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Comment by thephyber | Hacker News Reader

With what?

Zimbabwe has been in a hyperinflation downward spiral for almost two decades now[1].

If you hold your Zimbabwe Dollars overnight, they are only worth a fraction of what they were the day before. In hyper-inflationary periods, people would rather buy goods immediately than hold onto cash because the cash depreciates FAR faster than commodities.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe#/me...

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His joke is that Zimbabwean dollars are toilet paper.

No, I wasn't joking. I was asking sincerely, if you're reason for holding bitcoin is that you want to be able to buy goods next week without worrying about inflation, why not just buy the goods now and avoid the risk of owning bitcoin.

But if you spend all your money on goods and then you need something else in a week or two then what do you use to buy it? Sell/trade the goods you already purchased? I think it makes sense to hold on to some form of currency.

> some form of currency

Which form? At some point Zimbabwe economy was (is?) so fucked up that currency does not hold any value, so barter is all there is. Money literally evaporates overnight:

> The peak month of hyperinflation occurred in mid-November 2008 with a rate estimated at 79,600,000,000% per month

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe

Exactly. I meant Bitcoin or other crypto currency

doesn't work for apples or prescriptions

there have been several problems with clogged pipes on Zimbabwe due to the usage of dollar notes as toilet paper.

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