The future of bitcoin in real life

[PanosKousidis]

This bitcoin hype has made me wondering about a future were bitcoin dominates.

Let's say that cryptocurrencies overthrow fiat at some point in the future. 1 bitcoin is worth 1.000.000$
A country adopts bitcoin as its official currency. Everything in every day life changes to bitcoin.

Let's say a country adopts bitcoin and converts everything to bitcoin.
Is the 6-pack of beers from the supermarket going to cost 0.00000000000986 (<- random number, i didn't do conversions etc)? Or is it going to cost, let's say 5 bitcoins? People will always want to look at a price with every day numbers to be able to compare, decide if it's worth the expense etc. This cannot work with scientific numbers.
So, assuming that the price is 5 bitcoins, will this make it impossible to buy for someone who didn't have trust in cryptocurrency and decided to stay with plain old fiat money? For them, the pack of beers would be worth 5.000.000$.

I don't know exactly how economy works, so how about some thoughts?

Panos

[USBitcoinMogul]

Hello there
You need to do a little bit more research.

[grabberfish]

This bitcoin hype has made me wondering about a future were bitcoin dominates.

Let's say that cryptocurrencies overthrow fiat at some point in the future. 1 bitcoin is worth 1.000.000$
A country adopts bitcoin as its official currency. Everything in every day life changes to bitcoin.

Let's say a country adopts bitcoin and converts everything to bitcoin.
Is the 6-pack of beers from the supermarket going to cost 0.00000000000986 (<- random number, i didn't do conversions etc)? Or is it going to cost, let's say 5 bitcoins? People will always want to look at a price with every day numbers to be able to compare, decide if it's worth the expense etc. This cannot work with scientific numbers.
So, assuming that the price is 5 bitcoins, will this make it impossible to buy for someone who didn't have trust in cryptocurrency and decided to stay with plain old fiat money? For them, the pack of beers would be worth 5.000.000$.

I don't know exactly how economy works, so how about some thoughts?

Panos

Since 2013 I've been setting my displays for bitcoin representation to microbits, also known as bits. This provide a clean decimal format that works with existing structures. So a beer would cost around 1,350.00 bits. Nice and easy!

[Possum577]

Let's say that cryptocurrencies overthrow fiat at some point in the future. 1 bitcoin is worth 1.000.000$

If Bitcoin overthrows fiat it'll be very bad for Bitcoin. Ever powerful person in the world that tries to manipulate fiat will then try to manipulate bitcoin. How can this fact of human nature be prevented with Bitcoin? We currently have a bunch of pro-bitcoin people debating the hard fork idea. I feel like bitcoin would be destroyed.

Let's say a country adopts bitcoin and converts everything to bitcoin.

This has already started! There's a Caribbean island nation that's talking about adopting bitcoin as their official currency. This also worries me, particularly since it's so early in it's mainstream adoption. If a country or two begin to adopt bitcoin as its official currency we risk the misinterpretation that bitcoin is a currency of these nations and not the global, unaffiliated currency that it is. I believe it will hurt broader adoption worldwide.

Is the 6-pack of beers from the supermarket going to cost 0.00000000000986 (<- random number, i didn't do conversions etc)?

A 6 pack of beers could never cost this little because Bitcoin can only be divisible by 8 places after the decimal. BUT...more to your point, I don't believe the increased value of bitcoin will inflate prices. In fact as long as fiat is around we're nearly guaranteed to see so the deflation of prices in bitcoin. We see that with Casascius coins right now...as the fiat price of bitcoin has increased the bitcoin price for Casacius coins being traded in the secondary market has gone down. It's kind of fascinating to watch.

These are really good questions, I hope more people join in on this discussion!

[davidmccoy]

It is not possible (at least for next few decades) to replace the real money with Bitcoin. If at any level, Bitcoin replaces the real money, more units will come into play. But consider bitcoin as a fun currency for trading which provides the luxury of purchasing goods as well.

[grabberfish]

It is not possible (at least for next few decades) to replace the real money with Bitcoin. If at any level, Bitcoin replaces the real money, more units will come into play. But consider bitcoin as a fun currency for trading which provides the luxury of purchasing goods as well.

Sounds like every other currency to me. Currencies are simply mediums of exchange. The value placed in same are what the two persons making the transaction (of any kind) place in that medium. Some prefer USD, some GBP, and some BTC. The value of the medium in use is subjective. I certainly would have no interest making a trade that involved Libyan Dinars or North Korean Won. But people do trade using these currencies every single day. Bitcoin is borderless and because of it's fluidity across man-made boundaries and the inability to effectively censor bitcoin without introducing Orwellian censorship, bitcoin has the ability to quickly become the preferred medium of exchange on a global basis for everyday people.

[mjglqw]

A country adopts bitcoin as its official currency. Everything in every day life changes to bitcoin.

Let's say a country adopts bitcoin and converts everything to bitcoin.

Panos

I really don't think this is gonna happen.

Also, I'm thinking more of people saying something in the lines of "$30 in bitcoin" instead of "0.0006363 bitcoin" when talking about price/money.

[grabberfish]

Also, I'm thinking more of people saying something in the lines of "$30 in bitcoin" instead of "0.0006363 bitcoin" when talking about price/money.

In each country the Euro has been introduced to, we observe the populus continue to use previous currency calculations and quotes with a conversion attached either in written or spoken form. This only takes a relatively short time for most people to switch to thinking in the newer system. In the bitcoin ecosystem, I think this would be more of a companion currency in the first instance with people gradually using it as second nature. Those in nation states would simply refer to the fiat equivalent value but understand the underlying value in bitcoin. Those using multiple currencies would be more familiar with the bitcoin quoted value over national fiat values.

As for the formatting of the bitcoin value, I prefer the bits unit. So in your example of "$30 in bitcoin", I would write "636.30 bits".

[mjglqw]

Also, I'm thinking more of people saying something in the lines of "$30 in bitcoin" instead of "0.0006363 bitcoin" when talking about price/money.

As for the formatting of the bitcoin value, I prefer the bits unit. So in your example of "$30 in bitcoin", I would write "636.30 bits".

oh yea. almost forgot those; mBTC, bits and satoshis. I personally just don't use them often.

Yea you're probably right we can use "bits" when talking about lower valued amounts. I can only see ourselves using those instead of "$30 in bitcoin" when the price/value stabilizes; obviously not in this decade, not yet. It will take time.