On Reception and Publicity, The True Value of Bitcoin

‘Only mathematicians can ‘prove’ things using pen and paper. The rest of us have to take our ideas pragmatically into the real world and see what works.’ David Brin in The Transparent Society (1998)
I don’t currently have a car, so when my VA appointments in Little Rock happen, I take the Disabled American Veterans van, which is a volunteer operated transportation service affiliated with the VA.
One of the drivers in my town has a very old degree in computer programming and took several classes on economics. Yesterday morning, the subject of the penny came up, how it costs more than it’s worth to mint and serves no legitimate purpose.
I brought up Bitcoin and the virtue of the exactitude of the Satoshi, down to 8 decimals, and how both sides win. I used the example of Dollar Tree stores. In them, some products are worth far less than a dollar and some are worth almost a dollar and some are worth over a dollar if you weren’t able to buy in the same quantities as the store. I said that a Bitcoin model for this would enable the retailer to charge exactly what they wanted for the product. Many of their products would now cost way less than a dollar, and some would cost a bit more. Or they could simply cap it at a dollar. The increase in sales would be enormous. Now the motto of the store could be ‘everything up to $1′ or ‘everything about $1.’ It’s not as simplistic, sure, but it benefits both sides.
While he agreed that some form of digital currency is the way of the future, he couldn’t accept Bitcoin as a viable alternative. He said that people like him, who aren’t actively invested in the Bitcoin community, are still stuck on Mt. Gox and other security problems that have happened. He said there was no way a currency could succeed if it is as risky as losing all your money without even gambling.

This post was published at Bitcoinist on February 12, 2015.