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Comment by jabgrabdthrow | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a criticism of bitcoin's utility or not, but if it is I think you missed the point. The point is she has more currency units now than before, because she didn't have to pay the bid bad bank, even if she had to use local fiat to buy bananas.

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No, I think the point is that her method of receiving payment is functionally no different than if they drop shipped gold bullion to her. She must convert it into a usable currency in most cases.

Gold bullion is rather expensive to ship and insure.

Bitcoin seems quite promising for foreign currency transactions.

Only if someone in the destination currency is willing to trade that currency for Bitcoin.

Isn't that true for all (or at least most major) currencies at the moment?

It's certainly easier to sell Bitcoin locally than gold bullion.

I'm not convinced that's true in very many countries.

You probably won't be getting too good prices for gold in such countries either.

Yes, so it's an unprecedentedly easy to transport commodity, but that doesn't mean it's not a commodity.

If that's your mindset, then look at it like this: Bitcoin is a technology for shipping gold buillion equivalents to any remote location in the world in under the hour, for the price of a tenth of a cent. Pretty nifty, is it not?

Nifty? Sure. Deserving different tax treatment from gold bullion? Nope.

Mindset? I was simply providing a different, I think more accurate, interpretation of the anecdote presented upthread. The person was paid in bitcoin, but in this specific case, because of the circumstances, I think it's no different than if they were paid in some other easily fungible commodity, such as gold. I interpreted the usefulness in getting paid in bitcoin not that the worker now had an easily used currency, but that the worker now had a commodity that could be exchanged for a local currency to actually buy most things needed, and it was cheaper than dealing with the local currency exchange fees.

Yes, it also points to the utility of bitcoin, but this specific example also points to it's use as a commodity, IMO. As it gains in popularity, I think it will gain more utility as a currency, but until then it's a currency of limited use (limited in that there are limited venues that accept it) except as a commodity.

So when I was getting paid in dollars, and converted it to my local currency right away, I was proving that USD is a commodity? I could not get anything with USD, so it is not a currency? Interesting.

What people miss is that commodity and currency are not exclusive. And the difference between them does not really matter all that much.

> So when I was getting paid in dollars, and converted it to my local currency right away, I was proving that USD is a commodity?

Yes. It is a commodity. People trade in it every day.

> I could not get anything with USD, so it is not a currency?

For your use at that location, apparently not.

> What people miss is that commodity and currency are not exclusive.

Yes, and I said as much in a separate reply.

> And the difference between them does not really matter all that much.

Except for when they are classified as one and not the other and taxed differently.

I'm curious how she does use it though. Is there a local exchange willing to trade bitcoin for the local currency? Because she can't exactly do it through Coinbase, or she's right back where she started...

Coinbase is available is 28 countries: https://www.coinbase.com/global

(I work for Coinbase)

Did not realize that.

You might want to update your FAQ: https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/182...

It only lists 4 countries.

According to our lawyers we're not allowed to advertise exchange services in certain jurisdictions but if users happen to stumble upon it we're allowed to offer them the service ;)

Not necessarily. Coinbase's fees are probably far less than it costs to wire money or PayPal's 3-4%.

But not less than Transferwise at 0.85%

Coinbase has an exchange (https://exchange.coinbase.com) that supports several currencies and is accessible from many countries.

(I also work at Coinbase)

North-African countries have better exchange rates for BTCs in the local market than the USD one. (because of capital flow controls). I suspect the same for other third-world countries.

She probably takes 10-20% more with BTC than with bank wire.

So it's a criticism of the bank's fees, not of Bitcoin's utility. How does she get her local currency? Volatility has to be factored in to determine the price savings. (I personally think the level of control is a much stronger argument than the cost, since savings can be wiped out by the market or the banks updating fee structures)

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