limit the tokens and hope they will become valuable (and thus tradeable, i.e. money) all by themselves. Everything that is limited and valuable will be speculated with, same with gold and silver. Bitcoin is still in the beginning, once it has established better, its value will become more stable. All the speculation you see today are mostly bets about its future. Many people (especially here) believe that a great future of Bitcoin (or crypto-currency in general) is unavoidable because it just solves too many problems at once.