> Cryptocurrencies are used for financial speculation, fraud and illegal trade.
You mean like cash?
> With only tiny fractions of the cryptocurrency-using fraction of society using them for other purposes.
Well, tiny datapoint from tiny fraction: I've only used bitcoin for totally legit stuff. But I concede that all the other transactions might have been financial speculation, fraud and illegal trade. But I can't prove it either way, and I suspect neither can you.
> I would not call that nonsense the embrace of a generation.
Well, I would not call it nonsense either. And it probably isn't the embrace of a generation. But it is moving the needle.
It seems fairly uncontroversial to me to state that the vast majority of people who own cryptocurrency are treating it like a commodity, not like a currency. There's nothing wrong with that, and these people have made a lot of money (dollars) so far, but there's certainly a distinction to be made.
> There's nothing wrong with that, and these people have made a lot of money (dollars) so far,
They have only made a lot of dollars when they sell their crypto currency. Until then it is all fantasy, which is something a lot of .com millionaires would agree with, especially the ones that sold their solid companies for stock in less solid companies.
I would guess that the OP means 'yes like cash, but cash is also used for other things whereas crypto currencies are not practically used for anything else.'
Says who? I agree speculators are a big fraction of crypto users, but you are making the even bolder claim that "crypto currencies are not practically used". Consider that lots of hard & anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15094514
- I live in a US city with a population over 1M.
- I have about 0.5 BTC
- I have never - ever - seen a place in the Real World where I can spend it.
- I cannot be sure of this assertion, but it's worth saying anyway: The only place online I can recall seeing that accepts BTC as payment is PIA vpn service. I cannot recall any other place (this certainly doesn't mean there aren't any!).
If a reasonably tech-savvy person cannot spend it in the real world, it does not meet my standards for something being 'practical'. Period.
I spend my bitcoins on: my CPA, computer gear (Newegg), games (Steam), VPS and domain names (Vultr, Gandi), furniture (Overstock), etc
Also you fail to realize it but Bitcoin's practicality extends to more than just payments: it's great for informal person-to-person transactions. I gift bitcoins to my family overseas, I pay back lunch money to coworkers in bitcoins, etc. In fact I think person-to-person transactions is one of Bitcoin's most promising use case...
You mean like cash?
> With only tiny fractions of the cryptocurrency-using fraction of society using them for other purposes.
Well, tiny datapoint from tiny fraction: I've only used bitcoin for totally legit stuff. But I concede that all the other transactions might have been financial speculation, fraud and illegal trade. But I can't prove it either way, and I suspect neither can you.
> I would not call that nonsense the embrace of a generation.
Well, I would not call it nonsense either. And it probably isn't the embrace of a generation. But it is moving the needle.