Cryptocurrencies are not money

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

It’s been sad to watch the rise (and partial fall) of cryptocurrency mania on Hacker News. Even now, I’m still seeing stuff like this:

“Beanie Babies are collectibles, cryptocurrencies are money.”

It’s been established over and over again that cryptocurrencies are not money. They are a collectible like Beanie Babies. Cryptocurrencies vary too much in value to be used as money. Would you go into a Starbucks and spend $4 USD dollars to buy a coffee, if there was a chance that the $4 might gain 10,000% in value over the next year? Of course not.

There have been dozens of good articles over the last two years comparing money to cryptocurrencies and detailing all of the differences. Anyone who still doesn’t understand the differences, at the end of 2018, is probably keeping themselves willfully misinformed, and I suspect no comment here or on Hacker News will change their mind. But if they lose enough money, then perhaps they will rethink this issue on their own.

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