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Comment by yashap | Hacker News Reader

I’m far, far from an expert, but it seems to me that the unforgiving “software is the law, nothing can be reversed” nature of crypto means that all sorts of vulnerabilities and/or mistakes can instantly lead to you losing all your money. It feels inherent to the system - the core reasons behind these weaknesses are also the core strengths of crypto. You can patch individual vulnerabilities, and try not to make mistakes, but it seems it’ll always be the case that if all your money gets stolen, nothing can really be done.

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This is correct, and why the average end consumer will never actually use Bitcoin for anything.

It may have some utility as an asset class but the crypto fan boys seem to ignore that it is largely incompatible with our current financial and legal system.

I’ll happily agree with anyone that Bitcoin is an interesting and novel invention but I fail to see how it does anything useful for me other than as a speculative investment.

Now that crypto markets are a parody of wildcat banks in the 1800s I won’t even touch it with a 10 foot pole.

In early 2017 I bought breakfast every day on my way to work in Oxford with cryptocurrencies. A bacon and avocado sandwich, and a large latte. It was pretty cool to buy these items with currencies I had mined myself, or bought by trading minded coins for other currencies. I checked the other day and each of those breakfasts would be around £200 today had I saved them but I don't regret the nerdy enjoyment of paying in that way :)

Edit: I found it amusing when the cafe closed a year later presumably because both owners retired after selling at the peak in early 2018.

Yeah I don’t think the convenience is what is holding it back. It’s pretty easy to pay for something with BTC. I think it’s more to do with how there is limited coin supply, no dispute or consumer protection, and then the issue of taxes.

If I have to pay for breakfast I’d rather use a credit card app on my phone that has a dispute process and gives me a % cash back.

In Canada those breakfasts would technically be taxable capital gains, which means calculating the adjusted cost basis based on mining input costs and then half of that taxable gain is added to your annual income.

There is just no real incentive to use crypto unless you’re buying something questionable on the internet.

Maybe not in Canada but there are many countries that have different tax structures and less access to credit

What has really helped me to relax with my crypto holdings was reading couple of cancer stories. Basically as how nature is, cancer can come any time and take anyones life away. Just treat Bitcoin as the nature, but a less severe version as you won't die if you lose your crypto.

That said, crypto loss is very preventable. Lots of people have put lots of effort to make holding bitcoin/crypto more secure.

This seems like a glowing endorsement to not use cryptocurrency.

“Well, you know, sometimes you die”… doesn’t seem like good investment or fiat currency plan.

People in invest in crypto because the gains have been ridiculously good. However some people have lost their money because of bad security or scams. You can mentally it like, you invest $1000, plan to exist when the value hits 10x and have 5% probability of losing it all, you can calculate the expected value and decide if the risk is for you.

Better analogy would be "it is not worth living because you might die"

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