Just pointing out that globalization and outsourcing was a big reason that inflation stayed low for the past 40 years. Tech and productivity improvements also helped. The downside to globalization is the huge trade deficits that the US now runs. We go into debt to live better in the short-term, but future generations will pay for it. Also, with outsourcing, we lose our ability to make things at home and that gives other nations leverage over us. Look at how Angela Merkel's decision to rely on Russia for cheaper oil and gas has worked out for Germany.
I hope your trading can keep up with inflation, Pek, coz inflation is about to get a lot "gooder" Buy Bitcoin and hodl
Here's the thing. Cryptos are supposed to be a substitute for currency, right? But how can such a volatile instrument pass as a medium of exchange? Further, currencies are valued based on the relative underlying creditworthiness of the country issuing them. There is a fundamental basis, around which there is a speculative element as a currency bounces above and below its theoretical value. But what is the basis for cryptos? Mining, which is a euphemism for solving puzzles? In what world?! (This one, apparently. Somehow.) And this will replace, or serve as a substitute for, currencies? Yes, apparently there is a lot I'm missing here. And so, I'll best stick to my own knitting, as I grumble under my breath when I read about the next newly-minted crypto billionaire.
"More transactions settled on the bitcoin network last year than Visa!" This doesn't seem to be true. Last year, there were 188 Billion transactions on Visa. If Bitcoin is 300K-400K transactions a day it's well under 1/1000 of the number of Visa transactions.
Bitcoin Annual Settlement Volume Exceeded That Of Visa Last Year At $13.1T prolly nothing... https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cr...olume-exceeded-that-of-visa-last-year-at-1-3b Bitcoin Annual Settlement Volume Exceeded That Of Visa Last Year At $13.1T byMadhukumar Warrier January 27, 2022 4:30 AM | 2 min read Bitcoin’s BTC/USD-5.68%+ Free Alerts annual settlement volume officially exceeded the payments volume of Visa Inc. V-3.13%+ Free Alerts last year, Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management said in a research report. What Happened: Bitcoin’s cumulative annual transfer volume in 2021 surged 463% from the prior year to $13.1 trillion, just ahead of Visa's number, ARK analyst Yassine Elmandjra wrote in the report titled “Big Ideas 2022,” citing data from Glassnode, Visa and FRB services. Bitcoin annual transfer volume measured against Visa's. Courtesy: Ark Bitcoin’s average daily transfer volume surged more than five-fold year-over-year to $35.9 billion in 2021, while the cryptocurrency’s average transaction value grew six times to $136,555. Elmandjra also announced the news on Twitter. See Also: How To Buy Bitcoin (BTC) Why It Matters: Launched in 2009, Bitcoin has gained increasing mainstream adoption over the past few years. It is the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The cryptocurrency is down 47.5% from its all-time high of $68,789.63 reached in November. Ethereum’s ETH/USD blockchain handles about five times the daily volume of Bitcoin, thanks to its robust ecosystem of decentralized finance (DeFI) protocols, play-to-earn blockchain games and non fungible tokens (NFTs), it was reported in September. Nevertheless, blockchain intelligence firm Blockdata had noted in December that Bitcoin, which already exceeded PayPal Holdings Inc. PYPL-4.39%+ Free Alerts in terms of transaction volume, could surpass Mastercard Inc. MA-2.69%+ Free Alerts “in time.” Price Action: Bitcoin is down 3.1% during the past 24 hours, trading at $36,081.17 at press time.
Originally the idea was purely one of currency but I think the space has moved into many other areas outside of that. Many are now going down the route of governance, where tokens are more like shares in a business or protocol that offers some real world utility. Of course there are a number of useless coins and tokens around but fundamentally, the underlying blockchain technology can be very useful. If widely adopted then you are effectively having shares in a company looking to change technology like Apple and Microsoft did.
What is "transfer volume" and "settlement volume?" The amount traded by speculators on the various crypto exchanges? If so, is this a valid number of comparison with Visa volumes, whose numbers reflect the purchase of goods and services? Are those apples or oranges we're talking about?
Bitcoin is a pee to peer, decentralized, immutable, censorship-resistant, monetary, payment network A lot of words, there but for this discussion, monetary network are two of the most important ones [I did not read the Ark research report, so it would be better for you to read the report yourself to get better clarity] The activities within the exchanges would not be included (i.e. trading volume which are in the 10's of Billions of $ worth) The values are on-chain settlements. Six block confirmations are considered final settlement, but many services treat 1 block confirmation as sufficient, I'd make a guess if accepting Bitcoin as payment for a house that the counterparties would adhere to the 6 block confirmation Here's the latest Bitcoin block and there are very important information and description on the top of the webpage https://www.blockchain.com/btc/bloc...044be65bda665f8c6105413af04f71170251471126f76 1 Bitcoin block every ~10 minutes, so you can extrapolate the $ data and such per day and so forth