I am genuinely curious about what transactions are actually made with these so called
crypto currencies. Can I buy food at a market or restaurant, or seeds and supplies to grow food at a garden shop? Can I pay for shelter (purchase a house, rent a habitation, pay for a room or camp site while traveling)? Can I buy land with it? Can I arrange for transportation (purchase a vehicle or pay fare for air, rail, or water travel) with it? Important to some people’s lists, would be if you could buy arms and ammo with it?
On occasion I’ll pick up a gift card (usually
REI, Jo-Ann’s, or eBay) at Safeway (Albertson’s) or Fred Meyer (Kroger) when I need fuel discount points (especially when they have a double fuel points promotion). I’ve yet to see any crypto cards on the rack. If I’m ordering something online (I personally prefer to trade with local businesses when possible) there are always the MasterCard and Visa options and more often than not American Express, Discover, Dinners Club, and PayPal are choices. I’ve yet to see Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum as choices. Likewise, I’ve NEVER seen a sign in a shop window that says NOW ACCEPTING CRYPTO.
I did check the business directory at CoinPayments (referenced from the graphic in the OP). The only enterprise “local” to me was a hemp farm in Gold Hill, Oregon, which is 492 miles away from where I live in eastern Washington. I love hemp as a fiber that can be made into all sorts of useful things, but this business seems to put more emphasis on its “smokeable characteristics”, so they are of no use to me. Otherwise I saw nothing in the directory that I would find useful, of value, or of interest, so I’ll assume “crypto” is pretty much USELESS to my basic needs for survival.
Much is written about the instability of what is called “fiat currency”, but this asset is really backed up by the public infrastructure, the natural resources, and economic productivity of the country which issues it. Of course, if infrastructure is allowed to deteriorate, if natural resources are depleted, if economic productivity falters, if the government over prints or over mints its currency, the currency can lose value and hyperinflation can result. If things (infrastructure, natural resources, economic productivity) can stay in balance a national currency will have real value that the citizens can use to purchase the goods and services they need or desire. People are pretty much able to do this now with the U.S. Dollar (or Federal Reserve Note, if you prefer), and the currencies of many other countries.
What backs up
Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum? If someone purchases these with a hard asset (land, metals, guns and ammo) where are these hard assets stored to back up the value of the crypto? In other words, if my crypto loses value where can I go to repossess the hard asset I paid to recapture my investment? … I know the answer and I’ll not be the fool to be caught by this. If these are purchased with the so called
fiat currency, how is their value any different than the actul
fiat currency? In an economic meltdown (using 2021 U.S. prices and a commodity I am very familiar with) and milk goes from $2.50 per gallon to $10.00 per gallon, I’m thinking a gallon of milk will cost me $10 per gallon regardless of if I’m paying with dollars or crypto currency. The main difference would be that dollars will still be easier to obtain and spend than the crypto currencies. I have land, I’ll probably be looking at buying a couple of cows at this point.
... impossible to counterfeit or hack.
I am wondering how so?
If human civilization were to revert to a basic natural environment (i.e., the resources God originally gave us, totally “off grid”) any asset than can be traded or bartered would have to be in a physical form (so, there would have to be a “coin” or a “certificate” that represented the amount of crypto currency the bearer claimed to possess). I am unaware of any physical asset that can’t be misrepresented or counterfeited in some way: fools gold, fake silver, faux fur and leather, cubic zirconia posing as diamonds, low test weight barley, very high gluten wheat flour unsuitable for baking, counterfeited currency bills and coins, the list could go on indefinitely.
Or, if “the grid” is still functional, the crypto currencies are digital assets stored and transmitted in electronic form. While “net security” is generally very good, I don’t think it is yet impossible for a source to be hacked. Our family farm business bank account got hacked just a week and a half ago, fortunately no funds were lost but we are having to revamp aspects of the family partnership and change some identification numbers before the bank will set up a new account and our cash becomes liquid again. As a sidebar about the advantages of doing business locally, while our account is "locked" the bank will still issue a cashier's check to pay immediate obligations when we bring the statement in to them. I'm thinking this kind of personal service would not be available from
Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum. If someone could actually devise how to make an asset impossible to counterfeit or hack they would probably be richer than the late Steve Jobs, the late Paul Allen, the current Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and the entire Walton Family all put together. I do not believe anyone has figured out how to do this yet.